JoanWink.com

Dear WinkWorld Readers,

Those who can adapt to change are those who will thrive in the future.  

I thought of this during the past week at Black Hills State University for the Board of Regents meetings. Thank you, BHSU, you were all so welcoming and supportive.  We really appreciate all of your efforts to make our stay a success.  The meals were gorgeous and yummy. And, the BH students were stellar!  I loved meeting them and hearing their stories.

BHSU, I have loved you since the days when my Grammie and Grampy used to take us for picnics on the sloping hill in front of the administration building.  Oh, how I love to visit BHSU and then make a quick stop at the local cemetery when I am leaving town.

BHSU just cannot understand what they mean to me, as they are one of the last links I have to my mother, who grew up near campus, but left us far too soon when I was three years-old.

I digress–back to our BOR meeting at BHSU.

The questions we, on the BOR, wrestle with, are tough: guns on campus, First Amendment,* intellectual diversity,  increasing student debt, cost of tuition, efficiencies, lack of money, etc.: No simple answers. Our days are long, intense, cognitively-demanding, and emotionally-draining:  And, I LOVE it.  I am honored to work with such marvelous colleagues on the BOR and the students, faculty, staff, administrators from all of our regental universities and special schools. 

As we focus on the rapid changes in education, I marvel at the nimble adaptations in all of the institutions.  Traditionally, academic institutions have been known to move like a sloth.  Not true in South Dakota today.  Our institutions are adapting fast, which makes me believe that they will thrive in the future. Thank you to each campus for all of the work you do to bring forward clean course/program proposals, and thank you to the staff of BOR, who vet everything so carefully before we are the BOR review the documents.

Here is just a little peak at some of the adaptations to the future.  Click here to read to see some of these changes.

*Yes, I believe in the First Amendment.