Perhaps it’s the stage I’ve reached in my career (or in my life), but I find myself tending toward reflection as each year ends. The greatest gift with which each of us is entrusted is our time. Did I use it well this year? Where do I need to apply a greater sense of urgency next year?
And I’ll just put it out there: This is not the greatest time to look around and reflect on the state of our world. Two major wars display our divisions. We turn our gaze home, and we find that we continue to overlook the massive amount of commonality we all have as Americans and to identify, amplify, and weaponize our differences. Social media could connect us … or it’s fueling a mental health crisis. Gene editing could create wonderful vaccines … or super pathogens. AI and quantum computing could solve some of the universe’s great questions … or will they make the human mind irrelevant? It’s a moment in time, in a season that should focus on unity, when disunity and uncertainty seem to permeate the very air we breathe.
In the face of such challenges, what’s a person – or an organization – to do?
Here the answer is, I believe, pretty simple. This moment calls on us, as individuals and as organizations, to do our best – nothing less.
At our CSU campuses, that means discovering new knowledge, passing it to the next generation, and applying it to benefit the society we exist to serve. Those things matter. They mean finding answers to questions that currently go unanswered. We have a lot of unanswered questions in our world, and some of them seem insurmountable. But my father used to say that just because something wasn’t known didn’t mean it couldn’t be, and I think he was right.
Whatever the challenge you identify, I can’t imagine its eventual solution won’t involve human ingenuity and creativity. That’s been the case throughout the history of humans, and it’s still the case today. And that’s where colleges and universities like CSU come in: they unlock human potential, unleashing that ingenuity and creativity to benefit the greater good.
My hope for each of you as we enter January (named for looking back, reflection – and forward, anticipation), is that you will use this season to be a light that shines on our common unities amidst the darkness of the disunity of this moment.
And my hope for CSU? That we’ll continue to never settle for anything less than our very best. That is the greatest gift we can offer to the people of Colorado, all of our students and their families, and all those who support and believe in the power of education. Thank you for being among them!
Wishing you all the best this holiday season and for the new year!
– tony
Dr. Tony Frank
Chancellor, Colorado State University System
This message was included in Chancellor Frank’s December newsletter. Subscribe to the Chancellor’s monthly letter.