The Last Lecture: President Staples envisions UHCL’s future
If you could only give one more lecture, what would you tell the university community?
President Staples gave a bittersweet lecture as he began the first of many lasts in his UHCL career, as the first speaker in the Last Lecture series June 14. The series will continue as a place for professors and staff that are leaving the institution to give their parting words to the UHCL community.
“When Dr. Robert Bartsch and others in the Center for Faculty Development learned that I would be stepping down as president after 22 years, they asked me to speak at this new series since it would be one of the last times I would address UHCL faculty, staff and students,” said President William Staples. “I was honored to be asked, and I look forward to seeing who might be next.”
The Last Lecture Series is a program administered by the UHCL Center for Faculty Development. This series is new to the university but present in most universities nationwide.
The lectureship series was popularized by Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon who is featured in the book “The Last Lecture” by Jeffrey Zaslow.
“[Pausch] wound up having cancer and had only a few months left to live,” said Robert Bartsch, program director of the Center for Faculty Development. “[Pausch] had decided, before his health deteriorated, that he was going to go ahead and retire, and give this last lecture. His last lecture focused a lot on wisdom he had picked up on through the years and things that had helped him.”
The Last Lecture series at UHCL is inspired by one posing question for the speakers: “If you could only give one more lecture, what would you tell the university community?”
“President Staples [chose] to talk more about the nature of the university and where he sees the university going and where he sees the nation going and higher learning education” Bartsch said.
Staples focused on the changing environment of higher learning and the places where UHCL succeeds as well as faces challenges.
The American Council on Education (ACE) conducted a poll across the nation, Staples delivered an extended amount of data and statistics on ACE’s findings.
In ACE’s study, the majority of those polled considered the value of high education as stagnant or declining. Although the group’s majority agreed that the value of high education was on the down-slope, they did concur that higher learning is a necessary stepping stone. The study additionally found that the majority agreed that the debt load students carry was more than $13,000, and lastly that the majority of traditional universities and colleges were for profit.
“Now that’s a big change folks. That’s a big change about the perception of higher education.” Staples said.
The polling group stated the value of higher learning education does not carry the same perception it once did. Staples stressed to the UHCL community that the university is a young four-year institution, and as such it must continue to grow and adapt to the ever changing environment.
“Institutions of higher education that do not adapt will be left behind,” Staples said.
Staples concluded his lecture with encouraging last remarks to a Garden Room full of faculty and staff.
“We can do this, we must do this…This institution is good at adapting, but we’re going to have to keep adapting. Don’t think for a second that were not, because all those forces are out for changes in the high education of learning,” Staples said.
The UHCL Center for Faculty Development hopes to include other speakers for future events. All faculty are invited to give their parting words in the Last Lecture Series.
The Center has developed this series, as well as workshops and other events, to encourage faculty to continually grow in their teaching careers. The center strives to equip faculty and staff with tools for teaching, research and service.
“We want to give whoever is retiring the ability to be able to not only express themselves but feel good doing it,” Bartsch said.
