A little over a year ago, new Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi’s arrival brought a lot of excitement. As with every new leader there begins, upon the ascension to a new office, what is affectionately known as a honeymoon period.
As the year has passed, it has become clear that the honeymoon era has transitioned to the era in a marriage where we need to do some dishes, sweep some floors and take out some trash. That era results in some grumbling and some resistance. That’s human nature.
What is also human nature is that history is often cyclical. That, too, is evident here. If we look back at Penn State 40 years ago, we’ll see some parallels. In 1983, Penn State was welcoming a new president and starting a new era.
The university was facing difficult financial challenges. Penn State’s funding from the state was not keeping pace. The university’s trustees were openly challenged to recruit a more diverse student body, and to raise money for libraries, endowed professorships and for scholarships to attract the top students in the country to Penn State. At the time, Penn State’s total endowment stood at a paltry $17 million which is about $52 million in today’s money.
New President Bryce Jordan started Penn State’s first-ever capital campaign with a $200 million goal that was raised to $300 million. That goal was eclipsed several months ahead of schedule. But he also found situations that needed new thinking and bold initiatives that were anything but painless in their implementation.
He overhauled financial thinking to link planning and budgeting to make strategic decisions. He pushed for interdisciplinary research and started to energize and leverage Penn State as a catalyst for economic development and research. The university found ways to create change and create excellence, not just to keep pace, but to become a national leader. Academic excellence, rankings and research began to climb.
Those are some of the same goals outlined for Penn State today.
Jordan pushed everyone at Penn State out of their comfort zones. It wasn’t all carnival rides and free balloons for the kids. Bold moves required tough decisions. Innovation required sacrifice and persistence through the doubts of others. Jordan certainly faced his share of critics.
But the faith of the believers, the faith of those who remained and pushed and for those goals was rewarded.
By the end of the 1980s, Penn State had seen dramatic growth and exciting change. As the decade neared its close, that progress resulted in a clandestine trip to visit the home of Illinois President Stan Ikenberry, where the seeds of even more dramatic change were planted.
That trip resulted in membership in the nation’s premier academic and athletic conference, The Big Ten. That change meant a vast leap forward in the university’s academic standing and research efforts.
In 2023, we find ourselves with challenges similar to 1983. President Bendapudi has similarly bold plans for Penn State. It won’t come easy, but the road to excellence never is. But those plans will be rooted in some rocky soil that we must till and cultivate. The challenges we face did not occur overnight and won’t be solved easily, nor can we simply wish them away.
When changing the course of a large organization, not all the progress is a straight line forward. There will be fits and starts requiring sustained sacrifice and compromise. Making enduring change requires that we play the long game.
As a new academic year begins, we are in an era where people doubt the value of a college degree. We are in an era where universities are being dragged into the macro-political squabbles afflicting society at large. There are even those outside of Penn State seeking to influence or undermine our progress.
From the chair of Penn State’s board through every employee on our campuses across the commonwealth, we have an opportunity to make our mark for decades to come. We can either summon our collective will, or we can sit on the side and harp about the hard tasks ahead.
But make no mistake, those asking others to sacrifice for the common good, must also be willing to do the hard tasks they ask others to do. That is the very example of true leadership.
At a critical time in a critical season in my coaching career, our boss came in and read something from Hamlet to his team. “To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them.”
Our university has known the outrageous fortune of enduring excellence. But understanding Penn State’s history teaches us that it has always been a place of great strength in the resilience of our students and our alumni.
Time and time again we have faced down every challenge, always rising even higher. With the eyes of those before us watching, we are once again called to rally to a new vision and to rise again.
