Welcome to Webster, Elizabeth Stroble; Now let's get to work
Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: Opinion/Editorial
Dear Incoming President Elizabeth Stroble:
Congratulations on a job well done. You impressed us during your campus visit, you managed to woo the university's board of trustees, and you beat out another worthy candidate to earn the title of Webster University president.
We know the transition from Zippy the Kangaroo to the Gorlok will no doubt be disorienting. But once you get over those first hurdles, there's plenty of work waiting for you.
For starters, there's the question of the new business building. WU is a liberal arts school at heart, as you pointed out during your January Q&A with students. So, naturally, art students, sequestered in a "temporary" - and slightly leaky - building for years, can't help but wonder why the university is set on building a new home for the business students who already have a monopoly over one of the newest buildings on campus.
At the same time, enrollment in our business and technology programs is on the rise. No longer are the Gorloks known just as artists, but also as savvy international businesspeople.
As president of this evolving institution, you will have the difficult task of preserving WU's liberal arts heritage, while pursuing a path that will prepare the university and its students to face the challenges of the future.
Speaking of expansion, we're practically suffocating here. During the last few semesters, department heads encountered greater and greater difficulty trying to search out space for all of the scheduled courses. Cramming 30 people into a tiny room in Pearson House for a four-hour class is not the answer to WU's space difficulties. Expansion is.
The Old Orchard strip mall, acquired by the university last spring, has loads of potential for relieving our growing pains. Unfortunately, campus development isn't quite that simple, which brings us to our next order of business: relations with the Webster Groves community.
The university needs approval from the city council for practically every campus improvement, so a congenial relationship with area residents is desirable. Right now, we don't have that. As university president, you can work to mend relations with Webster Groves, expanding the programs we offer to the community in hopes they will reciprocate when we need the city council's stamp of approval.
And last, but not least, you will face the issue that is all-important to WU students: tuition and financial aid. Whenever you hear word of a proposed tuition hike, we beg you, do all you can to stop it. In an economy where jobs are increasingly hard to find for those of us without a bachelor's degree, and where laid-off employees are taking university classes to help them qualify for another job, the cost of tuition is an especially sensitive issue. To rectify this, do all you can to loosen up the availability of scholarships and work study money. And if Gov. Nixon's proposed tuition freeze at public universities actually comes to fruition, WU should consider following suit.
We know this is a lot to absorb, but don't worry, you'll be hearing from us in the future.
Sincerely,
The Journal staff
Congratulations on a job well done. You impressed us during your campus visit, you managed to woo the university's board of trustees, and you beat out another worthy candidate to earn the title of Webster University president.
We know the transition from Zippy the Kangaroo to the Gorlok will no doubt be disorienting. But once you get over those first hurdles, there's plenty of work waiting for you.
For starters, there's the question of the new business building. WU is a liberal arts school at heart, as you pointed out during your January Q&A with students. So, naturally, art students, sequestered in a "temporary" - and slightly leaky - building for years, can't help but wonder why the university is set on building a new home for the business students who already have a monopoly over one of the newest buildings on campus.
At the same time, enrollment in our business and technology programs is on the rise. No longer are the Gorloks known just as artists, but also as savvy international businesspeople.
As president of this evolving institution, you will have the difficult task of preserving WU's liberal arts heritage, while pursuing a path that will prepare the university and its students to face the challenges of the future.
Speaking of expansion, we're practically suffocating here. During the last few semesters, department heads encountered greater and greater difficulty trying to search out space for all of the scheduled courses. Cramming 30 people into a tiny room in Pearson House for a four-hour class is not the answer to WU's space difficulties. Expansion is.
The Old Orchard strip mall, acquired by the university last spring, has loads of potential for relieving our growing pains. Unfortunately, campus development isn't quite that simple, which brings us to our next order of business: relations with the Webster Groves community.
The university needs approval from the city council for practically every campus improvement, so a congenial relationship with area residents is desirable. Right now, we don't have that. As university president, you can work to mend relations with Webster Groves, expanding the programs we offer to the community in hopes they will reciprocate when we need the city council's stamp of approval.
And last, but not least, you will face the issue that is all-important to WU students: tuition and financial aid. Whenever you hear word of a proposed tuition hike, we beg you, do all you can to stop it. In an economy where jobs are increasingly hard to find for those of us without a bachelor's degree, and where laid-off employees are taking university classes to help them qualify for another job, the cost of tuition is an especially sensitive issue. To rectify this, do all you can to loosen up the availability of scholarships and work study money. And if Gov. Nixon's proposed tuition freeze at public universities actually comes to fruition, WU should consider following suit.
We know this is a lot to absorb, but don't worry, you'll be hearing from us in the future.
Sincerely,
The Journal staff
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