Looking Ahead

I really hope that we'll keep true to our mission, that we will still have a soul here. I guess the temptation is with so many people, it's just churning them out.  And we've got to make education relevant, relevant to the changing times, relevant to the needs of the society. And that we are at the forefront, and we should be leaders and not followers. We should be on the cutting edge and not just reacting. We should think ahead. We should say, is this the right thing? We should be critical of ourselves and see are we doing the right thing? Are we still fulfilling that niche that we have? Are we really different? The question is: are we really so different? And we share that term, At SMU you are different, I thought actually came from the employers, who came onto the campus, You are different. Is that a good difference? I hope so. Initial years we said, difference doesn't mean better. Different means, You are different. I hope you can say you are unique, you are relevant. You stay relevant. You stay connected. With the many things that we do, sometimes we can get so distracted that we just do things. Where are we going? Is it necessary? And I think we don't just bury our head and say, We are an academia; we don't do this. I think we are an academia with a difference. I hope we can still continue to create that kind of impact that we have created when we first started.