Page 25 - Racing To Excellence-4

Introductory Address · Bowie State Universityntroductory Address · Bowie State University
I

I see a very bright future ahead for Bowie State University

because we are building on strength—strength and

excellence in our academic programs, our history, our

outstanding faculty, students, alumni and the community; but

it’s going to take each and every one of us working as a team

together, doing what we can to make us stronger together.

And I want you to know that I fully embrace shared

governance for our future success—that all-important bedrock

of higher education and the work that lies ahead for us as a

campus community.

For those of you who may have read recently Thomas

Friedman’s new book, “Thank You for Being Late.” Anyone in

the audience reading that? It’s a great read. It’s “An Optimist's

Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations.” While not

specifically talking about shared governance, Thomas

Friedman spoke to the concept when discussing

organizations and how effective organizations function. What

he said is: “If you want to solve a big problem, you need to go

from taking credit, to sharing credit, to multiplying credit. The

systems that all work, they multiply credit. Multiplying credit is

just another way of making everyone feel a part of the

system,” feeling a part of that ownership in that system. “And

the byproduct,” as he goes on to say, “is resilience and

propulsion.”

I
Introductory Address · Bowie State Universityntroductory Address · Bowie State University