Announcements
Chancellor Fingerhut Commencement Speech at Terra State Community College
May 2, 2008
Thank you, Dr. Bordner, honored guests, and graduates. It is a privilege to share this very special occasion with you.
I can’t tell you how gratifying it is for me as Chancellor to attend a commencement ceremony like this. All the credit for today’s achievement rightfully belongs to you graduates, but I can’t help feeling a bit of personal satisfaction as well. I spend my days working with your president, with Governor Strickland, and with members of the Ohio General Assembly, including your State Senator, Larry Mumper, and your State Representative, Jeff Wagner, to make it possible for all Ohioans to have the opportunity to earn a college degree. Meeting a group of proud graduates allows me to see the payoff of this work.
In addition to the work I do with President Bordner and the state’s elected officials to improve higher education in this state, I spend a lot of time traveling the state to talk about the importance of higher education. I know I don’t need to give that talk to you, because you obviously get it already.
We know that a person’s level of educational attainment is the single biggest factor determining lifetime income. That’s right – the more you learn, the more you will earn. So whatever expenses you paid, whatever sacrifices you made in the last two years to arrive at this moment – and it’s never easy, I know – were worth it. You invested in yourselves, and that investment will pay dividends for the rest of your lives.
I think you already realize that. It’s why you stuck it out and are sitting here today. But you also know that you didn’t do it alone. In this auditorium today are parents, spouses, children and friends who pitched in and helped in so many ways – cooking dinner, babysitting, carpooling, helping with the rent, and, yes, with the tuition bills, so that you could make it to this day. On behalf of the Governor and Mrs. Strickland, and all of Ohio, I not only congratulate you on your achievement, but thank all those who love you for making this day possible.
And I want to remind you that it wasn’t only people you know who helped make today possible, but millions of people you never met, from all corners of the state, who provide the tax support that this college uses to support its programs and to offer financial aid to those who need it most. Though we wish we could do more, and we will do more in the future, the state support of this great college is still an indispensable part of what makes it possible to offer you the quality of education you received.
I am particularly attuned to the fact that we all stand on the shoulders of people we never met. Like many of you, I was the first in my family to earn a college degree. My grandparents were immigrants, and my parents, both first generation in this country, ended their education at high school. My father died while I was in high school. My mother, who has worked as a secretary since the age of 16 and is still working three days a week at the age of 83, made sure that her three children all went to college. Talk about positive role models! But still, it wasn’t my parents who made it financially possible for me to go college, but people I never knew – those who donated scholarship funds, and the taxpayers who provided the grants and low-interest loans and work study jobs. Without them, I would not be standing here today as Chancellor of the State of Ohio. I am proud to be the Chancellor of higher education in a state that cares enough to help its citizens get a college education.
The state’s support of your education is not only good for you, it is essential to the well-being of the state as a whole. Not only is it true that the level of education you attain will determine how much you earn in life, but it is also true that the overall education level of Ohio’s citizens will determine the future prosperity of our state, including the number of new jobs that will be created and the number of new businesses that will be started here. Our businesses must succeed in a highly competitive global economy, and they therefore need workers with the latest skills and the broadest possible training. That is why they look for states with high numbers of college graduates.
When businesses look at Ohio today, they see a state that ranks 38th out of the 50 states in the percentage of our workers who have an associate degree or higher.
Thirty-eighth! And this in a state that used to pride itself on its well-educated workforce.
Knowledge is the currency of the 21st century economy, and this a bad time for Ohio to discover its pockets are empty.
Since Governor Strickland appointed me Chancellor a little more than a year ago, raising Ohio’s level of educational attainment has been my overriding goal. Governor Strickland has called for us to enroll 230,000 more students in college every year, and he and the leaders of the House and Senate directed me to prepare a 10-year strategy to accomplish this ambitious goal.
That report was released at the end of March, and I would encourage any of you who would like to read it in its entirety to go to our Web site, www.universitysystem.ohio.gov. The University System of Ohio includes Ohio’s thirteen public universities, 23 community colleges, 24 university branch campuses, one free standing medical school, and dozens of adult career and adult literacy programs. The report details how we intend to make the University System of Ohio one of the greatest public systems of higher education in the world and a magnet that keeps our citizens right at home while attracting the best and brightest from around the world to join us in building the next Ohio century.
The most important thing we will do to make this happen is to work together collaboratively. For too long, our public colleges and universities were forced to compete against each other for new students and new program just to get help from the state. Those days are over. The University System of Ohio exists to meet the needs of Ohioans, and our schools are committed to working together to meet those needs. This is not only more efficient and a better use of taxpayer’s dollars, but also the only way we can succeed at our essential mission. No single school can do everything that the people of Ohio need, but all of us, working together, can. That is the central organizing principle of the University System of Ohio.
In the ten-year plan for the University System of Ohio, you will find that Ohio’s network of fine community colleges, including this great school, Terra Community College, will be a cornerstone in our plan to make higher education affordable and accessible to every Ohioan.
Back in the early 1960s, a great educator named John D. Millett, Ohio’s first Chancellor, was given an assignment much like mine – to devise a strategy to revive public higher education, which, as in our own recent past, was in a period of decline.
Millett figured the best way to increase college attendance was to bring the campus to the students rather than the other way around. Acting on his recommendation, Gov. Rhodes and the state Legislature agreed to establish community colleges in every corner of the state, and over the next decade, 23 were opened, including Terra in 1969. For the first time, higher education became geographically accessible to virtually every Ohioan.
You graduates are the embodiment of Millett’s vision, and the beneficiaries of far-sighted decisions made by our state’s political leaders before most of you were born. Now the time has come for today’s leaders to make the same commitment to future generations of Ohioans.
At the time that John Millett and Jim Rhodes were expanding higher education across the state, they were acting on the understanding, absolutely correct at that time, that a high school education would not be enough for Ohioans to find and keep good jobs in the second half of the 20th century. So they made sure that technical training beyond high school was available at schools like Terra. These technical degrees remain a valuable step toward rewarding careers. But as we plan for the first half of the 21st century, we also understand that we must provide an accessible and affordable pathway for all Ohioans to a bachelor’s degree and beyond.
That is why this college already offers, and all of Ohio’s community colleges will soon offer, an associate degree that is fully transferable to a bachelor’s degree. And why our ten-year plan for the University System of Ohio also calls for our universities to dramatically expand the number of bachelor’s that will be offered on community college campuses just like this one. In this way, you will be able to continue your education at a time and place convenient to you. And our plan calls for us to make the combined cost of an associate and bachelor’s degree offered on a community college campus, or on a university branch campus, among the lowest cost way to get a bachelor’s degree available anywhere in the country.
I hope all of you graduates will consider continuing with your education and pursuing a four-year degree. I’m sure some of you already are planning to do so. For those of you entering the workforce immediately, I hope you will think about furthering your education in the future. Keep in touch, and know that our doors are always open to you.
And if you do come back later, you will find the University System of Ohio will be very understanding of your needs. A big component of the plan deals with education and training for the adult workforce. We know that adults, because of family and work considerations, often find it difficult to fit a traditional school schedule into their busy lives. So we will offer flexibility in times, location and duration of courses, as well as offer more courses online.
Of course, if we are to increase the percentage of degree holders in our workforce, graduating more students won’t be enough if they don’t stay here to live and work and become productive, tax-paying members of our society. It does us little good to educate our citizens, then watch them leave to contribute to some other state’s economy.
This college has always worked hard to meet the needs of local businesses for talented workers, and to make sure its graduates find jobs right here in Ohio. Not all schools have done as well.
Our plan calls for strengthening the ties between schools and the business community by partnering on internships, co-ops and job placements. We know that those who begin a relationship with an employer as students are more likely to remain after graduation.
Higher education will also recognize and acknowledge that the business community is our customer, and it is our responsibility to provide them with workers trained in the skills they need. The University System of Ohio is developing a business satisfaction survey that will be administered annually, so we can track how successfully we are meeting the demands of employers.
These are not abstract theories—it’s the way the world works these days. Let me tell you a little story to illustrate how closely higher education and business are linked. I was involved with Governor Strickland recently in negotiations with NetJets, the leading private jet service in the world, which was considering re-locating its Columbus operation. When the governor asked then what the most important issue to them was, they answered quickly—a talented workforce.
And so I met with the NetJets management to see what types of workers they needed. What I received was a laundry list of needs—pilots, mechanics, caterers, marketing, accounting, finance, computer programming, engineering and much more.
We were able to head off that move, not only retaining 2,200 jobs in Central Ohio but adding 800 more. And a crucial factor for NetJets was the availability of higher education resources. But it was not one school, but the whole University System of Ohio, that convinced NetJet we could meet their workforce needs.
The moral of the story is obvious. For NetJets, a modern, forward-thinking, 21st-century company, higher education was as important or more important than any other business factor. And they are not alone, I assure. This story is repeated every day in the State of Ohio, and across the country.
I consider the NetJets success an early dividend from the new University System of Ohio, one I expect to see repeated many times. Just as you graduates are an early dividend on our goal of increasing the educational attainment level of Ohio’s workforce. You believed in yourselves, you showed the initiative to take your future into your own hands, and you had the determination to see it through.
You deserve all the congratulations you will receive today from you families and loved ones, and you have earned the gratitude of all of us.
If we can duplicate your splendid examples ten-thousand-fold, the entire state will benefit and we will surely regain the prosperity that once blessed Ohio.
So allow me to add my personal congratulations on a day I’m sure you will look back on as a significant turning point in your lives.
Good luck in your future endeavors.
You represent the best of Ohio—and our best hope for the future.
Thank you.
