There is room for everyone to belong and succeed at UIS
On May 12, I stood on the University of Illinois Springfield commencement stage and congratulated more than 700 members of the Class of 2023 for completing their bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. The Bank of Springfield Center was filled with proud family members, friends, faculty and staff who were there to cheer on our latest group of graduates.
It was an amazing highlight in a year filled with many shining moments.
I stepped into the role of UIS chancellor last June, and while I knew it was an opportunity of a lifetime, I didn’t fully appreciate how many wonderful, talented people I’d meet who are just as energized as I am about the promise this university holds for so many. I also didn’t realize how much fun it is to be a chancellor, especially at UIS!
I have run alongside the Cross Country team, thrown the first pitch at a baseball and softball game, danced under a display of fireworks during our Reaching Stellar campaign celebration, traveled the state to share the UIS story with business leaders and elected officials, enjoyed dozens of theater, music and art productions and so much more.
As a university, we have celebrated the purchase of the future site of our downtown innovation center, being named the top public regional university in Illinois for a fourth straight year by U.S. News and World Report, enrollment growth, and our 25th year of offering high-quality online learning thanks to our forward-thinking faculty and staff.
Learning the UIS story, and sharing it with others, has truly been an honor. As I’ve worked to deepen the university’s connection to the community and interacted with residents, elected officials and business leaders, the enthusiasm for the value and potential UIS has for creating catalytic change — for our students and the community — is contagious.
Education, especially higher education, is the engine of social mobility, and the education that we provide at UIS will build a generation that is equipped to think critically and solve the challenges facing our world today.
In February, I shared at my Ceremony of Investiture that I believe this is the time to take our university’s historic strength in empowering students and expand on it – scale it up to new heights, reach an increasing number of diverse students, and continue transforming students’ lives to ensure they fulfill their personal and professional goals and guarantee their futures and the future of our world.
We can achieve this this by building on UIS’ strength in experiential education to provide employers with a highly skilled and well-prepared workforce; expanding the ways students learn to foster critical thinking, problem solving and interpersonal communication; growing a more diverse university community to contribute to a culture that values different ways of thinking; and elevating our commitment to civic engagement and public service to positively influence the issues that shape and challenge our region, nation and world.
I want UIS to be known as a university with the power to transform individual lives and communities through an unwavering focus on producing the leaders our world needs. Leadership underlines everything we do at UIS. Here, you not only learn about the qualities of leadership, but you have multiple opportunities to put leadership into practice. My goal is for every UIS student to know what it means to be a leader and how to weave those qualities into their everyday life.
There is room for everyone to belong and succeed at UIS, and it’s due in large part to the overwhelming support students receive from faculty, staff and our community partners. We are so proud to be the capital city’s university and are excited to continue to grow our university and our community — together!
Janet L. Gooch is chancellor of the University of Illinois Springfield and vice president for the University of Illinois System.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: There is room for everyone to belong and succeed at UIS
