October 7, 2005
Arkansas State University – Jonesboro


Ninety-five years ago last Monday, 189 young people from across northeast Arkansas came together in the small community of Jonesboro.  They arrived by horse and mule, by wagon, by train, but very few by the new conveyance, the automobile.  Many walked across fields, through woods, and along dusty roads to gather at the Elks Lodge above the Ellis Jewelry store on Main Street.  They must have been an interesting lot, drawn from merchant and farming families, with young ladies in dresses and young men in hats and neckties.  They were keenly aware that they were starting a new venture, one that had been reported in the newspapers published in the communities of the region and had been the subject of discussion at many evening meals.  Their arrival at that location on that day had been prayerfully considered by parents and siblings, and eagerly anticipated by those persons waiting in the second story rooms who had assembled to greet the 189 young people.

That was the first day of classes for those first students of Arkansas State University.

This First Friday report is about the Centennial Celebration of ASU, the planning for which began Monday and will continue for a time to prepare for a series of activities that will be realized in 2009-10.  The centennial is, of course, the recognition of the passage of a century of developments since the initial meeting of the First District Agricultural School.  But the centennial also will be an opportunity to celebrate and to integrate several components of the strategic plan for the university, as described in previous First Friday reports.

Celebration Opportunities
The centennial will provide a significant platform to address the image of the university, a goal of the strategic plan.  This may be done through publications, news releases, programs and special events, presentations of historic and contemporary developments in the life of the university, and by showcasing students, faculty and alumni of ASU.  This will be an opportunity to brag about our achievements, which have been many, and to accentuate the positive aspects of our university.  We will be able to report numerous "firsts," and describe initiatives that ASU pioneered in our state and region.

In conjunction with strategic plan references to marketing goals, the centennial events and the planning process for them will provide an opportunity to learn about ourselves, to reduce our "silos," and to market our capabilities and activities within and throughout our organization.  This is a chance to teach ourselves about ourselves.  We will like what we see.  We are an exceptionally talented and capable academic community, and it will be rewarding to recognize the variety, richness and competence of the people who make up the university.

We also will be able to use the centennial for external marketing purposes by forming messages that portray the qualities, achievements, and resources of this comprehensive university.  And we will be able to direct these marketing efforts to citizens across the state and throughout the larger region as we depict programs and people who have shaped the communities and economies of the areas around us.  We will show the relevance and importance of ASU through the influence we have had over a century of personal and community developments.  That influence is becoming increasingly far-flung, as our graduates spread around the world into corporate offices, industries, schools, and families with ties to Arkansas State University.

The centennial occasion presents a period of opportunity in which we may develop a capital campaign, a fundraising effort focused on building the academic quality and reputation of the university.  This also is an objective of the strategic plan.  Goals of the campaign may be tied to the "themes" of the centennial.  For examples, donors may be approached to become part of a centennial "league of centurions," and foundations and corporations may be enlisted to join as centennial "21st Century Partners for Progress."  Alumni chapters may focus on birthday celebrations to raise pledges of support for the "Century Club" of donors, while class agents may also rally support for class-commemorative centennial projects.  The centennial, as a significant moment in institutional time, may be a stimulus for endowment growth to sustain the university over the next century.

The strategic plan and the Higher Learning Commission report urged that attention be directed to enrollment stabilization.  The centennial may promote targeted recruitment efforts in conjunction with enrollment management objectives and related to additional "themes."  For example, "centennial scholars" may be identified, or "100 valedictorians" recruited, or a "second century seniors" group of non-traditional students may be identified for specially designed programs of importance to retirees.

The directions suggested by the strategic plan will inform many aspects of centennial planning and, during the centennial year itself, will provide opportunities to demonstrate that the plan is being realized.  During the centennial year, 2009-10, we should be able to briefly revisit the strategic planning initiative to develop some goals and directions for the first part of our second hundred years of operations.

Centennial Commission
Mr. Steve Watkins has agreed to chair a Centennial Commission, which is composed of colleagues from the faculty, students, staff, and administration, as well as representatives from external constituencies of the university.  The commission will, over time, create concepts for the communications/marketing/development potentials of the centennial.  The commission has been charged with the challenge of being creative, to help identify ways in which we may harness this event to elevate ASU in our own estimation, and in the view of our many observers.  The members of the commission, each carefully identified for her or his unique ability to contribute to the effort, have been asked to imagine, to share, to respond, and to discuss outside the group ways in which the centennial opportunity will be made successful.  We will depend on their synergy for many of the ideas that will be introduced throughout our celebration period.  It should be clear that this is a creative process and, like most creative processes, will have its moments of frustration.  But the process also will be fun at times and, in the end, satisfying.

A budget will be created to pay for various aspects of the centennial activities, as expenditures over several years will be necessary.  The Centennial Commission has not been asked to limit their thinking to rigid budget parameters, although there certainly will be reasonable limitations.  Instead we will think first of concepts and ideas that might be developed, then identify costs necessary to realize those opportunities, then finally to assemble public and private funds necessary to make the investment in the university’s interests.

The reason for addressing this initiative in First Friday is to ask that you also be interested and involved with the centennial planning and presentation activities.  If you have ideas that you would like to contribute, or aspects of university activities you would like to see recognized, or people, places, or events you would want to be remembered please let us know.  A list of commission members and their e-mail addresses is included as an attachment, so please feel welcome to contact any of us throughout the planning process or the celebration itself.  We will post periodic reports about the work of the Centennial Commission as it develops over the next years.

The original 189 students could not have imagined on that first class day what would come in the subsequent developments in their own lives.  Even more astonishing to them would have been the subsequent development of their school, the Jonesboro community and region, and particularly the world of a century later.  We are now approaching that cusp of transition into our second century of operation.  What wonders will the next 100 years hold?  What challenges will be presented to our university?  What dreams will we make come true?  The ASU Centennial will provide a moment to reflect on our past, to realize the achievement of the present, and to begin to speculate on the opportunities before us in our future.

Thank you for reading First Friday.  I would welcome your comments about this material or any other aspect of Arkansas State University.  Please contact me at president@astate.edu.

 
Leslie Wyatt
President

Referenced Attachment
Centennial Commission members and e-mail addresses

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