Chairman's Letter

The Teagle Foundation has made me a betting man, or so it would seem if I am to take our President Bob Connor at his word. Given that my scholarly career has been devoted to writing about values and the strategic leadership that will take colleges and universities to their highest possible levels, you might think that wagering would make me nervous. And yet it hasn't. Here's why.

Bob Connor's essay in this report lays out three "careful," "crafty" bets the Foundation has made over the last year, namely, that

• "American higher education can change for the better, especially in the liberal arts and sciences";
• evidence "can inform campus discussions in powerful ways, and that using data can advance student learning"; and
• "a ‘continuing process to improve the quality of undergraduate teaching and learning" (to use Derek Bok's fine phrase) "will pay off."

These are good bets to make, given that we are seeing all three borne out in the work of the Foundation's many grantees: our insistence on using evidence as the catalyst for change in the classroom (in our Outcomes & Assessment program), on supporting campuses to engage the central questions of liberal education in new and rigorous ways (in our Fresh Thinking program), and on doing all we can to ensure that all students succeed in college (in our College-Community Connections program) are yielding good results. You will see this in the President's essay, and in the many White Papers and reports on the Foundation's website. In fact, the superb leadership we've had for this work makes me think we're on to a sure thing, or as near a sure thing as one can find these days: from the outgoing Chair of our Board of Directors, John Chalsty, whose wise guidance over many years has been so important; from our much-missed colleague Stephen Weiss, with whom we were fortunate enough to work for ten years; from Bob himself as well as Teagle Foundation staff members and from faculty members, administrators, institutional researchers, and others at campuses around the country.

As I write this, reflecting back on the past year's work and looking forward to that of the next, we are in the midst of virtually unprecedented financial upheavals, and the challenges of our work in higher education will surely intensify as a result. But our course is steady, and I am confident–no betting needed–that by working in concert with the higher education community we will all get where we want and need to go.

Richard L. Morrill
Chair, Board of Directors