Gordon Gee Enlightens and Entertains

 "We do play a little football at OSU," explained Dr. E. Gordon Gee at the start of his address, "and people send me emails about it every day.  Here's one:

'So, an Alabama Football player is bragging to three cheerleaders about how smart he is.  'I just finished a jigsaw puzzle in three months.  That's really fast-on the box it says, 4 to 6 years'."

Anyone expecting staid, serious, and ivory tower style academics from America's most experienced and perhaps most-loved university president was very quickly delighted with Dr. Gee's ready wit, great comic timing, flashing energy, and fun-loving, often self-deprecating manner.

"I often visit elementary school classes in Columbus City Schools," Dr. Gee explained in his opening remarks, "and receive thank you notes from them.  My favorite of all time is the note that read as follows:  'Dear Dr. Gee. Thank you for talking to us.  You were actually fun.  I learned that looks can be deceiving'."

Dr. Gee did, however, make many serious points, using his wit to engage while informing and inspiring his audience.

OSU is the Front Door to the American Dream

"Many are given the opportunity to succeed because of it. We are not just the largest college campus in the U.S., with 63,417 students with a $5 billion a year, a budget the size of Rhode Island's. This fall, we will have students from all 88 Ohio counties, 50 states, and 150 countries, speaking 100 languages.  We are the largest, most multi-cultural, international of universities-a significant player in the world at large."

Today's students  - Gee suggested, will need their OSU education perhaps more than ever before.

"We are undergoing not a recession, but the resetting of the American economy. We've given young people a tough hand to play, having lived on the edge of excess in a chaotic world.  The University now plays a central role in their education and future.  If we look at the year 1900, the wealthiest people in the world were industrialists, like Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan. In 2000, the richest people are in information, telecommunication, and capitalist ventures, like Gates. We must educate and even more, foster energy, innovation, and creativity. We'll never out-produce China and India, which may have 2 billion people by the year 2050.  In order to compete, we must have better ideas than everyone else.  And our competitors understand that. When I met with the Chinese minister of education, his main questions to me were 'How do you Americans teach creativity? How do you teach innovation?' We have a unique quality as Americans defined by de Tocqueville as 'a habit of the heart'-something different that is creative, energetic, innovative. We can't lose it.  We must keep it.  The University is important for continuing it."  

"I Never Want to Lose a Good Ohioan"

OSU is helped in its mission with two unique Ohio qualities:  "First, people have a passion for the state-and part of our job is to make sure people who do love the state have jobs and want to stay here-and second, everyone is a Buckeye.  Gee also stated:

·          We can be THE state university, an economic engine that drives the state. 

·          OSU is Ohio's largest producer of jobs. 

·          We are the 9^th most productive research institute in the country-9 out of 3,660. 

·          We are not a big state university-we are one of the most powerful research institutes in the world.

·          We need to do a better job, however, with the commercialization of our ideas; there, we rank 25^th, but we must do better.

·          We need to take our talent and ideas and produce a system to put them to work to create jobs in Ohio. 

Gee said like Coach Jim Tressel, our philosophy should be, "I never want to lose a good Ohioan."

"We in Ohio must also get over our Midwest modesty," urged Gee. "We have great people and a great workforce.  This is our moment.  We must seize it.  We must make ourselves worthy of living here as Ohioans.  We need to get over any rivalries that divide us, for example the competition that occurs between Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati.  We must realize that when Ohio does well, we all do well. All ideas are welcome.  Working together, we can create opportunities to make life better for every student and for each and every one of us. We need to think of education and opportunity not as a K-12 but as Kindergarten through Life."

Dr. Gee's challenge to keep learning, keep growing, and foster new ideas in our education and businesses is indeed a steep one.  We can perhaps be up to it if we borrow some of his positive attitude, as expressed in response to a question from Steve Smith about how he stays so energetic and upbeat.

"I rely on great friends and I remember the importance of what we need to achieve. To be the president of a prestigious private university is a privilege. To be president of OSU is a calling."    Dr. E. Gordon Gee