Our View: Anticipate specifics in Warren’s ideas
President Beverly Warren delivered what she dubbed her first State of the University Address last Thursday, outlining the progress the university has made in the last year.
The speech – listed in text online – also addressed possibilities for the university in the future, including two proposals to create a healthier campus and to have freshmen write out mission statements for their own collegiate careers.
However, a lack of specifics left us with more questions about her visions than answers. Although these ideas intrigue and sound like they could be decent steps in the right direction for Kent State, we are eager to hear the plans to make each dream happen and hope to hear those sooner rather than later.
Warren’s address hinted at interesting things in the future, including fitness machines placed in dorms rather than just the Recreation and Wellness Center. Warren implied changes to dining halls on campus, but how big might those changes be and how immediate? In the case of incoming freshmen writing mission statements, does that include exploratory majors? What kinds of fitness machines would be placed in dorms?
We look forward to asking those questions as a student body and we more so look forward to those answers. We encourage Warren and her administration to share more information with us soon, as Warren’s goal is to flesh these ideas out by this time next year.
Each proposal in the speech was preceded by the word “imagine” and in her own words, these are dreams that she hopes to report to us at next year’s State of the University address.
The above editorial is a consensus opinion of The Kent Stater editorial board, whose names are listed above.