Chancellor's Council Executive Committee Winter Business Meeting

So, I have been on the job a little over two weeks now, and I can tell you it has been an e-ticket ride!

I worried when I left command of the all the special operations in the United States that life would be boring – how wrong I was! 

What we have going on in Texas – at our academic and health institutions is as exciting as anything I have ever experienced.

When you jump out of a plane at 30,000 feet, an oxygen mask strapped to your face, a rifle on your leg and a rucksack on your chest – it is quite a rush. 

When you lock out of a submarine underwater at night – with the bioluminescence swirling around you, it’s awe-inspiring.

When you ski down an unbroken path in the dead of winter – with an 80-pound pack on your back, it is exhilarating.

But, I have found that nothing, nothing compares to the thrill of seeing a student excited about their future – a future they didn’t even have four years ago. I saw it last week at UT Rio Grande Valley.

And nothing compares with the look on patients’ faces at MD Anderson, when they know they are going to survive cancer.  I have seen it many, many times over the past five years.

And nothing compares to watching the students come back to school after a long break – not downtrodden because they have to return to class – but excited to be back with their friends, with the challenges that they know will make them strong adults.

And as a newly-minted Chancellor, nothing excites me more than knowing I can be part of changing the lives of men and women throughout Texas, throughout the nation and throughout the world.

So, I hated leaving my soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, but now I have students, faculty, administrators, staff, donors, supporters, advisors and a host of other folks that want the same thing I do for UT – greatness! 

I’m honored to be here and honored to have this job – but I know that without the support of the Chancellor’s Executive Council – without your advice and guidance during difficult times – I will not be successful. 

I need you.  I want to hear what you have to say.  I want to hear competing views, and I want to establish strong relationships that will last well past my time as Chancellor.

So, again, thanks for having me here this evening.

I was a strapping young Navy midshipman and she was a demure young sorority girl.  I immediately fell head over heels for her.  But there was one minor problem. In the spring of 1977, I was dating another young lady whom I was on the verge of asking to marry me.

When my mother found out that I had begun dating Georgeann she was understandably concerned.  My mother had plans.

In fact, she was so concerned, she called the Executive Officer at the Naval ROTC unit to have him relay to me that I should stop dating two women at once.

The Executive Officer, who was a crusty old Navy Commander, called me into his office and made it clear to me that he agreed with my mother.

Well, I think folks can question a lot of things I have done in my life, but for one shining moment I was the smartest man in the world.

I ever so gently let the other woman go her separate way and I very quickly asked Georgeann to marry me.

We have been married almost 37 years, and I would not be here as your Chancellor had Georgeann not decided that this job was the perfect fit for me.

Thank you dear.

What has surprised me, as I began to ramp up for the job, was, in fact, the similarity between my past assignment at the Special Operations Command and my job as the Chancellor.

As a four-star Admiral in Tampa I worked routinely with Capitol Hill and was frequently called to testify before the Appropriations Committees, the Armed Services Committees, the Intelligence Committees and many more subcommittees.

I had an annual operating budget of $10.4 billion, which I had to defend to Congress,  and I always had to ensure I was using the taxpayer’s money wisely.

The business end also had many similarities. 

Additionally, as the Special Operations Commander I ran multiple small academic institutions, which actually had to go through an accreditation process.

I had a Joint Special Operations University, with highly qualified faculty, administrators and staff.

Within Special Operations we had doctors, nurses, physician assistants, corpsmen, and medics.  We trained medical professionals up to and including battlefield surgeons.

I had 12 subordinate institutions, each with a great deal of autonomy, which I had to respect.

While I didn’t have a Board of Regents, I did have a Chairman of the Joint Staff and I reported to the Secretary of Defense and the President.

But what is most similar between my last job and this one is that success in both jobs requires personal relationships.  And a successful personal relationship is built on trust.

My message to the folks at System Administration and to the Presidents was that building or rebuilding trust was job number ONE – and it started with me.

From the Regents to the students and everyone in between – they must trust me.  I will work hard every day to earn that trust.  Without trust, we are dead in the water.   With it, there isn’t anything we can’t accomplish.

And we are going to accomplish some great things!

Since I retired back in August I have read a lot of the best sellers on higher education.

I have talked to leaders across the spectrum about how to build great academic and health institutions. 

I am listening to anyone and everyone who has an opinion.

We have a lot of challenges at UT.  But it can’t be the challenges that define us; it must be the opportunities that chart our path forward.

We have challenges in access and affordability.

We have challenges in student graduation rates and post-graduate employment.

We have student debt we must get under control.

We have faculty, researchers, administrators and staff that deserve better compensation.

We need more federal research dollars.

We need more dollars from the state.

We need more facilities and we need to use the ones we have more efficiently.

We need to operate our clinics and hospitals to full capacity.

We have a lot of challenges, and make no mistake about it, solving those challenges is necessary for our success, but alone, it is not sufficient to guarantee success.

If we want to be a great institution, where the state, the nation and the world recognizes our greatness by seeking our advice, our council and our support on every major issue surrounding higher education, research, and clinical services – if that’s where we want to be, then solving classroom occupancy rates is not going to do it.

Getting more facilities alone is not going to do it.  Graduating 10 or 20% more students alone a year is not going to make us great, and federal research dollars alone are not going to make us great.

What is going to make us great are bold initiatives, backed up by a plan, and resources that gets us across the goal line.

Bold initiatives like UT’s Dell Medical School, the establishment of a new university in the Rio Grand Valley.  The Moonshots program at MD Anderson and the William P. Clements Jr. Hospital, a state-of-the-art facility at UT Southwestern.

Audacious ideas that make people anxious, nervous and excited all at once. 

Like building a global network of Texans to help dramatically improve student graduation rates and post education employment.

Like changing our Intellectual Property policies so we can bring the best and brightest faculty to Texas with the knowledge that their ideas, their labor, their entrepreneurship, their enterprise can result in their financial success.

Like partnering with international firms to grow our brand and make Texas the research center of the nation.

Ideas like totally reinventing how we deliver health care and making Texas the healthiest state in the union.

Ideas like using our cultural capital and our strong Latino campuses across Texas to become the Gateway to the Americas. 

Like developing leaders in every field of endeavor – where education and leadership are inextricably linked to produce men and women of uncompromising integrity who are sought out by every business and every enterprise in the nation and the world.

Ideas that challenge our Texas youth to be service-oriented after graduation, to inspire the next generation with their care and compassion.

Ideas are easy to come by – even big ideas.  We will need a disciplined process that looks at the mechanics of education, that assesses the value of certain propositions, that prioritizes those big ideas based on their merit and then aggressively seeks the funding to bring it all to fruition.

No longer can we hope the future will be better.  We need a plan.

I will use Chancellor Cigarroa’s Framework for Advancing Excellence as a starting point.  Much of the ground work has been done, but much more remains to be done.

I will seek out ideas from my presidents, my executive officers, students, faculty, researchers, administrators, leaders from across the state, this committee and the security guard stationed at my front door.

No idea is too bold – no idea is too audacious, too wild or too expensive – but all the ideas must be linked to our core mission, they must compete in the market place of good ideas – they must drive us to excellence, and they must be fiscally-sound and executable on a defined and reasonable timeline.

Needless to say, we have some work to be done and I can’t think of anyone I would rather saddle up with than the folks in this room.

As a Navy SEAL you learn early on that your life and the success of the operation depends on your “swimbuddy.” 

A swimbuddy is that individual that is literally tied to you, by a small piece of rope, when you are conducting an underwater mission. 

Your swimbuddy makes sure you stay on the right course when you are navigating underwater.  Your swimbuddy checks to make sure you have sufficient air to complete the dive. 

Your swimbuddy untangles you when you get caught in the kelp and the seaweed.

Your swimbuddy is constantly watching for sharks.

And when you reach your objective, it is your swimbuddy who helps you complete the mission and get home safely.

I am now tied to each of you.  We are swimbuddies.  Together we have a tough mission ahead, but I am confident we can complete it and leave behind a legacy of excellence never before seen in the state of Texas.

I look forward to working with you all in the months and years ahead.  Thank you very much.