Besides emphasizing the MU community’s tangible achievements, Chancellor Alexander Cartwright expressed the importance of value an MU education brings in his 2019 State of the University Address.
On Friday during Homecoming week, Cartwright spoke to an audience of alumni, faculty and students about how an MU education has no bounds.
The presentation in Cornell Hall began with a video asking students around MU’s campus about what the university means to them.
“Mizzou means so much to me,” Steven Qualls II, a graduate student in the College of Education, said in the video. “It’s a place to call home. It’s a place where everybody feels safe and as one.” Qualls also moderated the address.
Qualls opened the presentation after running onto the stage, pretending like he was coming in from the video. Then, Cartwright began his speech by speaking of MU’s history and legacy.
“What happens at the University of Missouri changes lives for our students, and for the people around the world,” Cartwright said in his speech.
He spoke of the value people within the community bring to one another and the scholarship that comes along with it. He credited MU’s status as a great research university as a result of the people that make it possible. Cartwright referenced Nobel Prize winner George Smith’s work with protein evolution as something that improves thousands of lives each year.
“Our overall contribution to the Mizzou society is much more important than any personal gain along the way,” Cartwright said in his speech.
He continued the presentation by referring to the concrete ways that MU helps other people. This included ensuring student success, solving the world’s challenges and serving the people of Missouri and beyond.
Cartwright referenced Bailey Stamp, a student studying in the College of Business who was not sure she could return to MU after one year due to financial reasons. Stamp received a Heartland scholarship and was able to continue her education.
“This is the comprehensible education experience that makes our students Mizzou Made,” Cartwright said in his speech. “I love that phrase. Mizzou Made reflects the pride of being a tiger. It is indicative of the remarkable transformational education experience that only a higher education institution like ours can provide.”
The presentation then went on to talk about the value that MU brings to people around the world by aiding with health problems and food insecurities. Cartwright spoke of expanding the budget as well as physical spaces where opportunity for growth thrives. This includes the new School of Music building, a plant growth research facility and four new research facilities.
“Our value is having people share the rare combination of curiosity and brilliance, which makes no question too small to ask and no challenge too hard to tackle,” Cartwright said in his speech.
Cartwright spoke of the recent increase of funding MU has received and how that money can go to helping communities around the globe. He touched on the importance of filling the shoes of being a land grant institution in the middle of Missouri.
“The collective value of service drives our mission as a university for Missouri,” Cartwright said in his speech.
This service includes the Mizzou Alternative Breaks program and its expanding service trips throughout Missouri and around the U.S. Additional service includes the work of Libby Martin, a second-year doctoral student who found a way to decrease calf mortality and increase profits for farmers.
“We do all of this and more because this is value,” Cartwright said in his speech. “This is Mizzou. Our people are our value and our people are collectively Mizzou.”
_Edited by Laura Evans | levans@themaneater.com_