PROCEEDINGS - Industries of the Future - West Virginia - West ...

Inaugural Symposium Proceedings
So, you are here in the heartland of America talking about the heart of the industrial might of
America and its future. And I think that is seminal. It is quite possible that by being the first statewide
IOF symposium, what happens here could be a prototype for what happens around the country, and it
could certainly alter what happens in basic industries in this region of the country.
We are very happy to partner with you today and with the U.S. Department of Energy. I thank
them for their leadership, and thank you for coming. I’m an optimist by nature, and as we look to the
future I like to be optimistic and see the glass more than half full. I’m reminded that only twenty years
ago the CEO of a major computer company surmised that there would be no reason why anyone
would need a computer in their home. That was just twenty years ago, and that CEO was dead wrong.
So, we need to see into the future, but we need to discern it well and discern it clearly.
I want each of you here today to know that you have a significant potential partner in West
Virginia University. I want to talk a little bit about our philosophy and how we are trying to posture
ourselves toward your industries. It will take time to do that effectively, but it is what we want to do.
We are a significant institution. Only about seventy-five institutions in the country have our kind
of profile. We are a comprehensive institution, meaning that we do teaching, research, and service in a
variety of disciplines. We offer about a hundred and sixty-five majors, and within those majors are
several different sub-specialties. So, we are comprehensive.
Secondly, we are a land grant institution which, in the language of higher education, means we
have a three-part mission of teaching, research, and service.
We are a Research I institution (as designated by the Carnegie Foundation). We are very
proud of the work we do in a wide variety of fields and are glad to achieve that recognition not just for
our own institution, but for the entire state. To have a Research I institution dedicated to the state is a
very, very important fact.
I’m pleased also to note the presence today of John Carrier who is our partner, affiliated with
us through the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery. We also have
programs in Parkersburg, Keyser, here at the Charleston Division, and at numerous sites throughout the
state via extension, distance learning technology, and faculty outreach.
We live in a changing world. Higher education faces the same kind of challenges and issues
that you face. We are a very significant employer, and because we are a complex knowledge
organization we have many of the same problems that you do. We face global competition with its
attendent incessant drive for quality. We have about a thousand students from around the world who
study just at WVU. We also place our students and our researchers and those engaged in extension
around the globe. We must compete, just as you must compete.
We live in a society which is advancing technology very rapidly, and it is just amazing what
technology is doing to the college campuses of America. We, like you, are installing computer systems
that are very expensive and figuring out how to keep them up and pay for them. Like you, we are
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