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“All final exams for my physics diploma in Germany were oral.
Generally, the professors examining the students were not the same
ones who were giving the lectures the students were attending, so
preparation for the exam required being familiar with a wide range of
topics—and not only the ones that were taught in the student’s class.
My one exception was thermodynamics. Elated, I thought sticking to just the material
from that class would allow me to limit the study effort necessary in this subject. Not a
good idea. The professor asked all kinds of questions from topics he hadn’t addressed in
class. I didn’t do well at all and was offered the choice between barely passing or coming
back six months later. (I took the poor grade—my only one—because I had already been
admitted to my doctoral program and I didn’t have the six months). But the lesson was
valuable—shortcuts don’t work. Being prepared means considering all aspects of a
topic, not only what one thinks will be asked.”
— Hinrich Eylers, Dean, College of Natural Sciences
“Not merely a failure, my incident was more like
a colossal catastrophe. I was once retained by
a company, with the job of defusing tensions
between divisional units. Overconfident (and
naïve), I was convinced I would ‘pull it off’ and
would have both sides soon playing Parcheesi, sharing jokes and
singing Kumbaya around the campfire. No way. Not a chance. The
environment turned out to be the ‘civilized’ equivalent of the war
zones I experienced when I was with the United Nations. And the
lesson learned: some battles (no pun intended) are better left
alone, or engaged only when one is fully prepared to be effective.”
—Robert Ridel, Dean, College of Humanities
“I failed in a spectacular fashion when I created a training
guide for the evaluation of student writing at the St.
Louis campus. It took a lot of work and time to go from
initial creation through to dissemination and training.
While it was accomplished in a timely manner, and
faculty embraced it, the guide did not solve the basic problem. Even with
a common tool, the faculty had varied personal backgrounds. In that
respect, grading will always be flavored by the individual’s background, as
it should. I did not meet my goal of solving what is an incredibly complex
problem; I did succeed quite well at learning to find the real issue.”
— Bill Berry, Dean, School of Business
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“I failed my doctoral oral
exams! I have never said
this publicly, even though
I have shared it with select
people. It was a huge
failure for me and it led to a period where
I questioned my future and myself. After a
significant period of time, I went back and
completed a different doctoral program
and earned my Ed.D. What I learned was
to persevere—to never give up something
that I believed was not only possible but
was necessary in order to achieve the goals
I had set for myself. I made it—that’s the
important thing!”
—Lynn K. Hall, Dean, College of Social Sciences
“ I see myself as an optimist
and found this question
challenging. I honestly cannot
think of a time when I have
truly failed at something. I have
certainly encountered obstacles but choose to
focus on the opportunity to reflect and improve
practice. Treating a defeat as a leverage point for
improvement is a better use of energy. One of
my favorite sayings, “it takes too much energy to
have a bad day!” Face your challenges head on and
choose to learn and move on.”
—Meredith Curley, Dean, College of Education