Guest Column - OSU President E. Gordon Gee
President E. Gordon Gee is the student-beloved President of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio
November 13, 2009
Lincoln Maly Marketing will feature guest columnists on the company website who will share their vision and inspiration for excellence, passion, innovation, creativity, and service.
In this guest column, the charismatic leader and president of The Ohio State University, Gordon Gee, graciously allowed Lincoln Maly Marketing to share his wishes for the 2009 graduates. Principal of Lincoln Maly Marketing, Joanne Maly, was privileged to have her youngest son graduate from Ohio State University.
Maly commented, "President Gee's words are so heart-felt, inspiring and poetic. The message transcends the graduates themselves or those affiliated with the school. The message is tangible and needed in today's world - and by each of us - as we make our daily decisions and life choices."
A Message from President Gee
E. Gordon Gee
President, The Ohio State University
Today marks your official launch. My expectations for you are boundless, just as they are for Ohio State. After all, you are now a graduate of one of the finest universities in the world. I hope that makes you feel both proud and somewhat pressured.
You might start by asking yourself two questions, as most new graduates who are contemplating a move will do: What should I keep? What should I give away? Although I am no longer young enough to know everything, I do know enough to offer this advice. Some things to keep: An open mind, as challenged by your professors. The memory of Orton Hall’s chimes, because that is tradition. The sound of jackhammers at the Ohio Union and Thompson Library, because that is progress. Keep close the friend you made during orientation, when you were both excited and overwhelmed. Lock the best of this place in your heart and stow it away for the times you will need sustenance. Set out tomorrow morning, pick up just the right wind, and launch the next phase of your life.
You will have to jettison some things. Keep away from people who diminish your dreams, who deride your ambitions. Give up your doubts, and that little voice inside your head that says, “You can’t.” Ohio State says you can.
Even as you may struggle to make ends meet, you have so much to give away. Give your time and talent to a cause you believe in. Give your hope to make a better world, because you come from a great public university that believes in doing the world’s good. Give your courage when it is not convenient, your integrity now that it is most needed, your honesty in all things large and small. Give your compassion, because the world often seems to be running short. Give it your best shot, every day.
Like me, you will look to Ohio State as a harbor of high aspirations. When you tell people that you are an Ohio State graduate, you will be telling them our story, singing our song. You will represent the great promise of this land-grant institution to make a difference in others’ lives. You will know, firsthand, that Ohio State changes lives.
Go where your calling takes you, along a route that might meander. Go beyond the routine, the expected, and the easy. Like this university, you are capable of greatness. As you prepare to cast off, I hope that Ohio State has lived up to all your expectations. Now it is your turn to live up to ours. And send me a postcard every now and then to let me know how you are doing.
O-H!
E. Gordon Gee
President
The Ohio State University
President Gee is indeed respected by his peers and his students, but is also known to be hand-on, contemporary, and involved with his students, faculty and staff. His Twitter address is: @presidentgee
The Ohio State University's Twitter address is: @OhioState
President Gee was recently named by Time Magazine as one of the country's Ten Best College Presidents.
President Gee's Biography
(source: The Ohio State University website.)
E Gordon Gee, among the most highly experienced and respected university presidents in the nation, returned to The Ohio State University after having served as Chancellor of Vanderbilt University for seven years. Prior to his tenure at Vanderbilt, he was president of Brown University (1998-2000), The Ohio State University (1990-97), the University of Colorado (1985-90), and West Virginia University (1981-85).
Born in Vernal, Utah, Gee graduated from the University of Utah with an honors degree in history and earned his J.D. and Ed.D degrees from Columbia University. He clerked under Chief Justice David T. Lewis of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals before being named a judicial fellow and staff assistant to the U.S. Supreme Court, where he worked for Chief Justice Warren Burger on administrative and legal problems of the Court and federal judiciary. Gee returned to Utah as an associate professor and associate dean in the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, eventually achieving the rank of full professor. In 1979 he was named dean of the West Virginia University Law School, and in 1981 was appointed to that university's presidency.
Active in a number of national professional and service organizations, Gee served as a Trustee for the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation and as chairman of the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land Grant Universities. He is a member of the National Commission on Writing for America's Families, Schools, and Colleges, founded by the College Board to improve the teaching and learning of writing. He also serves as co-chair of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities' Energy Advisory Committee.
Gee is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Hospice Foundation, the Advisory Board of the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, and the Board of Trustees of the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation, an independent Federal government agency established to "encourage and support research, study and labor designed to produce new discoveries in all fields of endeavor for the benefit of mankind." He also is a member of the Business-Higher Education Forum.
Gee has received a number of honorary degrees, awards, and recognitions. He was a Mellon Fellow for the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies and a W.K. Kellogg Fellow. In 1994, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Utah as well as from Teachers College of Columbia University. He is the co-author of eight books and the author of numerous papers and articles on law and education.
Gee's daughter, Rebekah, is an assistant professor of clinical medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tulane University and a Norman F. Gant/American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology/IOM Anniversary Fellow.
November 2009