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My daughter and I are planning a ski trip right after New Year’s. Her one request was somewhere with a direct flight from Indianapolis near where she lives and a drive from there within a few hours. That offered four options: Newark, Denver, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. She picked the fourth one—Utah. Twenty years ago, we did such a trip when she was in middle school, and it remains one of the special memories we have together.
In the last few weeks, Utah has been on my mind, as I suspect it has been for you. Amidst the senselessness that is such violence, I have found myself dusting off and re-reading a book by a former professor at another Utah University with “State” not “Valley” in between, whose book 40 million-plus others have felt was worthwhile reading since 1989. He tragically died from complications of a bicycle accident in 2012, roughly seven years after when my daughter and I enjoyed the pristine powder that was his backyard (oh, and Robert Redford’s too).
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Perhaps you noticed it, but the President and I both evoked Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People in our remarks on Welcome Day. The President did so in his Fall Address, when he spoke of the “Circle of Concern” and the “Circle of Influence” (from the Be Proactive Principle of Personal Vision). In my case, I spoke about “first seeking to understand before being understood” (from the Principle of Empathic Communication) at the faculty/staff discussion on the criticality of aiding our students to engage across difference in a polarized world.
So, what do these two habits have to say that inform in this uncomfortable and anxiety-producing moment? Quite a lot, it turns out from my re-read.
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Circle of Concern/Circle of Influence – We have many, many concerns in life, but a subset are ones we can do something about. Reactive people often fixate on the concerns and respond by blaming others, using accusatory language, and exuding large quantities of negative energy, typically increasing their own feelings of inadequacy and helplessness. Proactive people focus on their personal paradigms for addressing challenges confronted, and in turn negative energy turns positive. Metaphorically, one changes their internal weather by finding ways to be resourceful, diligent, and creative, and in turn expand their circle of influence.
Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood – I love my dad dearly, but one of his habits when in dialogue is to give an opinion even when one is not sought. Empathic communication means listening with the intent to truly understand the other person, not just to reply. It means suspending judgement and entering the speaker’s frame of reference. Doing so creates trust and emotional connection, essential for effective collaboration and problem solving. Metaphorically, one seeks to put on the other’s shoes to better understand what it is like to walk in their world, and through that approach, begin to aid both them and you.
Covey reminds us that understanding before being understood is right in the middle of one’s Circle of Influence. Simply put, energy focus here enables the bridge-building to get things done. Whereas we will never know what Covey would say about our current times, I’m sure he would challenge us to find ways to dial back rhetoric and to use the moment to transform the future within one’s circle of influence. Our moment is here, colleagues, in the form of our next Strategic Plan. Let’s put our values as an institution into action as we develop our roadmap, not for surviving, but for thriving!
Oh, and in my circle of influence is to help create joy for a daughter in Utah.
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Academic News
Wellness Day is October 16. There are no classes scheduled on October 16 and 17, but the University is open. All faculty and staff are encouraged to participate in in-person and/or online activities on Wellness Day with the goal of aiding our own wellness, but also that of our students. Details on the activities and opportunities will be out shortly.
UCC News. Thanks to the good work of our curriculum committees, review panels, and the UCC Council, both pending and new course proposals are moving through the review process; several proposals have already been approved this semester. The table of approved UCC courses, found at https://www.wpunj.edu/ucc/, is live, so newly approved courses will show as soon as the Registrar has added the UCC attribute. To ensure committees have time to do their work, new UCC proposals for courses you intend to offer in Fall 2026 should be launched in Curriculog by November 14.
Strategic Plan Updates. The Strategic Plan Committees, one for each of the five thematic frames, plus a Steering Committee, will be announced shortly. Those committees will be getting underway soon and communicating with the campus community for receiving input on the frame focus areas and goal development.
Office of Community College and Dual Enrollment Partnerships News. We are thrilled to announce WP’s first 3+1 agreements with Passaic County Community College following a signing ceremony by the two presidents on September 22 (Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Management, Supply Chain Management, and Psychology). Also finalized were 3+1 programs with Alamein International University in Information Technology, Computer Science, and Marketing (with a concentration in Digital Marketing), an innovative mechanism by which Egyptian students receive a degree from both their home university and William Paterson. Finally, we have 1,636 new dual enrollment applications as of September 26, which is 58 percent ahead of this time last year.
Office of Sponsored Programs News. OSP, and by extension, the campus, is on a September grants roll. Despite fears of cuts, the opposite (knock on wood) has occurred. These include a renewal of the CCAMPIS grant ($551,509) in the College of Education; the Literacy for Empowerment in English and Spanish (LEES) grant ($599,697) managed by Dr. Gladys Vega; and the DOE HSI-STEM grant - ASPIRE ($1 million) in the College of Science and Health. The ASPIRE grant also received supplemental funding of $348,641 for a total of over $1.3 million. In another win, the cancelled NEH grant combining climate change studies and art (College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Science and College of Science and Health partnership), won its appeal for restored funding of $60,000. New grants secured in September include Target Hardening of Entertainment Venues – Shea Center for the Performing Arts, secured by Charles Lowe from the NJ Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness for $150,000. A new contract from the CDC for Drug-Free Communities was awarded to Dr. Naa-Solo Tettey in the College of Science and Health for $125,000. Craig Woelpper secured $56,270 from the NJ State Council on the Arts for Shea Center. $2.9 million in one month… amazing achievements, colleagues!
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Facts & Figures
From Fall Census I Official Data now posted to the Factbook – 2024 to 2025, or will be shortly:
· Change in Total Undergraduate Enrollment: -19
· Change in Total Graduate Enrollment: +162
· First-Year Retention Rate: +.40 percentage points
· Four-Year Graduation Rate: +4.9 percentage points
· Total Graduates in 2024-25: +675
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Quotables
The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective People:
Habit 1: React. If someone is rude to you, be rude back. Take no responsibility for you.
Habit 2: Begin with Squat in Mind. Don’t plan ahead. Don’t set goals. Don’t worry about the consequences of your actions. Go with the flow.
Habit 3: Put First Things Last. Procrastinate. Get to the important stuff later. Don’t worry about strengthening your relationships.
Habit 4: Think Win-Lose. See life as a vicious competition. Since everyone is out to get you, get them first. If they win, you lose.
Habit 5: Seek First to Talk, Then Pretend to Listen. You were born with a mouth, so use it. Pretend to listen by saying “uh-huh” a lot.
Habit 6: Be an Island. Teamwork is over-rated. Cooperation slows things down, so bag it. Your ideas are always better anyway.
Habit 7: Burn Yourself Out. Be busy always! Stay away from good books, nature, art, music, or anything else that may inspire.
—Adapted from Sean Covey in his 2020 addition to the close of Chapter One of his father’s book.
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The Provost’s Office is Brenda, Claudia T., Claudia C., Jonathan, Kara, Rhonda, Sandy, and Josh. You can reach us at
973.720.2122 • provost@wpunj.edu
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