I think we're just on the cusp of doing so many great things.
Here at NC State things are changing so much
that I envy the student that starts as a freshman next year.
There are just so many incredible opportunities. We're going to open one of the world's greatest libraries on our Centennial Campus.
There is no doubt in my mind that it will fundamentally change our campus.
We're about to open a new student center. We're actually going to have the student center.
When I was a student we didn't really have-. We had Talley but it wasn't a hub for students.
So those are kind of two things that are going on.
We've got a new chancellor in place that I think has got a very clear picture of where he wants this university to go.
He's developed a strategic plan. He's one of the first chancellors that I've sent that really focuses on
getting that feedback from students
but also pushing this university forward.
I think we're going to do a lot of great things. We're no longer going to be looked at as North Carolina's redheaded stepchild.
I really think in ten years from now people will say-.
When you go out of state and you say, I graduated from North Carolina State people won't say, oh, you mean UNC.
No. They'll understand and know what NC State is because it's a leader in this country and in this world.
We take our land grant mission to heart,
and I think that's what's going to really push us forward. We've seen the writing on the wall, I think.
We looked at our textiles program and we saw that textiles was a dying industry in North Carolina.
How do we develop it and move it forward? Now our textiles program is one of the world's leaders in textiles
but it's no longer building furniture. It's focusing on developing new fibers that our firefighters can wear
when they're fighting fires and they're really focused on growing and developing the future of that industry.
We look at colleges like CHASS that are looking at things in a different way than your normal liberal arts things.
We are able to work with our scientific sides of things and our CALS and CNR
and understand that, okay, if healthcare is one of our biggest problems facing the future,
yeah there are some different nutritional sides of things but there's also a psychological side,
that if we can change the way people-or not so much change the way people think but help them understand the way they think about food, the way they think about things.
The CIA is now recruiting people that have strong backgrounds in philosophy and Middle Eastern studies.
I think our college of humanities really sees that here,
and I think you can say that about all our colleges. They really see the future, they see how they fit in a land grant mission,
and I think there's so many great things to come from NC State.