Happy New Year! And just like that, 2023 is gone. My New Year’s resolution is to remember to write ‘2024’ instead of ‘2023’ in my journal, on the pages of my lab and field notebooks, and on my checks (yes, I still love the folksy old-timey feel of a paper check!) — I’m sure I’ll get it right by March. Jokes aside, one habit that has stuck over the last 10 years is my annual act of choosing my word of the year — and in 2024, my word is “renew.”
Renew: to increase the life of or replace something old
In looking at the list of this year’s contenders, I nearly made the ill-fated decision to choose the word “restore," but thankfully, an English major friend of mine nudged and suggested, “Todd, I think you may mean renew.” I then realized that except in the case of a few dusty family heirlooms, including some old mid-western farmhouse furniture, I don’t really have much desire to “restore” and simply return things to a “previous condition or state.” Instead, I am personally looking forward to renewing my relationships with friends, family, this city and my neglected collection of very capable but underutilized sea kayaks.
But, what does my choice of “renew” mean for my work at PSU and as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences? To me, the concept of renewal offers the gift of unscripted future possibilities. As we lean into the work of 2024, I think our collective challenge and opportunity ahead is to mindfully and honestly ask ourselves what needs to be renewed in our departments, our college and our university, and why. We could ask ourselves a myriad of questions, including:
- How should we renew our commitment to serving our students, and the communities from which they come?
- How might we renew our own beliefs about what it means to be in a community?
- What parts of our curriculum do we need to renew and why?
- How do we renew our approaches to supporting research and graduate programs?
- What partnerships have languished post-COVID and should be renewed?
- How might we individually and collectively renew the public perception of the value of post-secondary education (note I didn’t say higher education)?
- How do we renew our beliefs about who we are as a university and who we can or can’t be — or who we should or shouldn’t be?
- What can we do to help renew downtown Portland?
Though the choice of a word of the year may, in reality, matter very little, this annual habit of mine provides a way (at least for me) to structure my thinking and keep me focused on the year ahead. To me, choosing “renew” is a hopeful act of great intention, and unlike “restore,” it permits me to not necessarily be anchored to what was.
Now asking how we might renew PSU is a big, meaty question. Thankfully, soon we will all have an opportunity to weigh in on this work as part of President Cudd’s strategic planning process. As a member of the strategic planning steering committee, I’ll be sharing more about this critical work, the ways that we all can participate and its importance to CLAS in future blog posts.
In the meantime, as we all return to the hustle and bustle of winter term, I encourage everyone to spend a few minutes to reflect and ask yourself, “What are you working to renew in 2024?”