Yesterday’s New York Times – admittedly not my normal favorite news source – had a terrific piece on Dr. Lee Todd and his vision for leading the University of Kentucky to be one of the top 20 research institutions in America. Lee and I have discussed the importance of this effort many times and I think he is right on the mark. This is well deserved national recognition for what Lee is accomplishing at UK. He is right when he points out that a more educated work force is in Kentucky’s best interest and I know his colleagues across the Commonwealth are working to help achieve that very goal.
The connection between research and job creation also suggests the scope of Dr. Todd’s ambitions. He wants to raise the academic performance and national standing of the university because he thinks that is the best way to improve the state’s economy and reduce the scourge of what he calls “the Kentucky uglies” — high rates of diabetes, lung cancer, illiteracy and poverty.
“What the state needs is a more educated work force,” Dr. Todd told members of the Scott County Chamber of Commerce during an address at a luncheon recently in nearby Georgetown. “We’re going to have to have more graduates in our economy if we want it to grow.”
Plenty of presidents at state universities across the country have come up with plans for growth and improvement. But few have created a strategy as rigorous, statistically driven or transparent as Dr. Todd’s, and few bring to the task his sense of mission.
“This is really the key: We grow up in Kentucky being told we’re not very good, we can’t compete,” he said at the lunch. “And that’s not true.”
“My point is that Kentucky needs to have big ideas,” he added.
