Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos discussed his outlook for the university and his goals for the future in a wide-ranging talk at the University Staff Advisory Council’s January meeting held at the Student Life Center Jan. 12.
“You are an important, continuous fiber throughout the history of Vanderbilt, and you have my gratitude for all that you do,” Zeppos told the assembled staff.
The chancellor touched on the university’s rise in national rankings, the increasing competitiveness of its admissions, and the growing diversity and high quality of its student body.
“To get into Vanderbilt is very, very competitive. We don’t just look at test scores; we don’t just look at grades,” he said.
“[rquote]We are building a beautiful mosaic of America in the world.[/rquote] We are training leaders. … We bear a heavy responsibility here to try to educate good citizens who really will understand what it means to be different and marginalized and not treated equally, and then go forward to lead in this world,” he said.
Zeppos also discussed Vanderbilt’s extraordinary faculty and staff; the strength of the university’s finances; the restructuring of the Medical Center into a separate legal and financial entity; the campus land use planning process currently underway; and Vanderbilt’s goals to achieve greater equity, inclusion and diversity across the whole of campus.
“I expect the students, faculty, staff and myself to all get in harness and lead” in this regard, he said. “To have conversations about: What does America look like? Are we alert to things going on off campus that really affect people on campus? We’re not isolated in some ivory tower; we are a university within a city engaged in serving locally, nationally and internationally.”
Watch the full video of the chancellor’s talk. (Staff must sign in using a VUnetID and password to watch the video.)
Zeppos concluded his talk by taking questions from the audience.