Dr. M. Roy Wilson officially became the 12th president of Wayne State University April 4 at a ceremony hosted by the university’s Board of Governors and attended by faculty as well as regional leaders, educators and heads of colleges in the metro area and from across the country. The event formally marked the beginning of what Wilson calls an era of “opportunity and access” for the university and the community.
Dignitaries including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan; Dr. Michael Drake, Ohio State University’s incoming 15th president and the first Black in that role; Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, Blue Cross Blue Sheild of Michigan CEO Dan Loepp, Henry Ford Health System CEO Nancy Schlichting, Faye Nelson, vice president of public affairs and president of the DTE Energy Foundation; and Juanita Moore, CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, were among a host of business, political and community leaders on hand to witness the inauguration of Wilson, which was officiated by Debbie Dingell, chair of Wayne State Board of Governors.
In his presidential address, Wilson struck a chord with the audience in the packed Community Arts Auditorium when he went back to his childhood days, almost choking as he described the challenges of his chilhood and what his parents went through.
“My parents did not have an opportunity to pursue a higher education degree. My Japanese mother, particularly, lost her father and brother in World War II and was abandoned by her mother,” Wilson explained. “She grew up with an uncle in a poor, rural community and had to quit school in the 8th grade to work in the rice fields to help support her adoptive family.
“I grew up in Japan for most of my childhood, developed a deep appreciation of another culture and gained perspective that was more global than typical. I went to a public high school in the Washington, D.C. area that was known more for its athletics than for academics.”
But the crucial break for Wilson in his evolving life as he explained it came when he had the opportunity to “obtain an outstanding liberal arts education in rural Pennsylvania,” and then proceeded to Harvard Medical School where he “understood the meaning of excellence, the importance of high expectations and of never settling for anything less than the very best.”
Shaped by his childhood experience and the struggles he went through in becoming one of the nation’s leading Ophthalmologists and an academic leader, Wilson comes to Wayne State with this background and ready to guide the university in a new chapter.
“I do not take for granted the breadth of experiences I’ve had throughout my life,” Wilson said. “I feel truly fortunate to have experienced the challenges of the urban core culture, to have been immersed in diversity at both the local and global level, to have experienced the thrill of discovery of new new knowledge and educational excellence where the highest of achievements for the public good was an expectation.”
Casting Wayne State as a place of light, Wilson warned that the university should not fall prey to what he calls “the fallacy of false choices,” as he sought to define what it must become now.
“We must reject as false the choice between being a university of opportunity and access or a nationally prominent research university,” Wilson said. “We must reject as false the choice between offering a broad liberal arts education or a more skilled-oriented education that is responsive to the specific workforce needs of the state.”
He went to note that, “We must reject as false the insidious choice between embracing and advancing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic diversity or academic excellence.”
According to Wilson, “academic excellence, innovation, creativity enhanced through a complete embrace of diversity in all its many forms” is what Wayne State must focus on. He said for a university like Wayne to have the ability to provide a liberal arts education “is the most distinguishing feature of a great university.”
Yet, as the university is one that is accountable to the public, the new president said, “We must be mindful of not insulating ourselves in an ivory tower mentality and accept, even embrace, that an increasingly important metric of the value of higher education is readiness s for the job market.”
He also touched on the growing expectations of what public universities must do to respond to the market forces.
“In states across the country there is a growing expectation that public universities train students with specific skills that are sought by the workforce,” Wilson said. “Businesses are clamoring for graduates with the skills and knowledge to start contributing on day one. There is legitimacy in this concern, and we must rise to the challenge and make sure that our students are able to find good jobs upon graduating.”
Wilson said the university can do both.
“In balancing both we must keep in mind that unlike the not so distant past, the average college graduate will hold 11 jobs in their lifetime and even change careers two or three times,” he said. “Many of the categories of jobs of the next decade don’t even exist today. More than just skills, we must educate people who can evolve with the rapid pace of the world. Ultimately, our job is graduate individuals who are critical thinkers, adaptable and able to function and evolve in an increasingly global economy and an increasingly diverse world.”
Wilson, who was uanimously elected by the university board as president last June, said Wayne must redouble seeking new knowledge and research. He cited the soon to be completed biomedical research building to serve as a place to study issues that “disproportionately affect our urban community.”
“President Wilson is the visionary leader Wayne State University sought. Roy’s experience as an administrator at urban institutions and his background as a physician and researcher have made him an ideal fit for this university,” said Dingell, chair of the board. Bankole Thompson is the editor of the Michigan Chronicle. Email bthompson@michronicle.com.
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