ASI President Welcome Remarks
Prepared Remarks by
Katie Morrow
ASI President
California Polytechnic State University
2012 FALL CONFERENCE GENERAL SESSION
Monsday, September 10, 2011
8:45 a.m.
Recreation Center Gym
These first few months as ASI President have been an absolute whirlwind for me. From helping to welcome students and parents at Soar, to meeting the Cal Poly leadership from areas across campus, to watching as the community has come together at a moment's notice during a time of tragic loss, I have already experienced many new challenges and opportunities. However, one experience stands out more than any other.
Last month, I had the chance to attend both of the Staff Appreciation events for Facility Services. There was one event hosted early in the morning and another for the late night shift to extend a thank you for all of the hard work within the department. This occasion confirmed my theory about what it is that makes Cal Poly the place that I am proud to call home. I had the chance to sit down with many Cal Poly staff from areas such as landscape, transportation, custodial services and more.
While sitting with these staff members, I learned that they care for students as much as I do. Many of them proudly wore Cal Poly hats and bragged about sons, daughters, and friends who are current or future Mustangs. I realized that day that Cal Poly is the place that it is because of everyone who works to make an environment where students can feel safe, comfortable, and welcome.
However, I learned one other lesson from this event. I learned that we, as students and members of the Cal Poly community, do not do enough to say thank you. The students of Cal Poly are truly privileged to have dedicated faculty and staff members who care as much about our growth as people as they do about the grades on our report card.
In this role so far, I have seen that everybody here, from maintenance staff working the late shift, to faculty in the English department, to coaches in Athletics, do everything to the best of our abilities. We expect excellence of one another and practice it for ourselves. I want to thank every one of you for making excellence a theme in all areas of our campus.
This year, we will be launching a standard to define this level of expectation for students and the community as a whole. A group of students of all years and colleges came together to write The Mustang Way, a standard to define ourselves as Cal Poly Mustangs. The goal is to create aspirations for our fellow Mustangs, just as all of you do in your work on a daily basis.
There are three primary tenets to The Mustang Way: Pride, Responsibility, Character. When we are making all of our decisions based on these three key principles, we are closer to meeting our aspiration of collective excellence and personal responsibility. I'd like to share the rest of these principles with you now. You can find them inside your pamphlet.
WE ARE FOCUSED ON EXCELLENCE
WE EMBRACE ONE ANOTHER
WE ARE ONE COMMUNITY
WE ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY
WE LEAD BY EXAMPLE
That is The Mustang Way.
My hope for this campus is that we can take The Mustang Way on as an entire community, breaking divisions between students, staff, faculty, and the broader community. I truly believe that these are principles that we have always been practicing, and this standard exists to identify and define our aspirations.
I now ask that you, as faculty and staff, use The Mustang Way as a tool to challenge us, to motivate us, and to remind us of the excellence that we, as the Mustang Family, are capable of.
Before I leave, I would like to go back to my earlier statements. All of the students thank you for the small things as well as the big things that you have done and will continue to do for us this year. Thank you.
San Luis Obispo, California 93407