Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.
—Jim Collins
To the Hampden-Sydney College Community:
When we hired Dr. Stimpert as president, I gave him a copy of On This Hill, Professor Brinkley’s history of Hampden-Sydney. He, in turn, gave me a monograph by Jim Collins titled Good to Great and the Social Sectors. As some of you may know, Mr. Collins has conducted research over many years to understand why some companies become great and others do not. In that monograph, which applies his findings to the non-profit world, I found the following point compelling:
In building a great institution, there is no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, no miracle moment. Rather, our research showed that it feels like turning a giant, heavy flywheel… You keep pushing, in an intelligent and consistent direction, and the flywheel moves a bit faster… You keep pushing … moving faster with each turn… Then at some point—breakthrough! Each turn builds upon previous work, compounding your investment of effort. The flywheel flies forward with almost unstoppable momentum. This is how you build greatness.
In my prior messages, I have shared with you that we have reaffirmed our mission “to form good men and good citizens” and approved a vision “to offer the finest education and most transformative coming-of-age experience a young man can have.” Our strategy for carrying out this mission and vision is differentiation. So what does the flywheel for such an organization look like? We think it looks something like this:
As you can see, success in one area inevitably pushes success in the others. For me, all of this starts with a distinctive educational program, and Hampden-Sydney’s curriculum is becoming even more so with the launch of Compass, our experiential learning initiative. In this program, students will learn by doing and build knowledge and skills through experience, including internships, study abroad, research, service learning, and hands-on classroom experiences. Our program will be one of the most intensive of its kind in the country, and our students will graduate only if they engage in at least three of these experiences.
Like the Rhetoric Program, which formalized the College’s founding commitment to the “cultivation of the English language,” Compass capitalizes on distinctive Hampden-Sydney qualities—our immersive, engaging learning environment and the strong relationships between our faculty and students—and applies them to an innovative learning approach that will even better prepare students to navigate their futures and compete for top jobs and graduate programs.
Compass, and the notion of learning by doing, will also merge well with the Rhetoric Program’s next chapter, the Center for Rhetoric and Communication, which will open this fall. This facility will greatly enhance our students’ ability to learn the oral, written, and digital components of Rhetoric and to hone their skills in a state-of-the-art, collaborative communication space.
In addition, learning by doing has always been a tenet of our science programs. We have finished our plans for a new and innovative science facility and are focusing on getting that project underway. This too will be a key asset which will only strengthen our educational program.
None of these initiatives have happened or will happen overnight, and there are no silver bullets in building organizational momentum. However, with consistent and disciplined effort tied to mission, vision, and strategy by all who have an interest in the success of the College, we believe Hampden-Sydney’s best days are ahead of it.
Thank you for your time and for all you do for Hampden-Sydney College.
M. Peebles Harrison '89
Chairman, Board of Trustees