Luther Interim President Tiede to give "State of the College" address

Luther College Interim President Dr. David Tiede is facing a deadline.  He will give a "State of the College" speech on Thursday, August 29th.  The trouble is, he only started his job on July 1st—and he's been out of town some of that time as well.

But Tiede says he's not worried.  The State of the College speech will give him extra incentive to do what he planned to do anyway when he arrived on campus—"to try to be ears," as he puts it.

Tiede told decorahnews.com he sees the role of Interim President as having two major functions.  The first is to make sure that Luther College continues to do the work that it has been doing while Rick Torgerson was President.  He's optimistic that this task can be accomplished because, as he puts it, "The trains run on time at Luther College."

It is the second task of an Interim President that Dr. Tiede will spend more time on—fostering strategic leadership at the college so the school is prepared to welcome its 10th president when that appointment is made.

Tiede says Luther College, like all of higher education, faces challenges ahead.  The spiraling costs of a college education have many students and parents concerned.  At the same time, digitization is causing sweeping changes in higher education.  Those two forces have combined to force colleges and universities to spend more time on making sure their students are learning what they should be learning.  No longer is a college or university judged on the number of books in its library or the number of professors with PhDs, but on the quality of its graduating seniors.

So Tiede is excited about the upcoming school year— even if he hasn't written his speech yet. "This year is too important to waste," he says, adding, "Let's make something good out of this year."
 
TOMORROW: How Luther College is "grounded in faith."