CLOSING REFLECTIONS
Our guiding goal is to gain doctoral status and simultaneously define a new type of research university—a Regional Research University —through a combination of academic excellence and service to the community. This change requires a sustained production of doctoral degrees. In attaining this status, it is not our intention, nor will it be the result, that our commitment to excellence in teaching be diminished. In addition, it is not our intention to change the fundamental systems of our University that drive the values of family, work, faith and community life in the Panhandle. Without these values, West Texas A&MUniversity falls short. The application of these basic values creates our distinctiveness and differentiates WT from the 400 similar universities across the United States. None of this means that we relax in our pursuit of new ideas, thoughtful deliberation regarding the human condition or entrepreneurial aspects of community engagement. The value of economic development combined with the changing nature of a university serves the Texas Panhandle. This adherence to fundamental values and an open-minded, futuristic outlook are mutually supportive—neither can exist without the other. We have worked diligently to define the steps required to make WT a Regionally Responsive Research University.
Values of the Panhandle people are proven durable by resilience in a changing social, environmental and political context. The worth of new ideas and progress can only be measured from a datum that determines what change can contribute to or detract from our value system. Evolvement must be our calling at West Texas A&MUniversity.
The work of WT 125: From the Panhandle to the World , carried out by over 300 people, is about making suggestions
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