Lamar University officially kickstarted the 2024-25 school year with President Jaime Taylor’s Faculty and Saff Convocation address, Aug. 19, in the Neches Arena at the Montane Center.
With LU’s centennial celebration last year, the future has brought excitement and opportunity for the university. With the next 100 years of Lamar underway, President Taylor’s address promised a new chapter with more focus on collaboration and collective achievement.
“If we want to achieve more than just incremental progress, we have to embrace the power of teamwork, not just in theory, but in practice,” he said. “At the end of every term, we conclude the business of educating students by awarding individual grades and individual credentials and individual degrees. So, it's not much of a leap for us to think that what happens in one part of campus doesn't impact another. But the truth is, our successes and failures are all connected. Each of us plays a role in the larger ecosystem of the university and our collective impact is far greater than the sum of our individual levels.”
Teamwork requires people to give up control and to work towards the promise, and to share credit, Taylor said.
“It requires us to be co-creators of something bigger than ourselves,” he said. “Transformational progress rarely happens in a straight line. It happens when we step out, outside our silos, embrace the messiness of collaboration and trust our colleagues — and trust that the process will lead to results far beyond what we can achieve alone.”
The marketing team has been working for the last 10 months on a campaign for LU’s new campaign, called “See For Yourself,” which presents who Lamar is and where it’s headed, Taylor said.
“It's an invitation to experience excellence, opportunity and value that Lamar University offers,” he said. “The focus is on shining light on the incredible things happening here, so the world sees the opportunities we create every day. The campaign is also a call to action. How we show our excellence, cultivate success, foster engagement, and improve our effectiveness isn’t just for the world to see, it’s for each of us to live and demonstrate every day.”
The campaign will launch over the next few weeks.
Faculty and staff were encouraged to look to the future with optimism and determination, Taylor said, stressing the collaborative aspect of the Lamar community.
“At the heart of this collaboration is the belief that everyone's work truly matters,” he said. “The dedication you bring to your roles doesn’t just fulfill responsibilities, it shapes the lives of our students and strengthens our community. Helping others achieve our goals together are key drivers of happiness and fulfillment.”
Taylor said human resources will be launching an internal campaign across campus to recognize and celebrate the hard work happening every day at the university, (putting a) spotlight on the contributions to make the university a better place.
“It's not just a message to the outside world, it's a reflection of the excellence, success, engagement and effectiveness that we live and breathe here every day at our university,” he said. “We have some special ideas for all faculty and staff.
“I spent the last three years getting to know the community, getting to know the state of Texas. And I'm committed now to spending the next three years getting to know everybody on campus and the internal community.”
President Taylor also announced that for the third year in a row, the university will add a 3% merit raise, which drew loud applause from the large audience. The raises have totaled approximately $7.5 million per year in base salary increases.
“These cumulative increases underscore how much we value what you do, and it's important to point out these raises were made possible due to the hard work all you have done to boost enrollment, improve student success and to make our operations more efficient,” Taylor said.