Blake reiterates UHCL’s unique purpose in State of the University address

October 22nd, 2019

University of Houston-Clear Lake President Ira K. Blake says that in order to keep pace with an ever-changing world, the institution will strive to teach present and future students not only how to self-adapt to change, but how to lead those changes.

“Society needs people who know how to be compassionate and honest,” Dr. Blake told students, faculty, alumni and honored guests at her State of the University address on Tuesday. “Society needs all kinds of skills that are not just cognitive. They’re emotional. They’re affectional. In other words, you can’t run society on data and computers alone.”

The president evoked futurist Alvin Toffler, “who cautioned that in order to keep up, we needed to not focus on what to learn but also to instruct students in ‘how to learn, unlearn and relearn’ as positive change demands it.”

Dr. Blake expressed her vision of the university’s future with a nod to its 45-year past: created at NASA’s request to support the U.S. space program. “UH-Clear Lake opened in 1974 with the purpose of delivering educational opportunities to NASA’s Johnson Space Center administrators, staff, engineers, scientists – and yes, astronauts,” she said.

LINKED TO CHANGES

“That purpose was inextricably linked to the evolving changes taking place in knowledge, skills, and workforce attributes needed to pursue space exploration to advance humanity and to protect the earth,” she added. “Our purpose from the beginning has been to help to discover, to innovate, to provide solutions to present-day problems – as well as to shape decisions about challenges to making our world a better place, and connecting to other worlds.”

Dr. Blake pointed out that the Johnson Space Center and UHCL recently signed a memorandum of understanding reiterating their relationship “to work together on behalf of students, scientists, faculty, our country and a world that will depend on future generations being better prepared to explore, learn from, develop and protect our universe.”

She also stressed the importance of “bi-directionally beneficial partnerships” with city mayors, community college chancellors, ISD superintendents, principals and teachers, chambers of commerce, city and regional economic development corporations, businesses and agency leaders, noting the close relationship the university has with Pearland Mayor Tom Reid and other Pearland leaders because of the creation of UHCL Pearland.

ONGOING COMMITMENT

“UH-Clear Lake’s present-day faculty, staff, students and alumni, grounded in the legacy of our original purpose, have an ongoing commitment to determining what it means to prepare students for a world that is rapidly changing … a world – no, a universe – with emerging new understandings, shifting roles and relationships, and evolving career opportunities – all amidst never-ending new discoveries and new inventions,” she said.

She highlighted the university’s jump in the U.S. News & World Report’s recently announced 2020 rankings where the university tied at number 43, jumping 20 places in the rankings since 2018. She also noted UHCL’s record enrollment in fall 2018 and again in fall 2019, and included an invitation to prospective students: “If you have the desire for meaningful opportunities on a diverse, inclusive campus, in order to learn to make better decisions, to solve problems more effectively, to become more competent, caring and confident in your future roles in the world, our faculty and staff say, ‘Access Granted.’”

Among alumni and community dignitaries in attendance were UH System Chancellor Renu Khator, UH System Regents Durga Agrawal and John Fields, Texas State Reps. Ed Thompson and Dennis Paul, Mayor Reid, and Jared Bargas, who attended in behalf of U.S. Rep. Randy Weber.

View a video of the president’s address at www.uhcl.edu/president/presidential-communications/state-of-the-university-2019-20.

UHCL president investiture formalizes her appointment

November 1st, 2018

University of Houston System Chancellor Renu Khator presents the presidential medallion to University of Houston-Clear Lake President Ira K. Blake during the university’s investiture ceremony – an event that marks the official moment when the torch is symbolically passed to a new leader. UH-Clear Lake faculty, staff and students joined other UH System administrators, regents and city leaders on stage. The medallion was worn by UH-Clear Lake’s first chancellor, Alfred R. Neumann, 44 years ago.

University of Houston-Clear Lake President Ira K. Blake celebrated her formal investiture Sept. 20 as the university’s fifth president. As the first woman and African-American president at the university, she said she is living proof of the American Dream.

“I am the daughter of cotton sharecroppers with elementary school educations, who believed that, despite their own lived hardships, this nation could provide opportunity for better outcomes for their children,” she told students, faculty, staff, UH System regents and other honored guests – including her mother and eponym, Ira Kincade.

She said her parents valued “the promise of education, and encouraged all of us children to go as far as our potential and interests would take us – believing simply that education is the key to a better future.”

For the trust and encouragement from all those who invested in her, she is impelled to do the same for others, she said. She shared advice she often heard from her late husband, Vaughn Richard Downey Blake, Sr., “who reminded me that I had a responsibility to help change the lives of regular, everyday people in order to make the world a better place for everyone. In essence, I also had a responsibility – to – the American Dream.”

A university investiture traditionally takes place within the first year of a new president’s appointment. It formally marks the transference of authority and symbols of the office to the new president.  The investiture capped a week of UHCL events surrounding the ceremony. The cities of Houston and Pearland declared Sept. 20 “Ira K. Blake Day,” commemorated in mayoral proclamations. U.S. Rep. Pete Olson and State Reps. Greg Bonnen and Dennis Paul sent their congratulatory greetings. Olson’s greeting included a congressional resolution. Kemah Mayor Carl Joiner was among the guests.

Pearland Mayor Tom Reid spoke in behalf of invited government representatives, and cited his city’s partnership with the university in opening UHCL Pearland Campus and its past president. But, as Reid said referencing President Blake after the past president’s retirement, “we were so, so fortunate to gain a rock star. She is something very special.”

“I knew she would fly high and fast as your new president,” said Bloomsburg University President Emeritus David L. Soltz. “She has studied and learned so much about the university and community, and the many challenges and opportunities that face UH-Clear Lake and all of public higher education.”

UH System Chancellor Renu Khator congratulated President Blake on the accomplishments of her first year, “made possible because of her leadership, but most definitely because of your support. Yours. Yes. Faculty, students, staff, alumni and community partners. It takes a village.”

New UHCL president meets the community

October 30th, 2017

New UH-Clear Lake President Dr. Ira Blake, third from left, stops to thank the hosts for the community reception honoring her at Lakewood Yacht Club. They are, from left, League City Chamber President Steve Paterson, Clear Lake Chamber President Cindy Harreld DeWease and Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership President Bob Mitchell.

University of Houston-Clear Lake President Ira K. Blake was the guest of honor during a special gathering for the new president hosted by the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, the Clear Lake Area Chamber and the League City Regional Chamber Oct. 11 at Lakewood Yacht Club in Seabrook. Dr. Blake joined the university in August as its fifth president.

Speaking to the crowd, she thanked the organizations for “acknowledging the importance of education to the region and what they provide to UHCL’s competitive, competent graduates.”

Faces in the crowd at the reception for the new UHCL president  included, from left, Vectrus Business Development Director Beth Fischer, MEI Technologies CEO David Cazes and Leidos Vice President Rich Jackson.

 

UHCL deans – Dr. Rick Short of the College of Humanities, left, and Dr. Mark Stermis of the College of Education.

Bay Area Houston Magazine