Own the Podium Needed in Higher Ed

Being Canadian has been fun over the past couple of weeks as Vancouver hosted the world for the 2010 Winter Olympics. A popular topic of discussion was the Own the Podium program set up to help our athletes compete. Many people have interpreted "Own the Podium" to mean Canada had to finish with the most medals. Ken Read, former Olympian and one of the original Crazy Canucks, expanded on the real intent of the program in this Globe & Mail opinion piece.

Read explains that "from the get-go, it was clearly stated that [the Own the Podium Program] was a stretch goal – an ambitious target intended to galvanize our nation, inspire our athletes, focus our funding and build a foundation of partnership."

He goes on to say "Own The Podium is and must be the rallying point. It gives us the sense of mission, direction, pride, focus, energy, passion and determination to be the best we can be. It has worked brilliantly, building an attitude, a belief that we can compete."

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had an "Own The Podium" program to inspire those of us in higher education.

I believe the opportunity is before us now to have such a program.

Preston Manning, former Reform Party Founder and past leader of the Official Opposition in Ottawa, points out the importance of innovation in an opinion piece of his own. I'll forgive him for neglecting to highlight the vital role higher education can play in building the skills and knowledge in Canadians that make innovation possible - he is a conservative after all ;-)

Manning correctly points out that innovation is needed in many sectors. He could, and should, have gone farther though. Innovation can be more than a requirement. We have an opportunity to use innovation as a concept, or vision, to rally around.

Imagine a program which inspires our students to acquire knowledge and develop skills that promote innovative approaches. A program that sets ambitious targets which galvanize students, staff and faculty and cause all of us to stretch to new heights. It should be easy now - we just experienced it across Canada.