UNF president identifies four pillars of success, discusses plan to grow university at local Rotary Club

Posted

University of North Florida (UNF) President Dr. David M. Szymanski addressed the Rotary Club of Ponte Vedra Beach last week to discuss his four pillars of success and how he plans to build those pillars at the nearby university. 

Speaking to the club at its Oct. 25 meeting at Marsh Landing Country Club, Szymanski identified a sense of community, uniqueness, ambition and perfection as the four qualities that consistently characterize successful people and organizations. Szymanski became the president of UNF in spring 2018.

As for community, Szymanski said successful people and organizations understand the importance of giving back. He noted that this is especially important to today’s younger generations.

“The balance that used to be work and then give me some vacation time is now work and how can I make a difference,” explained Szymanski, who previously served as the dean of the Carl H. Lindner College of Business at the University of Cincinnati, as well as the director of the Center for Retailing Studies and a professor of marketing at Texas A&M University.

Szymanski said UNF will work hard to build bridges in the community, noting that internships will serve a vital role in doing so and asking those at the Rotary meeting to consider UNF students when making such decisions. 

“We want to create these pipelines, but we also want to make sure they’re smarter and better prepared and they have a context for learning that’s different from everyone else in the country,” said Szymanski, who oversees six colleges, over 17,000 students, nearly 600 full-time faculty members and over 1,200 staff members as president.

Szymanski said successful organizations also have a “certain spirit in the room” that sets them apart from others. With the university, he said he’s not interested in other institutions and being like somebody else. Instead, he said he’s determined to make UNF unique, leveraging, for example, the university’s presence in Jacksonville and opportunity to work with businesses in the region that other public universities in the state don’t have access.

In addition, Szymanski addressed the importance of being ambitious. He said UNF will not settle with being the best institution within a 3-mile radius or within the region. The president wants the university, instead, to be the best institution in Florida. 

“We want it to be so good that you want to come here from wherever it is you are in the country,” he said. “We have a responsibility within the community to make Jacksonville a better city. We need your help, but we have that opportunity and we have that commitment.”

Lastly, Szymanski said being successful is ultimately about seeking perfection and being a “10.” He said UNF must strive to achieve that status because everybody has choices in life, and if the university isn’t a 10, prospective students, employers and other partners will choose to go elsewhere. To spread that vision/expectation among the faculty/staff at UNF, Szymanski said it starts with creating the dialogue and then awarding people who are excellent. 

Overall, Szymanski said he is excited to be at UNF.

“UNF is great,” he said. “It has a great foundation. We have phenomenal, phenomenal students … The other part that’s really exciting is that people think positively about the institution in the community…”

“We have great things to build on, but we’re not satisfied,” Szymanski continued. “You get up every morning thinking about how you can be better.”