View from Spilman

Creating solutions

Whether it’s reading historical accounts or talking with people with lifelong connections to ECU, I’m always amazed at how not only our founders but also subsequent generations of leaders, faculty members and students have come up with creative new ways to expand opportunities and solve problems.

Those efforts were gaining recognition as early as 1914, when a delegation of educators from China came to East Carolina to learn about Western methods of training teachers.

In the middle of the 20th century, John Sneeden and Edgar Loessein gave our theatre arts department a national reputation. And in the 1970s, Dr. William Laupus led the opening of our four-year medical school that has become a national leader in educating family physicians.

Today, our new Innovation and Early College High School is helping teenagers gain the educational foundation they need to excel in college. Our groundbreaking Rural Prosperity Initiative is combining the resources of the university and private enterprise, such as software giant SAS, to address the chronic issues that hold rural economies back.

In this issue of East, we celebrate ECU’s long tradition of creativity. And while Catherine and I have decided it’s time for us to take the next step in our lives, today is a great time for our students and students-to-be to create brighter futures for themselves at ECU.

Go Pirates!

Cecil P. Staton, D.Phil.
Chancellor Emeritus