Provost David Buchanan Speaks at 2004 Spring Convocation

SALISBURY, MD---“I take exception to that book that was published a few years ago, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” says Salisbury University Provost David Buchanan. “Everything you need to know you haven’t learned yet.”

Buchanan, who has a vested interest in the learning of each of SU’s 6,800 students, will tell them this and more as featured speaker at the University’s annual Spring Honors Convocation, at 3:30 p.m. Friday, May 7, in Holloway Hall Auditorium. The public is cordially invited.

This colorful ritual features the traditional processional of faculty in full regalia, the pomp and circumstance of the University mace, flag, Alma Mater and University Chorale, and the celebration of student achievement as awards, scholarships and other academic honors are presented. The afternoon concludes with a reception on the Fulton Hall lawn.

Buchanan, who as Provost became the University’s chief academic officer in 2001, will highlight the benefits of academic achievement as a stepping stone to the future, though, as he says, “no one knows exactly what the future is yet.”

During his speech, he compares colleges of 30 years ago to today’s and how higher education may change throughout the next three decades. He also talks about the evolution of ideas over time, using examples from the world of science.

With some 38 years in higher education, Buchanan said the one thing he remembered about his own college professors was that they rewarded students for hard work and achievement by encouraging them to work even harder and achieve even more.

He began his quest to do just that in 1964 as a pre-doctoral fellow in chemistry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. He also served as a visiting scientist at SRI International, an independent, nonprofit institute in Menlo Park, CA, that conducts contract research and development for government agencies, and at the Agricultural and Pedagogical University in Siedlce, Poland. He spent 13 years at Eastern Illinois University then became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at West Chester University.

Throughout his career, Buchanan has viewed changes at colleges and universities including SU. However, one thing has not changed: Higher education’s commitment to the expansion of knowledge and the passing of that tradition on to the next generation of students.