UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
BUS 693
Professional Practicum & Graduate Seminar
Reflection on UD Mission
& Goals
Prepared for
Professor Peter Hsu &
Vice President Dr. John Spraggins
By
UDMBA HK–B
Peter Cheng Chung Man (Student ID#
48754)
Date: 14th June, 2005
Summary of Goal V
One of the UD Goals: “the
University of Dubuque can be a community concerned with ethical stewardship of
God’s human and natural resources.”
But understand this, that in the last days there will come
times of stress. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money,
proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3
inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, 4
treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than
lovers of God, 5 holding the form of religion but denying the power
of it.
2 Timothy 3.1-5
Summary
At the dawn of the 21st century, human
civilization now stands on the brink of its own self-destruction and probable
extinction. Our planet is at an unparalleled stage in its 4 billion-year
history signalling an impression of our “last days”. Global human population
has accelerated to 6 billion, the more of us, the more we are destructing the
environment. It has also impacted on the quality of life of millions, due
to poverty, malnutrition and overcrowding. Without dramatic changes,
people will die including our children and the quality of life of those
remaining with be drastically diminish.
Personal Reflection
Given all the problems we humans are
facing, any respectable University
should acknowledge these crisis, serve our planet earth and educate our
future political as well as business leaders. Therefore University of Dubuque
has engaged a mission which addresses the concern of ethical stewardship of
God’s human and natural resources. Until now, with very rare exceptions, humans
have lived our lives in a limited state, in partial awareness, functioning
largely automatically. If we as humans are to be educated to be fully
conscious and use our consciousness, we cannot help but become more active
participants in the continuing unfolding of the universe, instead of a
restraining force that engages in the destruction of our planet and which
frequently acts to negate the essential life force present in every one of us.
A key to conscious evolution is that we
must think more globally. This means that we think beyond our own
perspective and our own interests, to see the big picture, and to see the whole
picture. In fact, we have no choice but to continue to evolve and, in
doing so, to overcome the problems that limited human thinking has
created. Though thinking more widely and more deeply seems to be
challenging, even demanding, it opens us up to experiencing the incredible
richness and diversity of life.
In addition to population numbers,
technological changes have potential effects not previously seen on Earth.
There have always been conflicts between human beings, but with nuclear,
chemical and biological weapons increasingly likely to be in the hands of
fanatics and zealots, the likelihood of widespread killing is greater than ever
before.
Critique
Some will argue that there are risks in
human beings seeking to influence our destiny and that of our planet, therefore
engaging such mission and goal are inappropriate. However, the risks of doing
nothing are enormous, far outweighing the fears of such people. In fact,
because of unprecedented human population levels, and because humans have
changed and damaged our planet, it is up to us to find ways to address these
challenges. A long term way is to by means of education, and our university has
the rights as well as obligations to educate us, which in turn, we will educate
our future generations.
So Why change? Why should we apply these
so called “goals” to restrict ourselves? It is because we humans are just a
very intelligent and creative beings but yet under estimated how much our gifts
are already and will affect our world. Without more educations or guild-lines,
our world will defiantly come to at end. You shouldn't necessarily expect to
agree with everything expressed here, but I hope the ideas and issues presented
will encourage you to think for yourself in relations to the rest of the
world. Inspiring self awareness in turn influence other people which
hopefully can create a better world for every one of us to live in.