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.