Looking back seems to be what my mind has been doing in recent days. Now that I am in the transition from vice-chancellor and professor to vice-chancellor emeritus and senior teaching and research fellow I have been looking back with both my academic and professional colleagues almost every time we meet.
That was certainly true this week at this year’s Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) Annual Leadership Summit. I led the team that redesigned the annual CASE meeting a number of years ago to be a “leadership summit” that surveys the big picture issues higher education is facing and their implications for university advancement professionals. Looking back, I had to concede that this year’s team made it much better than I had imagined!
Looking back is a good practice at regular intervals all along our professional journey. Questions such as these can lead to reinventing oneself… a critical long-term survival skill:
What have I done in recent years? What worked? What didn’t? What should I do more of? What should I avoid? How can I build on my inherent talents? Answer these and other questions… and then move on.
A friend of TCU, and a founder of the PBS News Hour, Jim Lehrer, responded to a congratulatory email I sent him upon his recent retirement. Besides saying thanks, he signed off with one word: “Onward.” Many say, Sincerely Yours, Cheers, Best Regards, or simply Best. But I had never seen Onward… and I liked it. This word is strong. It conveys determination. It’s about leaning into the future and pushing ahead through whatever we find.
You will note that the links above have all been rewritten with my eye on the future. On these pages I will continue to explore the impact of new media, the critical need for media literacy, the future of the academy, advancing institutions, and the cross-cultural understanding potential of US public diplomacy and international higher education.
Lessons learned will continue to be my theme, but only as a framework for looking ahead. Reinvention time is over. Now it’s time to say, “Onward!”
Larry D. Lauer 
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