Grand Valley well-positioned to help students, new board chair says

Newly-appointed chair of the Grand Valley Board of Trustees Megan Sall said higher education helps people find themselves and shape the next stages of their lives. She said Grand Valley is well-positioned to help students achieve growth.

Her comments came during a virtual Lunch and Learn with Gleaves Whitney, director of the university’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies.

Sall said education has a direct correlation with career happiness and vocational success.

“College is such a great place because it teaches us things, and it’s also a place we can find ourselves, and find what the next part of life looks like, and where students can consider what they will allow into their range of focus,” Sall said.

She also noted that while Grand Valley has been on a growth upswing for more than a decade, the university is in a good position to settle into its current size and work on fine-tuning programs.

“We have a chance to tighten up around the edges,” she said. “We can really peel things apart and see if we are really well-optimized and generating success.”

Sall said the university’s work to this point has established it as an authoritative community voice, and one that community members want to hear from on critical issues. “I think we should be proud of that,” she said.

In five years, Sall said she is confident the university will still have a beautiful campus, dedicated faculty and successful athletics teams, but said she would like to see the university gain a higher profile on a national stage.

“Nationally we were known for having really great football teams, but I’d also like them to know us for other things, for our health programs, our engineering programs. I want the world world to know how great Grand Valley is because of the people and opportunities here,” Sall said.