As a Provost you attend many meetings and many members of the academic community come to you to express a concern they have or to ask for your help and advice. It is important that you work listening to what is said and pay careful attention to what is being asked of you.  Taking notes is often helpful because it allows you to review the content of the meetings and decide what you need to do.  It also gives you the time to explore options and decide how you want to respond to those who come to you.

Listening is a hard skill to acquire.  Having done a lot of marriage counseling, I can attest to the fact that a major hallmark of a dysfunctional relationship is the failure of one or both parties to listen to each other.  They may talk a great deal, but they rarely listen to what the other person says.  When I thought that couples were not listening to each other, I would stop the conversation and ask the nonspeaking spouse to tell me what her or his spouse just said.  It was amazing how often they had no idea.  They were too busy focusing on what they were about to say and did not listen to what their spouse was saying.  As we go through the world, we hear lots of sounds, music, voices, noises, rumbles, and sounds of familiar objects like a car. etc.  We hear them and process them at some level but really don't listen.  As a Provost ask yourself how many times you have been in meetings with others talking and you really can't remember much of what was said.  You were hearing the voices, but you weren't listening.  Listening requires directed attention and concentration.  When you listen to someone speak, you should be concentrating on what they are saying and working on, not letting any other sounds or thoughts get in the way.  It is easy to get distracted by your thoughts and images and any outside sources in your environment.  Listening is critical for many of the reasons stated above.

Last Saturday, I visited a rural community site where university students and clinical instructors were participating in an educational and veterinary outreach activity.

The scene was encouraging. Students were learning outside the classroom. Clinical instructors were working from a mobile veterinary unit. Animals were being vaccinated and screened. Community members were receiving information and services, and one beneficiary spoke enthusiastically about the care that had been provided.