A Bridge To Our Future
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Some said France’s Tarn river valley could never be bridged. Its span was too great, its valley too deep, its winds too strong. Today the Millau Viaduct, the world’s tallest cable-stayed bridge, traverses the ancient valley. Completed in 2004, the viaduct boasts a road deck that soars 890 feet above the river, and a mast taller than the Eiffel Tower. Northeast Ohio also needs to build a bridge, not of concrete and steel, but of innovation and collaboration, that will enable us to cross the chasm of recession and link our prosperous, manufacturing-based past to a new era of economic success. Our metropolitan region, comprised of cities, suburbs and rural areas working in concert, has all the components needed to build this bridge to the future. As the Brookings Institution and the Greater Ohio Policy Center state in their 2009 report, Restoring Prosperity, “Metropolitan regions are the key functional units in the global economy today, and their ability to thrive will depend on their ability to collaborate.” Research universities like The University of Akron will form the towers that securely hold our ambitions high. They are the anchor institutions, whose competitive and comparative advantages are inextricably linked to the vitality and sustainability of the surrounding communities. These universities generate the innovation, develop the human capital, and enhance the quality of life that are the very building blocks of the global knowledge-based economy. Some will claim this bridge to a better future cannot be built, that the task is too great, the recession too deep, the competition too strong. Yet we already have the necessary resources and assets to create an economic marvel. All that we require is the vision and will to succeed. Dr. Luis M. Proenza President The University of Akron The University of Akron is an Equal Education and Employment Institution ©2010 by The University of Akron Creating the New Materials for the New Economy. Succeeding as a Region in the World Economy Redefining our boundaries A Bridge To Our Future
Transcript of A Bridge To Our Future
Some said France’s Tarn river valley could never be bridged. Its span was too great, its valley too deep, its winds too strong.
Today the Millau Viaduct, the world’s tallest cable-stayed bridge, traverses the ancient valley. Completed in 2004, the viaduct boasts a road deck that soars 890 feet above the river, and a mast taller than the Eiffel Tower.
Northeast Ohio also needs to build a bridge, not of concrete and steel, but of innovation and collaboration, that will enable us to cross the chasm of recession and link our prosperous, manufacturing-based past to a new era of economic success.
Our metropolitan region, comprised of cities, suburbs and rural areas working in concert, has all the components needed to build this bridge to the future. As the Brookings Institution and the Greater Ohio Policy Center state in their 2009 report, Restoring Prosperity, “Metropolitan regions are the key functional units in the global economy today, and their ability to thrive will depend on their ability to collaborate.”
Research universities like The University of Akron will form the towers that securely hold our ambitions high. They are the anchor institutions, whose competitive and comparative advantages are inextricably linked to the vitality and sustainability of the surrounding communities.
These universities generate the innovation, develop the human capital, and enhance the quality of life that are the very building blocks of the global knowledge-based economy.
Some will claim this bridge to a better future cannot be built, that the task is too great, the recession too deep, the competition too strong. Yet we already have the necessary resources and assets to create an economic marvel. All that we require is the vision and will to succeed.
Dr. Luis M. ProenzaPresidentThe University of Akron
The University of Akron is an Equal Education and Employment Institution © 2010 by The University of Akron
Creating the New Materials for the New Economy.
Succeeding as a Region in the World Economy
Redefining our boundaries
A Bridge
To Our
Future
