ITEM: 2 Florida Gulf Coast University Presidential Search Advisory … · 2017. 2. 6. · Approved February 6, 2017 1 1 Florida Gulf Coast University 2 Presidential Search Advisory

ITEM: __2___

Florida Gulf Coast University Presidential Search Advisory Committee

February 6, 2017 SUBJECT: Minutes of November 17 and 18, 2016 Meeting

PROPOSED COMMITTEE ACTION

Approve minutes

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Florida Gulf Coast University Presidential Search Advisory Committee met on November 17 and 18, 2016. Minutes of the meeting were kept as statutorily required and are recommended for approval. Also, provided for information only are unofficial transcripts of the eight candidate interviews with the Committee. The transcripts reflect captioning that was generated for the interviews’ online live streaming by Alternative Communication Services. The transcripts reflect the captioning staff’s understanding of candidate interview remarks, but are not intended as a verbatim or certified record.

Supporting Documentation Included: Minutes of November 17 and 18, 2016 Meeting Prepared by: Transcription Experts, and Tiffany Reynolds, Executive Assistant to the Vice President and Chief of Staff Legal Review: N/A Submitted by: Vice President and Chief of Staff Susan Evans

Approved February 6, 2017

1

Florida Gulf Coast University 1

Presidential Search Advisory Committee 2

Thursday, November 17, 2016 and Friday, November 18, 2016 3

4

Myra Janco Daniels Public Media Center (WGCU) 5


7

Minutes of November 17, 2016 8

9

Members: 10

Present: Trustee Ken Smith – Chair; Trustee Robbie Roepstorff – Vice Chair; Mr. Dick 11

Ackert; Dr. Tim Allen; Mr. David Call; Mr. Harry Casimir; Ms. Nicole Catalfamo; Trustee 12

Thieldens Elneus; Dr. Bob Gregerson; Mr. Lindsay Harrington; Dr. Madelyn Isaacs (left 13

at 11:47 a.m.); Dr. Sharon Isern; Mr. Edward Morton; Ms. Pamela Noland; Mr. Charles 14

Winton. 15

16

Others: 17

Trustees: Chair Dudley Goodlette and Trustee Leo Montgomery. 18

Staff: Vice President and Chief of Staff Susan Evans; Vice President and General 19

Counsel Vee Leonard; Assistant Director of Board Operations Lauren Schuetz; Director 20

of Media Relations Lillian Pagan; Project Manager Danielle O’Brien; Executive Assistant 21

to the Vice President and Chief of Staff Tiffany Reynolds; and Staff Writer Drew 22

Sterwald. 23

Guests: Witt/Kieffer Consultants Ms. Lucy Leske, and Ms. Veena Abraham. 24

25

26

Item 1: Committee Opening Meeting 27

Chair Ken Smith called to order the Presidential Search Advisory Committee meeting at 28

10:14 a.m. Roll call was taken with all members present and thus meeting quorum 29

requirements. 30

31

He welcomed Florida Gulf Coast University Board of Trustees (FGCU BOT) Chair 32

Dudley Goodlette, and acknowledged the newest trustee to the Board, Leo 33

Montgomery, who would be arriving later. He also recognized Ms. Lucy Leske and Ms. 34

Veena Abraham from executive search firm Witt/Kieffer. 35

36

Chair Smith reminded the Committee members of the importance of speaking directly 37

into the microphone and waiting to be recognized before speaking because the 38

candidate interviews were being live streamed. 39

40

Chair Smith asked Vice President and General Counsel Vee Leonard for interview 41

pointers from a legal and human resources perspective. Ms. Leonard stated that the 42

candidates had been provided the interview questions by the executive search firm, and 43

the Committee had the ability to ask follow-up questions dealing with responses the 44

candidates had given, or questions could be asked about information contained in the 45


2

application packets. Ms. Leonard asked that the questions remain job related and not 46

lead to areas of legal concern such as age, ethnicity, or topics of that nature. 47

Chair Smith reminded the Committee members that any notes that were taken and used 48

to inform their decision process must be given to Vice President and Chief of Staff 49

Susan Evans along with all other such materials at the conclusion of the search, in 50

accordance with Florida’s Sunshine Law. 51

52

Chair Smith briefly discussed the two days of interviews. He pointed out the contents of 53

the binder provided for each Committee member, which included the position 54

advertisement, the candidates’ application materials, meeting agenda, information on 55

each candidate's institution with comparable information for Florida Gulf Coast 56

University, and a copy of FGCU Board of Trustees Chair Goodlette’s charge to the 57

Committee. 58

59

Chair Smith explained that as the candidates entered the room, he would greet them, 60

and then they would walk around the table so the candidate could greet each member 61

of the Committee. 62

63

Chair Smith called for a 10-minute temporary recess at 10:20 a.m. in advance of the 64

first candidate’s interview. 65

66

67

Item 2: Candidate Interview: Dr. Daniel Heimmermann 68

Having concluded the temporary recess and reconvened the Presidential Search 69

Advisory Committee meeting, Chair Smith welcomed Dr. Daniel Heimmermann, Provost 70

and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas of the Permian 71

Basin. The interview began at 10:30 a.m. 72

73

Interview transcript for Dr. Daniel Heimmermann is provided after these minutes. 74

75

The interview concluded at 11:47 a.m. 76

77

78

Item 3: Committee Temporary Recess and Lunch 79

Chair Smith called for a temporary recess for lunch at 11:47 a.m. 80

81

82

Item 4: Candidate Interview: Dr. Paul Jarley 83


Advisory Committee meeting, Chair Smith welcomed Dr. Paul Jarley, Dean of the 85

College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida. The interview 86

began at 1:02 p.m. 87

88

Interview transcript for Dr. Paul Jarley is provided after these minutes. 89

90

The interview concluded at 2:15 p.m. 91


3

Item 5: Committee in 15-Minute Temporary Recess between Interviews 92

Chair Smith called for a temporary recess at 2:15 p.m. in advance of the next interview. 93

94

95

Item 6: Candidate Interview: Dr. Ken Harmon 96


Advisory Committee meeting, Chair Smith welcomed Dr. Ken Harmon, Provost and Vice 98

President for Academic Affairs at Kennesaw State University. The interview began at 99

2:33 p.m. 100

101

Interview transcript for Dr. Ken Harmon is provided after these minutes. 102

103


105

106

Item 7: Committee Adjourns for Day 107

Chair Smith reminded the Committee members that they will reconvene at 8 a.m. on 108

November 18, 2016. 109

110

The meeting was adjourned at 3:48 p.m. 111

112

113

114


4


Presidential Search Advisory Committee 116

Friday, November 18, 2016 117

118

Myra Janco Daniels Public Media Center (WGCU) 119


121

Minutes of November 18, 2016 122

123

Members: 124

Present: Trustee Ken Smith – Chair; Trustee Robbie Roepstorff – Vice Chair; Mr. Dick 125

Ackert; Dr. Tim Allen; Mr. David Call; Mr. Harry Casimir; Ms. Nicole Catalfamo; Trustee 126

Thieldens Elneus; Dr. Bob Gregerson; Mr. Lindsay Harrington; Dr. Madelyn Isaacs (via 127

conference call at 6:08 p.m. until 9:34 p.m.); Dr. Sharon Isern; Mr. Edward Morton; Ms. 128

Pamela Noland; Mr. Charles Winton. 129

130

Others: 131

Trustees: Chair Dudley Goodlette and Trustee Leo Montgomery. 132

Staff: Vice President and Chief of Staff Susan Evans; Vice President and General 133

Counsel Vee Leonard (left at 5:46 p.m.); Vice President and General Counsel Lisa 134

Jones (for Ms. Leonard starting at 5:46 p.m.); Assistant Director of Board Operations 135

Lauren Schuetz; Director of Media Relations Lillian Pagan; Project Manager Danielle 136

O’Brien; Executive Assistant to the Vice President and Chief of Staff Tiffany Reynolds; 137

and Staff Writer Drew Sterwald. 138

Guests: Witt/Kieffer Consultants Ms. Lucy Leske, and Ms. Veena Abraham. 139

140

141

Item 1: Committee Opening Meeting 142

Chair Ken Smith called to order the Presidential Search Advisory Committee meeting at 143

8:16 a.m. Roll call was taken with 14 members present, thus meeting quorum 144

requirements. Vice President and Chief of Staff Susan Evans informed the Committee 145

that Dr. Isaacs was travelling but that during the day would be watching all the 146

interviews via live stream and/or recorded interviews posted on the search website. 147

148

Chair Smith informed the Committee that candidate Dr. Roderick McDavis had 149

withdrawn his application this morning as he had accepted another job according to 150

Witt/Kieffer. As such, he will not be interviewed by the Committee. 151

152

Chair Smith reminded the Committee members the importance of speaking directly into 153

the microphone and waiting to be recognized before speaking. 154

155

He asked if there were any questions, and hearing none, said that due to the withdrawal 156

of Dr. Roderick McDavis, there would be an extended recess after the first interview. 157

158


5

Chair Smith explained that the procedure would be the same as was used the prior day: 159

As the candidates entered the room, he would greet them, and then they would walk 160

around the table and greet each Committee member. 161

162

Chair Smith called for a temporary recess at 8:20 a.m. in advance of the first candidate 163

interview. 164

165

166

Item 2: Candidate Interview: Dr. Donna Henry 167


Advisory Committee meeting, Chair Smith welcomed Dr. Donna Henry, Chancellor at 169

University of Virginia’s College at Wise. The interview began at 8:30 a.m. 170

171

Interview transcript for Dr. Donna Henry is provided after these minutes. 172

173

The interview concluded at 9:45 a.m. 174

175

176

Item 3: Committee in Temporary Recess between Interviews 177

Chair Smith called for a temporary recess at 9:46 a.m. until the start of the next 178

interview at 11:30 a.m., with the day’s schedule changed due to the morning withdrawal 179

of Roderick McDavis. 180

181

182

Item 4: Candidate Interview: Dr. Martin Abraham 183


Advisory Committee meeting, Chair Smith welcomed Dr. Martin Abraham, Provost and 185

Vice President for Academic Affairs at Youngstown State University. The interview 186

began at 11:32 a.m. 187

188

Interview transcript for Dr. Martin Abraham is provided after these minutes. 189

190


192

193

Item 5: Committee Temporary Recess and Lunch 194

Chair Smith called for a temporary recess for lunch at 12:46 p.m. 195

196

197

Item 6: Candidate Interview: Dr. Helena Wisniewski 198


Advisory Committee meeting, Chair Smith welcomed Dr. Helena Wisniewski, Vice 200

President for Research and Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate School at the 201

University of Alaska Anchorage. The interview began at 1:34 p.m. 202

203

Interview transcript for Dr. Helena Wisniewski is provided after these minutes. 204


6


206

207


Chair Smith called for a temporary recess at 2:43 p.m. 209

210

211

Item 8: Candidate Interview: Dr. Irma Becerra 212


Advisory Committee meeting, Chair Smith welcomed Dr. Irma Becerra, Provost and 214

Chief Academic Officer at St. Thomas University. The interview began at 3:05 p.m. 215

216

Interview transcript for Dr. Irma Becerra is provided after these minutes. 217

218


220

221



224

225

Item 10: Candidate Interview: Dr. Karen Whitney 226


Advisory Committee meeting, Chair Smith welcomed Dr. Karen Whitney, President of 228

Clarion University. The interview began at 4:33 p.m. 229

230

Interview transcript for Dr. Karen Whitney is provided after these minutes. 231

232


234


236

237

Item 11: Committee Meeting (and working dinner) regarding Advancing 238

Candidates to FGCU Board of Trustees 239

Having concluded the temporary recess, Chair Smith reconvened the Presidential 240

Search Advisory Committee meeting at 6:08 p.m. 241

242

FGCU Board of Trustees (FGCU BOT) Chair Goodlette took a moment to speak to the 243

Committee and thank the members for their service and commitment to the presidential 244

search. 245

246

Chair Smith reported that Dr. Madelyn Isaacs was participating via speakerphone from 247

Europe, and he thanked her for her commitment for watching live and taped candidate 248

interviews during the day while on the road. 249

250


7

Chair Smith said he wanted the Committee members to revisit the charge provided by 251

the FGCU Board of Trustees (FGCU BOT). In reviewing the charge, he affirmed that the 252

Committee had selected the executive search firm and created an excellent position 253

announcement. Chair Smith read aloud the Candidate Evaluation Statement from the 254

charge. He asked the Committee to think about the candidates using the criteria that 255

the FGCU BOT Chair laid out in the charge. He stated that by the end of the evening, a 256

list of a minimum of three unranked, qualified candidates would be presented to the 257

FGCU Board of Trustees for hiring consideration of the next President. 258

259

Chair Smith mentioned some things to remember about the process. He stated the 260

Committee was looking for a minimum of three individuals about whom it felt confident 261

that if any were chosen by the FGCU Board of Trustees, he/she would be acceptable to 262

the Committee members as the next President. He emphasized that the candidates 263

were not being ranked, but rather the Committee is choosing the individuals best suited 264

for the job. He explained if the Committee could not select a minimum of three 265

candidates to advance that he would not think the Committee had failed. He said the 266

only failure would be to send a candidate forward who was not qualified to be FGCU’s 267

next president. 268

269

Chair Smith asked the Committee members to comment on how they felt about the 270

interviews in general as to the strengths and the positives. 271

272

Dr. Allen asked if Dr. Isaacs had been able to view all the interviews and was told that, 273

yes, she had done so. Dr. Allen then stated he felt they had interviewed eight people 274

who were at the top of their game, and he did not feel the Committee had made any 275

mistakes in selecting those individuals. He stated the big question now was which ones 276

would be the best fit, and he said it was more of a question of timing as much as it is 277

about skills and talent because all candidates were skillful and talented. However, Dr. 278

Allen stated he was concerned that there would be no more than two suitable 279

candidates in the pool. 280

281

Mr. Elneus said that as a student representative, he felt there was a great pool of 282

candidates. He stated the important focus for him was to look at how the person 283

selected would adjust to the student body and understand the student culture and the 284

issues of the campus. He said there were three candidates that he felt could excel with 285

the collaboration of students, staff and faculty. 286

287

Dr. Isern stated that in her own opinion and the opinion of some other faculty members 288

she had heard from, there were not three candidates, but rather maybe just one or two. 289

290

Mr. Winton stated there may be two, possibly three, suitable candidates at this time. He 291

said that the candidates needed to be someone who could take mandates from the 292

Florida Board of Governors and the FGCU Board of Trustees, and that translates back 293

to fit. 294

295


8

Mr. Harrington stated the process had been interesting, and he had learned a great deal 296

in the last two days. He felt there was a great pool of candidates, and he saw two to 297

four people he could support. 298

299

Mr. Morton said he believed there were two very good candidates, and he could be 300

open minded about one other. 301

302

Dr. Gregerson stated he was impressed by the diversity of backgrounds. He felt the 303

Committee had done a good job of selecting individuals who represented different sets 304

of experiences and expertise. He said he could support two candidates and maybe a 305

third. 306

307

Ms. Noland stated that she also had two candidates and possibly three that she could 308

support. 309

310

Mr. Casimir stated that he has learned a great deal in the last two days as well, and he 311

could support two, possibly three candidates. 312

313

Ms. Catalfamo stated she also thought the candidates brought different skills to the 314

table, and she, too, could support two, possibly three, candidates to be considered for 315

further discussion. 316

317

Mr. Ackert stated he was looking for fit. He believed there were two serious options and 318

maybe a third one. 319

320

Mr. Call said his thoughts were similar to everyone else’s. He could definitely support 321

one and possibly three more. 322

323

Dr. Isaacs stated she agreed with everyone also. She thought there were three, 324

possibly four. 325

326

Chair Smith suggested a show of hands for those candidates who should not go 327

forward, stating that the three candidates who were not supported could be eliminated. 328

329

Dr. Isern recommended discussing all eight candidates rather than eliminating any with 330

a show of hands. 331

332

Mr. Harrington asked if the Committee members could vote with a ballot so that the new 333

President would not know how each member voted. Chair Smith said that could not be 334

done due to the Sunshine Laws. 335

336

Chair Smith stated that he would like to see the Committee pare down the field to five 337

candidates for discussion. He said he would read the list of interviewed candidates, and 338

the Committee should give indications of non-support. 339

340

341


9

Candidate Indication of Non-Support 342

343

Dr. Daniel Heimmermann 0 344

Dr. Paul Jarley 13 345

Dr. Ken Harmon 2 346

Dr. Donna Henry 9 347

Dr. Martin Abraham 15 348

Dr. Helena Wisniewski 14 349

Dr. Irma Becerra 8 350

Dr. Karen Whitney 5 351

352

Ms. Evans announced that the three candidates who received the most indications of 353

non-support were Dr. Paul Jarley, Dr. Martin Abraham, and Dr. Helena Wisniewski. Ms. 354

Leske said these three candidates were being notified by email right away. 355

356

Chair Smith announced that the remaining candidates for further discussion were Dr. 357

Daniel Heimmermann, Dr. Ken Harmon, Dr. Donna Henry, Dr. Irma Becerra, and Dr. 358

Karen Whitney. He opened up discussion for Dr. Heimmermann. 359

360

Ms. Noland stated Dr. Heimmermann was a good fit, and a very energetic and well-361

spoken individual. She said she noticed the emphasis he placed on first generation 362

students and the carousel that he set up to help get them integrated into the process. 363

364

Mr. Casimir added that Dr. Heimmermann seemed to understand data analytics very 365

well, which is critical for the University. 366

367

Dr. Allen commented he was impressed with Dr. Heimmermann and liked his creativity 368

regarding full-year academic scheduling, and eight-week scheduling to accommodate 369

some of those first generation in college students. He said he really liked the 370

candidate’s thoughts on accommodating students, and that his career was on an 371

upward path. 372

373

Dr. Gregerson stated he thought Dr. Heimmermann presented a strong set of skills and 374

personality traits that would allow him to be an effective externally- and internally-375

focused president. 376

377

Mr. Morton said Dr. Heimmermann was one of the few candidates who actually talked 378

about leveraging the strategic advantages of the community and reaching out to that 379

community through effective communication. He stated Dr. Heimmermann also talked 380

about trust, and programs that lead to jobs, and also that his responses to questions 381

about the four-year graduation rate and excess credit hours were excellent. 382

383

Mr. Harrington said that he agreed with everything that had been said, but he added 384

one impressive statement made by Dr. Heimmermann was the university needed to 385

show that the resources had been used efficiently and effectively in the past in order to 386

convince the next donor that the money was used wisely. 387


10

Mr. Elneus commented that the candidate was focused on community, building trust 388

and connections, and making an impact through partnerships all across the board. 389

390

Chair Smith commented that being a provost was much different from being a president, 391

and since there is no time for on-the-job training, the Committee should consider 392

whether the candidate was currently a president. 393

394

Mr. Call said he was impressed with Dr. Heimmermann, and in the areas where there 395

were challenges at Florida Gulf Coast University, the candidate was pointed as to where 396

the University could go. 397

398

Mr. Winton said he, too, was impressed with Dr. Heimmermann. He stated he had 399

watched Dr. Bradshaw for the last six years and was amazed at the leadership and 400

people skills needed for a president to be successful. He said this candidate had the 401

ability to lead. 402

403

Chair Smith stated he felt some of Dr. Heimmermann’s answers were too global, too 404

safe. He would have liked some more specific answers. 405

406

Mr. Morton compared this process to selecting a football coach. He said many times 407

people on the fast track gave evidence of being able to execute at various levels, and 408

that gave one more confidence that they could execute at the next level. 409

410

Dr. Isaacs said that she essentially agreed with everyone; she liked Dr. Heimmermann 411

very much and thought he was particularly transparent, earnest, and thoughtful. She 412

said she wondered how he would be able to give others the things he was used to doing 413

and see them succeed. She stated he said he would hire a good team, but did not talk 414

about how he would build that team and hold its members accountable. Chair Smith 415

agreed with Dr. Isaacs, and said that was one of the reasons he would like to talk to Dr. 416

Heimmermann again. 417

418

Dr. Isern said that only some of the faculty she sampled supported Dr. Heimmermann. 419

She stated he was slightly vague in his answers as, for example, his response to how 420

he would build a culture of trust was that he would listen. She said that answer spoke of 421

inexperience. She stated he is moving upward, but having the stability to stay at a job 422

longer than two years was important. She also noted that he did not make eye contact 423

when responding to the Committee members’ questions. 424

425

Vice Chair Roepstorff asked Dr. Isern how many faculty members were sampled, and 426

she responded 50. Ms. Roepstorff stated she felt that 50 out of 500 was not 427

representative of the FGCU faculty. 428

429

Dr. Allen and Mr. Morton stated that Dr. Heimmermann had made eye contact with 430

them. 431

432


11

Mr. Harrington stated that Dr. Heimmermann was working from notes and could not 433

make eye contact constantly. 434

435

Chair Smith then opened discussion for Dr. Ken Harmon, who is the provost at 436

Kennesaw State. 437

438

Dr. Allen stated he was a fan of Dr. Harmon because he had high energy, came across 439

as a true leader, and would be accepted quickly as a leader. Dr. Allen said that he liked 440

Dr. Harmon’s background in business and the fact that he was part of a rapidly growing 441

school in Georgia where he had overseen the merger of Kennesaw State with Southern 442

Polytechnic. He said he thought Dr. Harmon was ready for the next step. 443

444

Mr. Ackert agreed with Dr. Allen and said Dr. Harmon would be an excellent fit. 445

446

Mr. Morton said that this candidate “hit on some high notes,” including the value of living 447

on campus, the graduation rate, the value of advising and counseling, the value of 448

coaching, and had mentioned open source textbooks and the cost of textbooks. Mr. 449

Morton said Dr. Harmon had presidential presence. He said Dr. Harmon also had made 450

great eye contact. 451

452

Mr. Elneus stated the candidate did recognize the specifics in terms of areas that the 453

University needed to address to fix the performance metrics. He said Dr. Harmon had a 454

good idea of how to get everyone on the same page to change those key components. 455

456

Dr. Gregerson echoed everything that was said, and added Dr. Harmon was one of the 457

candidates who had given very specific answers and had a commanding presence. 458

459

Dr. Isern stated that some of the faculty sampled liked this candidate. She said she 460

thought he was a strong individual, and very pragmatic, but she did not see an 461

inspirational side that would bring people on board. 462

463

Dr. Isaacs stated she agreed with a great deal of what had been said, and even on live 464

streaming, she had felt his commanding presence. She said many of the things he 465

cited including addressing student retention, completion and success were things that 466

already were being done at FGCU, and she felt he had not mentioned anything new. 467

She questioned his experience in staffing and holding others accountable. 468

469

Mr. Casimir said he echoed Dr. Isern’s comment regarding Dr. Harmon’s presence, but 470

felt he was more of a COO in the making instead of a CEO. 471

472

Mr. Winton stated he liked Dr. Harmon. He said he wished he had asked him a follow-473

up question about his response to the president when Dr. Harmon was asked to be 474

provost. Mr. Winton recalled that Dr. Harmon had said no, because there were certain 475

things that he liked doing at his current job and so eventually they changed the job 476

description for him to continue doing those things. Mr. Winton stated his experience 477

had been that leaders want to lead, and a real leader, when given the chance, will lead. 478


12

He suggested that the Committee explore that more if Dr. Harmon were to be brought 479

back. 480

481

Chair Smith stated he was a little concerned about the same things Dr. Isaacs had 482

mentioned; many of the ideas Dr. Harmon shared about moving forward, Florida Gulf 483

Coast University already was doing. Chair Smith also said his presence was 484

outstanding and he liked his answers on fundraising. He said he thought Dr. Harmon 485

was inspirational and had great energy. 486

487

Vice Chair Roepstorff said she liked the fact that he was focusing on cyber security. 488

She stated she liked that he said arts was a critical door for a cultural community. She 489

said he believed in taking bold steps, which was a quality they were seeking. She said 490

he had not been in a presidential role, but there was not a great deal of sitting 491

presidents in the pool. She then echoed all the comments on Dr. Harmon, and said he 492

was on an upward trajectory, but she, too, would have liked to have seen more time in 493

the leadership role, but still felt he would be a good fit. 494

495

Chair Smith then moved the discussion to Dr. Donna Henry. 496

497

Dr. Allen stated that he did not know Donna Henry when she was at Florida Gulf Coast 498

University because it was before his time here, and during this search process he had 499

received phone calls from people who did know her, and he had been quite surprised at 500

the dichotomy in the comments. He said it was almost a baggage question. He thought 501

she spoke well and was very level with measured responses. 502

503

Mr. Call stated Dr. Henry was well qualified and had definite leadership qualities. He 504

said she had some great ways to connect to people and was supportive of the metrics. 505

He said he had not known her in the past at FGCU. 506

507

Vice Chair Roepstorff said Dr. Henry should be considered. She said she had received 508

phone calls that were positive from a community perspective, and that Dr. Henry knew 509

the community. Ms. Roepstorff stated that internally she was not sure of the dynamics; 510

however, Dr. Henry would be her third choice. 511

512

Chair Smith stated he did not feel Dr. Henry embraced the metrics. He would like for 513

her to come back and convince him that she understood what they were looking for and 514

how they were going to make a change. He stated the phone calls he had gotten were 515

either strongly liking her or strongly disliking her as a candidate. He stated if they 516

should bring her back, they would need to delve into these issues of metrics 517

performance. He said he felt she did not have energy compared to other candidates. 518

519

Mr. Casimir stated he was a student at Florida Gulf Coast University when Dr. Henry 520

had been there. He said her answer on community engagement was very well spoken, 521

and she had talked about restructuring course work to help students, just as Dr. 522

Heimmermann had, but she did not address the metrics. He said he, too, had received 523


13

phone calls, and they were half in her favor. He also stated leadership could be an 524

issue for someone who previously had been a peer. 525

526

Mr. Morton said Dr. Henry was bemused by the metrics, and the Board of Governors 527

would not be supportive of that attitude. He stated he also got the impression she did 528

not want to be a change agent. 529

530

Dr. Isern stated that most of the sampled faculty response was positive. She said she 531

thought Dr. Henry interviewed well for the most part, and she had the advantage of 532

knowing the University and the communities. She said she was torn because of the 533

totally negative or positive responses she received from people. 534

535

Chair Smith said he thought it was very interesting the opinions that people had of her 536

and that the people who liked her were very passionate about it. 537

538

Mr. Morton stated leadership was not a popularity contest. Chair Smith agreed. 539

540

Mr. Winton asked the individuals on the Committee who had received phone calls about 541

Dr. Henry if they thought the negative individuals would give her a fair chance. 542

543

Chair Smith said for the people who called him, he did not think that would be the case. 544

545

Dr. Isaacs commented she had known Dr. Henry since the University began, and she 546

liked her. She said she thought Dr. Henry was a hard worker and thoughtful. She said 547

she also had gotten phone calls from people who were split, and this concerned her. 548

She stated when you were new, people gave you a grace period; when you came in 549

with known baggage, adjusting became difficult. Dr. Isaacs stated if you added that to 550

the limited experience and acceptance of the seriousness of the metrics, she had 551

concerns. 552

553

Dr. Allen stated it was odd to him that there was a concerted lobbying effort on both 554

sides of this and that some people felt strongly enough to put together a phone list and 555

make phone calls. He said that division scared him. 556

557

Chair Smith moved forward with discussion of Dr. Irma Becerra. Chair Smith 558

emphasized that candidates who had not been presidents needed to be looked at 559

carefully. 560

561

Mr. Casimir stated he wished Dr. Becerra had addressed visibility and fundraising in 562

more detail, but overall he thought she was a strong candidate in terms of alignment 563

with the University’s strategy; she understood the metrics process throughout the state; 564

and she seemed like she would embrace metrics. He said she had hit diversity head on 565

and seemed willing to take the course schedule and restructure it in favor of students to 566

meet the goals the FGCU Board of Trustees set for her. 567

568


14

Mr. Morton stated over 60 percent of the Collier County Public School System was 569

Hispanic, and that the percentage in Lee County must be very large. He said he 570

pointed this out because FGCU is a regional university, and the majority of the 571

prospective customers are Hispanic in drawing from the local area. He said Dr. Becerra 572

had mentioned innovation predicated on market based strength, and she was the only 573

candidate who mentioned they needed to measure student satisfaction. He said she 574

discussed self-sustainability and she had a vibrancy and energy that would connect with 575

donors. He said she had the ability to connect and would be a good ambassador for the 576

University. He stated she was a little weak on accountability, but she gave very good 577

answers regarding influence, teamwork, and working with people in a persuasive sense, 578

and that this would equate to leadership. He said her answer regarding working with 579

the legislature was very good. 580

581

Dr. Allen said he was concerned over her readiness. He stated the environments at St. 582

Thomas University and Florida International University were different from Florida Gulf 583

Coast University, and while she seemed excited about her ideas regarding 584

sustainability, he thought they might violate state law. 585

586

Dr. Gregerson said he concurred with both previous speakers. He stated Dr. Becerra 587

had a good working knowledge of the State University System and had a buoyancy and 588

vibrancy that was obvious and would connect well outside the community. 589

590

Dr. Isern stated that a quarter of the sampled faculty liked her. She thought Dr. Becerra 591

had the energy and was the only one who had done research on Florida Gulf Coast 592

University, even though she did not get all the facts straight. She said Dr. Becerra does 593

have the Florida experience, but the institutions Dr. Becerra has worked at may not be 594

similar to FGCU’s direction. She said she was thinking in terms of hiring a president 595

who could lead and influence and somebody who could take FGCU to the next level. 596

Dr. Isern said she was not sure Dr. Becerra was there. 597

598

Dr. Isaacs said of all the candidates she watched via live stream or by tape, Dr. Becerra 599

was the one candidate who actually made her sit up and pay attention. She said Dr. 600

Becerra had energy and enthusiasm and when she told her own story, it resonated with 601

who Florida Gulf Coast University students were and the kinds of things they have to do 602

to succeed. She thought this fact was very important in fundraising and in terms of 603

empathy for students. She stated that Dr. Becerra worked in a large community that 604

was very diverse and had been successful. She stated Dr. Becerra’s readiness was 605

more theoretical than what she heard in Dr. Becerra’s presentation; in other words, 606

there was nothing in her presentation that suggested she was not ready. 607

608

Mr. Casimir stated he liked Dr. Becerra's response when she was asked how she would 609

help raise the graduation rate. He said she mentioned specifically a lesson learned at 610

Virginia Tech and George Mason University. He said that none of the other candidates 611

were specific in their responses to that question. 612

613


15

Chair Smith stated he thought that was a good point, and Dr. Becerra did try to answer 614

that question well. He said that Florida International University’s performance on the 615

performance metrics was not great and was very similar to FGCU’s performance. He 616

said he was still concerned about her readiness, and he was not sure she understood 617

the performance metrics. 618

619

Mr. Ackert said he thought Dr. Becerra would not do well at the FGCU Board of 620

Trustees meetings, and he did not think she was ready. 621

622

Mr. Morton said he thought Dr. Becerra would do very well at the FGCU Board of 623

Trustees meetings as she was very persuasive. 624

625

Vice Chair Roepstorff asked if Dr. Becerra could sell the University’s Work Plan to the 626

Board of Governors. 627

628

Mr. Morton stated that he thought the Board of Governors would be looking at the 629

region, and if she had the support of the FGCU Board of Trustees, she would receive 630

deference. 631

632

Mr. Winton said he agreed with Dr. Isaacs that there was something about Dr. Becerra 633

that made him pay attention. He said he liked her, but he did have reservations. He 634

said he thought she was very bright. 635

636

Mr. Elneus said he thought Dr. Becerra was an outside-the-box thinker and would be a 637

great fit, but he had reservations about her experience. 638

639

Dr. Allen said he was not sure what Dr. Becerra's position had been at Florida 640

International University and maybe that had something to do with her not being familiar 641

with the metrics, as dealing with metrics may have not been part of her job. He also 642

stated her being at a non-state university for the past two years also might explain her 643

lack of familiarity with metrics. 644

645

Chair Smith moved the discussion to Dr. Karen Whitney. 646

647

Chair Smith said she had a great deal of energy and passion for higher education. He 648

said there was no doubt her life’s mission was to better young people. He said his 649

reservation would be her understanding of the performance metrics, but in fairness to 650

her, all the other candidates not from the state of Florida found them hard to 651

understand. He said he did not think she liked the metrics, and she believed there 652

would be an opportunity to work on how they were calculated. He said he was not sure 653

how her high energy level and their Board would work together. 654

655

Dr. Gregerson stated that he did not think anyone else demonstrated a deeper 656

understanding of issues in higher education than she did, and he perceived Dr. Whitney 657

as hyper analytical and hyperkinetic. He thought she had a very analytical mind with an 658

advanced degree in higher education finance, so she clearly thought very deeply about 659


16

issues both financial and otherwise. He said he would wonder about external relations 660

issues. 661

662

Mr. Morton stated that he was really drawn to her and she had tremendous energy and 663

understanding of a university. He thought she was a wonderful advocate for higher 664

education, but the one area she was reluctant to embrace was performance funding. 665

He said even though she understood it very clearly, she maybe didn’t like it. He said 666

she was very presidential. 667

668

Vice Chair Roepstorff stated she saw the energy level as well, and thought Dr. Whitney 669

had the most in-depth knowledge of higher education of all the candidates. She stated 670

she was concerned about Dr. Whitney’s external experience and her dislike of the 671

metrics. 672

673

Chair Smith said he agreed, and there was no room for negotiation on the metrics, so 674

she would have to embrace them. He stated that this was the number one issue for the 675

new president. He stated that he had no doubt she would hold the deans accountable. 676

677

Dr. Isern stated that approximately half of the sampled faculty liked her. She said she 678

would have liked to have seen a slate of candidates of Dr. Whitney’s caliber. She said 679

as far as the faculty perspective, Dr. Whitney was very strong, very knowledgeable, and 680

would be a very good president. 681

682

Mr. Casimir agreed that the energy, the knowledge, and the student body connection all 683

were favorable. He thought she gave a weak answer to questions about shared 684

governance and diversity. He said he liked her and thought she did very well in the 685

interview. 686

687

Ms. Catalfamo agreed with Mr. Casimir, but she actually liked Dr. Whitney’s answer on 688

shared governance because she included students, staff, faculty, the community and 689

alumni. She said she liked that the candidate was very straightforward. 690

691

Mr. Call agreed with Ms. Catalfamo that Dr. Whitney’s answer about shared governance 692

was excellent. He said that according to his industry, she would be called a disruptive 693

candidate, in that she would definitely point and go. He suggested that it would be easy 694

to find out what she had done externally in the past because that is measurable. He 695

said he was impressed that she understood what it would take to be president, and she 696

was clearly the most dynamic candidate. 697

698

Mr. Morton said he would ask the question of whether or not she is qualified to be 699

president of Florida Gulf Coast University. 700

701

Dr. Allen stated that he agreed with Mr. Call that she would point and go, and there 702

would be nothing to stop her without frustrating her. He said if she ran into opposition at 703

any level, it might be a “highway mess.” 704

705


17

Dr. Isaacs said she basically agreed with what had been said with the exception of the 706

metrics. She said she thought Dr. Whitney had the deepest understanding of the 707

metrics in a pragmatic way, and she paraphrased Dr. Whitney’s statement that Florida 708

Gulf Coast University was good at addition but hard at subtraction. She said she didn’t 709

think the candidate wanted to change the way the metrics were calculated, but had a 710

deep understanding of the impact of metrics calculation methods. 711

712

Mr. Elneus said he would feel comfortable moving Dr. Whitney forward. He thought that 713

her disagreement with the metrics would not be a problem because in the future she 714

might be able to give her insight to evolving the metrics. He said she would be a good 715

fit for their campus culture, and be a good leader. 716

717

Dr. Isern said she felt the candidate did understand the metrics, and it was not 718

necessary for her to like them. 719

720

Mr. Call said Dr. Whitney’s comments about intrusive advising, data analytics and 721

coaches had gotten it right. 722

723

Mr. Winton said that the people that they put forward have to be ready to be president, 724

but they only interview them one time, so there will not be a perfect candidate. He said 725

he liked her more than anybody else, and that she would be the change agent the 726

University needed. 727

728

Chair Smith drew the discussion to a close and asked the Committee to say whether 729

they were confident that there were three or more unranked candidates at this point that 730

could be put forward to the FGCU Board of Trustees. 731

732

Mr. Morton stated that the Committee should vote on moving candidates forward to the 733

FGCU Board of Trustees. 734

735

Chair Smith explained that at this time in the meeting there would not be a vote, but 736

rather a showing of expressions of support for the five candidates which would take two-737

thirds or more, 10 or more votes, to be advanced to the Board in keeping with the 738

Committee’s previous approach. 739

740

Chair Smith asked Ms. Evans to call the candidate names and announce the 741

expressions of support. They were: 742

743

Candidate Expressions of Support 744

Daniel Heimmermann 13 745

Ken Harmon 11 746

Donna Henry 0 747

Irma Becerra 9 748

Karen Whitney 9 749

750


18

Chair Smith called for a temporary recess at 7:57 p.m. to discuss with Associate 751

General Counsel Lisa Jones, and Vice President and Chief of Staff Susan Evans the 752

Committee’s options for advancing candidates to the FGCU BOT. 753

754

Chair Smith reconvened the meeting at 8:28 p.m. 755

756

Chair Smith stated that based on the expressions of support, there were two candidates 757

to move forward, and two that were very close. He explained two options the 758

Committee had available: (1) Transmit to the Chair of the FGCU Board of Trustees that 759

there were two candidates and not three, and to get the advice of the Chair; or (2) 760

Transmit to the Chair of the FGCU Board of Trustees that there are two candidates who 761

have met the two-thirds vote to move forward, and two candidates who are very close. 762

He said he would then propose that December 7 and 8 be used for on-campus 763

interviews for the four candidates to observe how they interact with faculty, students, 764

staff, alumni and community. He said after this process the Committee could revisit the 765

four candidates and see if opinions had changed. 766

767

Mr. Morton stated he thought the Committee's choice was to go back and revisit the 768

consensus and, as it was not a formal motion, the Committee could change the 769

consensus to a simple majority, yielding the same four candidates. 770

Chair Smith commented that he was not prepared at this time to advance any more 771

than the two candidates. 772

773

Mr. Morton stated that his solution accomplished the same thing. 774

775

Chair Smith stated that he was not comfortable with forwarding all four candidates to the 776

Board. 777

778

Mr. Morton asked if there would be a second chance to see the candidates on 779

December 7 and 8. Chair Smith said at that time the candidates could be observed 780

through the forums, and then on December 9 the Committee would revisit and once 781

again attempt to get three unranked candidates for advancing to the Board. 782

783

Mr. Morton stated if they did, he would recommend not to have a two-thirds but a 784

majority vote. 785

786

Vice Chair Roepstorff asked when the candidates would be going to the FGCU Board of 787

Trustees. 788

789

Chair Smith said the Committee would have to ask the Chair and the Board to give 790

advice, and the interviews could be scheduled after December 9. He said the Board had 791

a regular meeting scheduled on January 10. 792

793

Dr. Allen stated that he was a little uncomfortable not meeting the charge that the FGCU 794

Board of Trustees gave. He said to extend their selection until January 10 might not be 795

a good decision as advanced candidates might withdraw. 796


19

Chair Smith said he had the same concern. Ms. Leske said she did not think it would be 797

an issue as she was almost certain none of these candidates was in other searches. 798

799

Dr. Allen stated that all these candidates have jobs right now and might be put in an 800

awkward position. 801

802

Chair Smith said he agreed with Dr. Allen, but he was not comfortable with a simple 803

majority vote. He said, however, he would do what the Committee wished. 804

805

Dr. Allen asked if he had spoken with Chair Goodlette, and Chair Smith said he could 806

not because of the Sunshine Laws. 807

808

Mr. Winton asked why the Committee would be reconsidering the two candidates that 809

had been selected to advance to the Board, and essentially throwing away the hard 810

work that had been done. 811

812

Chair Smith said he concurred with that concern but as a compromise he offered an 813

alternative solution. He stated he could also transmit that there were only two 814

candidates even though the charge was three. He said that a Board of Governors 815

regulation states there be more than two qualified applicants advanced to the Board; 816

however, the regulation did state that if there were extenuating circumstances, this rule 817

could be overridden, and he was not sure if the fact that due to two candidates’ last-818

minute withdrawals they had only eight candidates instead of 10 to interview would 819

qualify. 820

821

Mr. Morton asked if a vote could be taken on changing the two-thirds vote to a majority 822

vote. 823

824

Chair Smith said he would acquiesce to the will of the Committee, but was not 825

comfortable with a majority vote, and would express this at the FGCU Board of Trustees 826

meeting. He mentioned that he did not know if it was fair to the two candidates who 827

already had received two-thirds votes. 828

829

Dr. Isern asked if the search would start over if there were not three candidates 830

advanced. Chair Smith said he did not know the answer. 831

832

Dr. Isern asked if any additional candidates had applied since the date for best 833

consideration, and Chair Smith said there was one more applicant. Dr. Isern asked if 834

they could look at this applicant and asked if this candidate had been recruited. 835

836

Ms. Evans said that she did not see another applicant on the website via the Witt/Kieffer 837

link. 838

839

Mr. Harrington asked if the Committee could go back and revisit Dr. Becerra and Dr. 840

Whitney. 841

842


20

Chair Smith stated that the Committee could do as it wished, but he did not know if that 843

was the right thing to do. 844

845

Mr. Call stated that Mr. Morton’s idea of explaining there were four candidates made 846

sense. He said if the four candidates would be brought back for the Committee to 847

interview, then why not bring them all for the FGCU Board of Trustees to interview. 848

849

Vice Chair Roepstorff stated that since their consensus was only an expression of 850

support, just like any election with a tied vote, maybe the two now should be voted on to 851

see if anybody felt stronger about one to move them up to a two-thirds vote. 852

853

Mr. Elneus suggested the Committee vote and see what might happen. 854

855

Dr. Allen stated that the Committee had not taken a vote, and any vote would require a 856

motion and a second. He said he believed the Committee had decided not to vote on a 857

block of candidates, but rather individually. 858

859

Chair Smith confirmed that, but said the record would reflect there were two candidates 860

that were shown expressions of support of moving forward, and the Committee could 861

transmit the whole process. He said he wanted to be clear that when Committee 862

members raised their hands, it was for moving candidates forward, two-thirds or more, 863

as was agreed upon. 864

865

Mr. Winton said he was concerned there were two candidates chosen that would be 866

uninformed due to these issues and the options being considered. He asked if there 867

were any other options that could protect the integrity of what had been done thus far. 868

Chair Smith stated he thought if the voting changed, the two selected candidates would 869

be disenfranchised. 870

871

Mr. Call stated he felt the Committee would be doing that anyway in bringing back all 872

four. 873

874

Chair Smith stated that his pure form tells him the Committee should submit its two 875

candidates and ask the Board what it would like the Committee to do. 876

877

Mr. Morton commented when he voted he thought it was the FGCU Board of Trustees 878

who had imposed the two-thirds level, but he now realized it was a condition that had 879

been imposed by the Committee. 880

881

Mr. Harrington said he thought there was good, sound reasoning for advancing two 882

because now there are eight choices as opposed to 10. He stated as Chair Smith had 883

said before, this is all defensible and the Committee may be in this position because 884

there were not 10 candidates from which to choose. 885

886


21

Dr. Allen said in the interest of offering a suggestion, after each show of support or non-887

support, further discussion took place with another round of voting. He asked if that 888

would be helpful now. 889

890

Mr. Morton said that showing an expression of support and voting are totally different, 891

and it seemed to him that the four candidates should be voted on individually. 892

893

Chair Smith said he was fine with that, but pointed out the Committee had shown an 894

expression of support for advancing candidates with a two-thirds threshold. Mr. Morton 895

said the Committee had not voted on that. Chair Smith said he was open to voting on 896

the two-thirds threshold. 897

898

Mr. Call said he felt that discussing all four candidates now was the same as discussing 899

them later after the forums. Chair Smith, said yes it would be, but with more information. 900

901

Dr. Allen asked if it would be appropriate to inquire of legal counsel if a change in the 902

search schedule would require a vote of the FGCU Board of Trustees. 903

904

Chair Smith said he sensed that the Board would be okay with the change, but it did 905

need to approve the change. 906

907

Dr. Allen stated in having the University’s best interest at heart he felt the Committee 908

owed the Board a decision tonight, and that making a decision was better than waiting 909

until next week. 910

911

Chair Smith reminded the Committee that this was a multi-year decision for the 912

University, and he did not think that a few weeks was unreasonable to ask to get it right. 913

914

Mr. Winton stated that if the charge was to put forward three or more credible 915

candidates and that could not be accomplished, then it could not. He stated if Chair 916

Smith was not comfortable advancing the candidates who did not obtain a two-thirds 917

vote, then he did not think the Committee ought to be comfortable with advancing them. 918

919

Vice Chair Roepstorff said she agreed completely with Mr. Winton. She said that a vote 920

needed to be taken and the results provided to the Board with explanation and inquiry of 921

what the Board would like the Committee to do. 922

923

Mr. Call stated that if only two candidates are put forth, then the FGCU Board of 924

Trustees would ask itself why and what to do next. He said he did not think another 925

vote would yield any different results. 926

927

Chair Smith asked if the Committee would be comfortable suggesting to the Board that 928

it should interview the two candidates, as the Committee considers them high quality 929

individuals, and suspend the rules on three or more. He said the statement could be 930

made that there were extenuating circumstances in that two people dropped out at the 931

last minute. 932


22

Mr. Morton stated he suspected the Board of Governors would want at least three 933

candidates. He explained because he respected the opinion of the Chair, and he 934

thought it was vital that the Chair support the outcome, he would suggest the 935

Committee re-vote on all five candidates to see if there is a two-thirds vote. 936

937

Dr. Allen inquired what legal counsel’s opinion was regarding the search timeline. 938

Associate General Counsel Lisa Jones stated that the timeline was approved by the 939

FGCU Board of Trustees with the understanding that it could change; thus, the Chair 940

could make a change. 941

942

Mr. Morton inquired if there was any legal impediment to a second vote. Ms. Jones said 943

there had not been a vote yet. Mr. Morton asked if there was a legal consequence to 944

voting on all five candidates. Ms. Jones responded no. 945

946

Mr. Morton asked if the Chair would support the vote. Chair Smith said he would allow 947

the vote to take place, but he would not support the two candidates who did not go 948

forward in the first round. He stated that if the Committee selected a third candidate, he 949

would support that person in the final round of voting. 950

951

Mr. Morton suggested moving forward the two candidates who had received a two-952

thirds vote, and ask for the candidates with 9 votes to be brought on campus December 953

7 and 8. Chair Smith stated a commitment had been made to the faculty, students, staff 954

and community that all the candidates would be on campus December 7 and 8. Mr. 955

Morton suggested the finalists could be announced at that time. 956

957

Mr. Harrington suggested that it was time to move ahead and take a vote. 958

959

Dr. Isern said it would be confusing to the students and faculty to bring all the 960

candidates on campus and to know who was being considered. Chair Smith said that 961

he was offering a compromise. 962

963

Vice Chair Roepstorff made a motion that the Committee advance Dr. Daniel 964

Heimmermann and Dr. Ken Harmon to the FGCU Board of Trustees. The motion was 965

seconded by Ms. Noland. 966

967

Chair Smith asked for discussion. 968

969

Mr. Morton asked if the other two candidates would be addressed so that the Board of 970

Governors requirement of three was met. 971

972

Chair Smith stated that discussion could ensue after the vote. 973

974

Mr. Harrington stated the goal of the Board of Governors was not being achieved, and 975

the vote would get sent back. 976

977


23

Chair Smith stated that this was an outcome the Committee discussed. He said the 978

goal was not to deliver candidates that were not viable. 979

980

Mr. Casimir recommended two steps in the process: (1) determining interest on the 981

candidates, and (2) voting individually for each candidate. 982

983

Chair Smith said that two candidates received two-thirds of the expressions of support 984

and the Committee would vote on them. 985

986

Mr. Casimir stated that the two candidates had failed to garner two-thirds of the 987

expressions of support, and it would be unfair to the process to move them forward. 988

989

Mr. Casimir suggested voting on all four and accepting the results. Chair Smith said he 990

was not comfortable with that. 991

992

Mr. Call stated he would like to vote on each of the four candidates individually, and if 993

only two candidates were qualified to move forward, it would mean no one went 994

forward. 995

996

Vice Chair Roepstorff said that in reviewing the Chair’s charge in the binder, she 997

realized she had been improper and withdrew her motion. Ms. Noland withdrew her 998

second. 999

1000

Vice Chair Roepstorff made a motion to submit candidate Dr. Heimmermann to the 1001

FGCU Board of Trustees. 1002

1003

Chair Smith objected because three of the five candidates did not have a two-thirds 1004

expression of support. He stated his concern was the vote on the motion would be by 1005

majority, not two-thirds. 1006

1007

Mr. Call stated the Committee had not reached its goal and the meeting should be 1008

adjourned. 1009

1010

Chair Smith explained that the Committee would ask the FGCU Board of Trustees for 1011

advice. 1012

1013

Dr. Gregerson pointed out that there was a motion on the floor and seconded the 1014

motion. 1015

1016

Chair Smith asked for discussion on the motion to advance candidate Dr. Daniel 1017

Heimmermann. 1018

1019

Dr. Allen stated Chair Smith wanted a unanimous decision to go forward, and he did not 1020

think that would happen. 1021

1022


24

Chair Smith agreed and called for further discussion on the motion. Hearing none, he 1023

asked for public comment. 1024

1025

Ms. Evans reported two speakers requested to speak, but one was not present and the 1026

other had withdrawn his request. 1027

1028

Chair Smith asked for the roll to be called. 1029

1030

Ms. Evans called the roll and the motion to advance Dr. Heimmermann carried 14 in the 1031

affirmative, and one in the negative by Dr. Isern. 1032

1033

Vice Chair Roepstorff made a motion to advance Dr. Ken Harmon for consideration to 1034

the FGCU Board of Trustees. Dr. Gregerson seconded the motion. There was no public 1035

comment. The motion carried with 11 in the affirmative, and four in the negative by Mr. 1036

Call, Mr. Casimir, Ms. Catalfamo, and Dr. Isern. 1037

1038

Chair Smith stated that the two candidates who qualified through expressions of support 1039

have been voted on and would be forwarded to the FGCU Board of Trustees. 1040

1041

Chair Smith said that it was clear that the charge to advance three candidates had not 1042

been achieved. He said he would like to get the advice of the Chair of the FGCU Board 1043

of Trustees. Chair Smith remarked that he did not see this moment as a failure but 1044

rather as a pause to consult with the Chair of the FGCU Board of Trustees. 1045

1046

Discussion ensued regarding when the FGCU Board of Trustees Chair would be 1047

consulted. Decision was made to temporarily recess and contact the Board Chair. 1048

Chair Smith asked Vice President and Chief of Staff Susan Evans, and Associate 1049

General Counsel Lisa Jones to step out and call the Board Chair to discuss the 1050

Committee’s current situation. 1051

1052

Chair Smith called for a temporary recess at 9:28 p.m. Ms. Evans and Ms. Jones left 1053

the meeting room to contact Board Chair Dudley Goodlette. 1054

1055

Chair Smith reconvened the Committee at 10:22 p.m. 1056

1057

Chair Smith asked Ms. Evans to convey to the Committee the response of FGCU Board 1058

of Trustees Chair Goodlette. 1059

1060

Ms. Evans reported she had spoken extensively to Chair Goodlette and during the 1061

conversation he had not asked her to identify any of the candidates under deliberation, 1062

nor had she provided them. She said she summarized where the Committee stood as a 1063

group, and discussed the charge of the FGCU Board of Trustees, and the requirement 1064

of the Board of Governors Regulation, which was to advance to the FGCU Board of 1065

Trustees more than two candidates, other than in exceptional circumstances making 1066

fulfillment of this requirement infeasible. She stated Chair Goodlette had directed her to 1067

share the following: (1) The choice of whether to add the two additional candidates is 1068


25

the prerogative of Committee Chair Smith; and (2) The Committee should transmit to 1069

him for the FGCU Board of Trustees the Committee’s action to advance the two named 1070

candidates who have been selected. She indicated that Chair Goodlette stated the 1071

Committee meeting should be adjourned for the evening, and members stand in waiting 1072

at the call of the Chair if an additional meeting would be needed. She said Chair 1073

Goodlette stated he will contact the Board of Governors to get a determination on 1074

whether the two candidates withdrawing from the search at the last minute qualifies as 1075

exceptional circumstances under the Board of Governors Regulation. She stated Chair 1076

Goodlette said that depending on the outcome from his discussion with the Board of 1077

Governors, he will decide if a special meeting of the FGCU Board of Trustees will be 1078

necessary to go forward. 1079

1080

1081

Item 12: Chair’s Closing Remarks, and Adjourn 1082

Chair Smith stated the Committee will stand in recess, and reconvene if needed at the 1083

call of the Chair. He thanked the Committee and commented that this was not a failure 1084

but a pause, and the failure would have been if a wrong individual was selected as 1085

President. 1086

1087

The meeting was adjourned at 10:27 p.m. 1088

1089

1090

Minutes prepared by Transcription Experts, and reviewed and submitted by Tiffany 1091

Reynolds, Executive Assistant to the Vice President and Chief of Staff. 1092

1093

1094

1095

1096

Agenda Items: 1097

A. http://www.fgcu.edu/presidentialsearch/uploads/meetings/agendas/REVISED%21098

0Schedule%20and%20Agenda%20PSAC%2011.17.16%20and%2011.18.16.pdf 1099

Dr. Daniel Heimmermann

FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY

PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH NOVEMBER 17, 2016

8:00 A.M. ET

CART CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY: ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION SERVICES, LLC

PO BOX 278 LOMBARD, IL 60148

[email protected]

COMMITTEE: Good morning, and welcome back.

One item of business, um, trustee Leo Montgomery

has arrived, and we had acknowledged his existence

before, but this is trustee Montgomery, so I just

want everybody to take an opportunity during the

day to meet our newest trustee. Dr. Heimmermann,

welcome to Florida Gulf Coast University, or FGCU,

as you will hear us refer to it over the next hour.

Committee, I'm pleased to introduce Dr. Daniel

Heimmermann. Dr. Heimmermann is the Provost and VP

for academic affairs at the University of Texas at

Permian Basin. We are pleased to have you spend

some time with us today. Our schedule provides

for 55 minutes of committee questions directed

towards you, then we're going to leave 15 minutes

at the end so you can quiz us, so make good use of

the 15 minutes. Committee members, I will indicate

when we reach the 15-minute mark, so everybody

knows that time's up for questions. So, with that,

I'm going to get us started. Dr. Heimmermann, I

want to know why Florida Gulf Coast University, and

I want to know why at this point in your career.

CANDIDATE: Appreciate that, and again, thank

you so much for the hospitable welcome. It really

is a pleasure to be invited here to Florida Gulf

Coast University. I'm just thrilled about what I

believe is going to be a great experience for me

personally and professionally. Um, well, I was

attracted, and I am attracted to Florida Gulf

Coast's recently articulated strategic plan and

vision. You know, I've had the very good fortune,

really unusual fortune in my career to work at

young universities, UT Brownsville, which was

about 20 years old when I got there, and also, UT

Permian Basin, which is just over 40 years old,

and, um, I found that, um, younger universities

provide a nimbleness and a responsiveness that

really enables positive and impactful change. You

know, at the time I was at Brownsville, we were

really able to accomplish quite a bit, building

synergies with the local community, new and

innovative programs, and I was drawn back to Texas

for a lot of reasons, but, um, but above all, it

was the innovation of UT Permian Basin, which is

located, if you've ever been in west Texas, if you

get into an airplane and go west from Dallas, it

is, the Permian Basin is about 20 percent larger

than Georgia, it has about 400,000 people in it, so

outside of Midland and Odessa. There's not much

out there except for a bunch of oil and gas right

below the surface, of course. So again, for me,

um, being at a young university, an agile

university, really provides opportunities. You

know, in higher education today, universities, it

sounds strange for people like us who support

higher ed and academics, universities today

struggle to remain relevant in today's world --

(Audio breaking up.)

(Speaker fading in and out.)

>> CANDIDATE: As a person who's interested in

the presidency, I want to be at a place that can

really make some long-lasting and impactful changes

to better the community, and of course, to promote

student success --



>> COMMITTEE: In the first few years of your

presidency.

CANDIDATE: I appreciate that question. When

I was Dean at the College of Liberal Arts

Brownsville, we developed a strategic plan, a

collaborative process with the 130 full-time

faculty, and we wrote a vision, which again, was

the project of everyone, so I do have experience

articulating with the community a vision --



SPEAKER: Excellent in online and on-campus

delivery --



CANDIDATE: To really benefit the health of

that part of western Texas. So, I have

considerable experience actually articulating

vision and pursuing vision. As it relates to

Florida Gulf Coast, again, the vision is very

appealing. The first thing --



CANDIDATE: For the articulated vision. I'm

really, like I said, excited about the pillars of

academic excellence that have been articulated, the

pillar of health sciences --



CANDIDATE: To then sort of -- audio breaking

up -- what will be those strategic directions to

accomplish those pillars. For example, in the area

of student success, there's a myriad of things one

can do to improve six-year graduation rates. I

know that I looked at the annual report, I noticed

that the six-year -- audio breaking up -- not

content with that. Ultimately, you have to decide,

you know, what are you going to do. Now, at

Permian Basin, we invest in something called

student success collaborative -- audio breaking

up -- we understand which of our -- audio breaking

up -- could not just be a decision of the Provost

and the president and the dean of student

success -- audio breaking up -- to participate.

Also, in terms of the academic excellence -- audio

breaking up -- economic engine for the region. So,

I think those are some -- audio breaking

up -- progress can be evaluated. Strategic plans

are no good if they're just going to be put on the

shelf and never brought out again, and really,

until recently -- audio breaking up -- really needs

to guide -- audio breaking up --

CANDIDATE: Or say what you want to say, but

by listening, by being transparent and by showing

that -- audio breaking up -- it's because it starts

a mutual respect. Also -- audio breaking

up -- universities can only advance effectively

only if they harness the energy and the talent of

the entire university -- audio breaking up --

COMMITTEE: I let him know who they are. Mr.

Morgan is our representative from our Board of

governors, and Dr. Isern is a faculty member in the

Arts and Sciences College.

COMMITTEE: Good morning. I read your

preamble here, responses, which I found very on

point, very interesting. Could you articulate for

our group here, um, strategic planning, let me read

you the question so that we're consistent in how we

ask the question, but it pertains to strategic

planning, which you address pretty ably in your

material. The next president will join FGCU as it

has finalized a new strategic plan with an

opportunity to shape and operationalize the

approved strategic plan. Can you describe your

experience with either leading a strategic plan,

implementing a plan or using the plan as a

decision-making tool?

CANDIDATE: Sure. Yeah, as I mentioned, um,

when I was Dean of the College of Liberal Arts in

south Texas, we created a strategic plan for the

college, which again, was the product of, um, it

was an entire semester of meetings with faculty to

determine, um, the environment and the directions

that we could realistically go, so we produced

that, and again, we not only, it wasn't just a wish

list of where we wanted to go, but really based on

an accurate assessment of where we could go, given

where we were, given our funding, and given,

frankly, the faculty, the talent that we had at the

time, and again, we established, and this is where

it gets more difficult, the strategic directions,

how we were going to achieve our basic goals and

then determined the metrics that would determine

whether or not we succeeded or not. You know, the

metrics of UT Brownsville at the time, in terms of

scholarly activity, would be different than, say,

Stanford's scholarly metric, but yet we established

metrics so that we could, when we reviewed it

again, we could have an idea of if, in fact, we

were making progress, what was working and what

wasn't working. As I mentioned, at UT Permian

Basin, I got there, and we were in the middle of

our strategic planning, it's a 10-year plan

from 2009 to 19, and by the way, I am very happy to

see that Florida Gulf Coast strategic plan is

a 5-year strategic plan, because that is entirely

much more realistic given the fluidity of the

higher education landscape, well, just the

landscape in general. So, and we've accomplished,

at Permian Basin, pretty much all of our objectives

there. You know, we've established a health

presence in Texas, we established multiple

innovative programs in many different fields,

master's and undergraduate fields as well.

We also are pursuing currently the Texas

Higher Education Coordinating Board strategic plan,

and I mentioned in my letter, um, one of the points

to that, and of course, the coordinating board is

interested, as we all are, but maybe even more

pointedly, in student success, and one of the items

you may recall I mentioned in my letter were the

marketable skills, which, you know, as an old

history professor, I guess I still am, because I do

teach, um, I remember sitting around a table when I

was a professor in Alabama at orientation day, when

nervous parents were with their kids while I had

Saving Private Ryan in the back, trying to get all

these students to sign-up and be history majors,

and nervous parents always asked me, okay, my

daughter wants to be a history major, she doesn't

want to teach, so what can she do? So, that was my

mark to talk about, I didn't call them marketable

skills at the time, but that's, in fact, where I

led the conversation. One of the requirements,

according to the board, is for each program at the

schools in Texas to articulate clearly what are

those transferrable or marketable skills that

students will get from, say, a history major. We

all know what they are, but what we've not done and

what universities have not done well is really be

clear about the real skills, the real values they

offer, because everyone in higher education just

assumes, oh, people know about that, but as we all

know, and Floridians are no exception, we live in a

world of cynicism, sometimes, about higher

education, there are, I don't think, unrealistic

demands imposed on higher ed to be accountable, so

each program then will articulate clearly so

students know, I'm going to learn critical

thinking, I'm going to learn communication skills,

so it'll articulate maybe even on the syllabus, and

so that faculty will engage in conversations with

them, so that a student then will know that they do

have something to bring to the world of business,

if that's, in fact, where they're going to go, and

so that they can, I think I used be the

entrepreneurs of their own success, so they can

market themselves to perspective employers, because

I know all my friends who are history majors, they

got jobs, oftentimes in business, because they did

have those skills. So, um, so, the coordinating

board.

The other thing is the chancellor of the UT

system, Admiral William McCraven, has articulated

quantum leaps for the system, and we are responding

to that, de facto strategic plan, and one of the

quantum leaps, of course, is student success, and

I've said a lot about that, and I probably will say

more perhaps later, is national security, and our

response to that as Permian Basin is cyber

security. So, we are developing, in fact, I just

got the embryo of it, the certificate program in

cyber security, so we are going to broach out into

that, because we have a very strong computer

science master's degree program already, so again,

in response to the strategic plans from our own

plan, from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating

Board, which oversees all of the colleges and

universities in Texas, and, of course, the UT

system and the person of the chancellor, we respond

to these things, but again, it is, we can respond

to them in many different ways, and that's the key.

The key is determining how, which direction,

because academic excellence or national security,

there's a lot of things you can do. So, what you

do is you look at what you can do, what you can do

well, where there is a market for, where there's a

niche for that, and in the case of our cyber

security certificate, this certificate will, of

course, not only is it needed because of the issues

and the recent election is illustrative of some of

the issues or lack of security, but this

certificate is aligned with best practice in

business, so that if somebody graduates or gets

their certificate in this program, they will be

positioned to take the certification in cyber

security that is recognized nationally. So, again,

very much aligned with industry, because again, we

want students to get a job and to be successful,

not just get through our program and walk across

the stage.

COMMITTEE: Thank you.

COMMITTEE: A faculty member in the College of

Business, would you be the next one to ask a

question, please?

COMMITTEE: Certainly. Dan, one of the things

that faces FGCU is how do we better establish our

visibility in the competitive marketplace of higher

education units in the state and nationally and

internationally. So, what experiences, ideas and

skills do you have in establishing university

identity for FGCU?

CANDIDATE: I appreciate that. You know, if I

wasn't a history major, and I've only come to this

realization in the last few years, and if I was

going to be in business, it was going to be

marketing. Maybe it was the, it was going to be

the math obstacle that got in my way, but, um, but

I currently serve, um, on the marketing and

communication committee. In fact, when I get back

tomorrow, we meet at 9:00 o'clock every Friday with

the president in our marketing and communication

specialist, and before that, at UT Brownsville, we

really went through a whole branding process, an

integrative marketing process at Brownsville, and I

remember, it's funny, um, that when I was a dean

there, I kind of was annoyed by that process,

because we had someone coming in, telling us what

our e-mail signature had to look like, and people

really, I mean, even me, I said, come on, that's

odd, but as it was imposed on us for, um, strategic

reasons, I understood, and I learned about the

importance of branding, of having guidelines for

presenting in the best light the university, and

the little thing like the tagline, all of them

being consistent, I mean, that's a big deal given

how many e-mails are sent out from the campus, but

anyway, I have, really, an unnatural, I think,

enthusiasm for marketing at a university. In fact,

I'm the guy who speaks up quite a bit at UT Permian

Basin, and I probably annoy some people, because I

do have a lot of ideas. One of the things we're

doing is we're going to revamp our web page. The

web page must be great. If I was building a

university, I would start with a web page before I

hired a faculty member, because that is the

cheapest way to market the program. It needs to be

student-focused, and, um, the new web page that

we're looking at, the new platform, the great thing

I like about it has to do with recruiting. It's

that each program has a fillable form, when a

student fills in, hey, I'm interested in being a

history major, I'm just going to pick on my own

discipline here, that information immediately gets

entered in the CRM, the customer relations

management system, and then that person becomes

part of the communication flow for recruitment.

You know, currently, our web page, and I'm not

sure what Florida Gulf Coast is, it's pretty

static, if you fill in a form, it probably gets

printed somewhere, and, well, who knows what

happens after that? Um, social media, I am the guy

who, and again, who hired the social media director

and got us into that space. You know, social

media, I don't know what you think of it, but this

is the deal; this is where students are. This is

where students are, this is where faculty, this is

where grandparents are. We need to reach students.

You know, the one thing that is most interesting,

because I'm not a technical guy, was the

development of our fellow connect app, our mobile

application that I conceived, and it is now

licensed and now being developed. It is an

application for the phone, and all it does is it is

an app that directs students to the people in the

offices that make them, that can make them

successful; financial aid office, counseling

office, to the Canvas, we also have Canvas Learning

Management System, but it is an attempt for us to

insinuate ourselves into the social media lives of

our students, by going where they are. It's not

pandering, because again, what we want is them to

use the app, and we have some interesting features

on that app, like, um, like an interactive map, if

they will point at a building, for example, say

they want to know where the Provost office is,

which they do if they have a problem, probably, um,

they would point at my building, and there would be

a little sign, you know, the Provost office is

there. Um, so, this is currently being developed

for our students. A new athletic logo, you know, I

was happy, I was, of course, like everyone,

enthralled with the success of Florida Gulf Coast

in the NCAA, of course, I'm a Wisconsin and

Marquette fan, but I was very happy to see Gulf

Coast in it as well, but we developed a new

athletic logo. We just launched football, which, I

mean, who does that? Texas does it, right? And,

um, and we launched a new football logo for our

team, which I was very much involved in that

process as well.

The other thing that's important, and really,

the most fundamental thing, you know, my job is

academics, I am the chief academic officer, the way

to enhance the identity, the presence of the

university, is to have quality academic programs,

accredited programs, and you tout that. Programs

that lead to jobs, making those connections, that's

what students, that's what parents, that's what

legislators want. Um, one of the things that I've

also been working on, I don't know if you've ever

seen Friday Night Lights, maybe if you did, you get

a sense, I'm not going to say it's true or not, I

don't know, but the point is, you know, there's a

rivalry, it's not as great, I live in Midland, and,

of course, Odessa is where the university is, and

my wife and I, we go back and forth, and, um,

anyway, one of the things that I've been working on

is sort of bringing Midland, which is a city of,

well, about 120,000 folks, you know, there are some

fabulously important people who live in Midland,

the Bushes used to live in Midland as well, but to

better integrate Midland into Odessa, to market

toward for Midland, and even though it's 15-miles

away only, there is somewhat of a rivalry. So, the

current president has done a lot to really

integrate it. In fact, we built a new campus, the

Midland campus, we have a fabulous arts center

there, and we're going to lay groundwork for a new

engineering building there as well, so integrating

Midland is something that we've been doing as well,

but, um, yeah, these are some of the things.

Signage, um, believe it or not, I've had a role in

signage around campus. I know, um, that can always

be improved at universities. I think that the one

thing that Florida Gulf Coast and other

universities need to make sure they do is really

plant your flag. I mean, this is a beautiful

campus, people should know when they're on campus

grounds. I asked the guy who drove me here, I

said, I assumed we were, but, you know, signage is

really important, those little things are really

important, to really plant your flag, whether it's

here or in Naples as well. So, yeah, marketing is

really important, and obviously, the president has

an indispensable role in marketing. Whether it's

fair or not, he or she is the embodiment of the

university, and they are the ones who articulate

the vision publically, they are the one who must

make that vision resonate with the community.

COMMITTEE: Just to follow-up, have you looked

at FGCU's programs to see what you think our

distinctive programs might be that would give us

that higher visibility?

CANDIDATE: I think the environmental programs

you have are an obvious place to go. Given the

location, given everyone's acknowledgment of how,

in this area, the environment and sustainability

are so important. I mean, you know, believe it or

not, um, in west Texas, you know, there's a concern

for the environment as well, even though that's not

what you hear about, but I think the environment,

you have some signature programs, you have some

opportunities with, um, important industries,

again, in the biomedical field, those are the ones

that you can build synergies with industry. Again,

it's been my experience, again, we work, and

unapologetically, we do work with the oil and gas

industry, we provide them with engineers,

geologists, business people, they've been generous

partners with us in that, and, um, so, here,

there's plenty of opportunities to partner with

health, there's logistics areas, of course, parts

and others. So, it's really important to get, as

we've done, endowed professorships from that way,

internships, and above all, jobs for students. So,

I always would look to industry first to make these

end roads, because after all, this is the issue.

It's about getting resources that prior, you know,

oftentimes, states gave more money, and it's a

careful balancing act with tuition. I know

that 75 percent of your students are on financial

aid, so passing the burden to students, I'm not

sure that's the right approach, so partnering with

industry and providing industry with something in

return, that is trained professionals in the

environmental science or in the medical areas, this

is, this will incline them to be a partner.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Dr. Isaacs, who is a

faculty member in health professions, and I'm going

to say it wrong --

SPEAKER: The sheriff counseling.

SPEAKER: Is this a new question?

COMMITTEE: The fundamental responsibility of

today's president is to run a very complex business

and university. You have to manage people and

resources effectively in a very limited environment

while meeting the metrics and goals. Would you

tell us about your experience with or your approach

to building a team and infrastructure that would

enable both you and the university to succeed.

CANDIDATE: One of the first things I learned

when I was a department chair, history department,

it was actually interdisciplinary, was that I don't

know everything. I'm a trained historian, I did

not know too much about public administration, and,

so, I knew early on that complex, even departments,

but especially as you get into a college, like the

College of Liberal Arts at Brownsville, which

ranged from the humanities to forensic

investigation, and of course, now, universities

must rely on the collective wisdom, must harness

the collective wisdom of the faculty and staff.

Yes, I'm a traditionalist, and that is the ideal of

the academy, and that is a good reason to be

collaborative and to allow for that kind of

participation, but frankly, I'm a pragmatist, and

pragmatically, it is the only way that is to run an

effective university, by relying on the collective

experiences and wisdom of the talented people you

hire. So, in terms of managing, what I do is,

first of all, I hire and appoint, and I'm happy to

say I work with highly competent people, and I

provide them with direction based on the vision,

based on the strategic plan that we, as a

community, have articulated and determined this is

where we're going, and then I provide with them

autonomy and support. I set the stage, when I have

meetings, and I have meetings, you know, that's

what we sign-up for as administrators, by having

meetings that have an atmosphere of collegiality,

respect and open communication. I go into

meetings, if I have an idea and I go to the deans

or I go to academic council and I have an idea, I

fully expect, if somebody has a problem with my

idea or if they find a gross error or just a tweak,

that we're going to talk about it, and, so, I

promote collegiality, collegial frank discussion,

because after all, the goal of everyone, and this

is what I make clear, is to pursue the plan. It's

not the president's agenda, it's not the Provost's

agenda, it's the university's agenda.

So, I establish, I like to believe, an

atmosphere in which people can bring their A game

to every meeting, and they can speak freely in a

collegial way, be heard, and their ideas can be

considered. Um, and, you know, one of the things

that we work on at UT Permian Basin, and I may be

asked about data, is, um, to effectively manage a

large institution, we need to know data, not just

the Provost, but we, I push, we push data down to

program coordinators. They've got to know, um,

they've got to understand the trajectory, the

trends in their programs so they can be empowered

to make decisions. So, decisions about adding

faculty, or maybe not adding faculty, can be made

at their level. So, um, collaboration, open

communication and consultation, for me, it's the

collegial way, it is the pragmatic, and it is the

effective way, the only way to harness the

productive energies of people.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Allen, follow-up question?

COMMITTEE: I have a follow-up question. We

were talking about administrative experiences, and

one of the things that caught my eye as a strength

that you bring to this table is, um, your view that

the academic calendar is not necessarily nine

months long, and that it could be a year-round

program, there could be year-round programs, there

could be accelerated eight-week courses and

semesters, mini-mesters, those kinds of things.

Um, that's not the way we've been doing things, and

I'll stop there, but tell us how you've managed to

make that happen at your university.

CANDIDATE: Yeah, I mean, of course, you know,

sometimes, you get in trouble when you ask why

things are the way they are. Well, you know, of

course, the traditional academic calendar, if I can

just invoke history here for a minute, is based on

the old agrarian system in which people had to work

in the summer, and, of course, that is the model I

knew as a student. I never took a course in an

intercession, I never took an accelerated course.

Actually, I did, and I withdrew from it, and I

never took a summer course, but this is the thing;

the composition of the student body has changed.

To the chagrin of legislators and Provosts,

students don't, can't always take 15 hours a

semester in the traditional semester. Life does

not permit them to do that. I did that, I mean, I

didn't have a family when I went to college, I did

not even work, except in the summer, I was very

traditional, but many students are burdened with,

um, a lot of responsibility. I mean, most students

are non-traditional. In fact, someday, we're going

to call traditional students non-traditional. So,

we were able to extend the calendar, I did this in

Mississippi, throughout the summer. At UT Permian

Basin, in the summer, we have multiple start dates.

We start new students every eight weeks. We have a

carousel in which students can get into a program

after eight weeks, get in, get in, get in, get in.

It is a carousel, and because we have sessions that

run eight weeks, accelerated sessions, and, um, you

know, people, how can you do that? Well, summer

courses have always been eight weeks, so we just do

that. So, it is about access.

You know, the one thing that, you know, what

appeals me about Florida Gulf Coast is, again, it's

very similar to the experiences I've had, is that

it does cater to first-generation students, it

caters to a lot of students who, no doubt, work, a

lot of students who, no doubt, have financial

challenges, and as a result, the flexibility of the

schedule gets them through, maybe not as fast as

we'd like, it's quite true, but it certainly allows

them time to remain active. You know, if we would

just have, and this is something to talk about,

just fall and spring, I'm worried about what

happens in the summer, about students not coming

back, especially non-traditional students. So, by

having a carousel, we keep them engaged. They are

on the carousel. It is much more difficult to get

off, because there's something always starting.

So, yeah, I mean, that has really been an important

part of my career at the last few places, and it's

all about access. It is about educating students,

and to the credit of the faculty at the places I've

been, they've responded. Now, at first, yeah,

people went, how can you do it? You know, this is

different. But to the credit of the faculty, they

have responded, and many of the faculty really,

really enjoy the eight-week session, but stretching

the calendar, it's also more economical use of the

resources.

COMMITTEE: I just want to remind everybody,

we're being told, this isn't to you,

Dr. Heimmermann, this is to the committee, if

you're not about to eat the microphone, you are not

close enough for anybody to hear you, so, um, if

you get close enough that you think you're about to

consume it, you're perfect.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: That's the only way I can describe

it. I've made the point, but we're being told they

can't hear us. Is this a new question or a

follow-up? Follow-up by Dr. Allen.

COMMITTEE: My train of thought is broken now.

COMMITTEE: Sorry about that.

COMMITTEE: That's okay. It doesn't take much

to break my train of thought. How important would

creating that carousel mechanism be for you in

terms of the priority of things that you might

think that we need? And I'll say that, um, because

of our economy and our population being very

seasonal, a lot of our working students' best

opportunities to make money are during our tourist

season of January and February, so summertime is

when our students are free, so that's when they

want to take classes, but we're funded on the

nine-month model, that agrarian model. So, with

that in mind, how high is the priority of this for

you?

CANDIDATE: Well, I think it would be a

mistake for me or any incoming person to just

because they've had an experience somewhere else

that worked, that it's going to necessarily work,

um, where it may not. So, you know, the first

thing that would have to be done is to look at it.

Is there a demand? Is there a demand for this kind

of scheduling system? There may not be. There may

not be. The bottom line is are students being

served? It's as simple as that, and again, to the

credit of the faculty I've worked with, they have,

um, well, their summers were intruded upon. You

know, many faculty really enjoy summer off to do

research, to travel with family, and, um, but

because, at least where I'm from and where I've

been, there was a need for it, um, it was done,

but, no, this would certainly have to be something

that would be looked at. Is there a market for

this? Is it necessary? And maybe in some

programs, it is. Maybe in some, it's not. We

don't have eight-week carousels in every program.

Some faculty, frankly, um, they philosophically

have a problem with it, and we don't force that on

them. So, it's not a one size fits all.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Mr. Call, not to put

you on the spot, but, um, Mr. David Call is the

chairman of our foundation at the university, and

I'm hoping that he might ask a question about

foundation type items.

COMMITTEE: I marked it. I kind of figured I

would be asked, as I eat the microphone.


COMMITTEE: We recognize the need to generate

additional resources beyond our current funding

level to support our mission and move to the next

stage in our evolution. What is your experience in

generating external resources and the success

you've had, and specifically, what was your role in

the resource development?

CANDIDATE: First of all, anytime I begin

talking about external resources or I'm trying to

cultivate, um, a donor, I always have to begin by

assuring the potential donor that the university is

doing all it can to conserve resources, that it's

doing all it can to, on its own, generate

resources. So, and that means, you know, making

sure programs are being offered that students want

to take, making sure that we are doing all we can

to, um, increase enrollment and so forth, but, um,

so, I always begin with that, because it is really

important, as you know, I'm sure, sir, that when we

talk about development, it speaks to the

credibility of the institution and the credibility

of the vision, and of course, the president and the

person who is, in fact, asking for a donation. As

far as external resources, I have had really good

success in my career with, um, promoting

grantsmanship, first of all. I think I recorded in

my letter that when I went to the College of

Liberal Arts, they just got $18,000 a year in

external funding, and we bumped that up to

$1.5 million, and it was through the hard work of

the faculty who wrote the grants, but my role in

that was to simply make grant-writing a priority

and follow it up with a system of rewards and to

validate it through, whether it's, um, promotion or

tenure or merit increases, or maybe it was release

from other kinds of duties, so making it important,

and also, connecting it to the vision and the plan

that we articulated while I was there.

Now, in terms of private gifts and corporate

gifts, and in fact, um, that's the thing that I've

been involved in just recently, again, in the

Permian Basin, we are very fortunate to have not

only some fabulously wealthy industries in the

area, in fact, um, just on Tuesday, I was talking

with a gentleman from, you can imagine the kind of

industry that was a $17 billion corporation, trying

to cultivate internships or a relationship, which

is where it starts, a relationship. So, um, we've

had success there. Endowments, professorships, you

know, these are things that we've had much success

in getting for petroleum engineering, endowed

professorships, even, believe it or not, endowed

professorships in the humanities. So, we've had

considerable success getting these funded as well,

and of course, scholarships as well. Now, it is

true that the president, um, of UT Permian Basin,

he, rightly, takes the lead in talking with, you

know, the big name donors. You know, my role is

support role, my role has been to get with academic

people, for example, we had a physician in the area

who we learned was interested in making a

substantial donation, and it enabled us to buy an

electron microscope, which was $225,000, and he

established an endowment in neural biology. So

again, um, my job is a convener of people, with the

president, with academic people, because sometimes,

they're better positioned, in the case of the

physician, he wanted to talk to my dean, who

happens to be a biologist, and they could speak

more about electron microscopes with greater

authority than I could. We also have had great

success in software acquisition beyond money. You

know, software acquisition in particular, not

surprisingly, having to do with well activity, oil

well activity, worth millions of dollars, that our

students use and become proficient, and then,

ultimately, go work for those companies as well.

So, in terms of development, working with the

president, you know, we cultivate these

friendships, and you know, the one thing, the

question that I have, I know Florida Gulf Coast,

and perhaps it's a disadvantage, you have,

you're 20 years old, and you have younger donors,

but those are the people with whom friendships need

to be cultivated, and probably, the difficult thing

for a president coming in, but something that I

recognize, is that the incoming president needs to

engage with those alumni, and it's a no-brainer,

but you may think, well, why wouldn't they be

interested in doing that? Because, probably, that

is going to be a deferred investment, that is going

to be, but you can engage them through

volunteerism, getting them involved, keeping in

touch with them, liking you on Facebook, on your

Facebook page, for example, but that cultivation

needs to happen. Again, this is why we began the

social media, to friends, to get more friends.

This is why, and again, I had a significant

role in developing programs around homecoming. You

know, we had, it was goofy, we didn't have

football, so we developed football and had our

first fall homecoming. That is all about

development, engaging the community, engaging

stakeholders with the university, getting them, um,

more familiar with the mission, and above all, with

the people of the university. You know, the role

of the president is to be that voice of the

university, the one who can articulate vision, the

one who can bring to that vision credibility and

life, and, so, yes, I've had a role, the president

must have a role in development, working with

development professionals in a coordinated way.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Um, is there a

follow-up? Okay, but it needs to be very quick,

like 2 minutes, Dr. Heimmermann, if you don't mind.

Dr. Isern?

COMMITTEE: Could you expand a little bit on

how you would make grant-writing a priority and how

you would incentivize faculty to do so, especially

if they have a full teaching load?

CANDIDATE: Right, and that has been, that's

been an issue every place I've been, and again, I

have been at places that were largely teaching

universities. UT Permian Basin, our teaching load

is, well, it's 12 hours a semester, but we give a

course release if somebody's engaged in research,

which is essentially everyone who's a tenure track

or tenured person. So, yes, that is the thing.

First of all, as it relates to grantsmanship, this

is the key, and this is where discipline and the

vision and the strategic plan come in. You don't

apply for every grant, you apply for grants that

are appropriate to your mission, appropriate to the

synergies and the talents and interests of the

faculty. There are some grants you will not apply

for. I remember, I was at one place, they applied

for a grant that got us ten buses. I mean, we

needed them, I guess, but I remember them sitting

in a garage and getting rusty and having to be

prepared. The point is, so, first of all, the

institution has to make a decision, which direction

it's going. If it's biomedical, and if there is a

grant, an NIH grant that looks really appropriate

for the skills of faculty, in my mind, the dean and

the Provost need to work with the faculty to reduce

the workload so that the person has time to write

the grant, and even if not funded, that's real

work. That's real work the faculty has put in,

because the thing about grant-writing is you

recycle those things, they get better, and

ultimately, hopefully, they hit, but it's very

true, that I know many faculty say why apply for a

grant, my chances, especially for a competitive

one, are very minimal, not as obvious, not as

possible as, say, writing a paper or something like

that. I appreciate that, but we've rewarded

grant-writing for the sake of grant-writing, but it

has to be disciplined.

COMMITTEE: Perfect. I'm going to ask the

last question. We have about 10 minutes left

before we turn it over to Dr. Heimmermann to quiz

us. I have a Ph.D from Texas Tech, I went to West

Texas State University, all places you're familiar

with, obviously, for a variety of reasons, and

those were regional colleges. In fact, I would say

Tech is probably a super regional college in some

capacity, and I think about the job here, and I

think it's one of the, probably one of the premier

jobs for a school that's a regional university in

the country. I say that because we're 20 years

old, as you alluded to a minute ago, and we're on

the cusp of really, what are we going to be and

breaking into that super regional potential. We

have some really developed programs that are right

there, funding, as always, an opportunity, you've

hit that we have a young alumni, but as part of

this, there will have to be transformation, and

from my perspective alone, I'm looking for a

transformational leader who's going to take us to

that next level, so I would like you to tell us,

what do you see as the opportunity, and what is the

transformational items you see that, in your first

two or three years here, that you're going to make

a huge impact and launch this next piece of

history?

CANDIDATE: Well, again, as I said, I think at

the outset, the first thing that must happen with

the president, you know, whoever that person is, is

to establish trusting relationships with the people

in this room, and certainly with the faculty and

with the staff. I think the key to the

transformation of a university in this day and age,

um, and this is why I think it's so appealing to be

considered at a university that is so young and

agile and vibrant as Florida Gulf Coast, is that

the university must make, um, connections with

local industry, as I've said. I mean, I truly

believe that in terms of funding, in terms of

advancing, in terms of impact, local industry, it

must be engaged by the university. So, for

southwest Florida, I mean, it's obvious, there is,

of course, tourism, there's, of course,

construction, which is still important in this

area, and there's emerging IT and biomedical, and

again, so, it's about serving the community and

being able to capture resources from privately held

industry. The state, as you know, is probably not

going to give, percentage-wise, more money. Now,

you have to hit those marks, and strategically,

I've worked in Mississippi, where we've devised

strategies, so we could do the things that the

state asked us to do in the formula, but to make

impactful changes, to build buildings, for example,

you have to align with industry. You know, at

Permian Basin, we had just dramatic success this

past year getting a $52 million tuition revenue

bond to put up our 90,000-square foot engineering

building, which we'll be breaking ground this

spring, all aligned with industry. We got a grant,

the Midland Airport is one of the first recognized

space reports, we began and we got from them a

grant to begin our aerospace engineering program.

Intimately connected with local economy.

We are opening a kinesiology building, and it

is an economic building, but it probably had

something to do with the advent of football as

well, and again, heading back to the Friday Night

Lights, it's a big deal in west Texas. It's very

unusual for a Texas university our size not to have

football, and it was just a great, wonderful year

for the university and for the community. So

again, to make impact, there must be a partnership.

There's a medical community here as well, and given

the population, now you have a lot of younger

people in particular among the Hispanic, the

growing Hispanic population here, which is another

opportunity, I think, for Florida Gulf Coast, I

know you're only maybe 18 percent or so Hispanic, I

think there may be some opportunities there, but,

of course, there's an aging population as well, I

think you do offer some continuing ed, I believe in

Naples maybe, so I think there's some opportunities

with medical care in that arena as well, but that

is the only way that a university like Florida Gulf

Coast is going to make an impact, by partnering

with major industries that can provide the

resources to higher high-quality faculty and to

build the infrastructure that'll take Florida Gulf

Coast to the next level.

COMMITTEE: Any follow-up to that question?

We have a few minutes left. Well, it's come to

that time. We have about, we do actually have

about 15 minutes, 16 minutes left, so I think I'll

turn it over to you, and you can ask us questions

you may have for the committee about anything

that's on your mind. Probably, you should do them

to me, then I'll figure it out.

CANDIDATE: Well, I'm going to start with you,

Dr. Smith, because, of course, I, you know, I

appreciate the Sunshine Law and Florida, and I've

kept up on the search, obviously, because I have an

interest, as you can tell, and I read, I believe,

um, Dr. Smith, you mentioned, and I think this is

true of others, that Florida Gulf Coast is looking

for a different kind of president, a new direction.

Maybe I was wrong, but, um, and I'm wondering, and

if I'm wrong about the new direction, I'm

interested in what direction would you all like to

see and what are the kind of qualities, and

Dr. Smith, you mentioned at least one quality of

the president you'd like to see in the next

president at Florida Gulf Coast.

COMMITTEE: So, I did say that. I want to

clarify, because I find myself doing this quite

frequently, that is not to insinuate that the

current president, he's done a fine job, so I

always start out with that, but you're correct in

what it was. I think that my point goes back to my

last question, is, um, we are 20 years, and we do

need a direction. If you look at our performance

metrics at this point, the big one I think you've

hit, which is graduation rate, um, six, I don't

like a six-year graduation rate, I don't know why

we use that metric, but I hear you guys in the

academic community do. I like four-year graduation

rate, and I think your point about different

students than when we all went to college,

potentially, there are a number of us around the

table, I forget there are much younger people than

myself around the table, but I can remember my

father directly telling me I had four years to get

out or the fund was going to be cut-off, which was

his pocketbook. So, I think that what we're

looking for is, and you've said some things that

are interesting to me, I believe analytics is

something that we need here, to better understand

what our student population looks like and those

kind of things. So, I think that we need somebody

to come in with a different perspective on how

we're going to manage, because, um, Governor Morton

is not going to let us have any more money, and his

peers, I should say not just him, but we've got to

increase our graduation rates, but more

importantly, our cost of degree. The longer you're

here, the more cost to get the degree. We are the

best institution, or one of the top two for our

students getting out and getting good-paying jobs,

and I think we're very proud of that, but we need

to get them out quicker, we need to reduce the debt

that they're taking on, we need to utilize taxpayer

money better, and so those are the things, as we

talk about a new direction for me, and I'll let

others talk, I think we just need a new, a fresh

set of eyes, and it's probably bigger than just the

president, potentially, but we need to look and

say, how are we going to move forward, given our

funding basis changed dramatically, and how are we

going to optimize getting students in here and

getting a majority of them out. Some students,

because of their situation, can't do it, they have

families, whatever that is, they've got to work

full-time, but then how do we make a system here,

as you've said with your carousel, which I thought

was very intriguing, how do we make that work. So,

we're looking for that kind of, a fresh set of eyes

that can say, hey, this graduation rate is not

going to work, and I think the current

administration feels that way, so I don't want to

say they don't, but what are we going to do

different, and I think we just need some new,

different ideas. We need a risk-taker. It'll take

some calculated risks here to move the needle. I

would open it up, does anybody else have additional

comments? Mr. Morton.

COMMITTEE: Again, good morning. My response

will come from a lot of different perspectives.

I'm a graduate of FGCU. She tortured me for

awhile.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: I'm also the past vice chairman of

the board, chairman of the foundation, and I

currently sit on the Board of Governors, and we

have to ratify this decision with the Board of

Trustees. Um, my perspective is this; could you

give us, in response to Dr. Smith and some of the

questions you've heard, the interest that we have,

one of our real interests is how do we improve the

graduation rate, how do we reduce excess credit

hours. Do you have a specific idea or any ideas in

mind that would, that you could enlighten us as

concrete steps, not hypotheticals, that you would

take that would address just those two issues?

Graduation rate, by the way, in four years, not

six, and secondly, how could we better address our

students through reduction of excess credit hours?

CANDIDATE: You know, the elusive question

about, or the answer, rather, the question is easy,

the elusive answer for four-year graduation rates

is why don't students graduate in four years? Why

don't they? Because I don't think we really know.

We have ideas, but, you know, we're not really

sure. As a result, there are, there's this scatter

gun approach to retention. I am an ardent believer

in quality advising. Quality advising, with data

analytics that we are now armed with at UT Permian

Basin, that our advisors, now armed with data, they

know their student aptitudes, they know their

capabilities, they know their test scores, they

know all of the success rates of every course that

UT Permian Basin. They can counsel that student,

hey, you're not good in math? Maybe petroleum

engineering is not your thing, and have tough

discussions with them, and they can base it not on

because they're looking at the person and what they

look like, they can say, look, these are your test

scores, these are your grades, and hey, look at

these grades, people who got C in calculus, none of

them, or 20 percent graduated. Um, those kind of

discussions, because they're tough discussions in

the Permian Basin, when so many kids want to come

and be petroleum engineers, God love them, they

don't have the aptitude for it, it's not going to

happen, or if it does happen, it's going to take 10

years, it's going to put them in debt. So, using

data analytics, rewarding great advising. You

know, at UT Permian Basin, as I mentioned, the

first two years are professional advisors, the last

two are faculty, and some of our faculty do a

fantastic job advising. We haven't done, up till

now, a good job training them in advising, and we

certainly haven't rewarded them, and we haven't

assessed advising. That is changing at Permian

Basin.

We are, um, we are asking them to do more by

providing them with data about student success and

interventions. The fellow connect app that I

developed is all about student success, it's all

about bringing to students in the place they go,

and I go to, and my 10-year-old daughter goes here

as well, whether it's my phone or hers, that's the

nexus, that's the meeting point, to make the

already existing and effective programs we have on

student success more accessible, to meet them where

they are. So, but the elusive question, and the

thing about advising is this, and I'll end with

this, is, the elusive answer is we don't know why

students, why there's attrition. Effective engaged

advisors and mentors, we've got to rely on them to

tell us, we've got to rely on them to ask, hey,

what's going on, and have a list of questions. You

know, we have first-generation students, they may

not know which questions to ask their advisor. We

need intrusive advising, to ask them more than just

about, hey, oh, you need a schedule? I'll release

your hold, and knock yourself out with your

schedule. That goes on. Rather, let's review your

transcripts, let's look at your progress, what else

is going on in your life? How much are you

working? What's your financial aid situation? And

other kind of issues, and then if, in fact, they do

drop out, of course, we do all we can to bring them

in, we find out what the reason is, so that we can

collect that data and really put together then some

interventions to prevent that, but again, the

problem is is we really don't know. It is not just

because students are ill-prepared. I mentioned the

comment of math, it's true, that is a problem for

engineering, but there are many other reasons. Oh,

and by the way, there are some things we can't do

things about. You know, I'm a realist and a

pragmatist, there are some things that intrude on

people's lives, health issues that, unfortunately,

we just can't do anything about, but there's a lot

we probably can, and again, an indebtedness, issues

of students having to pay bills and having to make

those tough decisions, do I go to college or do I

pay for my flat tire, I mean, they have those kinds

of decisions, or do I pay the healthcare bill, but

that's a great question.

COMMITTEE: And I know this is your time to

ask us, but vice chair Roepstorff has something she

would like to ask.

COMMITTEE: First of all, I think I need to

give full disclosure to our legal counsel down

there, I'm an alumni where you were a professor.

Well, after my time, but to answer your question,

it was your question, we have done a lot extremely,

extremely well, but we lose sight of that

sometimes, because funding is different today, but

we have been a very good comprehensive university,

and our output has been very good, being number one

and two and our students getting good-paying jobs,

but we're 20 years old now, and we want to continue

to be a good comprehensive university, because when

you look at our region, there's some diversity

within our job market, and you can't force on to

students today what they should like and what jobs

they should want. They have their wants, and

they'll excel when they do something they're happy

with, but at the same time, being 20 years old, as

Governor Morton, we need our flagship, we need to

find what we do extremely well, so that throughout

the country, when you think of this, you're going

to think of Florida Gulf Coast University. Our

sweet 16 certainly put us on the map, but it was

the front door to all of the awesome, fully

accredited academic programs that we do have here.

So, we want to keep the pressure on the pedal of

being a good comprehensive, but we need to find

that flagship. So, I would like to see your cape

on the table, and that's what I want out of the

next president, is somebody who can keep it going,

but plus bring us to that next level of flagship.

Can you do that?

CANDIDATE: Right. Again, I think with the

community involvement, with the synergies that

exist between the faculty and community, those

things can be, that is the only way, and you're

right, I am a product of comprehensive, my wife at

North Alabama, by the way, who is an alum, and but

there are, you can't be, well, you can be excellent

in everything, but you've got to focus, and that is

the tough thing, and there are opportunities, I'm

not going to say, I'll just say it, okay, the

health field has more money than the history

profession, so as much as I would love to see a

Ph.D program in southern history at Florida Gulf

Coast, that would be great from my point of view,

um, there's probably more opportunity in something

like biomedical. It's just the reality in which we

live in. It's maybe more appropriate, given the

industry that's here. So, yeah, that is the

challenge, to remain an excellent comprehensive,

and then to pursue selectively, selective excellent

programs and establish centers of excellence that

will later engender other centers of excellence.

COMMITTEE: We've got time for you to ask us

one more question, if you have one.

CANDIDATE: Sure. Um, so, let me just ask you

about, um, I think you mentioned this. So, what is

the relationship of, like, what are people, if

you're in Fort Myers, or you're in a local town,

what is the relationship, what do people say about

Florida Gulf Coast? What do people know about it?

I know you talked about the issue of, um, you know,

visibility, and I think that is, you know, the

local university sometimes get maligned, you know,

or they don't know as much about it as you think

they should, so what do people say?

COMMITTEE: So, Dr. Gregerson, who is the dean

of our Arts and Sciences College, could you respond

to that, please?

COMMITTEE: Yeah, and I'm answering it from

the perspective as a relative newcomer. One of the

things that really amazed me, and again, this goes

back to the youth of the institution, you have the

people still here who made this place possible, so

I think there is a resounding pride in this area

for what they built, what they helped enable, so I

find the town gown relationship, if you want to

call it that, to be different than any I've ever

seen, because if you're at a 200-year-old

university, the people who made it possible aren't

around anymore. So, that's one component of it

that I can speak to, is that you continuously run

into people and have conversations with people who

were instrumental in bringing this university here

and continue to be engaged, so I would say, at

least from that perspective, it's an amazing

relationship.

CANDIDATE: Can I ask one more question? I'm

interested in the students, what are the students,

when they think of the president, what are they

looking for?

COMMITTEE: I was going to ask him to ask a

question, but he wouldn't look at me.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: That's an old student trick. It

doesn't work.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: To answer your question, um, the

biggest thing that the students look for is someone

that can take the direction given by the Board of

Governors, the Board of Trustees, and fuse that

with the current student culture and infuse it with

the things that makes FGCU great, so focused on the

diversity, focused on the environmental

sustainability and all those key aspects of our

campus culture that makes us who we are.

CANDIDATE: That's a great answer.


COMMITTEE: You can do one more.

CANDIDATE: Okay. So, um, what, if any,

budget concerns do you have regarding the

legislature? I know you have, and maybe I'll just

open it up a bit, you have a $100 million campaign,

and it seems, $33 million already, right? Did I

read that somewhere?

COMMITTEE: It'll be there by the end of the

year.

CANDIDATE: I read something like that, which

is outstanding, and it's a rather ambitious and

broad sort of campaign. So, financially, what's

the status, maybe in terms of the legislative

outlook and giving?

COMMITTEE: So, I'll answer that, because

we're going to be short on time. I think from a

legislative perspective, um, it's been made clear

to us, and we have embraced this, um, that we will

gain new money by two methods. One will be the

performance-based funding metrics, and the other

will be through, um, philanthropic activities of

the foundation or others. Um, that's not to say

that if we had a one-off type project that we might

not get a special, um, amount of money given to us

to start a new program or something of that nature,

but increases in funding are going to come by

excellence in the performance-based funding, and,

so, I mean, I can't make that clear enough, there

is no pot of gold, it's a statutory requirement now

that we are funded through that mechanism, so, um,

so, it's, and that's why the question about

performance-based funding and graduation rate is so

important and why you continue to hear that, and I

think you recognize the importance of that. The

other thing that I think you may have picked up on

is that the president of the university will be the

face of the university, but also will have a huge,

um, job in raising money through the community

businesses, as you've hit all the things that one

would expect. So, I don't think that there's a

money issue as far as our funding base, but I do

think that the reality is is that if we don't

improve in the performance-based funding, we could

see a loss of funding. So, um, luckily, we have

not been in the bottom three. As a trustee, we

should not ever fall in the bottom three, we have

way too much going for us to allow that to happen,

but that is, that will be the funding. So,

fiscally, we're in a great shape. Mr. Call and

his leadership, I mean, we have a whole group of,

Mr. Winton, Mr. Morton and Mr. Ackert have all

been chairman of the foundation, so these are the

gentlemen that really got us started, and Mr. Call

took over at a time when we started a $100 million

campaign. So, I think we're in great shape, but we

have a lot of work to do. There is untold,

untapped potential in this region for philanthropic

activities, but also, there is a potentially

windfall on the side of performance-based funding.

So, that's the cold, hard reality. It's going to

come from two different pots, and it's going to

take concerted effort, risk-taking to move us

forward.

CANDIDATE: Sounds good, and sounds familiar.

COMMITTEE: Okay, with that, we're good. You

did well on the questions. Um, we have enjoyed

talking with you today, and I want to thank you for

coming all the way from Texas and visiting with us

today, and, um, I think on behalf of the committee,

just thanks a lot for taking the time out to come

visit with us today.

CANDIDATE: And I want to thank you. It's a

wonderful experience and just a tremendous personal

and professional opportunity for me, so again, I

appreciate your interest in my candidacy. Thank

you.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Committee, before we

all get up, we're going to take a temporary recess

for lunch. We will be back here at 1:00 o'clock to

start again, so if we could be back in here about

12:50, that'll be perfect.

(Break Taken.)�

Dr. Paul Jarley



8:00 A.M. ET



[email protected]

COMMITTEE: Welcome back, everybody.

Dr. ley, welcome to Florida Gulf Coast University,

or FGCU, as you will hear us call it today.

Committee, I'm very pleased to introduce Dr. Paul

Jarley. He is at the University of Central

Florida, one of our sister institutions in the

state university system of Florida. Dr. Jarley,

we're pleased to have this opportunity to spend

some time with you. Our schedule provides for 55

minutes of committee questions of you, and we have

saved 15 minutes at the end of the interview for

you to question us or make comments about what we

may have asked you. Um, I will let everybody know

when we get close to the, um, 15-minute mark so

that we can turn it over to Dr. Jarley. Um,

Dr. Jarley, I'm going to ask the first question of

you, and I'd like to know why Florida Gulf Coast

University, and why at this point in your career to

be the president of our great institution.

CANDIDATE: Well, thank you. It's great to be

here with everyone today. So, FGCU is a young

institution, it's going to be about 20 years old,

which is younger than my two daughters are, and,

um, you know, I think, as a young institution, like

UCF, it aspires to kind of blaze its own trail in

higher education. It has the advantage of not

having, maybe, the institutional rigidity of a lot

of other institutions. I find that really

appealing. I think it has a really strong sense of

place. I walked the campus, I spent about an hour.

The point about sustainability rings true on

campus. It's very easy to see, it's very visible,

I understand why it's a really strong part of you.

I like the part about civic engagement as well. I

think that also ties in nicely to place, and like I

said in my letter, you know, all institutions, I

think, over the next 20 to 50 years are going to

struggle with what the unique value proposition is.

No institution, including UCF, can be everything to

everybody, and, so, the most important conversation

to have is what you are and what you are not,

right? And the more definite you can be about

that, the more it helps you focus in on the things

that are actually going to really differentiate

you. Now, um, I've worked at two young

institutions, I celebrated 50 years at both of

them, actually, so I have a sense of what

institutions at that point in their development are

like, and, um, you know, I have a pretty strong set

of convictions about where I think higher education

needs to go and what the changing value proposition

is for higher education, and I think we've done a

lot at UCF to get us down that path, and I'll try

to summarize 350 years in a couple of sentences

here, but, you know, universities, from the middle

ages until very recently, believed that they were

idea-generators and information-disseminators, and

then that thing called the Internet came along,

right? Information is now free. It can't be the

value proposition anymore.

So, the question becomes, well, what is the

value proposition for universities? And I think

it's around four things, really. I think it's

about providing students with perspective. One of

the things I say to students all the time is walk

up to any faculty member you know and ask them one

question; whose student are you? They will have a

really, really specific answer to that question.

Every student should have an answer to that

question. What I mean by that is an individual who

has influenced how they view the world, how they

think about problems, how they approach them, how

they define success, and that comes through

perspective. Secondly, I think it's incredibly

important that students have a set of experiences

that help them develop the kind of mindsets that

are really necessary to succeed today. You know,

um, when UCF was founded in 1963, the largest

private sector in the United States was General

Motors, and my job would have been to get one of my

students into General Motors. They would have

spent their whole career there, they would have

gotten a gold watch, they would have gotten a

pension plan, and they would have gotten health

insurance for life. My students are going to get

none of those things. The average American changes

jobs nine times by age 35. A very different world.

I would submit that everything that made GM

successful has been turned on its head.

So, today, it's about risk-taking and knowing

how to take smart risks. It's about developing

relationships with people who are really different

from yourself, and we can talk about why I think

that's really valuable, and it's about learning how

to make, um, decisions in real time using data,

right? Agility is the key today, mindset is the

key today, entrepreneurial thinking is the key

today, and it's important that students at the

university have the kinds of experiences that shape

those kinds of mindsets for them, because those are

the mindsets that are going to be necessary in

order to succeed in the long-term, and to help them

to develop the relationships and the network that's

going to get them to where they are. The last

thing I believe, no real learning occurs without

people being uncomfortable. We need to get over

that, right? I'm looking for an institution that

will allow me to implement as many of those ideas

as possible, for as many students as possible, and

that's why I'm here today.

COMMITTEE: Outstanding. Any follow-up

questions to that? Dr. Allen.

COMMITTEE: Tell me more about the

uncomfortable idea you just mentioned.

CANDIDATE: So, what I'm talking here is about

is getting outside of your comfort zone, putting

people in new experiences, in situations that are

new, having them test their skills in those new

situations, debriefing with them what they've

learned from that, making them bolder in their next

effort at a new experience, I think is really,

really key. Um, getting good grades is a different

thing than being uncomfortable, and, um, you know,

a lot of times, people don't like to get out of

their comfort zones, you kind of have to help them

get there. It also requires an environment in

which it's okay to fail. So, um, one of the things

in the College of Business we have is we have a

failure competition. I ask every student to write

on a new experience that they've had that they

failed at miserably and what they learned from that

and what they think other people could learn from

that. We post them all online. When we get down

to three semi-finalists, we have them videotape

their story, and then we vote, including the Alumni

Association. So, I think the most votes I've had

in a failure competition is around 3,000. The

winner gets a letter of recommendation from me and

a $500 scholarship, and honestly, this is my war

against helicopter parents, right, who are trying

to engineer all of the risks and uncertainty out of

their student's lives, and I think that's a really

bad idea, because when they try to do that and they

fail the first time, they don't really know how to

recover from that, and we're doing them a big

disservice.

COMMITTEE: And Dr. Allen is a professor in

the College of Business here, I'm sure you

probably, you may know that.

COMMITTEE: And I've failed at many things.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: And next is Mr. Harrington, who

is a former board of trusty member, a former

legislature in the House State of Florida, and he

is one of our committee members. I think you had a

question or a follow-up.

COMMITTEE: Yes. Thank you. Dr. Jarley, you

mentioned risk-taking, doing the smart risks. How

would you discover that smart risk?

CANDIDATE: So, I think that, um, there's a

big difference between, um, acting stupidly and

engaging in smart risks, right? So, one wants to

evaluate what the upside is, the potential

opportunity, right, and then also look at ways that

you can mitigate the downside of whatever it is

that you're about to engage in. So, in

entrepreneurship, right, we talk about exit

strategies for people. Know before you go in what

your exit strategy is going to be. Having done

your homework in terms of research, so that you can

evaluate those risks, I'm not talking about closing

your eyes and jumping off the top of the cliff, but

I do think that, um, that concept is also really

close to the concept of getting people out of their

comfort zones. Those things are very similar to

each other. I think it also requires the

individual to look at themselves and have an

assessment of what their skills and abilities are

and whether they're a good fit for that challenge

or opportunity that comes forward, but like with,

um, all decisions, especially ones that have some

risk associated with it, at the end of the day, you

go with your gut.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: But the less passion you have,

emotion you have with evaluating that option, the

better, quite frankly. So, taking away the fear is

part of it. Does that help?

COMMITTEE: Sure. Thank you.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Follow-up question by

vice chair Roepstorff. A current member of the

Board of Trustees and is just an outstanding person

to have as a vice chair.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Dr. Jarley, those are

the reasons why you're intrigued and why you'd like

to come here. So, coming here as president, how do

you take that down, how will you take that down to

the faculty level who is dealing with the students

every day, who are in the trenches every day with

them. It might be your concept, but how do, how

will you deliver that?

CANDIDATE: Well, it's not my place to dictate

what faculty do in individual classrooms as

president or Provost. I think, um, any vision

starts with a conversation with a large group of

people to explain what that vision is and to get

buy in to it. When I first came to UCF, I spent

the first three months interviewing everybody who

worked for me. That was 225 interviews. They

were 30 minutes long each, and I asked everybody

the same three questions; what do you think of UCF,

what would you do if you were me, and what do you

see as your role here. I did the same thing

with 125 people in the community to get a sense of

what they thought about the institution and where

the College of Business was and where the

opportunities and challenges associated with them

are, and after a lot of listening, that was

followed by a lot of conversation. I think that

you have about 18 months to put your plan in place

and start to get traction. If you haven't done it

within that 18-month period, I don't think your

chances are very, very high, but I think if you

don't take those first three to six months upfront,

to help people understand, to understand the

institution and to help them to understand what it

is that you want to do, it's very difficult to get

that done. Let me give you another example. Right

now, we're going through a strategic planning

process in the college, and I've been involved in a

lot of strategic planning processes that lead to

nice glossy documents that sit on people's shelves,

and nobody pays any attention to, and universities

are really great at this, because they'll wait you

out.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: So, right? You have to come up --

COMMITTEE: It's good that the mic is not

picking up.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: You have to come up with, um, ways

to look for wins that make it real. So, I'll cut

to the chase here. So, I think it's my

responsibility, after listening and talking to a

number of people, to give, um, my colleagues, and

I'm managing partner, not CEO, there's an important

distinction there, to give my colleagues what I

call strategic intuition, and what that means is

when you're faced with choice A or choice B,

strategic intuition will help you determine whether

you should do A or B. So, um, this might sound a

little hokey, but I think it's been very effective;

we strive to be the Tesla of business schools. So,

when you're facing a choice, think about, does this

make us more like Tesla or more like Hyundai or

more like Kia? It has a different engine,

different distribution center. The hope is to put

one of those cars in every garage, not just people

who can pay $100,000 for one, right? And it's

disrupting that market. Now, the next step in our

strategic planning process is we put together a

list of 14 questions, we pulled the faculty, we

took the 8 that they liked the most, we took them

into groups of 5 and said give us your two best

ideas on how to answer these questions, and think

Tesla about how we would go about doing that, and

from that, we will put together our strategic plan

going forward. Then I think it's the job of the

leader, to continue to talk about why it is that

you're doing what you're doing, why that's

important and highlighting examples of people who

are having success doing that, because ultimately,

people want to be on winning teams, and they will

do things that work.

COMMITTEE: One follow-up question for me.

Um, when you think about being uncomfortable and

you think about risk calculation, UCF is one of the

premier schools for performance-based funding

metric performance in the system. Give me an

example of calculated risk and uncomfortableness

that you would implement here given, um, our

metrics and where we're at. I mean, you're kind of

in a unique position versus a lot of people,

because you're understanding this, I'm guessing, as

very near and dear.

CANDIDATE: I can tell you about a couple of

calculated risks that I've taken that I think do

contribute to those overall performance rankings.

So, um, one is I made the decision about a year in

to terminate all of my academic advisors and

replace them with career coaches. Now, in full

disclosure, I am married to a former academic

advisor.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: And it's not that these

individuals weren't good people, trying to do good

work, but leadership is about making sure you're

doing the right things, and we have a very large

student body, most of whom come to us as juniors

through the community college system, who were

told, go to business school, you'll get a job in

that. Well, that's true, in general, they do get a

job in that eventually. Eventually, most people

get jobs, right? But they were not very

sophisticated consumers about the educational

experience they were going to have, nor did they

have much of an understanding about how those

choices would influence their careers and their

lifestyles going forward. So, um, we went out and

we hired people from training and development and

recruiting backgrounds, and, so, the first question

we ask students when they show up in the College of

Business is what do you want to do. That's not a

theoretical question for us. You need to have an

answer to that question by the end of your first

semester and a plan about how it is that you're

going to get there. The first year we put that in

place, we increased the percentage of students who

left us with a full-time job offer in hand by 11

points. Now, that was a really big risk, and

frankly, the rest of campus was very, very nervous

about that, quite honestly. You know, we held surf

last year, I think we'll do a little bit better

this year, but I firmly believe that universities

have to own the post-graduation experience of their

students, and that is not a theoretical

conversation for us. The other one I would mention

really quickly is the integrated business degree.

So, um, again, thinking about place and moving

from conception to kind of local reality, I know

that 50 percent of the students who graduate, I

graduate 2100 students a year from the College of

Business to put this in perspective for you, I know

that 50 percent of them are going to stay in

central Florida, I know that 70 percent of them are

going to stay in the state. If you look at

employment in central Florida and you stack

employers from the company that employs the most,

which is Disney, 72,000 employees, all the way

down, by the time you get to number, um, 100, they

only have 300 employees. More than half of people

who work in central Florida work for what the

government would define as a medium or small

business, and they're not looking for technical

experts, right? They are looking for people who

can go across disciplines. They might be doing

marketing one day and finance the next, with a

little accounting thrown in. And, so, we worked

with the business community to develop a new

integrated business degree to meet that need, and

we project that in three years, 50 percent of the

students in the College of Business will be

integrated business students, and we think that

will move those employment numbers forward, and we

think it's also really fitting, because we know

that the careers of our students are going to be so

much more varied than they were of our parents,

right? One of the challenges we have in higher

education today is that because companies don't

expect you to stay a long time, they don't train

you a whole lot. You've got to be able to know how

to do something the day you walk out the door,

right? But you also need to understand that your

first job probably isn't going to be your last job

or your dream job, and so you need to be thinking

about what experiences and what skills are you

going to get in your first job that's going to lend

you your next job and the job after that, and

that's a mindset, right? And it's an uncomfortable

mindset, but the clock is ticking there, and you

need to prepare for that. Will we be successful?

Too early to tell, right? One thing that's really

different in higher ed, maybe to some of my

business folks around the table, my product cycle

is really long, it's four years before I have any

idea whether anything worked at all or not, and

you've got to be willing to stick with it and

change as you go along. I hope that answered the

question.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Gregerson is the dean of our

Arts and Sciences College.

COMMITTEE: Welcome, Dr. Jarley. So, what you

just described with that business degree, we make

the same arguments for liberal arts degrees, so I

just wanted to hear you talk about the

applicability of the way you think and manage and

innovate applied across all the disciplines at the

university.

CANDIDATE: Sure. Absolutely. So, I'm a

product of a liberal education, I didn't go to

business school. I don't have a business degree,

as a matter of fact, so my training is actually in

economics. I think that, um, the thought process

is much the same. It's simply the context that's

different. So, um, you know, I think you could,

um, teach risk-taking from a classical literature

perspective, if that's what you'd like to do, I

think that, um, you know, certainly, in some of the

medical professions as well, which are changing

fairly dramatically these days, that that

entrepreneurial kind of mindset, um, is certainly

important. I did not mean to suggest by my

comments that I thought that these were things that

were going to be important simply to business

students. In fact, I think they're going to be

important to all students. I'm really big on,

remember I mentioned earlier about getting to know

people who are really different from yourself? I

don't mean by that, um, just gender or race or

experience, I also mean discipline and disciplinary

backgrounds. You know, examples of this, um, if we

hold sort of business plan competitions by business

students, think of like think Shark Tank, um, my

students are going to create either a lifestyle

business or an app for that. That's all they

really know, right? But if I pair those students

with engineering students or students from the arts

or students from the sciences, really, really

interesting ideas come out of that. They fight a

lot about it. So, I remember when we did this at

UNLV, the engineers would come to us and say, those

marketing students want products that defy the laws

of physics and can't be done, and the business

students would come to us and say, these

engineering students want to build products no one

will buy, and at the end of the first year of our

experiments there, we have two LLCs, by the end of

our second year, we had four, by our third year,

every state representative was stopping by,

wondering what we were doing in that arena. Um,

and because of the fluidity, I think, of our

students' lives going forward, the more

perspectives that they're associated with, the more

dots they're able to connect, the more innovative

they're likely to be. So, looking for those venues

wherever we can find them, to put students

together, and I don't like to overengineer it, I

like to give them a sandbox and see what comes out

the other end, you know, so, I've worked with

partners across campus on those kinds of

activities, and I think you're going to see more

and more of that going forward, and certainly, one

of the defining, um, experiences of any institution

is its general education program and what students

learn there and what mindsets come out of that.

Did that help?

COMMITTEE: Yeah. Thank you very much. Very

helpful.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Call is the chairman of our

foundation. Mr. Call, you have the mic.

COMMITTEE: We thank you for your generosity,

sir.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: I wish it was all mine. Um, so,

everything we do here at Florida Gulf Coast

University should be done in the context of an

overall vision, in part articulated by the

president. What experience have you had with

articulating a vision and engaging others in its

implementation? What might be your vision for

Florida Gulf Coast University in a few years of

your presidency?

CANDIDATE: So, I think the strategic planning

process that I just mentioned that we've gone

through at UCF would be a good example of how, um,

I've taken a process and used it to collectively

articulate a vision. Um, and, you know, here's

another thing I would say about that. Um, you

don't do visions on Tuesday, that's not kind of how

it works. So, this needs to be an ongoing

conversation with people, faculty, staff, people in

the community. I don't believe that strategic

plans are fixed, I think they evolve over time, as

you learn. I think it's incredibly important that

you have conversations along the way about it. I

do think it's the leader's responsibility to

ultimately sharpen that vision for people and to

carry it to them and to make it real, but even in

my job, I don't do any of the teaching or any of

the research, and a good day for most faculty is

that they don't see me. That's where we start,

right? So, if we don't capture the imagination of

a core group of people who are committed to the

plan and want to make the plan work, we will never

succeed. So, we have monthly faculty lunches in

the college, where we feature what we're doing, we

take questions and answers from faculty, we ask for

their input, we make adjustments along the way. I

meet with the full professors in the college two

times a semester, I view them as kind of the senior

partners in the firm, and we call that the big boy

and girl table, so everybody there gets an

opportunity to ask whatever questions that they

want, to suggest improvements in what we're doing.

Transparency is really key as part of this. You

know, I'm not sure that I can articulate the fine

line between being stubbornly adhering to your

values and vision and, um, and taking advice,

that's sort of an iterative process, I think. It's

certainly important to have both, but I would

expect in any institution for me to do something

similar to what I've done before. You know, there

would be a two to three-month listening period with

people inside and outside the institution. I would

then start to float some ideas, right? By the end

of six months, I would want those ideas in writing

and us to have, to start to have more formal

conversations about it. What that should look like

for you, too early for me to tell, really. You

know, I think I need to know some more about who

you are and what your aspirations are going

forward, particularly in things like growth, to get

a better sense of what that would be, right? I'm

not going to walk in the door and tell you how you

should be distinctive.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: But I do think the things that I

mentioned in answering my first question are going

to be key to any institution going forward. It

might be the context in which they're manifested

that differs. Does that help? Thank you.

COMMITTEE: Thank you, Dr. Isern. Dr. Isern

is a faculty member/professor in the College of

Arts and Sciences.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. A follow-up question.

So, you mentioned that you'd like to capture the

imagination of a core group of people, and you gave

some, articulated some specific examples of how you

did that in a college. How do you envision you

would scale that up to a presidential position?

CANDIDATE: Yeah, um, I still think, given the

size of this institution, that I would be able to

use several of the same techniques, not all of the

same techniques. Well, there's a few things

though, you know, that I do, that I would also

continue, that allows you to scale some. So, if

you haven't done so already, you should check out

my blog. It's very unvarnished, no one in the

campus community has to guess what I'm thinking

about the issues of the day, and that is very

intentional on my part. It gives me an unfiltered

way to have conversations with 9500 students, 225

faculty and staff and anybody else on campus or in

the community who wants to listen, and that is a

very active vehicle for me. Um, certainly, having

direct reports who are onboard with that mission

and who can help carry that into, um, places where

I can't go or don't have the time to go is an

important part of that, but, you know, I think one

of the key, really, the essence of leadership is to

understand that you're everyone's leader, right?

And, um, to have those conversations with them.

Generally speaking, when people come to see me,

they get 30 minutes. The way that you would get

more than 30 minutes is if you had a particularly

interesting question or insight for me, but those

conversations have to go on, and they have to go on

continually. I don't think I would change that a

whole lot. You know, I am, yes, there are going to

be committee structures, yes, there are going to be

reports, there's certain processes that are gone

through there, but I would say a lot of committee

structure and a lot of reports lead to strategic

plans that get put on the shelf and nobody actually

pays any attention to. So, if you're not willing

to do the work upfront, to build the consensus

around that, the rest of it just really doesn't

matter a whole lot, quite honestly. Did that help

a little bit?


COMMITTEE: Next question, I think Mr.

Charles Winton, he was a former chairman of the

foundation and is a very successful businessman in

the Fort Myers and Naples community and is one of

our community representatives.

COMMITTEE: Good afternoon, Dr. Jarley. I'm a

Chevrolet dealer, so your comments about Tesla and

General Motors resonated with me.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: But earlier, you said that you saw

yourself as a managing partner and not a CEO, and

you said that there was a distinction in that. Can

you expound on that a little bit?

CANDIDATE: Sure. So, you know, a managing

partner, the keyword there would be partner, right?

So, um, that managing partner, um, serves at the

pleasure of the partners, represents the partners'

interests, right? A CEO tells other people what to

do, that's a very different kind of process going

forward. I have to lead with the consent of my

partners, and should I lose that consent, I don't

really have anything at that point. So, um, that's

one of the reasons why having those conversations

upfront is so important going forward, because if

you can't capture the hearts and minds of, um, the

faculty and the staff and the students, you're not

going to get that done. So, um, you need to take

an approach which puts you in that kind of mindset.


COMMITTEE: Thank you. Next question is with

Governor Ed Morton, who has been a board of

trustee, a foundation chairman and is now currently

on the Board of Governors, and he is our Board of

Governor representative.

COMMITTEE: And an aluminous of FGCU. I paid

my dues. You, building on Charles' question, could

you define for us broadly who are your partners?

CANDIDATE: Sure. So, um, there's a lot of

them. So, um, there would be the faculty and staff

in the college, there are my fellow deans across

campus, there is the Provost and the president,

and, um, then there are my partners in the

community, both corporate partners and civic

partners who all have a stake in the institution

and how it's perceived and what the way forward is

there, and again, a great deal of that work gets

done by those partners, not by me, right?

COMMITTEE: Could I follow-up?

COMMITTEE: Sure.

COMMITTEE: I would submit a couple of

additional partners, the legislature and the Board

of Governors. Performance metrics are the building

block upon which we're making some changes and/or

some very important initiatives to both the

legislature and the Board of Governors. Have you

studied performance metrics, and do you have any

idea about those performance metrics at FGCU you

would address, and how would you address them?

CANDIDATE: Well, the one that I noticed the

most, um, for you is that, um, your retention and

graduation rates needs some work, quite honestly.

It's a little hard from the outside to know exactly

what that's about. You know, so, my background is

in human resources, liberal relations, you know,

the first place I would look to be at my selection

processes, right? Am I selecting the right set of

people to be here, or do I have a problem there?

Good selection takes care of a lot of problems,

quite honestly. Assuming that I don't have a

problem there, you know, exits from universities

can be for a couple of different reasons.

Sometimes, it's financial, right, that students

don't have enough money to stay in school.

Sometimes, it has to do with problems at home of

one kind or another. Sometimes, it has to do with

academic preparation. So, you would want to, um,

look at each of those buckets to determine where

you think the roadblocks are. I think, um, data

analytics is a really important part of this

process going forward. That's just at its infancy,

even at UCF, and I think UCF does probably a lot

better than a lot of institutions do, but, you

know, we're looking for courses that add curriculum

and looking for courses that are indicative of what

people, whether they succeed or not. I think

having really honest conversations with students at

the very beginning about what their aspirations are

and what their skills and abilities are and how to

plot out a path for success for them is really,

really important going forward. I don't think

enough of that gets done. I think a lot of our

students today are not as educated as we think they

are about those selection processes, right? You're

not going to be an engineer if you can't do math.

Having those conversations upfront, I think are

really, really an important part of that. You

know, my take on the performance metrics in general

are, I certainly understand why the state

legislature is interesting and incentivizing those

things, but I wouldn't change performance funding

for the money, I would chase the metrics because

the metrics represent what are the right things to

do. If they're the right things to do, the money

will come, right? So, the real key is making sure

that people understand that they're the right thing

to do.

COMMITTEE: I would hope that form follows

function.

CANDIDATE: Yes.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: It could lead to precisely better

outcomes for students, the faculty, the taxpayers

and everybody.

CANDIDATE: There's certainly provided focus,

there's no question about it, and I think the

metrics around the post-graduation experience of

students is, um, certainly pushing in that

direction, although I will tell you that I think we

at UCF benefit a bit from that because of the mix

of the programs that we have as well. It's not

independent in that portfolio of what you're

offering, quite honestly.


COMMITTEE: Dr. Allen?

COMMITTEE: Following up briefly on Mr.

Morton's question about who are your partners, um,

I've heard you refer to students as consumers, as

inputs to a production function, as outputs to a

production function. Are they also partners?

CANDIDATE: So, if I said they were consumers,

I didn't mean to.

COMMITTEE: Okay.

CANDIDATE: And there's a very specific reason

for that. I think students are clients. There's a

difference, right? So, um, you know, there's the

old saying the consumer's always right, but

sometimes, you have to tell the clients things that

are good for them, even though they don't want to

hear them, right? And, so, I tend to think of

students in that respect, right? We have an

obligation to do right by them, and, um, that may

include telling them things that they don't

necessarily want to hear as part of that, that

process. Um, whether I see them as products or

not, I don't really have an opinion about that.

Um, I do think, though, that we do need to own that

post-graduation experience of those students. We

can't be making promises to them about their great

futures and not caring about what those futures

are. It's not acceptable to say you'll graduate,

and you'll go find yourself somewhere out there.

Not good enough, I don't think.


COMMITTEE: Following up on students, trustee

Thieldens Elneus, he is the student body president

and a trustee at the university. He's talked about

students, so you may want to expound on that a bit.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Mr. Jarley, question

for you. Earlier, you touched on how you hope to

capture the hearts and minds of students, and you

talk about, you know, addressing the performance

metrics and, um, making students capable of

performing outside, post-graduate life. Can you

describe or give an example of any meaningful

conversations that you've had with students to

really understand the overall student experience to

address some of those issues and concerns?

CANDIDATE Sure. So, I have monthly lunches

with students. We invite them in at random, it's

usually 30 or so. It's harder to get above that.

If you get above 30, students get quiet on you.

You know, one of the biggest challenges that, um,

we have in the College of Business at UCF is the

different experiences between RFTICs, the students

who start with us as freshmen and their success

rate, versus the students who transfer in as

juniors from one of our partner institutions. Um,

and understanding why we're seeing the disparity in

the experience is in the success rates of those

students, and developing responses to that is

really important. Okay, so, you know, and one of

the things that we've learned during that process

is the students who come from our community college

partners come from a very different culture of an

institution or in a very different physical setting

than happens when they come to me at UCF.

Typically, they're in very small classes, 25 to 30.

They are able to retake exams as part of their way

of demonstrating their mastery of the program, they

get a lot of one-on-one guidance from people, then

they come to the College of Business at UCF. My

largest class at UCF has 2,000 students in it, and

if you stand in the back and wait to see what that

experience is going to be like, we will run over

you. So, this year, we've put a whole process in

place with the help of our student ambassadors to

help students transition from that community

college experience to the College of Business

experience and navigate those waters so they're

more likely to be successful in the college after

their first year, and we included a bunch of

students in creating that onboarding process for

all of our students going forward. That would be a

real typical one. Um, you know, but the other

conversation that's really, really common with

students, and it's independent of their GPA, it's

independent of that, they don't know what they want

to do, and helping them think through that process

and how they can learn what they want to do while

they're with us, those conversations go on every

day in the building, thousands of them. Does that

help?

COMMITTEE: Dr. Isern, do you have a question?

COMMITTEE: I'm just going to ask one --

COMMITTEE: Absolutely. Have at it.

COMMITTEE: Florida Gulf Coast University

shared governance tradition brings together

faculty, staff and students. We would like to know

what shared governance means to you, especially the

role you feel a president should take in shared

governance. How would you assess the will of these

different constituencies? In addition, could you

please speak to any role that you have had working

in a unionized faculty?

CANDIDATE: My faculty are unionized at UCF,

so I've had five years of experience doing that. I

come from a liberal relations background, this is

sort of what I used to teach, so that part comes

pretty naturally for me. In terms of governance,

um, we are a community of scholars, and in fact,

it's interesting how institutions are really

different. So, when I was at UNLV, the biggest

problem I had is that people knew each other too

well, and what I mean by that is faculty would be

arguing things that happened 30 years ago. It made

me crazy. When I came to UCF, I had the opposite

problem. I could line up faculty from one

department in a room and ask other faculty to point

a finger and tell me who they were, and they

wouldn't be able to do that, and you cannot have a

collective sense of purpose and vision and

governance if people don't know each other's names.

So, we went on a year and a half mission to have

weekly meetings with people, to start those

conversations, so that people got to know each

other better and could provide me with input into

those processes. I have a really, really great

group of faculty, and they are very, very committed

people. Um, you know, curriculum is something that

obviously sits with the faculty. It's the

faculty's responsibility to develop that curriculum

and to teach that curriculum and to prepare our

students, and that is not something that

administration should be telling the faculty to do.

Um, faculty at my institution play a very large

role in promotion and tenure processes. It would

be a very rare instance where I would disagree with

my colleagues about a promotion and tenure case

where they were unanimous in their opinions about

what should happen there. I don't tell faculty

what their department should be when they grow up,

they tell me. I don't get involved in trying to

influence what research goes on in the building.

Research is the most personal thing that our

faculty members do. You don't administrate your

way to research greatness, that's not how that

works. The simple best thing that I can do is hire

really great people with fire in their bellies, and

have conversations with them about how to move that

institution ahead. That works really, really well.

And as long as we do that in an environment which

is civil, sometimes, we're going to disagree,

sometimes, I have to make a call, right, but I

would say in the almost five years that I've been

at UCF, I don't believe we've had one single

controversy. Not one. That's because, and I think

it's because we put the time on the front-end to

talk through those things.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Harrington, do you have a

follow-up question, or is it a new question?

Because Ms. Noland would like to ask a question as

well. We'll follow-up with Mr. Harrington.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. You talked about staff

having the freedom the faculty have and the freedom

to go about, um, teaching, instructing and doing

what they have to do in the departments. How do

you make-up the strategic plan and the goals of the

strategic plan with that freedom and independence?

How do you hold them accountable?

CANDIDATE: Oh, I think accountability is a

bit of a different issue than the strategic plan

is. So, um, you know, the strategic plan is about

investment and general direction and some of the

administrative procedures that we're going to put

in place, but what faculty do in there, there's a

performance evaluation system that we have in

place, and that performance evaluation system needs

to be aligned with the strategic plan in the sense

that if we say we want people to do X, we should

reward X, right? And not Y. Um, and as, um, I

mentioned in the answer to the last question, you

know, we're a unionized environment at UCF, so we

have something called the AESP, it's the annual

evaluation of faculty performance or something like

that, and so there is a very long document which

describes how faculty are evaluated in terms of

teaching, research and service, and we have just

gone through a process in the College of Business,

we've kind of pioneered this, to move to kind of a

bit of a different evaluation system for faculty

which requires more give and take and more feedback

with a faculty member interacting with their chair.

Performance evaluations in academic settings, at

least at the level I'm at, and put my direct

reports aside for a minute, I'll come back to them,

that's done at the department level. It's the

department chair's responsibility to provide good

developmental and administrative feedback to

faculty members. If I have a department chair who

won't do that for their department, I will get a

new department chair. I've done that twice.

People have to have honest evaluations. That's

really, really important. Um, but that's about the

department chairs doing their jobs, or, um, the

deans doing their jobs, as the case may be. You

know, for me, that would be in a role of president,

or even in my role, quite frankly, I do those

evaluations of my direct reports, who have

milestones that have to be reached as part of a

strategic plan, for example, but sometimes, um, and

I think this happens sometimes, I think in higher

ed in particular, sometimes, in my humble view, um,

goals and strategies get confused a little bit.

So, growth is not a strategy, it's an outcome, it's

an outcome from a set of behaviors that you want to

engage in, but to say our strategy is to grow,

that's not a strategy, that's an outcome. Um, we

want more of our students to get employed, that's

an outcome. Now, there are steps you can take to

get there, that's a different thing, but it's not a

strategy. Does that make sense to folks?


COMMITTEE: Yeah.

COMMITTEE: One final question. Ms. Pamela

Noland, who is a community member, a respected

business leader in Lee County. This will be the

last question before we turn it back to you to ask

us questions.

COMMITTEE: Thank you, chairman. Dr. Jarley,

what has prepared you to serve as the external face

of FGCU in the community, and how would you ensure

that these relationships are cultivated and

enhanced?

CANDIDATE: So, um, I think the best part of

my story, quite frankly, is with what me and my

team have done in the community in the four years

that I've been at UCF. We took an institution, the

College of Business, so, when I would go out, when

I first came to UCF and I would go meet with

business people or community people and I would

say, hi, I'm Paul Jarley, I'm the new dean of the

College of Business at UCF, here's the first two

questions I would get; how's Dr. Hip doing? Been

there 23, 24 years. Next question; how many

students do you have at UCF now? Not a word about

the College of Business. Not one. Now, that's

good news and bad news, right? At least I'm not

getting a lot of negatives.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: I get a chance to put some paint

on that canvas, right? But boy, that canvas is

blank.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: So, um, you know, one of the

things, an action that we do, tomorrow will be one

of them, um, every month, I have a breakfast at the

Citrus Club in downtown Orlando, where we feature a

faculty member who does a TED talk for 20 minutes.

I challenge the faculty, give me your best 20

minutes, and don't suck, and then we have about

another 40 minutes of conversation between the

audience and that faculty member about what it is

that they do, and we probably average somewhere

between 60 and 120 guests, depending upon kind of

the topic and the person. Um, I've eaten a lot of

chicken dinners, really, really a lot of them,

probably a couple a week, going out in the

community to network with people, to have speaking

engagements. You know, you have to tell the story

wherever you can. Also, um, this might be my best

idea ever, quite honestly, and it's a way to scale

intimacy, it's a way to link to the community, and

it's a way to show donors assets that they might

want to invest in. So, a year ago, I opened a

facility in the college called the exchange, and

the idea behind the exchange is every day, we have

someone from the community talk about something

that's important to their future. So, um, we've

had the mayor in to talk about his vision for

Orlando, we've had many people in the business

community come in to talk about their industry and

how their industry is changing and how their

company competes in that industry and what students

could do if they wanted to be part of that

industry. I interviewed a couple last week on what

it's like to be a power couple and how they balance

all of the stress that they have that's associated

with that. My goal was to have one a day; we do

three a day. Now, this is the great story of UCF,

right? We don't do anything small at UCF. In a

year, I've had 175 exchanges involving more than

17,000 students, and, um, you know, a university

becomes a better university when you've spoken at

it. It's kind of funny how that works, really,

but, um, you know, people leave with good feelings,

they had a good impression, they got engaged by a

group of students, good all the way around.

COMMITTEE: Thank you, Dr. Jarley. So, at

this point, we'll turn it over to you. We have

about, it would appear to be, I can't read my notes

here, about 18 minutes for you to ask us questions.

I'm trying to do math, not my forte, I wouldn't

have been an engineer, obviously.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: So with that, I'll turn it over to

you, and you can feel free to ask questions. I

would ask the question to me, and then I'll

redirect it to somebody, so we don't end up with a

lot of people talking at once. So, the floor is

yours.

CANDIDATE: Okay. Um, so, the first question,

Florida Gulf Coast is 20, right? If you were to

paint a picture of what you would like to see

Florida Gulf Coast look like at 40, what would it

look like?

COMMITTEE: That's why we're talking to you.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: So, let me ask it a different way.

Let me ask it a different way. I asked this

question when I first came to UCF, and I'll even

give you what bad answers I liked the best, and

let's play this game then. So, if Florida Gulf

Coast University was a person, who would it be?

COMMITTEE: Not me.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: So, my favorite answer at UCF was

a young Shaquille O'Neal. Large, a little awkward

on the court, has a lot of high potential, needs

some coaching. Pretty good answer, I thought.

COMMITTEE: Probably better than Mickey Mouse.

CANDIDATE: That was a pretty good answer, I

thought. My second favorite answer wasn't a

person, it was an animal, Eeyore. Thanks for

noticing me.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: I think that, you know, so, from

my perspective, I think that's the million-dollar

question, is we all recognize, um, as a faculty, as

a --

CANDIDATE: Let me ask it in a different way,

if I may, to help spark a little discussion. What

do you think are the unique assets in your

community and in your region that the university

can leverage and partner with to turn into a

distinctive place?

COMMITTEE: Mr. Morton, go ahead.

COMMITTEE: I think you framed that a little

bit better. How would you leverage the financial

strengths of this community, and what would FGCU be

known for, given the profile of southwest Florida

and the desire of our board of Governors and the

legislature and everyone else, so that each of our

universities has an identity, a particular identity

that is a bright light of distinction, so that what

are we going to be known for, and you have to

leverage the local communities. We understand

that. So, are you familiar with southwest Florida?

CANDIDATE: Not enough yet. That's one of the

reasons I'm asking the question.

COMMITTEE: Okay, well, I think we all would

have, you know, it's like describing an elephant,

it depends on our perspective, how we might

describe the animal, and it's a very unique animal,

from my own perspective. We have a very unique

community in terms of affluence and parts of it, a

very unique healthcare community, very unique

hospitality community, but I think your challenge

and our challenge is to identify those unique

strategic strengths that we have as a community and

weaknesses and to build upon the strengths and to

fortify the weaknesses.

CANDIDATE: Mm-hmm. I would, I'm not

surprised to hear that hospitality would be

something that you would be really interested in

here, you know, but I think it's really important

to have these conversations, because sometimes, you

can miss things, if you don't. So, for example, at

UCF, right, when most people think of UCF, they

think about the mouse, right? The next thing they

think about is the cape. UCF was originally

Florida Technological University, it was actually

created for the cape. It's not surprising that we

have the strongest optics program in the world,

right? That makes perfect sense, but, um, you

know, people don't think about some other things

that are in central Florida that are at least as

important, quite frankly, to the development of UCF

going forward. Um, simulation and training would

be one of those. The large number of defense

contractors that are in the region would be another

one of those. Um, and, so, getting out in the

community and talking through those kinds of

things, I think are going to be important to

shaping that vision. I thought I saw something in

your strategic plan about a College of Public

Health going forward.

COMMITTEE: Yeah, you know, and I think that's

how I would answer it. I think we, as a collective

group, the trustees, the faculty, the deans, the

administration put a lot of time into trying to get

a strategic plan that maybe, as you said, wasn't

the typical shiny, put it on the shelf, we get it,

check the box, so I think we have a good footprint

of what we want to be down the road. I think we've

put some, what we refer to as pillars in there,

entrepreneurship, the health colleges and some of

those kinds of things. I think we also had some

misses, so I would tell you we didn't do enough

with the arts and things like that. We do service

this area, and we are the cultural center of

southwest Florida. Sometimes, because we know

we're really good at that, sometimes, we forget to

put those things in the plan, as you well know.

So, I think where we want to be in 40 years is

we've kind of drawn a roadmap, and that's on paper

now, so the next president needs to come in and

evaluate those things that we've done and where do

we take the strategic plan, it may need to be

thrown in the trash and started over, but I think

we've given somebody a roadmap of here's

collectively where we think we want to be, how do

we get there, and I agree with your analogy, that,

um, increased anything is an outcome. What we need

now is a strategic partner for the faculty, for the

Board of Trustees and the community, to help us

find our way to greatness, and no doubt, we have a

lot of things that, at the university, we don't

talk about enough. Um, hospitality being one of

them, quite frankly. So, I think we've given a

roadmap to somebody, and it's a clean slate, to

either take that and go forward with that or come

back and say, look, after 180 days, these are

things we're missing or we should change. So, I

think it's a white board, that somebody's going to

come in and really have an opportunity to figure

out what are we going to be known for, and that is

the Board of Governors, the governor himself has

told many of us he wants to know what we're going

to be known for, so I think that's the challenge.

We've given the foundation, we have a great

faculty, a great student body, a great community

support, it's now time to bring that next

individual, the fresh set of eyes, to say what are

we going to be when we grow up, if you will.

CANDIDATE: So, a couple of things, just to be

clear. I'm going to say a few disjointed things

here. So, at one level, one of the biggest values

that happens when you bring in someone from the

outside to lead an institution is you get someone

from the outside to lead the institution. What I

mean by that is there's a very short period of time

in which that person can see the institution like

outsiders see it, and, you know, it's always my

strategy to try to hold on to that as long as I

can, but it's really tough to do it for more than a

couple of years, quite honestly, if you're trying

to get anything done, but you should really take

advantage of that as a leader. You know, I always

think you should keep a book with you. On

everything I see in the first, like, six to eight

months that just sort of slaps me in the face, just

write them down and make a note about them, because

after that, the place starts to seem like it's just

background, it kind of fades into everything, and

you kind of forget about those, and sometimes,

those are the most defining things about the

institution, right? And you only get that

opportunity once, because once you start developing

your agenda, you get attached to that agenda, other

things start to happen, and I think it's also the

time when people in the community and in the

legislature and other people who are partners here,

um, are likely to be as most candid with you about

what's going on and what needs to be done. So,

it's really important as part of that that you

avail yourself to that opportunity.

Then in terms of distinctiveness, let me say a

couple of things. One is, um, it's going to be

increasingly important in the future to know what

those community assets are and to partner with

those community assets to develop that, but don't

forget culture. Um, you need to have a serious

conversation around what does it mean to be a

Florida Gulf Coast University student. What does

that mean, right, and what are they going to leave

with, and that can be incredibly defining, if you

think really intentionally about it and the kinds

of experiences and mindsets that you want to put in

your students. Frankly, I would argue with you

that's going to be more defining than those other

assets are, and at least, um, the other thing

that's really great about that is it's almost free,

it doesn't really cost a lot to do that, right, and

part of my point about size is if you create a

certain culture with a certain set of assets, that

will naturally bring to it a certain number of

people. Now, you got to pay the bills, right? So,

that's got to be, um, a viable scale for you, but

if you're doing that and that works for you, that

should be good, right? That's my point about you

need to know not only what you are, but what you're

not. So, if you're our GM car dealer over here,

you don't sell hamburgers, not to say hamburgers

aren't a good thing, right? That's just not what

we do here. You know, I think that conversation is

the most critical conversation that you can have

going forward.

COMMITTEE: Other questions back? We're going

to let you ask another question, Dr. Jarley.

CANDIDATE: I can.

COMMITTEE: Please do.

CANDIDATE: So, talk a little bit about, I'm

going to pick on Mr. Call over here. You're a

very young institution, development for Florida

Gulf Coast is certainly a different proposition

than it is at UF, is that fair to say? So, tell me

a little bit about your experience in trying to

bring the Florida Gulf Coast message to the

community and what you've heard?

COMMITTEE: I can take it.

COMMITTEE: Yes, Mr. Call.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. So, I'm early into

this, I've been now in my second year, so there's

some other chairs from the foundation that may be

able to chime in as well, and I'd welcome that,

but, um, we have a $100 million campaign going, and

we feel very confident we will reach that by

our 20th year, which is next year. So, giving is

definitely, we try to cultivate our alumni, but our

alumni, our oldest alumni is probably not 35 years

old, you know, and then down from there, right, so,

um, we definitely want to cultivate that and

continue to keep them active, but it truly is

coming from our communities, and then, obviously,

grants and the other areas, but for our job, it's

pretty much around our communities, and we have

very giving communities. They've been very giving

to us, so, um, we have, and they don't do it just

because, right, they've done it because they're

apart of this organization. I think somebody said

this earlier, that a lot of our founders are still

here and take a lot of pride in that, and that

spreads throughout our community, enough to keep

this thing going. I would have never thought

$100 million was the right answer for a campaign,

and when I stepped in and our director said that's

what he wanted to do, I was, um, taken aback, but

we're doing it and doing it very strongly. So, I

think the answer, from my perspective, is that the

community is prideful, because it is a 20

year-university that they built, and, so, it's

not 200 years old, that they had no idea about the

beginning, the beginning is right before them and

still here. So, and I agree with the next 20

years, the question earlier, is where will we go

with this now, and, so, I think that's what we're

struggling with and we'll try and decide, but as

far as giving, I think we are in a very good

position, but we got to stay there and increase it.

COMMITTEE: Others that might want to

follow-up? Yes, Mr. Winton.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Jarley, I would concur with

David Call. I think the university is so young

that all of us in this community are feeling like a

helicopter parent, almost, I guess, and we take

ownership in it, and, um, when Dr. Bradshaw first

approached me about serving on the foundation

board, I saw something vibrant, something growing,

and I wanted to be part of that, and I think our

youthfulness as a university helps us garner funds

from the community, but also, it's our weakness,

because it's hard for us to be objective about

our 20-year-old baby, and, so, we probably do need

a different perspective, somebody to tell us how to

grow our baby into a vibrant 40-year-old.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Dean Gregerson.

COMMITTEE: Yeah, from a development point of

view from a dean, I'll echo everything Mr. Call

said and Mr. Winton. Um, for the most part,

although we certainly engage with our alumni, and

they're going to be an increasingly important

aspect to this, we're working with people who are,

themselves, alums of Columbia or University of

Michigan or Ohio State or Rutgers, they've got an

affinity to their institution, and, so, we have to

have a different type. They give to those

institutions probably very generously because of

their personal connection when they were an

undergraduate or graduate student. It's a

different type of relationship when someone wants

to invest in a very young university, but we're not

their sort of primary affinity, we don't tug on the

heartstrings the same way, so I think for a

president, a vice president for developmental, or a

dean, it's a little bit different approach, and you

have to be very thoughtful about sort of those

divided loyalties, if you will, that in some cases

are very, very strong, but they also feel very

connected to FGCU as well. So, it's an

interesting, and I think a wonderful challenge.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Harrington, I'll let you go,

and that'll be the final comments.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. I've been involved in

politics in our community for 28 years. I live up

the coast here in Charlotte County, just out of,

about 30, 40 minutes away I think our university

can be whatever the university community wants to

be. I think there's a great need for local

government instruction. I see decisions being made

in our local county that I think are, um, an

ability to really be able to delve into the

question and come up with the right answer. The

population always has a different answer for what

decisions are being made by local government. We

need help in our school systems to improve the

education so we bring better people to the

community level, I mean to the college level. I

think we have a vast history, it's over 500 years

old here in southwest Florida, that we don't dare

explore, we don't look at it, we don't entertain

it, and there's a couple groups that have been

dallying in it for, you know, two or three decades

now, but the Spanish Colonial history we have is

unbelievable. The environment, the gulf, the bay,

again, a great treasure, which we're working on

here at the university. The other thing, having

knocked on thousands of doors, Lee and Charlotte,

lots of counties, you learn that there's such a

wealth of experience, that if we could somehow

engage them within the university community and

take advantage of that, and we do in some ways, but

there's such a wealth there, and we have, also, a

lot of very successful people in business that have

donated well to the school, and we continue to

reach out, you know, to them. Um, our history in

agriculture, you know, we're not a land grant

school, but I just feel there's so many scientific

challenges before the ag industry today, and I wish

that our university could be touching that in some

little way or some major way. We're in need of

some big answers right now, and again, healthcare.

You look at all these counties put together, we

probably are the oldest community in the nation

average age-wise, and that's an asset, it is an

asset, really, it is, and we need to be able to

take care of those people and look out for them and

make life much easier for them. Um, that's just

several things that I've always had in the back of

my mind about our school.

CANDIDATE: Thank you.


COMMITTEE: With that, Dr. Jarley, we've

enjoyed talking to you today, and I want to thank

you on behalf of the committee for coming down and

visiting with us today and your interest in being

the next president of FGCU, and, um, I just

appreciate you taking the time to visit with us

today.

CANDIDATE: It's been a pleasure. In the

small world in which we live, Dick Pegnetter gave

me my first job in higher education.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: Isn't that funny, how it comes

around? I was sorry to see Dick pass. He's quite

a guy.

COMMITTEE: Thank you very much. Committee,

we will stand in recess for 15 minutes. Our next

interview will start at 2:30. Thank you.�

Dr. Ken Harmon



8:00 A.M. ET



[email protected]

COMMITTEE: Let's reconvene. Dr. Harmon,

welcome to Florida Gulf Coast University, or FGCU,

as you will hear us refer to it today. Committee,

I am pleased to introduce Dr. Ken Harmon. He has a

great first name, by the way. He is the Provost

and vice president for academic affairs at Kennesaw

State University, and we like Kennesaw State,

especially when we beat you in basketball and any

other sport we can name.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: The good part of that is you can

acknowledge that we beat you a lot.

CANDIDATE: I know which side of the table I'm

sitting on, sir.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Well, we're pleased to take the

opportunity to spend some time with you today. Our

schedule provides for 55 minutes of committee

questions to you, and then we're going to reverse

the situation and let you ask us questions for 15

minutes that you might have. Um, I will indicate

when we reach the 15-minute mark, I try to do that

a little bit ahead of time so we can get some last

questions in, and so that's kind of what we're

going to do today, and I think with that, I will

ask the first question. Um, so, why Florida Gulf

Coast University, and why, um, at this point in

your career would you want to be the next president

of Florida Gulf Coast University?

CANDIDATE: Great question. Let me also just

start off, once again, as I said to a few of you,

thank you. Thank you for this honor. It's a real

pleasure, and, so, I look forward to this. Why

FGCU? Why now? Why am I interested in this? I'll

give you a multi-part answer. Let me first start

off with I would not be interested in something if

it did not look like it had a lot of potential and

would be a lot of fun. When I look at what you've

done here, you've built something that's already

incredible. 20 years about into your existence,

and you already have 15,000 students, you have

about a third of those students, if I recall my

numbers correctly, about a third of those students

living on campus, and then, when I look at the

leadership profile, I'll be very honest and say

that was one of the most compelling leadership

profiles I have ever read. What it said to me, it

painted a picture of a university that said we know

who we are, at least that's what it said to me, the

types of colleges you have, if I recall, the five

colleges, the nature of those colleges. You have

not said we're going to be everything to everyone,

and there's also something that's in that profile

and who you are that says we're going to connect

here, we're going to connect to this region, we're

going to connect to these students, and so when I

look at that, I then think back to my own history,

and I'm not going to take you all the way back

through my various career moves, but more my

latest, when I got to Kennesaw State. Um, 2006, we

had 19,000 students. We're mostly a commuter

campus and a not-so-great six-year first-time

full-time graduation rate, to use a little bit of

in the weeds lingo. Here we are at Kennesaw State

about 10 years later, we're now just a little over

35,000 students. Now, some of that's from a merger

that we had, but a lot of it is just growth, and

I'm not saying growth for the sake of growth is

just a great thing, but there's also a changed

dynamic there. We converted that campus from

mostly commuter to a true destination campus, where

students felt like they belong, they had a

connection, because we realized that student

engagement is more than just academics and

advising, even though that's extremely important.

It's everything about their life on campus, and we

don't have the percentage on campus that you do.

And then I come forward, and we have improved

by 12 percentage points that six-year graduation

rate.

Now, one thing that tells you is it was really

bad before. It's better now, and we're on the way

to get even better, and, so, it's, when I look at

Florida Gulf Coast, I see a place that does have

this incredible foundation, and I mean that

sincerely, I see a place that connects with some

things that I have done, or I shouldn't even say I,

that I've been involved with as part of a great

team, and I see what the potential is, and I'm

going to also be, because there was another part in

that question, at least that I heard, and why at

this point in my career, and also, another reason

why here, I will tell you also that in May of this

year, I made the decision that this would be the

year, based on my children's ages and other

factors, that it would be the year that I'd say,

I'm going to see if there's something interesting

out there. I'm happy where I am, I have a great

situation, but I said, I'm going to take a look.

So, I decided this would be the year to take a

look, and this is going to sound unusual, but I

think you would understand it; this is a great

place. I had been near here a few times, doing

some fishing up in Tampa or different places like

that, but I'd never really been through here, and

about three years ago, I came through on a

motorcycle ride, this is an annual event with me

and my best friend, we've been best friends since

we were 10 years old, and we do an annual

motorcycle trip, and it's usually out west, and we

did one through Florida, down one side and up the

other, and we stopped in here for awhile, and we

just kept saying, wow, this is a great area, a

wonderful place to be, and, so, even in just, I

guess somewhat coincidentally, my family and I came

down here and even vacationed during this past

year, and again, realized what a great place it is.

So, I won't deny that that's very attractive as

well. So, it looks like a great place that has

built this wonderful foundation, it looks like that

foundation connects to my past, it looks like

something fun to build. It also is the right time

in my life to take a look at something, but only

something if it's right, and it's a great place to

live.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Isern, she's a faculty member

in the Arts and Sciences College. You have the

mic.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. I have a follow-up

question.

CANDIDATE: Okay.

COMMITTEE: You mentioned that in the years

that you've been at Kennesaw State, you've helped

to turn it from a commuter campus to a destination

campus, um, to make the students feel that they

were apart and belonged. Um, what was your

specific role in doing that?

CANDIDATE: My specific role was I was part of

the, um, working directly in the cabinet and even

directly as the number two with the president with

developing things like, um, athletic programs. I

guess it's no secret that we developed a football

program, so we did do that. Um, I was part of the

team that also increased the number of student

organizations, the type of connections on campus.

Also, we did a much more engagement kind of

outreach, and engagement reported to me, student

engagement and community engagement, so it meant

student-to-student, student-to-university and

student-to-community types of engagement as well,

and that office reported to me for a number of

years. We since then have moved that over to a

separate vice president that's a new role that just

came in, I guess about a year ago. Um, so, like I

say, I wouldn't claim personal credit, but I've

been part of the team that's developing all of

these things. Also, the building of additional

residence halls, and I'm also on that group that

assesses the viability of residence halls, and that

made a big difference as well.

COMMITTEE: Trustee Thieldens Elneus, he is

the student body president and a trustee at the

university, and he, um, I would like for you to

offer up a question concerning students.

COMMITTEE: All right. Thank you.

Dr. Harmon, could you, you talked about the student

life on campus at Kennesaw, could you, um, give or

describe a more meaningful conversation you've had

with students and how that conversation helped you

and your leadership address some student concerns

and things that impact the overall student culture?

CANDIDATE: Um, a very recent example, but I'm

actually going to give you another one that's a

little deeper. Recent examples were just some

concerns that students had brought to me about

availability of classes and just some things like

that, and so we talked about that, which is

actually a huge concern right now, but I'm going to

go back to about a year ago, a little over a year

ago, that we had a, um, we had a student, and this

is something that made national news, there was a

student who was going to an advising center, and

the student put all of this on, um, on video, we

had an advisor come out to that student, and to say

the least, was not kind to that student. Um,

furthermore, this was an African American student,

and it sparked a great controversy, and like I say,

it actually hit national news, and, so, I made the

point to reach out to the student, to say I would

like to meet with you and talk to you. First, I

wanted to make sure I apologized to that student,

because nobody should ever be treated the way this

student was treated, but we got into a much deeper

discussion about his experiences on campus, how he

had been treated by, and we talked about various

offices, and it showed me just something about

students and how they were bounced around when

coming to advising. We also talked about the

possible role of race in that discussion, and we

had just some very candid and actually just

fantastic discussions about that, and it gave me

insight into what some students go through and just

trying to deal with day to day life on campus, and

like I say, it also gave me insight into, perhaps,

race relations on campus, and it sparked a larger

flurry, if you will, that coincided with some of

the Missouri incidents, and from that, the Black

Lives Matter group became involved, and, so, I sat

down with those students as well, to hear what they

were concerned about, what we could do better, and

so we had some, I thought it was some wonderful

candid conversations about what we could do and

what their lives were like, and so, to me, it was

quite enlightening.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Isern.

COMMITTEE: So, as a result of those

discussions, were any changes implemented on

campus?

CANDIDATE: Yes. Um, with advising, we

immediately, one, we immediately moved that advisor

out of advising, that was just a very short-term,

moved another person in there, actually a person

from another college into that advising center,

because this person is someone who had done

research on diversity, and, so, she also had some

administrative expertise, and she was just known to

be very good at going in and making things happen,

so we moved her into that office and to oversee

that office, and then we actually pulled the office

together so that we didn't just have splintered

advising, and then that actually started a larger

discussion about advising on campus and how we had

splintered pieces of advising and different

experiences in advising. So, we now have actually

generated, we brought onboard an advising director

for the entire campus that reports up through me,

to the senior vice Provost then to me, but we have

worked together to create what we call a common

advising experience, so that we know what students

are experiencing out there. So, that all started,

actually, at that time.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Morton is our Board of

Governors representative, and, um, he was a former

trustee here at the university, also was a former

chairman of our foundation, and he is an alumni of

Florida Gulf Coast University, but Mr. Morton,

I'll give you the mic.

COMMITTEE: And I made the mistake of looking

at the chairman.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Somewhat ad-lib. Um, in your

response, your initial response to the inquiry of

those who would be interested in the presidency, in

your response to that, you touched on performance

metrics and your experience in dealing with

accountability, and if you will, performance. Can

you give us any ideas with specificity of what you

have done and what you might do to improve the

four-year first time in college graduation rate,

excess credits and the cost of students and the

terms of borrowing? I might also add, Mr. Chair,

I have a child who's currently enrolled at FGCU and

a grandchild who is taking a course at FGCU, so I

have a lot of different perspectives, so what hope

can you give me on holding down tuition costs?

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: That just changed to a different

question.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: Um, we, in Georgia, there was talk

about going to a performance funding formula

similar to the Florida formula, and I'm familiar

with the metrics there, etc We have talked about

it, it has not actually come into being at this

point, but we've at least had the discussion. What

happened though, at that time, we started what we

call complete college Georgia, which is underneath

the umbrella of complete college America, and

complete college Georgia says exactly that, you

need to start tracking all of these metrics, and

you need to tell us what kind of actions you're

taking to improve those metrics, and every year, we

now have to prepare a report that goes into the

university system office to examine those types of

metrics, and that is in my office. In fact, we

have restructured at this point so that, we had a

senior vice Provost, that person left, so we

actually kind of re configured that position to

primarily be in charge of student success from an

academic perspective, and they do work well with

student affairs as well. What we have learned at

this point is, number one, advising makes a huge

difference, professional advising makes a huge

difference, and in fact, there are other things we

can do with block scheduling, de facto schedules, I

mean, there's a lot of different things where you

can do opt-outs. We won't go into all of those

details, but those types of things make a

difference. What we also find, something we

frequently say is there are some students who are a

flat tire away from enrolling in school that

semester, because we know that money makes a

difference. So, one thing that we have done, we

haven't done enough of, but we've done is we've

actually raised money for what we call gap

scholarships, and, so, students go, and they're in

there, and they're talking to the financial aid

folks, and they're trying to register, and they're

$500, $700 away, we can go find that money and say,

go ahead and enroll, we're going to help you

through. So, we do find that money makes a

difference, just even at very small levels, and

there's a whole national discussion on those types

of funds as well. So again, advising.

We've tried something else with some smaller

groups, it's a little more expensive per student,

but I think it probably pays off, it's something

called graduation coaches, where somebody's not

just an advisor, for lack of a better term, I call

it concierge service, where if I have a question

about, whether it's residence halls, whether it's

financial aid, getting into classes, whatever that

might be, I need somebody to go to, and this goes

back to my earlier point about it breaks my heart

to hear students talking about, well, I had to go

here, then I was sent over here, then over here,

and I remember those days, and that's not

welcoming, and, so, this idea that somehow, we can

be more welcoming and friendly and customer-focused

and make sure that their experience is one where we

help them through. So, then we look at some other

things. You talked about excess hours, we call it

the super seniors and things like that, which is a

bit of a misnomer, I guess, but it happens

oftentimes with transfer students, and that's where

we also need to have better relationships, with the

transferring institutions, and we've actually put

advisors out into some of those institutions.

Also, though, we need to look at the offering of

classes, and it sounds real simple, but what

happens sometimes, if a student can't get into a

certain class, just to make a schedule, they'll

enroll in something that really doesn't take them

toward their degree, and so we need to get rid of

bottlenecks, and that's one thing we are facing

dramatically right now, are these bottleneck

classes, where I'm dealing with, I can't even tell

you how many right now, we are scrambling to find

instructors and space just to find them the

classes, because otherwise, they're going to fill

up a schedule with something else, and they're

going to have excess hours, so that makes a

difference as well. Also, we can look at things

like fees. We have found that fees make a big

difference, so we're taking a hard, introspective

look at fees. Also, the cost of textbooks, and

this is actually, I've been at national meetings

talking about this, and that the cost of textbooks

can be driven down oftentimes by technology in some

fashion, and, so, the whole state of Georgia has

had this initiative to actually pay people to write

text and do things that can then become open

source, and, so, there are some things we can take

a hard look at, because that cost of textbooks can

get quite expensive, and that can add significantly

to that cost of education as well.

So, it's this whole assortment of

interventions that we can take, and I'm going to

throw one last thing on, even though I'm giving you

probably a lengthier answer than what you had asked

for, and that is when I go back to advising, we're

actually bringing on some software that will give

very early alerts if there are issues with a

student, to try to help them through that process,

and there could be academic issues, there could be

other types of issues, and we're in the process of

putting in the metrics that we would use there,

where we can have alerts come up, and there can be

what we call intervention type of advising, to call

the student in and say, it looks like you may have

an issue here, what do we need to do to get you

some help, some supplemental instruction, some

tutoring, whatever that might be. So, it's a whole

assortment. We have seen an increase, I'm

especially proud of our first and second-year

retention rates, and, um, it looks like we're

showing some promise.


CANDIDATE: Yes, sir.

COMMITTEE: Vice chair Roepstorff.

COMMITTEE: Yes. In implementing those things

and talking about them, how do you dissimilate that

and get it, make it effective throughout? Because,

obviously, you can't do it all.

CANDIDATE: You're exactly right. Um, you

know, I will say we're still in process on all of

these things, so, I mean, I can't say we've climbed

that hill.

COMMITTEE: How would you want to do that?

CANDIDATE: And some of what we've done as

well. One is we have to be very systematic, and

communication makes all the difference. So, for

example, with advising, um, we brought on this

director of advising across campus, now and this

gets kind of tricky, because we have advising

centers within the colleges, and I'm a real

believer of colleges having great autonomy, in

fact, I usually tell deans, you're the president of

your own college, and I'm here to help you, so I'm

a real believer of that kind of decentralization

for colleges, but at the same time, we need some

kind of integrative experience. So, what we've

done is we have formed an advising group that goes

across the university, so these people get together

and talk about the issues that students are facing,

that they are facing and what they can do better,

and bringing on this software, while not easy, from

a lot of different perspectives, has helped,

because they're now all speaking the same language.

Now, I'm going to add one other thing here too.

When we looked out there, we had some with a

faculty advising model, some had a professional

advising model, some had a peer advising model, and

we had to say, especially in the Provost office,

we're going to direct resources that go out there

and hire advisors. To be very candid, I just put

in the request for 25 new advisors for next fall.

We'll see if we get them, but that's the request of

we need more, because what we have found, if you

look at the research, professional advisors make a

difference, they make a real difference. That is

their life, and, so, we need to get more of that

out there, get them the tools that they need to

have that common experience and then get them

talking to one another about what can be done for

the students.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Allen from the College of

Business. You usually have a question, so you're

getting picked on.

COMMITTEE: Sure. I really want to ask a

question about your Dancing with the stars

experience up in Marietta.

CANDIDATE: I did do that, but we're not going

to talk about that.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: Let's go on to something

different.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: The next president of FGCU will

join us after we've finalized a new strategic plan.

CANDIDATE: Mm-hmm.

COMMITTEE: You'll have, certainly, the

opportunity to shape and operationalize that plan,

so can you describe your experience with either

leading the strategic planning process,

implementing a plan or using the strategic plan as

a decision tool?

CANDIDATE: Sure. Great question. Um, if I

go back to my various administrative roles,

department chair roles, dean roles, and now

Provost, I've been either leading a strategic

planning effort, I guess in multiple departments,

because we always had to have a strategic plan, in

fact, it had to be in place for our accreditation,

which I'm sure you're well aware of, and so we had

to have it there, so I led the strategic planning

initiative at a number of universities in the

departments and at two colleges of business, and

then coming into the Provost role, I will just say,

I was part of a small leadership team that led now

two strategic plans and implemented one of those

plans. The second one is actually one that, we

were going through it last year, then we had a

change of president, then we were starting down

another path, then we had another change of

president, so it's been kind of an iterative

process, but we're still going through that, and

I'm part of that leadership team. Um, so, one

thing, and I guess I should also say I've also been

a consultant to non-profits and corporations in

strategic planning as well, so that's part of my

history. Um, the, what I've learned, though, is a

strategic plan is not the strategic plan of one

person, a strategic plan is a strategic plan of the

organization. So, I know at some universities,

there is oftentimes a concern, well, wait a minute,

we have a new president coming in, wouldn't they

want to shape the strategic plan?

To me, again, the strategic plan is the

university's strategic plan, you know, it should be

dynamic, and, so, when I actually look at the

strategic plan that you have, I actually see, I see

one that, one, it's very good. I do like the four

pillars in there. Again, going back to my first

answer, and that is you're not trying to be

everything to everyone. There's some great

specificity in there. In fact, I have gone in as a

strategic planning consultant sometimes and asked

the first question of what are you not, what do you

not do, and sometimes, that helps you define

yourself a little bit. So, when I look at this

one, um, I see great specificity, I see a lot of

room though to be flexible within there, and then

one thing, I think that's very important with

strategic planning, that I have learned from all

these years, is too often, they are fluffy and get

put in a drawer, and you can pick it up at many

universities, and you can just change the name of

the university, and they would look the same.

Again, this one does not look that way, very

sincerely. I'm a believer that strategic plans

should have metrics in there, things that we can

measure, how well are we indeed doing. They should

drive the discussion of budgets, they should

describe the process of prioritization, and it

should be a time, I can remember a time when we, in

my department, we were talking about something as

simple as when to schedule classes, and we went

back and we said, in our strategic plan, we said

that we are here to serve both part-time evening

and daytime. Now, this was another department

years ago, but we went back to the strategic plan,

it helped guide our thinking and our

decision-making, and I think strategic plans should

do that at every level as well.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Harrington.

COMMITTEE: Um, you had said, um, that you

support our four pillars at the university. In

your past experience, you created a degree program

that addressed needs in high-demand areas,

including health sciences, you helped create an

entrepreneur center and a business incubator. Um,

give me an example of, um, of one of the programs

that you saw was needed in a high-demand area that

you created at Kennesaw.

CANDIDATE: Okay, and again, I won't take

personal credit, because it's all of us, but yeah,

there's one that, um, well, I'll go ahead and give

you two examples, if I may. One I can think of

that's really exciting and a little bit different

was when we developed the, we started talking about

a culinary program. Now, this was not culinary

arts, this is more culinary management, and we

wanted to do something a little different, and we

actually created something called the culinary

sustainability hospitality, and that is actually,

and in fact, I remember the first time I wrote it

out, I put a comma between culinary and

sustainability, and the director said, no, no, no,

remember, this is culinary sustainability, and this

is also sustainability related to hospitality, and

so we know that things like culinary and that arena

are very exciting right now, and indeed, that

program has gone within, I think it's two or three

years now, um, from zero to, I'd say 250 to 300

majors. We've had a multi-million dollar naming

gift, to name that school now, and students are

absolutely flocking to it. One that's even more

recent, something we're doing right now is cyber

security, which is an interdisciplinary program. I

was co-chair, I should say vice chair, not

co-chair, vice chair of a task force in the state

of Georgia to look at cyber security and the

demands, to say are huge, would be an

understatement. So, I think, if I remember the

numbers, I think there are over 8,000 cyber

security jobs in Georgia a year, and the whole

system in Georgia was producing 49 graduates, and

that's a pretty big gap, so we formed a cyber

security institute that is a collaboration among

numerous colleges, and that's actually being done

right now.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Harmon, just a follow-up to

that. So, Atlanta's a little bit different than

southwest Florida, for a variety of reasons,

obviously. One of the roles that the university

plays in this region is the cultural hub, and you

have a great business background, but as president,

you would represent all of the different

disciplines, so how do you view the arts, and how

would you envision a Harmon presidency, taking the

arts out and making sure that we grow the cultural

hub of the region through the university and your

presidency?

CANDIDATE: Great question. I was just

meeting with our arts dean yesterday, who is a dear

friend, and we talk about this a lot, because I see

arts as one of the critical doors to the community.

In fact, it's one of those natural openings to the

community that cannot be, it cannot be

overleveraged, I mean, there is just so much to be

done there, and, so, I think it's absolutely

critical, and I think if you, if you wanted to talk

to the arts dean, I think she would say that,

indeed, I am extremely supportive of their role, I

mean, also, the academic role, but also the

cultural regional role, and we have dramatically

increased our investment in the arts. We are

currently investing even more into some studio

spaces and things like that as well. I think, um,

on a personal note, I also was a semi-professional

guitar player for most of my life, so I remember, I

was a guitar player for someone in Arizona, I also

helped him with his taxes.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: So, um, you know, that kind of

thing, but, um, so, there's at least an

appreciation there and an understanding of what the

arts can do, and, so, I think it's an absolute must

for a university, and in fact, usually, it's

expected of a university.

COMMITTEE: Wonderful. Are you a follow-up?

Vice chair Roepstorff, she's going to kind of

follow-up, evidently.

COMMITTEE: Seeing that, I notice you put

emphasis on your honor's college. Tell me what

that's done for you.

CANDIDATE: I'll tell you what I'm hoping it's

going to do.

COMMITTEE: Good, because we need to hear

that.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: This goes back about, um, gosh, I

want to say three years ago. We had an honor's

program, and frankly, this was a conversation, one

day, the president and I were talking, he said, do

you think we need an honor's college, I said, yes,

I think we need an honor's college, so we decided

to have an honor's college, and we talked about

why. I mean, it was more than that kind of a

flippant conversation, and, so, we have an honor's

college. We've had interim leadership, wonderful,

wonderful people in interim leadership roles, but

just this past year, we went out and actually hired

a permanent dean for the honor's college who had

that kind of experience, and in fact, I just met

with her yesterday as well, and we're still talking

through what it means for us. Obviously, it's

providing, as a university gets larger, you have to

provide that kind of experience, that small college

feel within a large university that an honor's

college brings to get the high performance

students, I think that's just the automatic part of

the honor's college. I think, though, there's also

other pieces to the honor's college. As we start

talking about recruiting of students, we cannot go

out into that marketplace of students and treat

them all the same, there's a whole different, there

are different strata of students out there. So,

when we look out there and we see high-performing

students, we need to have the honor's college part

of that recruiting effort, and that is something

that we are deliberately trying to do, and I will

say, we are in the very, very early stages of that.

Now, we've done a whole recruiting study, that's

another, um, story, but part of that says you've

got to proactively reach out. Another piece that

comes with that is I have gone to our trustees and

our foundation, and our trustees are foundation

trustees, they are not governance trustees for the

university, but I went to our trustees at their

retreat, and we were talking about priorities, and

what I said would be a wonderful priority for us

would be to have presidential scholars, true

presidential scholars that have a lot of money

behind them and go out and get some of those

students who could come in, be a vibrant part of

the honor's college and have that kind of

experience.

COMMITTEE: Dean Gregerson.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. I wanted to ask you

about the need for garnering external resources is

becoming evermore important, and I'd like to learn

more about your experience there and the roles that

you have played in getting external funds for the

university.

CANDIDATE: Okay.

COMMITTEE: Or universities.

CANDIDATE: Sure. If I go back to when I

first became a department chair, again, as you

know, my background is accounting. An accounting

department chair, part of their role, almost

always, is fundraising, and it's going out to

usually CPA firms, also, there's other corporate

entities that can be part of this as well, so

fundraising has been part of my portfolio of

responsibilities from the first day I became an

administrator, so I have, if I go way back to in

Arizona and Tennessee and different places, where

you go out there and find donors, but you really,

it's more that development of relationships and

having them believe in what you're doing, because

what we find is people are very willing to give, we

just have to develop a compelling case for why

here, and, so, what you do is generate a sense of

excitement, let them be part of it as well. So,

that has always been part of my portfolio. I've

increased numbers of gifts, amount of gifts, over

those years. Coming into a dean's role, also a

similar thing, but just at a larger scale, and, um,

being in that role, um, what I did, and I did some

of this at the department level, but more so at the

college level, is went to advisory boards and had

very strong advisory boards, and a couple of times,

I've had advisory boards where fundraising was not

part of what they did, and so I would meet with the

chair of the advisory board and say, what do you

think about this? And then have the chair go to

the group and say, let's work on this, and so

therefore, they became what we call give or get

boards, you know, give this much or get this much,

there's just that expectation to be there. Um,

I've also been part of writing major proposals,

I've been part of designing priorities for capitol

campaigns and developing case statements.

One thing I can tell you as a Provost, I'll go

back to, um, 2010, the president called me, and I

remember the day, I was on the golf course, with a

donor, by the way, and my phone rang, and I saw it

was the president, so I said, I'm going to sit this

hole out and talk to the president, and he said,

um, Ken, do you want to be Provost? We just lost

our Provost, and I said no, and he said, are you

sure? I thought you might want to be Provost. I

said, sir, I'm enjoying being a dean, so I

respectfully decline, and he was really just asking

if I wanted to apply. He said would you be willing

to be the interim? And I said sure. So, I did.

Happy to help. I said as long as it's known that I

won't be an applicant, and this is coming around to

your answer, by the way, and that is I, that year,

I did not apply, we ran a search, it didn't work,

I'll just put it that way. The president came back

to me and said, why don't you want to be a Provost?

And I said, because there are some things that a

Provost oftentimes does or doesn't do that I love

doing, and so I mentioned fundraising. I like

being out there, talking to people, generating the

excitement and telling the story. It was also

community relations, because I'm one of those, I

enjoy going, doing the rotary talks and those kinds

of things, and again, telling the story, it's all

kind of that same set of examples, if you will, of

the excitement of a place and who you're pitching

it to, and, so, I really wanted to be part of those

things, and so, actually, he said, as we got, he

convinced he to apply, and he said, what if we

change your portfolio of responsibilities to

include those things as well? So, I have had

fundraising within that also, and, um, so, that has

been part of my role, and again, I have great

relationships with major donors, and I could say

one of them is one of my best friends, and it just

started with those types of relationships.



COMMITTEE: Dr. Isern, did you have a

question?

COMMITTEE: I think you had an earlier

follow-up, didn't you?

COMMITTEE: This is actually a new question.

So, FGCU shared governance tradition brings

together faculty, staff and students. We would

like to know what shared governance means to you,

especially the role you feel a president should

take in shared governance and how you would assess

the will of the different constituents. In

addition, if you could please address any role

you've had in working with a unionized faculty.

CANDIDATE: Okay. I'll go ahead and address

the last one first. Quite honestly, I've been at a

lot of places, but I've never dealt with a

unionized faculty. Um, at the same time, I've

dealt with, um, areas that had significant amounts

of shared governance. If I go back out to Arizona,

they had a very strong shared governance system,

and actually, where I am now, at Kennesaw State, we

do as well. In fact, we've enhanced it

dramatically in the 10 years that I've been there,

and I'll get more specific to some of your

questions. Um, frankly, we talk oftentimes about

shared governance in academic settings. Honestly,

it should go to any setting. In the corporate

world, there's this notion of what we call

participation and acceptance, you accept things

more if you're part of that decision-making, and,

so, it's just the right thing to do, and you make

better decisions doing it. The thing is you have

to be very deliberate to hear all points. What we

have done where I am is we have actually identified

shared governance bodies, and when we came through

this recent consolidation, we took another look at

shared governance and actually expanded shared

governance, and that is we broke out, we have a

staff senate, I think here, it's SAC or something

like that, if I recall, but a staff group, and we

have administrators group, students group, dean

group, a department chairs group, a number of

different constituencies, and there are, when we're

dealing with a policy, we actually have a group

that ensures it goes through all of those different

groups, and they provide input all along the way,

and, so, I think you'll find that I'm a great

believer in shared governance. Too often, I've

seen it just have lip-service. It needs to be

quite real. I think if you were to ask faculty

senate where I am, also, our local chapter of AAUP,

again, we're not unionized, but we do have AAUP,

I'm actually a member and have been active with

those folks, and they come directly to me for

issues quite frequently, and we do reach out to

them. Coming to I think the other part, as far as

a president's role here, I think a president, I've

often said you accomplish what you schedule, and so

you actually have to schedule time to sit down and

listen to different groups. So, there's just

hearing different groups, and then there's policy

process. For a president, I think, oftentimes, you

have to make sure you're hearing different groups,

so you actually have to have different groups,

whether it's students, whether it's faculty,

whether it's staff, and actually meet with those

groups and hear them and talk to them.

COMMITTEE: So, um, we're down to we have

about 10 more minutes before we turn it over to

you, so I want to ask a question that relates back

to one of your first answers. So, here at the

university, we are very concerned about our, well,

we talk about six-year graduation rate, which I

don't like, I like to talk about four-year

graduation rate.

COMMITTEE: Its just the data they collect.

CANDIDATE: I don't like that.

COMMITTEE: I agree.

COMMITTEE: With that said, it is a major

concern, and you've talked about you've

increased 12 basis points on your graduation rates

over time, and I know you've answered this

probably, but I want more specifics, what would you

do, we've hired advisors, a lot of the things

you've talked about, we've done, we've implemented

a software program for intervention, but I'm still

sitting at the same number I was 9 years ago,

whatever that is. So, I'm looking for someone to

come in here and be dynamic in tackling this

problem, because if we fix graduation rate, the

other metrics that we're concerned about, time to

degree, excess hours, cost of degree, those will

come down, they will fall into line, because that's

what drives, or it should drive those metric

calculations. So, can you give us a flavor for

what you would do to tackle that problem day one?

CANDIDATE: Great question, and I have seen

your data, and I saw that you had the increase, and

then back down and things like that. I mean, I've

taken a look at that, and to say that we, I think I

made the point that we were doing very poorly, so

we're sitting around the same number you are right

now, so I know quite a bit about that position and

then what it takes to go from there, and that is a

bigger lift, I will admit, and I don't take it

lightly. If you, I'm part of a group that meets in

DC a time or two every year and talks about this

very issue at a, it's kind of a think tank up

there, and I'm going to give you an answer that, I

can give you specifics, depending on what we find,

but frankly, we have to go in and use data. Data

are critical, and historically, we've had, and

that's what we found. We were out there doing a

whole bunch of different things, and just, gosh,

I'll go back just two weeks ago, somebody sat in my

office and said, we're doing all these different

things, have we brought them together as a

strategy? I said we have not, so we've got to meet

and come up with a strategy, pull it all together,

but we have to have data, because data will tell

you the story, because we can go out there and say,

I'll go to an advisor and say, well, what do you

think it is? Well, that advisor is going to tell

you their view of the world, which may be very

accurate for their world. So, what we have to do

is go out and get data and say is it financial, is

it readiness. Readiness is also a huge issue, and

so that may have to do with the nature of your

admissions. Is it difficulty in certain classes

and supplemental instruction, especially parallel

supplemental instruction has been shown to make a

huge difference. So, we have to go figure out what

the problem is before we come up with the answer.

We can sit here and talk about, I mean, there are a

lot of possible answers, and these things work very

well, but the worst thing you want to do is hit a

target that's the wrong target. So, I think the

metrics are and the data analysis are quite crucial

to see what's actually happening there, and, so,

that would be my first thing, would be what data do

you have, what does it say, what better data could

we get, how quickly can we get it, and what systems

do we put in place to analyze the data and take

actions accordingly.

COMMITTEE: Outstanding. I think Mr. Morton

has a question, and then I may come back. I have

one too, but I want you to do yours first, and then

I'll come back to mine.

COMMITTEE: I think those of us with a

healthcare/medical background understand root cause

analysis, which is probably what you're talking

about.

CANDIDATE: Exactly.

COMMITTEE: What we haven't talked about is

accountability. How do you hold the people who

work with you accountable, and do you have any idea

and impression about accountability in respect to

the chair's question? A lot of the tools are in

place, whether they're in the state university

system or not. What we lack at times is

accountability.

CANDIDATE: Um, I will tell you what I am

doing currently, and it's been a dialogue that we

created starting about two years ago. I went to

the deans, at that time, we had 13 deans, now I

have 14 deans, and we got together and said

allocation of resources will be based on outcomes

and will be based on something other than rhetoric.

Budgets oftentimes have been based on a person's

ability to argue, and, so, what we have done is

gone to the deans, and this has been a collective

conversation, so again, it's that participation and

acceptance notion, and, so, we've gone out to these

deans, and we've said, we're going to get some

data, and we're going to look at where you have

bottlenecks, where there may be the

underutilization of resources, and there's a lot of

ways that that happens, and before you can ask for

another dollar, we've got to make sure you're using

what you have the right way now. So, it's been a

real awakening, to say that budgets are going to

follow management and effective use of resources.

COMMITTEE: So, if an institution is held

accountable for a four-year graduation rate, should

individual deans be held accountable for the

four-year graduation rate?

CANDIDATE: Yes. Now, I'm going to give them

a chance, which is just a management philosophy of

mine, that I'm going to give you every chance under

the sun, and it's a team effort, and we're going to

go after this together, but I do think that we work

together, and then we need to make it work, but I'm

also not going to just point, if I'm not part of

the team, I should be held accountable as well.

COMMITTEE: And that leads me to my final

question, then we're going to turn it over to you.

So, if you think about risk profile for you, are

you a risk-adverse person, you like a methodical

process, or are you a come in and change the world

and, you know, you're going to have your first

presidency, if you were to get this job, and so are

you adverse to risk, and so you're a process

person, or are you going to come in, are you going

to assume some risk, and you know you're going to

upset the apple cart a bit, or are you going to

turn the cart over, run over the apples and then

say, there you go?

CANDIDATE: I'll stay away from the extremes

on that one, and yes, I have three degrees in

accounting, but most of my personality profiles

show that I'm anything other than an accounting

personality. I'm going to give you a measured

response to that, and that is I believe in taking

bold steps, I believe in taking bold actions. I

believe, though, in coming in and understanding the

team, understanding the culture. In fact, I go

back to the statement that culture eats strategy

for breakfast. Culture makes a huge difference.

So, you got to go in and truly care about the

people around you and really bring them along and

give them an opportunity to blossom. So, I'm not

going to capriciously and I would not capriciously

throw people out. At the same time, we're going to

get together as a team, and we're going to get

bold, make bold moves, and we're going to do it

with a lot of excitement, and I think it would

become apparent if somebody is not part of that

team over time, but it's really more of just a

collective sense of culture and doing something

that's a lot of fun together, and we get to watch

those metrics together, and, so, it is bold, but I

do, you will find that probably number one priority

for me is culture, and it's a culture of respect

and caring about all of the people around you,

making them feel like they're part of a team.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. With that, I think

we'll reverse the roles, and we'll let you ask us

questions. I would just ask you direct the

questions to me, then I will disperse them across

the committee for answers based on what you asked.

So, with that, you have the floor.

CANDIDATE: Okay. Thank you, and thank you

for the questions, by the way. This has been fun.

Um, and this may have multiple parts to it, but I'm

going to just ask it in the broad way first, and

that is if I were to go out here into the community

and go to, let's say an employer, or go to just

somebody who has high school students and say, tell

me about FGCU, what would they tell me?

COMMITTEE: I think I will ask Mr. Winton

first. He is a business leader in the community,

so I think I'll let him respond to that. I may let

a couple people, but I'll start with him.

CANDIDATE: Sure. Please. I would like to

hear different perspectives.

COMMITTEE: Good question. For me personally,

I would say that FGCU is a focal point of our

community, and as a local business owner, I've

invested time and resources in the university,

because I believe in it, and education was the

outlet for me, and I want other young people that

look like me or don't look like me to have the same

advantages that I've had because I got a great

education, and, so, um, I said in an earlier

interview that, um, FGCU, because it's 20 years old

only, has a lot of mothers and fathers that dote on

it quite a bit.

CANDIDATE: I like that. Thank you.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Call, I'll ask you to give an

opinion to that.

COMMITTEE: Okay. I will echo that, as well

as, again, it was said earlier that, um, the

founders are still around, so there's a lot of

pride in the marketplace. So, businesses, um, and

adults think very highly of it. I have two

children, one just now entering college, I guess a

sophomore in college and a sophomore in high

school, so I get to see an array of children at our

home a lot, which is great, but we, but to get

their perspective and hear it is, um, is very

similar. Sometimes, you wouldn't think that, but

definitely, the high school kids do believe that

Florida Gulf Coast University is a very viable

option for them, to attend this university, and

it's a close university, so some of them will say

that too, that it's a little too close, I need to

go else where, but they do think it's a very good

university. So, that's my perspective. I've not

heard anyone, no one, say it's not a good

university, unless they're extremely close to it

and they know some of the metrics that they want to

see changed, you do hear that, but on the

outskirts, I wouldn't think, I don't think I've

ever heard the metrics comments outside of this

room or the Board of Trustees or that type of

thing. I would tell you it's a very highly

regarded university in the business community and

in the, just the civil community.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Harrington, would you like to

add a Charlotte County view to this?

COMMITTEE: Yes. Thank you. It's my belief,

from what I hear from, you know, my people up the

coast here, about 40 minutes away in Charlotte

County, um, FGCU is a school of higher learning.

We commute a lot of our students here, some do

reside on campus. Um, we're filling a need that's

been long-needed, you know, for Charlotte County.

I've lived up there for 37 years, and when the

university came along, it was, whew, we finally got

a school that's local, and it's going to serve us

well. We wish we did see more of the leadership up

there. We do serve an older age community, older,

I think we're the second oldest county in the

nation, Charlotte County, and, um, they, the

university does a good job, I think, of serving the

needs of those folks who have retired from industry

and leadership and, you know, all levels of

industry, and there's a cultural need up there, and

the school has done a great job of serving that

need and Renaissance Academy, done a great job, and

Susan came from the university, or came from

Charlotte County and was very involved in our

community up there before, and she's done a great

job, and we're proud of her down here.

COMMITTEE: And I would just add to that, you

know, one of the, I guess, um, one of the things

that I've benefited greatly from, getting to chair

this committee and probably one of the more

rewarding aspects is getting to interact with the

community and hear the community and what they

think about the university, and I would echo what

everybody has said; it's been eye-opening to me how

important FGCU is to everybody in this community.

When we think about community a lot of times, we

also have interior counties that we serve, and

those kids come here or adults come here for

continuing education, and, um, it's been very

gratifying for me. I told somebody earlier today,

it's unfortunate that, um, everybody that's a

trustee doesn't get to do something like this,

because it is an eye-opening experience for what

this institution means to this economy, to the

people of this community and the students here.

So, I think you would hear nothing but praises, and

I agree with you, Mr. Call, um, sometimes, people

only hear us as trustees talk about metrics and our

disappointment, but the sad thing is is we don't

talk about all the great things that go on in the

community. Our kids have contributed 1.2 million

hours, no, 2 million community service hours, so we

are ingrained in this community, and we will

continue to be, and that's what we're looking for

in the next president, to take us to it next level.

Vice chair Roepstorff?

COMMITTEE: There's one negative comment, or

we wouldn't be honest with ourselves.

COMMITTEE: Please.

COMMITTEE: And being in economic development,

and I think our chair can chime in, we don't

produce enough graduates. We have the CPA world,

we have, sometimes, the engineering world, saying

I'll take everyone you can produce, so we just

can't produce them fast enough, so there is a good

job market here, the graduates get good jobs, but

we need, that's the only negative comment I ever

hear, we're an economic engine.

CANDIDATE: Wow. Excess demand is not usually

a huge problem, but I get it. It's a nice problem

to have, in some ways.

COMMITTEE: But then when they hear the

six-year graduation rate, they say, what is your

problem?

CANDIDATE: Right.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Morton, you have a follow-up

or a comment?

COMMITTEE: We have, um, two of us are past

chairs of the chamber of commerce, and, um, I

think, without speaking for the other, FGCU is

viewed as the engine which drives the economy of

southwest Florida, and we trust that we have

visionary people continue to lead FGCU, because I

think we've been the beneficiaries, three wonderful

people who have laid the groundwork, and we stand

on their shoulders, so to speak, but we're ready to

take the next step, but FGCU is viewed in the

affirmative by everybody, and I think we eat our

own cooking, to put it in more Dick and Jane terms.

CANDIDATE: I know what you mean.

COMMITTEE: We have roughly 50 employees,

and 13 of them are graduates of FGCU, and we could

pick and choose from all over the country what we

do, and we choose to hire FGCU grads because of

their preparation through the Lutgert School, and

also something else, it's quite different, a sense

of humility. I don't know if it's the nature of

the school or the culture, but they don't have a

sense of entitlement. The young men and women

we've hired want to work hard, they produce,

they've gotten a wonderful education, as well as a

wonderful experience, and they're extraordinary

young men and women.

CANDIDATE: Great answer. Can I do a quick

follow-up on that? Do we have time?

COMMITTEE: Yes. Absolutely, you do.

CANDIDATE: In what ways could Florida Gulf

Coast be more connected to the community? Anybody.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Morton.

COMMITTEE: Um, I think by chiming into the

needs of the local community and building on the

strategic alliances and advantages that southwest

Florida has. As we've learned, we have an elderly

population in parts of southwest Florida, we have

very vibrant and young parts of southwest Florida,

communities that really growing and emerging as

very young communities, both by age and by age of

the community itself, the structure. By leveraging

those strategic strengths, as an example, I'll just

speak to healthcare, enlightened self-interest is a

very powerful motivator, and we heard earlier that,

I'm from here, by the way, I'm from Islamorada, and

next time you're there, buy your groceries at the

Trading Post.

CANDIDATE: There's some place I go every

morning, but I don't know the name of it. There's

a place I get chicken and biscuits.

COMMITTEE: Healthcare is a powerful

motivator, and it's also an economic engine, and

because people from southwest Florida, most of them

come from someplace else, I'm a graduate of Ohio

State or Michigan or Wisconsin or whatever, and

they have those loyalties that we touched on, but

enlightened self-interest, a powerful medical

community and an engine that drives the future of

medicine as an example, you want to be part of

that, and you want to be part of that for a number

of reasons. One, I'd like to be part of success.

Two, if we have a powerful medical engine here in

southwest Florida, that's liable to help me live

longer. Its going to have value to me beyond just

the immediacy of advancing FGCU. So, how we

leverage those strategic strengths, I think is very

important, and identifying those within southwest

Florida.

CANDIDATE: That's a great answer.

COMMITTEE: Other questions, Dr. Harmon, you

would have for us?

CANDIDATE: Where are you on a capitol

campaign?

COMMITTEE: Mr. Call.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Chairman of the foundation, he

likes to talk about this.

COMMITTEE: You guys really like this campaign

stuff. Um, so, we started, a couple years ago, a

$100 million campaign. We are above

the $90 million mark and see no challenge at

getting to, I hate to say that, because anybody

listening might say well then I'll hold off on

giving, um, they should help us get way over the

mark, but we feel very comfortable that we are

going to reach our $100 million, and, so, that's

the big capitol campaign. Um, for me, it's more

about how are we using it and that type of thing,

and I think we're doing a very good job of using

that. Scholarships, also using it around campus

and new buildings and that type of thing. So, um,

I feel very comfortable that on our 20th

anniversary, we will hopefully reach our

$100 million, and that's a pretty big for us,

because, again, I explained earlier, we don't have

an alumni base, other than, um, Mr. Morton over

here.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: That's older than 35, and he's

just barely older than 35.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: But, literally, you'd be 35, if

you were one of our first graduates, I believe,

something of that nature anyway, 38, maybe, but,

yeah, so, not a whole lot of gifting from our

alumni, but that doesn't mean we don't pay

attention to that alumni, because someday, they

will be. So, lots of different ways we go about

that, but this is a very giving community, all the

way up the coast, and, so, it's been very fun.

It's been a joy for me to be able to go out and

talk to those people.

CANDIDATE: Frankly, that's impressive, for

your size and your age, that's an impressive

number, so congratulations. Very nice job.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Harmon, back to you. Other

questions?

CANDIDATE: Where is your footprint in the

international arena?

COMMITTEE: That's a great question. Does

anybody want to, Dean Gregerson.

COMMITTEE: Yeah, I'll just say that that is a

real opportunity for growth. I'll put it that way.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: Master of euphemism. Thank you.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: We do have a number of

international programs and agreements, but I think

we've just dipped our toe in the water.

CANDIDATE: I understand.

COMMITTEE: And I think leadership in that

area would be most welcome.

CANDIDATE: Okay. I mean, I know you've done

some things, and at your age, I wouldn't expect a

whole lot, frankly.


COMMITTEE: We have, I trust what I'm about to

say is totally accurate, I believe we have the

largest manufacturer in the world of micro

orthopedic instrumentation in our community. They

sell globally. They just opened a 250,000-square

foot facility in Munich that I've had the

opportunity to see. They're all over the world.

We have a lot of people who come, certainly where

I'm from in Naples, we see a tremendous amount of

foreign, generally visitors in terms of hospitality

trade. Southwest Florida is on the map, now it's

on the map for hospitality, maybe it's on the map

for golf, but we have an enormous opportunity to

leverage that and the international exposure in so

many different ways, and I think it's a real

strategic advantage of southwest Florida right now.

COMMITTEE: And it's also something that can

change the lives of students fairly dramatically is

one thing I've found.

CANDIDATE: One more?

COMMITTEE: I got all week. We can be here

all day.

CANDIDATE: One more quick question, if you

will.

CANDIDATE: How would you describe the culture

internally at Florida Gulf Coast?

COMMITTEE: T, I'm going to let you, as a

student, you did really well with that earlier, so

I think I'd let our student body president discuss

that.

COMMITTEE: Okay. Um, I would say the overall

campus culture is focused around two very

interesting things, one being diversity, and the

other one being, um, environmental sustainability.

As a student body, we want our university to be and

understand the uniqueness of our student population

and be able to accommodate to those needs of the

different student groups on campus, and at the same

time, really hone in on the environmental

sustainability efforts that, one, we portray and

that we have encompassed in our academic portfolio.

So, it's one of those things that we, as a large

group of students, really pride themselves on,

coming to FGCU because of the environmental

components of this university. So, I would say

that, those two things, those two key things really

describe our student culture.

CANDIDATE: And you think things are going

well in both of those areas?

COMMITTEE: I think there could be some work

done in each of those areas respectively. There's

some things that need to be worked on, and just

having the right person to really focus in on that

and not lose sight of that, given the direction

given by the Board of Governors and the Board of

Trustees and really take that direction and infuse

it with those key things is important.

CANDIDATE: Great answer. I can see why

you're the president of the student body.

COMMITTEE: We're glad you noticed that. He's

a wonderful young man. With that, I want to thank

you for your time today and your answers to the

questions, and on behalf of the whole committee,

thank you for coming down and having an interest

and spending some time with us and just, you know,

it's been really an interesting, or a fun time

talking to you, and I just appreciate you being

here today, so thank you very much.

CANDIDATE: Thank you. Let me, if I could,

just very quickly, um, I've been on that side of

the table many, many, many times, I know this has

been a long day, I know you have an even longer day

tomorrow, I know you don't get told thank you

enough, so just on behalf of the academic

community, thank you. Also, I've had a lot of fun

today, so it's just been an honor being here. So,

thank you very much.

COMMITTEE: Thank you, Dr. Harmon. If

everybody can just hang on for, like, 2 minutes, we

have a few housekeeping things we need to take care

of, so I'll be right back.

�

Dr. Donna Henry

ROUGH EDITED COPY



7:30 A.M. ET



[email protected]

(Writer standing by.)

COMMITTEE: All right, can we kind of get back

to order, if you will? Dr. Henry, welcome back to

Florida Gulf Coast University, or FGCU, as you know

it. Committee, I am pleased to introduce Dr. Donna

Henry. Dr. Henry is a chancellor at the University

of Virginia College at Wise. We are pleased to

have this opportunity to spend some time with you.

Our schedule provides for 55 minutes of committee

questions of you, and then we're going to reverse

the role and give you 15 minutes to ask us

questions.

CANDIDATE: Great.

COMMITTEE: That you may have. Um, so, at

this point, the other thing, as we did yesterday, I

will let everybody know when we hit the 15-minute

mark so that we can switch roles with Dr. Henry,

but I think I'll get started with the first

question. Dr. Henry, um, why Florida Gulf Coast

University? Which I think you probably know, but

we'll let you tell us again, but more importantly,

why come back at this point in your career?

CANDIDATE: Thank you so much, Dr. Smith I

appreciate that, and I'm so pleased to be here

today to visit with all of you, and in flying in

last night, it was a little bit like coming home,

landing at RSW and seeing some of the students at

the airport who are students at FGCU, and, um, it

felt a little bit like the first time I visited

Wise, with a very big welcoming from students and

excitement, and this wanting to know why are you

here. I said, well, I have some business at the

university tomorrow. Oh, I'm a student at the

university, what are you doing tomorrow? I said,

well, I'll be interviewing for the presidency. Oh

my goodness, that's so exciting, and where are you

now, and then, you know, checked me into the car,

and when I got into the car, he said, now, when

you're president at Florida Gulf Coast University

and I come to visit you, will you remember me?

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: I said, of course, I will. So,

it's very exciting to be here, and, you know, as I,

you know, it's easy to reminisce of the things that

I did while I was here. It was a great opportunity

to be a faculty member at Florida Gulf Coast

University, to see all the changes that happened

over time, and to be a part of building an

institution that I'm very proud of, and I think

that Florida Gulf Coast has done some great things.

As you know from looking at my CV, I came in and

really took on some leadership in the college of

Arts and Sciences, I had an opportunity to work

with the faculty senate and to be the, um, chair of

the faculty senate, the president of the faculty

senate, and during that time was a transition in

Florida, so it was a transition for Florida Gulf

Coast University, when the Board of Regents went

away and we had a local Board of Trustees, so I had

the opportunity as the faculty senate president to

be a part of that founding Board of Trustees and to

understand, um, the leadership and the governance

of the university, which I think is an important

part. I took over the leadership of the college of

Arts and Sciences as dean in 2005 in an interim

period. The Provost asked me to step in and take

over the college, because there were some issues,

frankly, in arts and sciences, and, um, I was asked

to help get through some SACs issues for

assessment, and I was asked to help to reign in the

budget, which we did, and to prepare for some of

the growth and get the college prepared for growth,

and we did good things. We brought in new programs

and grew and developed, but after about 8 years as

dean, there was a sense that I had that I was not

able to, um, make some things happen. I'm a

risk-taker, I enjoy moving things forward and

advancing, and I felt that my leadership of the

college couldn't advance, so I began looking for

other opportunities, and, um, I don't know whether

UVA Wise found me or I found UVA Wise, but it's

been a great opportunity for me to be chancellor.

I've been in a new system in Virginia, which I

believe is one of the best systems in the country.

I've had the opportunity to work with legislators

in Virginia - it's been a great opportunity to grow

and lead, and I'll give you some concrete examples

as we move forward today of some of the things that

I've accomplished there. I'm not looking to lead

UVA Wise, but when I got a call from Lucy that I

was nominated for the presidency at Florida Gulf

Coast University, it was an opportunity that I

could not overlook. I have a dear place in my

heart for Florida Gulf Coast University, and I

would love to come back and dig my hands back into

what Florida Gulf Coast University is and create

the vision for the next 20 years at Florida Gulf

Coast University. What a nice thing to have,

that 20-year university coming up, and I think it

would be an absolute pleasure for me to return.

COMMITTEE: We would like to know what shared

governance means to you, especially the role you

feel a president should take in shared governance,

and how you would assess the will of these

different constituencies, and if you can address

any roles you've had in working with a unionized

faculty.

CANDIDATE: Certainly. Shared governance, I

believe, is at the heart of leadership and higher

education. If you think about it, in universities,

the faculty are truly the heart of the university.

The faculty help to shape academic programs, the

faculty teach our students, the faculty interact

with our students, and they really are, you know,

the heart, they're the heartbeat, they keep the

place running. They do the research, they engage

with the community, and, you know, our students are

a part of the university, and they've entrusted

their education to the university. So, the

students, really, and you want them to be, um, a

part of the university, and when they graduate, you

want them to have, um, not only fond memories of

the good times that they've had, but you want them

to leave knowing that they have an education so

that they can be successful in their lives. So,

you have faculty, you have students, and then you

created administrative structure so that a

university works efficiently, so that a university

engages the community that it's in and moves

forward. So, in shared governance, um, I think

that the leadership has to rely on and build on,

um, those people who are a part of the university.

So, I'll give you an example of shared governance.

Um, strategic planning is one good example of

shared governance. When you're developing a

strategic plan for a university, it's not just the

plan of the administration, it's a plan that

everyone needs to follow, everyone from the Board

of Trustees to the senior leadership to the faculty

and to the staff and the students, so you need to

engage people so that you engage all of the ideas

that are a part of the strategic plan. Um,

sometimes, you need a little bit of pushing from

the leadership, because if you want change at an

institution, you may not get it from, um, the

faculty or from the students, and you need to reach

out to the community to see what change is needed,

and as a state institution, you need to know where

the leadership of the state is going. Legislators

know where they want to take the state, and as a

state university, you have to be a part of that.

So, you need to setup structures, and you can setup

committees, which we all do very well at

universities to guide these things, but as the

senior leader in shared governance, you reach out

and bring in ideas and do a needs assessment, and

you do an assessment of where people want to be,

and the leader has to have a finger on the pulse of

all of the things and decide, in the end, what is

that vision, and then take the steps to lead it, to

be the engaged person in the community and to do

the work in that regard.

Um, I do have experience in that regard, in

shared governance. When I took over as the dean of

arts and sciences, there was a lot of work to be

done in arts and sciences, and I gathered, um,

people around me who I thought had the skills and

the abilities to do the work, to take the college

and to put in the assessment that was needed, to

ensure that the budgets were reigned in and that

the courses were being offered that students needed

so that they could be successful. In my mind's

eye, as a leader, the first person that I need to

think about when I think about a university and

university governance is the student, the student

that's coming in needs to be served, and that

student needs to have access to the courses that

they need so that they can progress to degree and

to graduate, and I think students need to be told,

the class that came in in 2016, is that you are the

class of 2020. I think many students think that

you go to university and you just take the time

that you need to finish, but that's not responsible

for them, it's not responsible for their families,

it's not responsible for the taxpayers. We need to

find a path so that students can access the

coursework that they need and that they can

graduate in four years. That should be the goal.

You also asked about my experience working with

unions. That experience would have been while I

was here at Florida Gulf Coast University. There

are no unions in Virginia in the university system,

so I've learned a lot about, um, some of the things

that I actually miss about having a unionized

faculty. With a union and a collective bargaining

agreement, you know where you are with the faculty,

you have a guideline. When issues come up and you

have to deal with things, um, there's clear

guidance and policy on how you work with faculty.

I was here during the transition when, um, the

collective bargaining agreement went from a state-

wide agreement to a local agreement here at Florida

Gulf Coast University, and we made that collective

bargaining agreement our own, and as dean, I worked

with faculty who were unionized, before I was dean,

I was actually part of the union, so I think I

understand what that means for us, and I can work

with unions I think that that's an important piece.

You know, as you're looking at raises, you've got

guidance.

There are some things that, um, you need to

negotiate and bargain with the faculty union, but I

think that that's just part of the work, the

administrative work that you do. I think it's

important, though, when you bring in deans who, um,

have never worked with a union before, that you

give them the appropriate training so that they

understand the collective bargaining agreement, so

that they understand how to move forward and to

work, and I think that the union, in my experience

here at Florida Gulf Coast University, um, and the

administration have had a very good relationship,

at least during my time here. I don't know if

that's changed in my time since I've left, but my

hope would be that if I were to come in as

president, that I would continue to work closely

with the union and to continue to develop those

good relationships.

COMMITTEE: Is it follow-up question?

COMMITTEE: Yes.

COMMITTEE: Follow-up question from Mr.

Casimir.

COMMITTEE: You mentioned you would like to

see students graduate within the first four years,

and this is a concern here I believe for the Board

of Trustees and for the committee at large. Can

you elaborate on how you would get that done here

in terms of bringing the graduation timeframe from

six to four?

CANDIDATE: Right. Well, you know, six is the

measure nationally that most people use about

graduation rates, and, you know, and I don't know

when that change happened, but that's been the

standard measure for years, but, um, I believe that

we've done a lot to ensure that you can finish a

degree in four years, you know, we've got

the 120-hour rule here in Florida, and you setup

programs so that students know what classes they

need to take, but I believe that we put roadblocks

out there for our students so that they can't

finish on time. You know, course schedules need to

be developed in ways so that students can have

access to the courses that they need, when they

need them, so that they can progress to degree.

Um, I think that advising, you need to ensure and

invest in advisors so advisors can work with

students, and I believe here, and I know it's in

place now, but you've got the electronic degree,

that students can go in and actually look at their

coursework and look at their degree planning, to be

sure to plan for the future and where they want to

go, and I think that's helpful, because students

really need that support. I also think that early

on, students may not know exactly what they want to

do when they graduate, and I don't think you want

to cut off all of that flexibility so that students

don't have the opportunity to explore, but those

first two years are truly about exploring, and I

don't know, um, what career services is doing here,

but I don't believe that it's ever too early to

expose students to career services and to bring in

folks from the community, where you want students

to work, so that early on, they're exposed to what

do I need to study, how am I going to get a degree

so that I can be successful and go out and get a

job, and I think the earlier you do that, the

sooner you give students the opportunity to really

explore what it is they want to do in their careers

so that they can move forward and do well. So, I

think that that's important.

Um, I know, as the dean of arts and sciences,

we struggled to be able to offer enough courses for

students, to be able to progress to degree. It was

one of my frustrations as dean, and as president, I

would want to do work-to-study and see are we

offering the courses that students need so that

they can progress to degree, and if not, I would

have to work to reallocate resources to make sure

that that happens. I also know that we have large

enrollment and degree programs in engineering and

in health professions and health sciences. I know

we have a burgeoning nursing program that can

accommodate a lot of the students in the nursing

program, and I think that we need to ensure that

courses are offered at appropriate times for the

students, so that they can be successful, and if we

need evening courses for students, that's

important, and, um, and I know that there are

times, and I've been at three universities, and I

don't think it's been different at any university,

there are times when faculty like to teach, but you

don't always serve the students by just creating a

course schedule that is at the preference of the

faculty, so courses need to be offered so that

students can progress to degree, and that's

important. I also know that students are working,

and when you're working, that creates hindrances in

your schedule. There are needs, and I think it's

important to bring in scholarships for students,

because there are needy students, who, you know, a

flat tire may prevent them from getting to school

or from doing their work, but I think if you can

provide some, alleviate some of the debt and the

loans so that they can focus on their studies,

that's important. So, I think, you know, all of

those things will help students to progress, and,

um, it just takes a lot of effort and work and

focus.

COMMITTEE: I have a follow-up question,

Dr. Henry. So, um, since you've left, the reality

is our graduation rates have not changed, and I

hate six-year graduation, so I just want everybody

to be aware, four years is what we need to talk

about, but one of the big changes in the state of

Florida since you have left is the

performance-based funding metrics, which is how we

get funded. Can you tell us how you view the

performance-based funding metrics and give me

concrete examples of what you would do to fix some

of the numbers, like graduation rate, like, um,

cost of degree. What would you do in your

immediate beginning of being the next president

here to ensure that we start to move up the scale

and start getting more money through the metrics?

CANDIDATE: Right. Um, well, I think that

metrics are good things. You know, when you have

metrics, and they're pretty robust metrics now that

I have seen, I went in to take a look at them, that

Florida has put in place to, um, monitor

universities, and I think, obviously, we have to

pay close attention to those. Those metrics also

need to align with our strategic plan, so that as

you do your planning, um, and you're making

progress in your planning, you're also addressing

the metrics. If you're specifically talking about

progress to degree, um, I think that we need to

look at a typical student coming in, um, at the

undergraduate level and those first two years and

what does that program look like, and how easy is

it for a student to go through that. You know, if

you're bringing in 4,000 students, just looking at

composition, 25 students in the class, that's a lot

of sections of composition that you have to

schedule, and you need to make sure that there are

sufficient sections so that students can get

through. Mathematics is another hurdle for

students, chemistry is a hurdle. If you want to

focus on stem degrees and achievement, chemistry,

mathematics, biology, they're all high DWF courses

where students tend to fail, and, so, resources

need to be put in place there to support students

so that they can be successful, because if you

don't pass a class and you have to go back and

retake it, you have to pay for it twice, which is

not a good thing, and it challenges you, you cannot

move forward in your degree program. So, I think

that we need to make sure we have resources there

so that our students can be successful and can move

forward, and then that helps them to be successful

later in their degree program. So, I think it's

going to take, if I were to come in July 1st as

president, I think the first thing I would do is

work with the academic administration to look at

those things. There is an Office of Undergraduate

Studies, and I think the folks in that area could

really help to see what the course offerings look

like and say where there might be needs, and then

the dean of the college of arts and sciences would

have to look and see what they're offering, because

a lot of those gen ed courses come from arts and

sciences, and those two deans have to work very

closely together, and if the resources aren't

there, as president, I would need to work to see

how we can move those resources, and those are the

tough decisions that you have to make, but also, at

the junior and senior level, and I don't know how

much of a schedule change you can make in July for

fall classes, but it is something that you have to

pay attention to and you have to look at to make

sure that students can be successful and move

forward.

COMMITTEE: Have you looked at our strategic

plan? Do you think it aligns with the metrics?

Have you viewed what we've just done as a board and

as a university on the strategic plan?

CANDIDATE: I have looked at your strategic

plan, and I think that in some of the areas, there

are some good metrics that you can measure moving

forward, but I don't think that all of the areas

have very strong metrics, so I think that if I were

to come in as president, I would need to re-engage

that group, and really, um, if you're responsible

for an area of the strategic plan, um, there needs

to be metrics so that you can measure that you're

actually achieving those goals, and, so, I think

that we would have to go back and do that. One of

the things in the strategic plan that I developed

when I went to UVA Wise, um, and I stepped into

that process when the strategic plan had been

started, um, but brought the group together, and

when they, the group developed the strategic plan,

and I helped to guide where they were going and

make it forward-thinking, then once we had a plan,

the basics of the plan, I sat down with my senior

staff and I said, okay, you all need to tell me

what areas of this plan you own, what areas comes

under your area, and then we setup metrics for each

of those areas that we measure, and two years

later, in fall of 2015, we actually published how

we're making on our metrics. Have we achieved

them? Are we moving forward? If we're not moving

forward, I've asked my senior staff to tell me why.

You know, is it that we have to change where we

decided we were going to go? Or are we still

pushing? And when it was metrics that really

affected student progress, um, we've doubled down

to make sure that students can move forward. You

know, our chemists are piloting some new programs

right now to see how they can help and support

students moving forward, and, um, you know, they're

setting up extra study hours for students, so, you

know, there are things that you need to do, and as

president, I can't get down in the weeds and do all

of it, but I can hold people responsible who report

to me to make sure that we are progressing in that

area.

COMMITTEE: Don't make me pick on you.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Dr. Allen looks like he wants to

ask a question.

COMMITTEE: I would be happy to ask a

question. Um, we've been striving to build the

visibility of our institution in a competitive

marketplace with other schools. What do you have

in mind for building our institutional visibility,

and, um, what have you done at UV Wise toward that

end?

CANDIDATE: Okay, well, I'll tell you

something that, the folks at UVA Wise know that I

have begun to say often, when I got to UVA Wise, I

was told that the University of Virginia's College

at Wise is the best-kept secret in the Commonwealth

of Virginia, and they said, you know, that it was a

good thing, because UVA Wise is a gem, it's a

public liberal arts college, and I said, does

anybody here not see that that's a problem? And

they were like, well, what's the problem? I said,

people don't know about us. If they don't know

about us, how can they come? So, we began to work

very hard on getting the word out about UVA Wise,

and the first thing we did was I looked at our

website, and our website was outdated, you could

not apply online to come to the University of

Virginia's College at Wise, so I used private funds

that, fortunately, I had access to because we have

a strong donor base, to hire a consultant group who

actually came in and helped us to redesign our

website. It is now a lot more robust, you can find

your way around it, it's student-focused so that,

um, you know, students who are looking, you know,

there are a lot of reasons why you want visibility,

but the main one is to recruit students, and

students who are looking for universities, a lot of

times, they're stealth these days, you know, they

don't show up at your door to find out about you,

they show up on your website.

So, first of all, they need to be able to find

your website, so when they Google you, you want to

come up at the top of the list, so it's important

to, um, to maximize that, and there are things that

you can do in your website so that when people

search for public liberal arts colleges in

Virginia, they found UVA Wise. So, we redid the

website and made it easier for students to apply

and made it easier for students to pay online with

credit cards so that they could come to UVA Wise.

Um, so, that has helped in a lot of ways. Um, and

then we started to look, um, at marketing and ways

to get the word out. So, we put billboards up in

the tri-cities airport, where most of the people

come in who are coming to southwest Virginia.

Um, 81 is the path, and it feels a lot like 75

between Fort Myers and Tallahassee, but when I go

and get on 81 and head to Richmond, there are about

five other state universities in the Commonwealth

of Virginia that you go by before you get out to

southwest Virginia and you make the right and head

north to get to Wise and the beautiful mountains of

southwest Virginia, so I said, you know, we need to

put some billboards out here so people know that

we're here. They need to know, you get off here,

and you head out to Wise to get to the university.

Our population of students is not unlike the

population at Florida Gulf Coast University in that

half of our students are from our region in

southwest Virginia, but half of our students are

also from the more populous areas of Virginia,

so 25 percent of our students are from northern

Virginia and Hampton Roads, which is 7 hours away

at the other end of the Commonwealth of Virginia,

and then the other 75 percent are from around the

Commonwealth, and here, about half of our students

are still from southwest Florida at Florida Gulf

Coast University, and the first big growth was from

the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area, again, another

large population area. So, I think that, you know,

if you're looking to get the word out in Florida,

those are areas where you really need to kind of

put the word out, be it through billboard, be it

through, we did bus ads, and it was great, because

all of our alumni were driving down the road,

taking pictures of buses and sending us the

pictures of the buses saying UVA Wise is in

northern Virginia. You know, I texted them all

back and told them I hoped they weren't texting and

driving. They said, don't worry, traffic's stopped

here, so we're okay, but I think those are some of

the things you do.

And then the other thing, um, is athletics.

Athletics really helps to get your name out, and

when, in spring of 2013, when I was in Wise,

Virginia, Florida Gulf Coast University was still

playing ETSU, and that was in our backyard in

Tennessee, and, so, I got a little bit of fame for

having been affiliated with FGCU when our

basketball team made it to, was the Cinderella team

in the NCAA Tournament, and I know that that

brought a lot of notoriety. Um, Florida Gulf Coast

had a beach volleyball player in the Olympics, and

Florida Gulf Coast got a lot of notoriety for that.

Um, athletics really does help to bring your name

out. It brings it out not only in Florida, but

because of the conference that Florida Gulf Coast

is in, it actually brings the name to other

regions, mostly in the southeastern part of the

United States, but when you get into national

tournaments, it brings your name out there as well.

So, I think those are all opportunities that you

don't want to miss and that you need to afford

yourself to have. Um, there are also magazines,

and sometimes, you take a risk and you jump out

there. UVA Wise was just featured in Virginia

Business Magazine, and then we took the opportunity

to buy the ad on the back of the magazine, which is

all over doctor's offices across the Commonwealth,

and I've told our alumni, when they go into the

doctor's office, to flip the magazine over so that

the UVA Wise ad is face-up. So, you know, you take

the opportunities that you need so that you get the

word out.

COMMITTEE: Follow-up by vice chair

Roepstorff.

COMMITTEE: I'm all for athletics, I'm an

athletic person, but tell me what you would do to

attract and, um, go out and find the higher

scholastic students to come to Florida Gulf Coast

University. It seems like you still have a lot of

passion for Florida Gulf Coast.

CANDIDATE: I do.

COMMITEE: And how do we, just equal to

attracting good talent of athletes, how do we

attract, or how would you attract the higher

scholastic student to come to Florida Gulf Coast

University and feel it's their first choice?

CANDIDATE: Well, I think that, um, you need

to have quality academic programs, and you need to

demonstrate the value of the degree at Florida Gulf

Coast University. So, um, what are our students

doing? You showcase the successes of our alumni

and where they have gone. You get the word out,

and you can use YouTube to do some of these things.

You interview your alumni who are successful and

are doing good work out there, and you post these

things on YouTube. You use social media in good

ways, because students who are out in the high

schools, um, that's the way they communicate, and I

think you need to get the word out, what does it

mean to have a degree from Florida Gulf Coast

University and where can it take you. Um, I know

we have a lot of successful students who have gone

on to get medical degrees, so you have doctors who

are probably back now and serving in the region,

and you showcase them. Our engineering program has

graduated students who are out and doing very well.

Our business school, um, has alums who are out and

really having an impact in businesses in the area,

and you focus on them, so that students know the

quality of degree. I also know that the

high-achieving students, my twin daughters are

in 11th grade, and they're beginning to think about

where they want to go to school, and they're

getting courted by, um, colleges and universities,

and the things that are attractive to them as good

students are, um, a program where they can go, um,

and achieve and excel and be recognized for their

high skills. So, um, honor's programs are

important, and, um, I think academic scholarships

are important, so if you want to recruit the best

and the brightest, you need to have some

scholarships that show them that you want them to

come to Florida Gulf Coast and not go somewhere

else. It's very competitive. Some of the best and

the brightest students get recruited by three and

four schools, and that's for academic achievement.

It's not unlike athletics, and if you want the best

and the brightest, you really have to know where

they are and make an effort through recruiting to

bring them into the university, and then once

they're here, their experience has to be a special

experience, because students are not afraid to

leave and go somewhere else. Um, so, you know, you

want to keep them at Florida Gulf Coast University,

you want to retain them and make sure that they can

do the work that they need to do. I know there's

an honor's program, and I saw that the honor's

program was part of the strategic plan, and I think

that that is a good place to focus. The resources

need to be there, and I think that, um, scholarship

resources are also easy things to talk to donors

about. You can bring donors in. Last week, as a

matter of fact, I had a group of benefactors to the

college come and visit, and while they were there,

we setup a panel of students who talked to them

about their experience at UVA Wise, and they talked

about the research projects that they had done the

summer before, some of them talked about the

international study that they took the summer

before, so you bring students forward, and you show

people, um, what the impact of their support for

the university has on students and on student lives

so that they can be successful, and that really

helps to bring in the support to do the things that

you want to do.


COMMITTEE: You mentioned the honor's program,

and we're in the early to mid-stages of

transitioning from an honor's program into an

honor's college, and I was wondering if you might

talk about how an honor's college might fit into

the context of FGCU and how it might help impact

some of the things you just talked about.

CANDIDATE: Certainly. Um, you know, I think

an honor's college is a natural growth here at

Florida Gulf Coast University, and it really gives

you an opportunity to enrich the experience of the

students who are in that program. Um, you can

expose them to leading scholars in an honor's

program, you can take them and travel to places and

expose them to things that they might not have. In

some ways, um, I know FGCU still has a large

first-generation college population of students,

and some of the best and brightest who go into the

honor's program can be exposed to higher-level

thinking from people that you might not do for

others, so you can travel and visit and see people.

Um, those students, you're going to want to ensure

that they either have an undergraduate research

experience while they're here or that they have an

internship experience, and they have to be paid,

because, again, these students need access to

support, they can't afford to take a summer off

from work. Most of our students are working, so

you find the ways to support them so that they can

do the good things. I know the programming in our

honor's program has always been very good for our

students, and those students should also be your

student leaders. They're going to be very active

in other things, and you can use that to benefit

the rest of the student population and have them

relate with others along the way, but I think that,

um, you attract those students, and you do good

things with them, and they can also help you to

build that reputation and help to get the name out,

because if you can, um, get them placed, if you can

get them into, um, the road scholars, which I think

is one of the goals, is to get some road scholars

coming out of our program, that helps to build the

reputation. Also, sending them on to some of the

international programs to do research is another

thing that can help to get the word out. So, um,

it's making contacts, it's doing that outreach and

really putting those resources there to support

those students to be successful.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Mr. Morton.

COMMITTEE: Morning. The least common

denominator of any commodity is price, and the

state legislature and Board of Governors is

interested in how can we make each of our

universities distinguished in certain categories so

that each university or the universities

collectively will be known as excellent throughout

the state and country in particular disciplines.

In order to do that, we have to effectively deal

with the legislature, and we have to deal with the

Board of Governors, we have to deal with the Board

of Trustees, etc., but particularly, in your

letter, you talk about successfully negotiating and

working with the state legislature. How would you

work with the legislature, the Board of Governors,

to develop a strategic plan to demonstrate a

willingness and a vision that this particular

subject is going to make or this particular

discipline is going to make FGCU unique.

CANDIDATE: So, there are really two parts in

that. One is working with the legislature and the

Board of Trustees and Board of Governors, and the

other part is really the vision for Florida Gulf

Coast University. So, I think there are a lot of

opportunities at Florida Gulf Coast University for

distinction. One of them, which I, frankly, was

surprised appeared to be missing from the strategic

plan is the strength that we have in the stem

disciplines. Um, I think that our programs in arts

and sciences, and that includes biology, chemistry,

biotechnology, marine science, environmental

science, um, have a true impact on the region. Our

faculty are sought after to help solve problems in

the region and across Florida, so I think that that

is an area that we need to invest in. Um, I think

that that program could be the first Ph.D, it could

come out from that area at Florida Gulf Coast

University, and I think that the faculty, um, who

are there could make that happen, and I think that

that would be an important area to put resources.

Um, Lutgert College of Business has some very

strong strengths. The entrepreneurship piece, I

think is vital, not only for students and our

graduates to understand entrepreneurship, because,

you know, when you look at the Department of Labor

and you look at the statistics of jobs that exist,

the jobs that exist today, half of them didn't

exist five years ago, so we're actually training

students to go into a job market in five years that

we're really not certain what all the jobs are

going to be. I mean, some of the jobs, you know,

healthcare is pretty easy to predict, education,

you know, we need educators who are out there

working, those are pretty easy to predict, but

those transformative jobs, the jobs in business,

um, really, and it's part of the American way,

frankly, that we need entrepreneurs who will go

out, and they're going to create the jobs of the

future. Um, technology jobs, if we're not

convinced after the shutdown that happened across

the Internet a few, about a month ago, I guess,

that hackers can come in and really take over the

United States, I don't know what more you need to

convince yourself. We have a software engineering

program here that's graduating students that can

really go out and have an impact there, but with

entrepreneurial skills, they can do better. So, I

think entrepreneurship has to be a focus. I got a

little passionate about that one.

Um, but in the health professions, the demand

for nurses, the demand for physical therapists,

particularly with the aging population that's here

in southwest Florida, um, I think that we can do a

lot to serve that. Healthcare is changing across

the United States, and I think we're going to see a

lot more changes in the next four years in that

regard, and we have an opportunity to step up and

have an impact there. So, as I'm working with the

Board of Governors, I think that those are our

strengths. I would work with the Board of

governors to see where we can serve Florida best,

get their opinions and ideas, but also knowing

where we have our strengths, but you've got to look

out, who is it, Wayne Gretzky who says you've got

to look at where the puck is going to wind up, not

where the puck is, not that I'm a hockey player,

but we need to know where we need to be so that we

can support Florida to make those moves in higher

education, so that Florida is recognized across the

country as a place to get a degree, and as far as

working with legislators, you need to know your

legislators, you need to work with them so that

they understand how they can help you to achieve

and do the work that you need to do. I was

fortunate in my time as dean of arts and sciences

to work with Raymond Rodriguez for eight years. He

is masterful with budgets, and he really helped me

to get my budget in line when I was dean of arts

and sciences and gave me the information that I

needed so that I could make good decisions about

resource allocation within the college. Raymond

has been very successful in the Florida

legislature, and I think that he would be a good

advocate, he's someone who I know, that I could

work with as a legislator from the region who's now

in Tallahassee, and, um, and I would work to get to

know all of our other legislators, and that's a fun

part of the job. Um, the only thing that amazes me

is, you know, in Florida, I know how long it takes

to get to Tallahassee from Fort Myers, I've made

that trip awhile when I was on the Board of

Trustees, and then I moved to Virginia, and I still

have a six-hour drive to get to Richmond, so that's

something that I'm used to, and it’s just part of

what you have to do. You have to be there so that

you know what the demands are from the state, so

that you can achieve them and work forward.

COMMITTEE: If I could summarize, that's part

of your job.

CANDIDATE: Of course.

COMMITTEE: To be up there and be visible.

CANDIDATE: Of course it is.

COMMITTEE: If I might, Mr. Chair, one

additional point.

COMMITTEE: Yeah, because I want to have a

follow-up question, but go ahead.

COMMITTEE: I would just like to echo, um, the

fact that healthcare in our community is a

wonderful opportunity and a challenge I've given to

the Board of Governors and to the chancellor and to

everyone concerned with healthcare. Our state

university system only graduates 9 percent of the

registered nurses in the entire state of Florida

and has seeded that market to schools other than

state universities and state colleges, and it's a

real challenge for our SUS to stand up and make a

difference.

COMMITTEE: That's a great point. I want a

clarification. As you answered the question, you

said you would look to the Board of Governors to

help understand what we needed. I'm looking for a

visionary leader, so can you help me understand?

Because I'm looking for someone who is the

president to be in the business community, to know

those answers, I'm not looking for someone to ask

outsiders what we need in our region, so I just

want to clarify with you and make sure, give you

the opportunity to maybe expound on that, if you

were the president and how you would view

determining what the needs are and what degrees we

need here to service our five-county region. So, I

would just ask you to clarify that for me.

CANDIDATE: Certainly, and I appreciate you

asking for that clarification, because I wouldn't

want you to leave with that thought.

COMMITTEE: That's why I asked.

CANDIDATE: Thank you. So, obviously, as the

president of Florida Gulf Coast University, I will

be out in the community here across our five-county

region, getting to know the businesses, and I know

some of them already, so, you know, I know the

folks at Arthrex, I know some of the leaders in the

real estate area, so, you know, I would get out and

I would work with them, and we need to know what

their needs are so that we can respond to those

needs and have students who are supporting that and

create a vision of where I think we need to be in

that regard, and I talked about some of our

programs of excellence and how I think we can

serve. The responsiveness and the work with the

Board of Governors really is they have the broader

view of the university system across Florida and

their expectations and their needs, and I think

they will create some opportunities that we can

respond to and work with, and it's back in that

shared governance model, I don't expect and can't

expect them, nor the Board of Trustees, to be the

ones making the university get to where it needs to

be, that vision has to come from the president, and

that vision is not something that you write and put

next to the mission statement and put it in a

drawer, that vision has to be evident and out there

so that people know what Florida Gulf Coast

University is about. Are we going to be a research

one institution in the next 10 years? No, I don't

believe that that is part of our mission, but are

we going to have centers of excellence around

research? You better believe it. I think that

that's something that we need to do, and I think

that we have the faculty here who are prepared to

do that, they just need the resources and the

support. Um, I noticed that our grant funds have

actually declined since I was here as the dean of

arts and sciences, so I'd need to find out why,

what's happening there. Are we not making those

contacts in Washington, DC, to find out, you know,

what grant opportunities are there that we can use

for our faculty to be successful and to do their

research? Um, so, you know, I think that those are

things that I'm not sure, I know the faculty have

increased here, but why that support's not there.

Other resources that you need to bring in

externally, um, are from foundations, they're

state-level grants that we could be going after

here at Florida Gulf Coast University that I'm not

sure that we've taken advantage of all of those

opportunities, and you need to provide the support

for faculty so that they can do that, and you can

leverage private funds along the way to make that

happen as well. There aren't as many federal

grants out there as there used to be, they've cut

back, but you can use private funds and leverage

some of that to move forward. Um, so, my vision,

truly, is for Florida Gulf Coast University to be a

University of Excellence, where students come in

and graduate in four years, and they go out into

successful careers, which I know our jobs rate is

great at Florida Gulf Coast University, so we have

to keep that, and that when students go on to

graduate programs, they're successful, and we'll do

it across our areas of excellence, which we have

areas of excellence in engineering,

entrepreneurship, um, health professions, and I

believe in the stem fields, and then culturally, we

need to serve our region, and we can do that

through our, um, programs in visual and performing

arts.


COMMITTEE: Following up with what you were

just talking about, spend a little bit of time

talking about your role in external fundraising and

developing resources in that area from private

sources.

CANDIDATE: Okay. Um, developing resources in

private sources really is the best part of the job,

because you get to brag on what you do well, and

you talk to people about, not only are you talking

about needs, but you're talking about what you do

well and how you want to do things a little bit

better. Private funding happens in a lot of ways.

I talked about scholarships and support for that.

Endowed professors are another way that you can

enhance programs, so if there are areas that you

want to grow and expand, um, you can work to get

resources to endow professorships and develop

programs, and that can showcase some of the

excellence at the university, and while I was here

as dean of arts and sciences, we did some of that

and had endowed professorships and recruited

stellar faculty into those areas. Um, private

funding also has to come in to support athletics.

You can't use state funds in athletics. Florida

Gulf Coast University made the decision to

transition to Division I. We're in a very

competitive conference, and if you want to do well,

I mean, the worst thing you can do to get name

recognition is to go into Division I athletics and

not do well, so you need scholarship support there,

you need facilities that are going to be

state-of-the-art, and so you do need private donors

who will help to support that, and I know that

Florida Gulf Coast University has been successful

in that. The other piece of fundraising is

capitol, because I know, um, you know, we used to

have Courtelis matching funds, I don't think

they've come back, but that also helped to attract

donors to give to the capitol construction here at

Florida Gulf Coast University.

Um, some of our buildings are beginning to

age, some of our older buildings are 20 years old,

so those resources need to come in to ensure that

we stay state-of-the-art. You need to know, A,

your alumni, but we do have a young alumni here

still, so I don't know that the alumni from Florida

Gulf Coast have the capacity or the means to

support the university, but we do have a region who

wanted higher education in southwest Florida. I

know a lot of those people, and I would go back to

them and reengage those conversations, but I know

there are a lot of people who I don't know. I also

know that presidents from around the country come

to Naples in the winter to meet with people,

because Naples, um, is a very wealthy community.

If you imagine, I would come down and meet with

some of our donors every year. So, it is a

community that I need to work with you all to help

introduce me to the right people, you all meaning

those of you on the Board of Trustees, if there are

people I need to know, people who are interested

and who have opportunities, and then it's my job to

get out there and work with them. I was a member

of the Edison Estates Board when I was here as the

dean of arts and sciences, and that provides entree

to all of the folks in Fort Myers who have the

ability and the means to support the university. I

worked with the Kapnick Center and the Naples

Botanical Garden, and there are also a lot of

people with means who can help and support us at

Florida Gulf Coast University there. My husband

and I love to entertain. We have a beautiful home

at the University of Virginia's College at Wise,

and we bring major donors into our home, and we

dine with them, my husband likes to cook, but he's

a wine enthusiast, we have good evenings and

conversations, and that's all part of it, to talk

about, sometimes in a casual setting or in a more

formal setting, about the university, about your

goals, about where you're headed, and it is a

family thing.

When you're the president of a university,

you're not the president by yourself. I rely on my

husband to help with the entertaining, with working

with donors. My husband actually has brushed off

his golf game, we have a membership at the country

club, and it helps him to stay connected with the

donors. When we do our golf tournament, while I'm

not a golfer, I'm actually a pretty good putter, so

I actually get out there on the 15th green of the

golf tournament, and as everybody comes through the

tournament, I extend their putt on the 15th green,

and, you know, I get a couple of holes-in-one, and

that makes everybody happy, but that gives me an

opportunity to interact with people, so that they

know me and I know them, and I can talk about the

college and the university. So, I'm very

comfortable doing that, and at some point, um, when

you're fundraising, you need to make the big ask,

so, you know, you put out your ideas, work with

folks, and then you ask for the support that you

need, and that's a very important thing, and I work

closely with my vice chancellor for development in

doing that, so you have to do all of your homework

so that you know how to make that ask, how much to

ask, and then you make the ask and move forward

from there.

COMMITTEE: We have time for one last quick

question. Mr. Harrington.


COMMITTEE: What would you do -- audio

breaking up -- and enhanced for the benefit of the

university and those outlying communities. We talk

about Naples and Fort Myers, but we have those

other counties -- audio breaking up -- worry a lot

about those outlying communities.

CANDIDATE: I agree. We are, we happen to be

in Lee County, and that's our location, and that

was a decision that was made, but we -- audio

breaking up -- has to happen to the other counties.

We also are a region which has some similarities to

where I am in Wise in that we have a very wealthy

part of a population, and we have a population that

is very low in wealth, so, and I think we need to

serve those regions as well and provide access, and

part of that, I think, is why there is really a

strong need for scholarships and outreach to those

communities, so that those students have access to

higher education, and that has to be part of the

mission of Florida Gulf Coast University. Um,

really -- audio breaking up -- can't get used to

not saying Edison, but Southwest Florida State

College has to be a partner with us. I know they

are offering some four-year degrees, but we need to

help the students who graduate from there with

associate degrees to go on and continue their

education here. We had a strong relationship with

them in the past, I know the current president, and

I believe that I could work very well with him to

see how we could better help those students, and

they do have outreach and access into all of the

counties in our region, and I think that would be

another way for us to serve the students who are

across southwest Florida -- audio breaking up -- am

looking at those numbers, those numbers have gone

down, those transfer students, and I think that's

another way that we have capacity and we can help

in that regard. So, serving the region is

important. The other part to your question, Mr.

Harrington?

COMMITTEE: The Renaissance Academy does, I

think, very, very well, but we need to be more

engaged with the university somehow. Yes,

we're 35, 40 minutes away, but there needs to be

some way we need to be more engaged, and probably,

the effort needs to be more on our part. We need

to be reaching out and asking can you serve us in

some way or another.

CANDIDATE: Right. You know, as chancellor, I

serve a region that is very diverse, so there are

seven counties in southwest Virginia that UVA Wise

serves. I happen to be in the county seat of Wise

County. Having a university in Wise is kind of

fun, you can have a play on names, but there are

six other counties that we serve that I need to be

a part of and need to be seen in, and, so, it's

travel time, it's driving time, and in the

mountains, it's fun driving time, because there's a

lot of curvy roads, but you do need to get out and

be in places. So, there are economic development

councils that I go out and speak to and talk with,

there are businesses that need to see me and have

access to me so that I understand what their needs

are so that we can help to serve them, so being a

part of that. Also, I'm a Kiwanian in two

different cities. I work with the IDAs across the

region, and I need to be aware of their needs and

their resources. So, it's travel time, it's

getting out and knowing people, it's traveling

around the region and spending time. So, um, you

know, as I look at my schedule and my day, I live

on the campus of UVA Wise, my home is there, I walk

my dogs, I get a chance to interact with the

students regularly as I'm around and about. Um, my

office is right there, so I know the campus

community, but I also know that I'm external, so my

day is spent, um, out in the community, going to

hotels, going to openings of new businesses and

working with people across the region. I'm a

member of the Southwest Virginia Health authority.

Right now, we are going through a major merger of

our health authority. Two systems are planning to

come together. We had to do our due diligence to

see what the impact of that would be. As a member

of that, I had to know the needs across the area so

that we could best serve those needs in our

decision-making about that merger. So, um, you

can't do it in isolation, if you serve a region,

you have to be out in that region so that people

know you, and you know them.

COMMITTEE: All right, at this time, we're

running a little bit over, but I thought it was

good exchange, but we have, um, about 10 minutes

left for you to ask us any questions you may have,

so I will just ask that you address the questions

to me, then I'll try to pass them off to whoever I

think would be the best person to answer your

question.

CANDIDATE: I would be happy to. Um, tell me

a little bit about the, um, capital funding and

where we are in that at Florida Gulf Coast

University.

COMMITTEE: I will turn that over to Mr.

Call, who is the chair of the foundation. Mr.

Call.

COMMITTEE: Thank you, and it's a great

question, and I liked your answers. I normally ask

that question about yourself, and you did a great

job of telling us how, and I agree with you, my

wife, my spouse helps me tremendously in my job as

well. Um, we have a capitol campaign that we set a

sight at a $100 million raise, and we started that

about three years ago. We wanted that to coincide

with the 20th anniversary, so next June/July

timeframe is our 20th anniversary, so we'll be glad

to announce that we will reach that $100 million,

and we are north of 90, so we're 90 plus million

dollars into that campaign and, in fact, feel very

comfortable that we have some people onboard to

bring us above that 100, but we're not there, so

anybody that wants to give, watching streaming,

feel free to do so, but we feel very comfortable

with that, and to that point, um, it's a very, you

know the community, it's a very giving community,

all the way up the coast, not just in Naples and

Fort Myers, but on up the coast, so it's been a joy

to be the leader of something like that, and Chris

Siminau is our developer for that and is doing a

great job for us too.

CANDIDATE: That's great. Okay, um, the next

question that I have is, um, around the

relationships that Florida Gulf Coast has with, um,

I mentioned Southwest Florida State College. Can

you tell me a little bit about that and how we work

with them?


CANDIDATE: Well, as you mentioned, we have a

long history of working with Florida Southwestern.

They continue to be, by far, our biggest supplier

of transfer students, and we get them all across

the board in all our programs. I think, you

mentioned a decrease a little bit, and I think,

largely, that has to do with the four-year programs

that they now offer that are keeping their students

on their campus beyond the associate's degree, but

it continues to be a strong relationship, it

continues to be, again, by far, our biggest

supplier of transfer students, and I think we'll

continue to do so into the future. Having said

that, there's certainly room for improvement in

that relationship and continuing to grow that

relationship.

CANDIDATE: Great. Um, I noticed, um, a few

weeks ago, um, there has been some, um, racial

issues here at the college, some things being

written on boards and some student strife in that

regard. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

And, you know, I've sort of seen it from the

outside and the media reports, but, um, how are we

doing with that? Do we believe that it's a true

concern here at the college, something that we

worry about?

COMMITTEE: So, I will answer part of that,

then, T, I think I'm going to have you answer the

other half of it. Anytime something like that's

happened, it's not okay, and anybody who thinks

that it is, is very misaligned in life. Given that

it's happened, it is a concern, so there is a

definite concern. As a trustee, I've watched how

the president and the student body president have

worked together with the students to come to how

we're going to move forward in a positive way.

I've been very pleased with the students, I think

they've handled themselves very well and very

appropriately. They've used their rights, as they

should have, to air concerns in a variety of

different forms or methodologies, but very proud of

the students and how they conducted themselves,

and, so, I think, I'll let T, as a student, tell us

how they feel, but from my perspective as an

outsider, I think that the students have done

remarkably well and very proud of their actions. I

think the administration has done an equally

admirable job in how they've work would the

students to bring this to a place where they're

moving forward and hoping for better outcomes as we

have incidents like this that may happen.

Hopefully, we have no more, obviously, but I think

they're working to a vision of how we move forward

to educate, inform and those kind of items. So, T,

I would ask that, from a student's perspective,

maybe you handle the other half of that question.

COMMITTEE: All right, I can do that. I think

when it comes to diversity and race relations

anywhere, whether it's on campus or anywhere

throughout the United States, there's always work

to be done, because as much as the university is

doing to address some of the student's concerns,

there is more that needs to be done to educate the

student population in general, and being that

diversity is one of the key components of our

university, I think that the big thing that

students on our campus are looking for is somebody

that's willing to come in to that fold and

understand the different components that comes

through from our student population and

understanding the variety that we have on campus

with the international students, with the students

of color, as well as with the majority student

population. So, it's really, um, continuing that

progress, continuing that work, to continue those

conversations, working with the students to, um,

really live up to our, um, our commitment to

diversity and educating members of our community so

we can have, um, a better country in the long run.

CANDIDATE: That's a great answer. Um, tell

me a little bit, I'll point it back to you, I think

it's going to go back to the student, but, um,

about student engagement and students, what

students really want to see in their next

president.

COMMITTEE: T, you have the floor.

COMMITTEE: Yeah, I'll take that. I would say

the biggest thing, um, that students want to see

is, um, is a president that's willing to take the

direction that is given from the Board of

Governors, from the Board of Trustees, the

performance metrics and all of that and encompass

it with the current student culture, the current

dynamic that our students have and make it a part

of who we already are and not create, not try to

reinvent the wheel, because I think, um, the

majority of students have those things that they

find dear to their hearts, whether it's diversity,

whether it's, um, environmental sustainability, any

of those key components, students have that

already, it's figuring out how do we mold that with

the things that we are trying to accomplish, and

that's what the students are looking for in the

president, somebody that's willing to come in, take

the direction, but infuse that direction into our

student culture and the life that we have already

on this campus and enhance those key areas that can

better address the major concerns of graduation

rates and retention and keep us a part of that

campus spirit.

CANDIDATE: That sounds great.

COMMITTEE: Time for one more question,

Dr. Henry. Oh, I'm sorry.

COMMITTEE: Since I have two members of my

family that are involved in the student point of

view.


COMMITTEE: They want to be treated as

clients.

CANDIDATE: Okay.

COMMITTEE: There's a top-down mentality that

pervades in all of education, and we're dealing in

a very competitive environment.

CANDIDATE: We are.

COMMITTEE: And the best students can pick

where they want to go, and students as clients, or

as customers, um, we have to engage, and we're a

team, and they want to be members of that team, but

they don't want to be spoken at, they want to be

spoken to.

CANDIDATE: Right. Thank you. I appreciate

that.

COMMITTEE: Time for one more question,

Dr. Henry.

CANDIDATE: Okay. Um, my question is a little

bit about the student population here at Florida

Gulf Coast. I understand that 90 percent of our

students are from Florida, and then 10 percent are

a mix of out-of-state and international students,

and I know a lot of state universities are

struggling with that mix, and do we feel like

that's the right mix? Do we feel like we would

like to have more international students or

outreach and have more out-of-state students coming

to Florida Gulf Coast University? Um, it helps to

diversify the population, it also helps to get the

name out, if we really want to be, you know, if we

want to move in that research mode, we might need

to do some of that, so I was just wondering, what

is your sense of that?

COMMITTEE: So, I would just tell you that,

um, that we, um, we feel that our service area is

the five-county region first and foremost. From a

trustee's perspective and listening as we've

watched, um, them develop the work plans for the

Board of Governors, the strategic plan for the

university, um, that the state is the next highest

need to bring people in. No doubt, um, at the end

of the day, we want the best and brightest to look

at Florida Gulf Coast University as a destination

for their education, but the reality is that we do

get, we do attract some very high-quality students

from out-of-state. It's not a lot of places in the

U.S. that you can go to the beach within 15 minutes

of your campus or have a beach on-campus for that

matter, so we're going to attract those students

who are some of the best and brightest from out of

the state, but I would say my understanding is we

think this is a pretty good balance. I think

there's some opportunity, and I think they are

exploring that on the graduate student side, along

with the undergraduate, for international students

to come in, there's some efforts with Central and

South America, I believe, to attract students from

there, but I think that they would tell you that

the balance is pretty good for what our mission is,

that we've kind of found a good balance. Not to

say it couldn't change some, but I think they would

tell you today that their opinion would be it's a

pretty good balance.

CANDIDATE: Great.

COMMITTEE: I'm going to let vice chair

Roepstorff ask one question. She's got to be

quick, or a comment.

COMMITTEE: It's just an add-on. You know,

none of us forget why we needed Florida Gulf Coast

University here, because we didn't have a four-year

university within this region, so we don't want to

forget that and forget the students that are here

in the back door, but I tell the students every

day, when I go and talk to students, we're not your

safety net school any longer, and they have to

accept that, and they want to come here now,

they're so proud to wear FGCU shirts, and I say, it

starts in the 6th grade. When you start hitting

middle school, you better think about Florida Gulf

Coast University is selective now, it's not a

safety net. So, that has been a little tough since

the early years, because we do want to take the

students here, but they have to be the quality

students. We're to that point.

CANDIDATE: Yes, they have to be successful,

so they can be successful.

COMMITTEE: Because our funding is based on

success. That is the bottom line. Well,

Dr. Henry, we've enjoyed talking to you today. On

behalf of the committee, I want to thank you for

taking time to come all the way down from Virginia

and visit with us today, and once again, thank you

very much.

CANDIDATE: Thank you so much. I appreciated

my time with you today.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Committee, we will

stand in recess, as we talked about earlier, we're

going to have a little extended recess, so once

again, we have the conference room, or feel free to

sit here and work, but we're going to all eat lunch

at about 12:45, so if you want to see what Harry

does next, I'd be here at 12:45. Oh, wait, I

messed up. We have an interview at 11:30. My time

is off. We have an interview at 11:30, so be here

at 11:25, please.

(Break Taken.)�

Dr. Martin Abraham

ROUGH EDITED COPY



7:30 A.M. ET



[email protected]

COMMITTEE: Let's re-adjourn the meeting. I

have to put my glasses on, as we all know. I did

reconvene. I re-adjourned? Oh, I need to

reconvene, sorry.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: You can tell we're on target

today. Dr. Abraham, welcome to Florida Gulf Coast

University, or FGCU, as you will hear us call it.

Committee, I am pleased to introduce Dr. Martin

Abraham. Dr. Abraham is the Provost and Vice

President for Academic Affairs at Youngstown State

University. Dr. Abraham, we are pleased to have

this opportunity to spend some time with you. Our



roles and give you 15 minutes to ask us anything

that you may have on your mind regarding questions

we ask or other items we have not covered. I'm

going to get started with the first question,

Dr. Abraham. I'd like to know why Florida Gulf

Coast University and why would you be interested in

this position at this point in your career.

CANDIDATE: Well, let me start off by saying

thank you for taking your time and inviting me to

come interview. It is a pleasure to be here. I

did get here early, so I had a little bit of a

chance to walk around the campus. Beautiful

location, beautiful campus. Everything looks

wonderful, and it really is a pleasure to be here

and to be able to visit with you and talk with you

about my interest in the position. I know there

was some discussion that I saw in one of your local

newspapers a couple of days ago talking about my

interest in the position, and I do want to reassure

the committee that I am very much interested in

this position. I think this is a great opportunity

for me, and I'll go into a lot of the reasons why

in a little bit. I did tell my local newspapers

that I had not been out looking for anything, and

that's a true statement, I was not seeking a

position particularly. Lucy and her folks did an

excellent job, coming and talking to me and

convincing me that this was a good opportunity for

me, and as she described what you have going on

here, the new university, 20 years old, some of the

characteristics of the university in terms of the

activities that you have and the things that you're

looking for, she was able to convince me that this

would be a tremendously good opportunity for me,

and so I'm real thrilled to be able to be here and

be able to investigate with you and learn together

what the opportunities look like and what the fit

might be for this as an opportunity for me, and I

hope as an opportunity for you as well. Um, I want

to, let me spend a little bit of time talking a

little bit about some of the things Lucy's informed

me of and I've been able to read about based on the

information that's been available. So, first of

all, I think one of the strengths that I have that

probably will benefit this university is my

background, first of all, in engineering, but even

more than that, as a systems thinker. I have the

ability to be able to look at a challenge, look at

a problem, and be able to see the solution and then

figure out the steps in order to get to the

solution. So, I can look at the wholeness of the

problem and how the various parts of the jigsaw

puzzle can come together to create a new or a

better, improved system, and so I think that gives

me the ability to work at a level of Provost, and I

believe probably as president as well, that will

allow me to be successful in a university like

Florida Gulf Coast.

One of the other things that I really like

about Florida Gulf Coast is the fact that you're

still relatively young in your time. I've been

fairly successful in my history, working at young

organizations, even if they're part of an older

university. A couple of examples that I've had

experience with, I was at University of Toledo as

the graduate dean 13, 14 years ago at this point,

and at the time, there were three universities in

that area, two of them actually in Toledo, and the

state was looking to consolidate, and so it made

sense for the University of Toledo and the Medical

University of Ohio to come together. In advance of

doing that, they were looking at bringing together

the graduate programs of the two universities, and

my task was to create this merged graduate college

that functioned on behalf of students at the

university and at the medical university and put

that together and make that system work. I think I

did that successfully, and I think they've had,

since I've left, they've had great success in doing

that. As you have in my credentials, I was the

founding dean of the Stem College at Youngstown

State. It was another situation where I was given

an opportunity to create something from things

where not much existed. We had a College of

Engineering and portion of a College of Arts and

Sciences that was merged into it, and we had to

create the entire mechanism by which that college

was going to operate. We built it, working

together with the faculty, with the department

chairs, we built those mechanisms, we built those

processes, we created a college that had started

off with a College of Engineering that had a great

history, but really had fallen off over recent

times. In fact, that was the Provost's impetus for

creating that merged college, the College of Stem,

and we were able to create a college that took the

best of both worlds, the science world, the

engineering world, put them together to create

something that was better than the sum of its

parts, and really made the Stem College, again, the

flagship college at our university, and I'm still

very proud of that accomplishment. The third

reason I really like Florida Gulf Coast is much

more personal.

As a researcher, I've been interested in

sustainability for 20 to 30 years. I did, I

supported graduate students, we did research in the

area of sustainability. Now, we were coming at it

from a chemical engineering perspective, but I

evolved in my activities to do that from a more

broader perspective, looking at sustainability

issues on a grand scale. You'll see buried in the

VITA somewhere, in some of the service activities

that I've done, I was the chair of the American

Chemical Society's Committee on Environmental

Improvement at one point. They're the largest

scientific professional society in the country, and

the Committee on Environmental Improvement was

basically the arm of the American Chemical Society

that was engaged in issues of sustainability for

the whole world of chemistry, and so I was the

chair of that group, and we were doing a lot of

work in that area, developing policy and working on

activities that were really critical to what we

felt was going to be the future of sustainability.

So, I was very much engaged in that, I very much

enjoyed those types of activities, and I would very

much welcome the opportunities to do that here.

And there's one more thing that really hits me, and

I looked at it, this is even more personal than

that. I have a daughter who graduated college

three years ago at this point, four, maybe, we're

getting close to. Um, her undergraduate degree was

wildlife conservation. She then went on and did a

master's degree in environmental science, and she's

now working in Hawaii, rescuing shore birds, and so

I have personal love through my daughter for a lot

of these environmental issues and ecological

issues, and by working with her and listening to

her, I've gained an appreciation for some of those

issues that even go beyond the engineering issues,

so now even a broader perspective on some of the

environmental challenges that we face, and I'm

really looking forward to having the opportunity to

continue to investigate those as part of Florida

Gulf Coast.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Dr. Isern.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Abraham, Florida Gulf Coast

University shared governance tradition brings

faculty, staff and students, furthermore enhancing

diversity is a high priority at FGCU. We would


especially the role you feel a president should

take, and if, in your answer, you could please tell

us about a time that you adapted your style to work

effectively with those who are different from you.

CANDIDATE: Okay. So, shared governance is a

very, you know, it's a very important issue for a

university like this. We have a lot of concerns

and a lot of challenges in shared governance and a

lot of need to have a lot of, to get inclusion, not

only amongst the faculty, which is typically who we

think about when we think about shared governance,

but also including the staff, and quite frankly,

including the students. The challenge with shared

governance is that it's difficult sometimes to get

all of the types of involvement that you need to

get, and it's difficult at times to reach a

solution and reach an answer, and so when you get

to issues of shared governance, you have to manage

a process that makes sure that you get the input

and the value that you need from the various folks

that you're looking to have engaged, but you still

need to reach a conclusion and make a decision,

and, so, you have to manage that process of shared

governance to get yourself down the road, so that

you can get recommendations and you can get good

action and good opportunity. A good example of how

shared governance doesn't work that I've been

involved in over the past couple of years as

Provost, but how sometimes, bad shared governance

gets us to good shared governance, and, so, we have

a committee of faculty that reviews the

applications for sabbaticals at Youngstown State,

and last year, the committee did their review and

gave me a response that said we think all of these

faculty proposals are very good, and you should

support all of them, and that was all I got from

the committee, we think they're all good, you

should support them all. What that left me with,

and by the way, I went back to the committee and

asked them again, do you want to give me some real

feedback, some input that I can use to help me make

some decisions, and basically, I got, nope, we

think they're all good, and this is, you should

support them all. Well, I went through all of

them, and I selected the ones that I felt were the

strongest. I knew that I wasn't going to, I could

support them all, but I didn't think they were all

qualified to be supported, and I supported most of

them. I think we had maybe 15 of them that year,

and I supported maybe 12. This was last year. I

don't think that's good shared governance. It

qualifies, because I got input, but I didn't really

get good input.

This year, I got good shared governance,

because the committee this year did a really

thorough job of reviewing those applications.

First of all, I think I had more applications. I

haven't finished the process right now, we're in

the middle of it, but they gave me the applications

and said, these are the ones we really like, these

are the ones that some people like, but the

committee really doesn't recommend or can't

recommend, these, we don't think you should

support, and then they gave me a paragraph for each

explaining why. So, I think what's happened in

this case is we have bad shared governance, because

we didn't get the right inputs. This year, we have

good shared governance, we got great input from the

committee, and we were able to get some great

responses. So, we have to manage those processes

in order to be able to get the types of things that

we're looking for. Now, I know my answers are

starting to run a little long, but you also asked

me about diversity issues, and I wanted to touch on

issues of diversity for a few minutes before we,

before I finish up, because diversity is a

tremendous challenge for us, it's something that

is, I think, becoming more and more difficult as we

become more and more metric-driven. Performance

metrics drive us to exclude qualified students who

have had challenges prior to getting to college

life. I know we see this at Youngstown State.

We've seen a real, not a drop-off in the

applications, not even a drop-off so much in the

admissions, but a drop-off in the retention of our

underrepresented students, and, so, we have to be

very proactive in identifying the specific needs of

the underrepresented populations, whether they're,

um, whether it's a sexual orientation, whether it's

an ethnicity, whether it's a religious, whatever it

is, we have to understand what those challenges

are, and we have to take appropriate actions so

that we can be successful and help those students

to be successful. We can't afford, I mean, one of

the solutions, as you get to performance metrics,

is you raise your admissions standards. Well, if

you raise your admissions standards, that has a

disproportionate impact on underrepresented

populations, not because they're poorer students or

they're worse students, I mean, I know our

enrollment manager at Youngstown State talks about

the average ACT score, and the average ACT score of

all ACT-takers is, I think 21.5, 22, somewhere in

that range. The average ACT score for an African

American student is somewhere around 19. This is a

national statistic. So, if we set our cut point

at 19, we're clearly disadvantaging the average

African American student, and that's a problem,

because many of those African American students, or

any of the underrepresented populations, can be

perfectly successful at the university, we just

have to be sensitive to their needs and make sure

that the programs are in place that are sensitive

to their needs, that the faculty and the advisors

and the staff are all sensitive to their needs, so

that they can respond effectively when there's a

challenge and help those students to be successful

with their college career. We see tremendous

success for all of our students as they move

through the university and they graduate and they

get jobs, and there's no reason that the

underrepresented populations shouldn't be able to

do that as well.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Isern with a follow-up

question.

COMMITTEE: Yes, a follow-up on the shared

governance question. So, it is my understanding

there was a recent campus climate survey that, um,

was unfavorable towards the Provost office. Can

you comment on that, please?

CANDIDATE: I can. Um, there was, and it was

unfavorable to senior leadership at-large and with

a specific emphasis on the Provost area. I can't

say I'm surprised that they would single out the

Provost area. If they're unhappy with things that

are going on on campus, certainly amongst the

faculty, you're going to see that emphasis placed

at the Provost area. That's where senior

leadership primarily interacts with faculty, so

that's why the challenge is primarily at the

faculty level. The challenge, the issue for us, I

mean, is we did a campus climate survey, we did

this back in the spring, we got our results in the

very early part of the fall, the data is not good.

It shows a lot of challenges in terms of a lot of

areas that we have, and this is the great colleges

to work for survey that we used, and it was my

insistence that we used a nationally benchmarked

survey, because I wanted to know where we stood

relative to other institutions, and when we got the

results, it showed challenges in three areas, two

areas, really, that came back to saying there's a

problem with senior leadership, but there were two

areas, really, that were concerns. One was the

area of shared governance, and one was the area of

communication, and you could imagine that if those

are the two biggest challenges, then that leads you

to concerns about the senior leadership piece.

Seeing that communications was one of the

challenges that we had at senior leadership, I felt

that the right thing for us to do when we got the

results of the survey was to broadly disseminate

the results of the survey and to take ownership for

it. If we've got these concerns with

communications and with shared governance, senior

leadership has the responsibility to help find our

way out of that challenge, and so we went out and

we disseminated the information, and we said, this

is an area of concern, we share your concern, let's

talk about how we fix the problem, how do we get

better.

So, in addition to presentations that shared

the results, we also then went forward with a

series of open forums, and the open forums were

intended to get input from faculty and staff.

Okay, we've heard you, we know what the problems

are, how do we fix them? What should we do next in

order to get better? Because our objective is to

get better, and we think everybody shares that

objective. And, so, in the beginning, or middle of

September, we started these series of open forums.

The first of November, I think it was November 2nd,

we got the results from all of the comments at

these open forums. There were 886 comments that

were compiled by a team of 9 individuals into the

document that is available on our assessment

office's web page that some of you may have looked

at, and it points out a whole lot of challenges,

but it, and it gives a series of actionable items,

or some actionable items. The challenges, we knew

about from before, so that's not new information,

but the actionable steps is new information, and so

the next step for us is to take this information

that we've received so that we can begin to do some

things that are going to help us get better. Our

next step, where we're headed at this point, and

we're just embarking on this process, is to put

together a steering committee, and we're calling it

the excellence steering committee, because, quite

frankly, everything that's been identified as

challenges and possible solutions is not everything

that's out there. There are other challenges that

we know, and there are other challenges that we're

going to find as we start to investigate a little

further, and there are other solutions that may

come up, and as we do that, as we move forward in

this, we think we're going to find many ways to get

better, and so we're going to really kind of triage

these opportunities. There are things that we're

already doing, there are suggestions out there that

we're already working on. There are some things

that have been suggested that we probably can do

without much cost, without much change, without

much challenge. I mean, we'll need to change, but

there's not much challenge to it, it just is

something we need to do differently, we need to

say, gee, we never really thought about that, yeah,

we can do that, and then there are some things that

are going to take a lot of work. They might take a

big investment of money, they might take a big

investment of time. It doesn't mean we're not

going to do them, but they're longer-term items.

So, you know, to put this in the context of shared

governance, we have been at the table as a partner

with our academic senate from the middle of

September through now, and we expect to continue to

do this together in a shared way with faculty,

staff and students as we work to make the

university better.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Allen. Caught you off-guard.

COMMITTEE: Not hard to do.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: I'll broaden the focus a little

bit with a question about strategic planning. A

new president for FGCU will be coming to a campus

right after we've finalized a new strategic plan.

You'll have some opportunity to shape, but

certainly to operationalize that plan. Can you

tell us about your experience leading, um, and

implementing and using a strategic plan to make

decisions?

CANDIDATE: Yeah. I've had, um, a couple of

experiences in developing strategic plans. You

know, I mentioned, when I came to Youngstown State,

I was the founding dean for the Stem College. We

had no plan, and, so, one of the first things that

we did as part of our activity was to put together

a strategic plan for the college. What were the

things that we needed to do immediately? What were

the things that we were going to get to a little

further down the road? In 2010, Youngstown State

hired a new president. The president wanted to

develop a new strategic plan, put together a

committee of about 50 people, I was part of that

committee, helped to develop the strategic plan

that we still operate under at Youngstown State,

and, so, for 5 years or so, as dean of the Stem

College, with my own strategic plan and a new YSU

strategic plan, my objective was to try to keep

those in alignment as we continued to move and make

progress towards moving our college forwards and

moving the university forwards. When I became

Provost, I became the co-chair of the strategic

plan committee. It had always been the Provost and

the Vice President for finances, and one of my

functions has been to continue to maintain and

operationalize that strategic plan. We've tweaked

it a little bit. We hired a new president again

in 2014, and he's looked at the strategic plan,

we've tweaked it a little bit, we continue to

monitor progress, we report to our Board of

Trustees every quarter. We have, in our strategic

plan, as with yours, we have four, we call them

cornerstones, you call them pillars, but four main

emphasis areas. We report on one of those

cornerstones each quarter to our Board of Trustees

with a series of metrics that we're supposed to be

hitting, we talk about why we might not be off, we

adjust our metrics, if we think we need to make

adjustments, we manage that process and continue to

massage it and work it forwards.

We are very cognizant of our strategic plan at

the moment, because we are coming up for a regional

accreditation in 2018, and one of the things we

know our accrediting agency is going to be looking

at is how are you working your plan, and so a lot

of things that we're doing right now, we spend a

lot of time going back, and not so much going back

and saying we need to do this because it's in the

strategic plan, but we need to do this because it's

the right thing to do, and here's how it aligns

with the strategic plan. So, as far as working

with the Florida Gulf Coast strategic plan, I've

looked at what you have, an already ambitious plan,

and there's a whole list of things that you'd like

to achieve and you'd like to accomplish, and I

think it's a set of very laudatory goals and a lot

of very important things that need to be done. I

did not see a lot of prioritization in the plan.

It might be there, I may have missed it At some

point, if we have a chance, I'd like to investigate

that a little further with you, but I think some of

what we need to do is have conversation amongst the

leadership of the university, amongst the faculty,

the staff, and to be honest, the students, they're

going to be very critical to the success of

whatever we try to do at this university, and make

sure we understand what we should be doing first,

what's the most critical things in order to move us

ahead, in some respects, what are the easy things,

if there are any, because if they're relatively

easy, we can get some quick hits, some quick

successes and move some things along that actually

allow us to do some things later on. As we were

talking back home earlier this week with, actually,

a group of students, we have a group of students at

Youngstown we call presidential mentors, the

president meets with on a regular basis, and he's

working with them on a number of initiatives that

we're trying to, actually at the moment,

prioritize, and I think he said, and he's

absolutely correct, sometimes, when you do some of

the early things that don't cost a lot of money and

are relatively easy, you find that that creates

resources to do some of the harder things later on,

and I think he's absolutely right, if we can make

some progress in certain areas early on, that frees

up resources to do some of the more challenging

things down the road. So, I would look forward to

working with the university to help prioritize and

operationalize that strategic plan and move Florida

Gulf Coast forwards.


CANDIDATE: Sure.


COMMITTEE: At FGCU, we've been striving to

increase our visibility. We're in the system

with 11 other public universities, and there are

many other institutions in the state as well. What

experience do you have in building institutional

visibility and what particular skills or ideas

would you bring to that task of

visibility-building?

CANDIDATE: Yeah. So, you know, as I thought

about that question, again, I go back to Youngstown

State, because I think there's a lot of similarity

between our institution and yours. We also face

this problem with visibility. There are

actually 14 state universities in Ohio, smaller

population, more universities, so we have a bigger

challenge with visibility, and we are the furthest

university you can get from the state capitol, so

it's a challenge for us to get a lot of traction in

that area. Locally, within our community,

everybody knows us. They know me, they know the

president, they know the deans. We're it in our

local community, but we're a hidden gem, and I

suspect that, you know, people would say the same

thing about Florida Gulf Coast. I'll tell you, one

of the things that can be done that's very

effective, I had a great experience this morning

when I came in from the airport. I was picking up

my rental car, and the young lady who was, um,

checking around the car and helping me get the car,

young lady by the name of Andrea, I didn't get a

last name, but she'll be graduating from Florida

Gulf Coast in May, and she was a tremendous,

tremendous advocate for your university. She

couldn't say enough wonderful things about what you

are doing and what her experiences here have been.

She's graduating, it'll take her five years, but

even in that, she lost a year because she started

in education, transitioned over to business, but

even in that process, she talked about how

wonderful everything was at the university, how

well she had been treated, how easily she found her

way around, how good her advising was. She just

had a wonderful experience, she couldn't say enough

good things about the university. The more

ambassadors you have like that, the more people are

going to learn about your university. So, that's

one of the things that you need to continue to

promote and continue to do, is to get your students

out very publically, around in the communities,

outside and talking about the wonderful things,

because they're your best advocates, they live what

you do here on the university campus, and if you're

doing the right things, and clearly, based on this

one student, you are, they're going to be

absolutely your best salespeople. The other thing

that I would talk about is the fact that you can't

forget the value of non-academic events.

I'm going to come to academic events and

academics also, but the non-academic events are

also important. You know, one of the things that

Andrea was telling me, and I didn't check the

history of your enrollment, but she talked about a

tremendous increase in your enrollment following

your success making it to the Sweet 16 and the

basketball tournament. A lot of people like to

downplay the importance of athletics. I know we

have that constant competition in our campus, we're

a football school, but we have that constant

competition between should we support athletics or

do we support academics. Well, they support each

other, and they have to support each other, and

those types of activities promote the university

and promote your brand in a way that the academics

can't. Unfortunate or not, people pay attention to

the success of your athletics programs. That makes

national news. We have, I mean, our students in

our philosophy department at Youngstown State have

placed 2nd in the National Ethics Bowl Competition

for the second year in a row. I suspect that

nobody around this table knows that, and probably,

nobody really cares. Well, you might care, but I

also suspect that you know that back in the 90s,

our football team won four national championships,

and I know, because it was in the newspaper here,

that you know that our president won a national

championship at Ohio State also. Okay, so, our

president is known because of his accomplishments

on the athletics field, not his accomplishments in

other areas, and he's been very successful in other

areas as well. So, the non-academics stuff is

important. I was at a concert last night, I was

very pleased to be able to attend a gentleman by

the name of Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., I don't know

if you've ever heard of him. He won America's Got

Talent back in 2011. We had 700 people in the

theater, enjoying him. He was performing with

Leonard, Coleman and Blunt. He was singing with

them, it was a phenomenal concert, but this helps

drive the, you know, drives the visibility of the

university, when you're out there and you're doing

these types of things for the community.

On the academic side, the important thing that

I would say is you have to build the brand. You

have to be able to sell the academic excellence and

the academic quality. It doesn't sell the

visibility in the same way, right? You can have a

great academic program, I know, I think I've seen,

there's a great emphasis in marine environmental

and marine activities and environmental science,

and it makes all great sense for this university to

be engaged in those areas. You continue to promote

that, you continue to develop that as a brand, as

an opportunity, people will start to recognize, you

go there for their excellent programs in

environment. You do the sustainability, not only

on campus, but as an academic initiative. You make

it your brand on campus, we're going to be a

sustainable campus, we are a sustainable campus.

You do all of that so that you can continue to

create a leadership position, not just here in the

community, but a leadership position state-wide and

nationally. In order to do that, you continue to

invest in those areas. You bring faculty who have

leadership positions in those areas and try to get

them to support the activity and support those

opportunities, and you really continue to reinforce

what that brand is going to be. One of the things

that was in the campus climate survey, I don't know

if it rose to the level of the, um, the summary, or

if it was just in some of the comments that we had,

Youngstown State has built a brand in additive

manufacturing. We've identified that as a target

area that we can do. We've been engaged in that

area, we've been very successful. We invested in

faculty, we brought a faculty four years ago to

help lead that initiative, we brought them in from

industry, we did some special things with them so

that we could get them to come and join us. We've

been very successful now bringing research grants

to support that activity. We, at Youngstown, are

the host for the National Additive Manufacturing

Innovation Institute, this was the first of the

manufacturing institutes that President Obama

invested in. This is a, at this point,

$100 million investment in Youngstown, Ohio, to do

additive manufacturing. We have an alumnus he's

not an alum, he's a friend of the university who

built his business in Youngstown, who contributed

$2.5 million to create an endowed share to bring

the next great faculty in additive manufacturing.

People know, certainly in the state of Ohio, and I

think it's growing nationally, if you want to do

additive manufacturing, you go to Youngstown State

University. Five years ago, we had no claim to

anything from an academic standpoint, now we do,

and I think that can be replicated elsewhere. It

takes a consistent recurring investment,

identifying what you're going to be excellent in,

investing and continuing to grow.


COMMITTEE: Florida Gulf Coast University, as

you're, I'm sure, well aware, we're one of 12

universities, and I guess I should say they, at

this point, they are one of 12 universities in the

state university system. Could you explain for us

and expound on what experience you've had in

lobbying at the state level for a state university,

within a state university system or to the

legislature regarding increased funding or capitol

projects? And if, in fact, you haven't done that,

what skills and preparation would you bring to the

table to assist FGCU in that advocacy kind of a

program?

COMMITTEE: Yeah, we've lobbied at the state,

and we've lobbied in Washington, and we've had

success in both of those efforts. Um, when I was

the dean in the Stem College, we were, multiple

times, down in Columbus. You know, the challenge

with being the furthest from the state capitol is

you've got the furthest to go, but we didn't let

that stop us. We would go down to Columbus, and

we'd talk to our state legislators down there, and

we'd visit with them and talk about our plans and

expound on the types of things we were going to do,

and we had a lot of success in terms of doing that.

Um, the additive manufacturing, some of our early

initiatives were built on state funding and

creating opportunities across the state. We've

done that in, I learned how to do that first,

actually, even before that time, when I was in

Toledo. Back in, well, in the early 2000s, state

of Ohio developed a program they called the Right

Centers Program. They were going to give

$20 million worth of research funding to these

multi-university teams. At University of Toledo, I

got together with Western Reserve and Ohio State,

and we put together a $20 million proposal that we

won. One of the activities that we had to do in

order to win that proposal was go down to Columbus

and defend our plan amongst the state funders, and

we did that, obviously successfully, because we won

that competition. We meet with the state

legislature on a regular basis. We meet with them

when they're at home. I talked to, one of our

state senators, actually, he's still a

representative, he will be a state senator starting

in January, he just got elected to the senate,

talked about the things that we need in the state.

In Ohio, they're talking about cutting our funding,

they're talking about forcing us to have a

roll-back in tuition. If they cut our funding and

roll-back our tuition, we'll figure it out somehow,

but it's not going to be pleasant, and, so, in this

informal setting, happened to run into him at an

event, we were talking about why this would be a

bad thing for our university, he's our state

senator, we want him to know why it's bad for

Youngstown State, may not be bad for the rest of

the state, but it's going to be bad for us if that

were to happen, so we do that on a fairly regular

basis, we continue to do that, we bring

opportunities.

One of the things that I found to be

particularly successful when I'm working at the

state level, and it works at the federal level as

well, is not only to lobby for our university, but

to lobby for our region, our community. So, we've

built partnerships with the community college that

we have in our region, we've built partnerships, we

have a manufacturers coalition, we have a

partnership with them, we have a partnership with

our K-12 schools. When we talk about what we're

going to be doing, we don't talk about why it's

going to be good for the university, we talk about

why it's going to be good for our community, and

you have to understand, in order to be successful,

what is it our state legislators are interested in.

They may be interested in seeing the university

succeed, but they're probably more interested in

economic growth and jobs. At least in our state,

they're interested in those two areas, and, so,

when I lobby for something for my university or my

region, I have to share with them why this is going

to help them to achieve their goals, and that's how

we move forwards and how we make progress in that

area. You do the same thing at the federal level.

I mentioned that we have the National Manufacturing

Institute in Youngstown, Ohio, that didn't happen

by accident, that happened because we spent a lot

of time working with our congressional delegation,

pointing out to them why Youngstown was the right

place to be and how they could be successful there.

COMMITTEE: Follow-up by Mr. Morton.

COMMITTEE: Um, do you believe in performance

metrics? And if so, how do you think it would

drive both student success and academic excellence?

CANDIDATE: Yeah, I, you know, Ohio is a

performance-based system as well, so we're also

judged based on how well our students achieve, and,

so, we're familiar with it, and we work towards

hitting those performance metrics as well, and I

think, like Florida Gulf Coast, we lag in the areas

of retention and graduation rates. We don't

measure yet placement rates, I'm sure it's coming

in the state, I know you're graded also on

placement rates. One of the values of having

performance metrics is you know what you have to

do, and so if you want to get your state funding,

you have to achieve those objectives, so that means

if you want to be successful, invest in the things

that are going to improve your retention, invest in

the things that are going to improve your

graduation rates. Put the emphasis there, because

that'll get you some resources to do some things

that you'll be able to do elsewhere, because you'll

be hitting those targets that the state is saying

you need to achieve. Now, it happens that

retention and graduation rates are good for other

reasons as well, and it's the right thing to do on

behalf of your students and in terms of, you know,

reducing student debt and getting your students out

and all of those other things that we want to

achieve, but the metrics give us the targets that

we need, the metrics tell us what we're trying to

achieve, and if we, you know, sometimes, you know,

they talk about in K-12 education, you shouldn't

teach to the test, in this particular case,

sometimes working towards accomplishing, you know,

what's on the test maybe is not a bad thing,

because it really does align with the objectives

that we should have as a university anyway.


COMMITTEE: So, a follow-up question from me.

Um, so, when I look at your graduation rates and I

look at our graduation rates, you pointed out very

similar, you've been the Provost for looks like

about a year or so.

CANDIDATE: About two years.

COMMITTEE: Okay, so, can you tell us, because

this is not a small topic in our state and our

university, and as a board of trustee member, I can

tell you, it is near and dear to our heart that

this is going to get better soon, so can you tell

us what you've done as Provost to start the process

at Youngstown State of moving the needle upwards,

to get the graduation rates up, and what you might

think, based on, I know a very limited access to

our situation, but what you might transfer with you

here to help increase our rates as well?

CANDIDATE: Yeah. Um, we started about two

years ago with a Division of Student Success, and

the president actually wanted that Division of

Student Success to report to him, and I convinced

him that it needed to report to the academic unit,

into the Provost office, and I, two years since

that decision was made, I think that was one of the

most critical and beneficial decisions that we did,

because so much of student success happens on the

academic side. It's about interactions that our

students have with their faculty, when a faculty

member notices a student struggling and has a way

of reporting that back to somebody that can provide

some assistance and provide some help. So, we've

put in place, we actually put in place about four

or five years ago a reporting system that's

supposed to be effective in helping the students

make it through that process. It does, to an

extent. It would be a whole lot better if we would

invest in more people that would be out there to

work with these students that aren't showing up to

class or failed the first exam or are just

struggling so that they can be successful, because

we have the reporting mechanism, but we don't have

enough people to work with them, and so we need

more people to work with them. This is a

challenge, because, right, we have a budgetary

challenge, Youngstown State, we've had budgetary

shortfalls for the past five years or so, we just

came out of that this year, so we're trying to

invest in these needs, and yet we don't have any

money, so that creates the challenge. We've got to

figure out how to balance those two. Some other

things we've done is we've recognized that we need

a first-year experience program. Um, we spent most

of last year developing our first-year experience

course. Did this working with the academic senate,

this was another good example of shared governance,

committee on general education that took the lead

and identified what would need to be incorporated

into a first-year experience course, identified a

way to proceed and got it approved in the

curriculum as part of our general education

requirements.

So, this fall, in fact, we have our first time

that we're offering a first-year experience course

across the university. It's not mandatory this

year, next year, it'll be mandatory for all

students entering, this year it's suggested. We

had about a thousand of our freshmen in our

first-year experience, that's about 50 percent of

our students. I don't know if you do first-year

experience, but certainly, that's something that

can be done. It helps to get the students started

off in the right way. For our students who are

really challenged, we're entering into a co-

requisite model for remediation. A lot of

universities, students who are underprepared, you

throw into these remedial courses and say you never

learned it in high school, but we're going to teach

it to you in college, you should learn it now.

Here's your college-level course, we're going to

put all of this around it so you can be successful.

The data shows it's much more successful. We'll be

doing it for the introductory math course for the

first time and our introductory English course. I

think that has a lot of opportunity. We've brought

together our orientation programs with our

first-year experience, so that the students get a

consistent message. We've increased our peer

mentoring system. These all are starting to have

an impact. It's a long road, but I think we're

making some progress in that direction.

COMMITTEE: Perfect. I guess I'll ask one

other question, because I think we have time for

one more. So, you're obviously a chemical

engineer, a scientist, but as president of FGCU, we

are the, the university is the cultural hub of this

region, and we would like to see that, um, grow

even more over time. So, with your background as a

scientist, I'm sure that my friends in the arts are

going to ask the question of does Dr. Abraham like

the arts, and how would he grow our visibility,

which is a little bit of a follow-up to another

question. So, could you tell us about your

experience with the arts? I know you were at the

concert last night, so that gives us some, you

know, we've had guitar players previously during

the interviews, but, um, tell us how you would make

the visibility of our fine arts program, we have,

the music group was in Carnegie Hall last

Christmas, we really have a growing and, really, a

premier program in that, although we probably don't

talk about it as much as we should. So, how would

you get that to grow and take off and really

solidify our place in the region?

CANDIDATE: So, I was at the concert last

night, tomorrow night, I'm going to go see a funny

thing happen on the way to the forum put on by our

musical theater students. Um, I, you know, I enjoy

the arts, I think they're a very important

component of what we do. You know, you talk about,

one of your other questions, you talked a little

bit about visibility. The arts are another

opportunity to enhance the visibility of the

university. The more that you're out there, doing

these types of shows, these cultural events, these

activities, the more you can take advantage of that

brand that you build to help demonstrate the

opportunities and show off your university. Um,

the arts are a little bit of a unique educational

challenge, because a lot of the arts are

studio-based. We're beginning to do an analysis of

cost for degree and cost for credit hour and those

sorts of things at Youngstown State. The costliest

program on our campus is our music program. I

don't think this should, this will come as a

surprise to anybody who understands music programs.

Um, I know it doesn't come as a surprise to me, I

expected it, everybody told me to expect it, but

it's important to do it, and we have to continue to

invest in it, we have to figure out the ways to

continue to invest in it, and that's an important

activity, because it adds to the university. We

just hired a new dean at Youngstown State for our

Creative Arts and Communication College, where our

music and theater and all programs are located.

Um, she's interested in starting a gospel choir. I

think it's a great idea, and we're looking at how

do we do that. She's interested in doing that, not

specifically for her music students, she's

interested in doing it for all of the students,

because the music programs and the arts programs,

the theater programs, provide outlets for all of

the students who can come to our university, to

your university as well. We have a marching band,

we're a football school, we have a marching band.

There's music majors in the marching band, there

are a lot of other students in the marching band as

well. It is important to have these opportunities.

One of the ways you get better as a university

is providing a range of opportunities for students

for whom you're competing. At Youngstown State, we

didn't used to compete for students, we only got

students from within a couple of counties away, and

they came to Youngstown State, and that was it, and

it was good. Well, we chose, we wanted to get

better. Actually, the state told us, you need to

get better, you need do more research, be more

regionally competitive. If I'm competing against

the University of Akron or Kent State, you know,

other universities that are four-year

research-oriented universities, when I'm talking to

a potential undergraduate student, they want to

know what are the opportunities they're going to

have on my campus. They're going to, first,

obviously, want to know that we have a quality

academic program, but that's not enough. I have to

have everything else that they're looking for. If

it's a study abroad opportunity, I have to offer

study abroad. If it's an internship or a co-op,

those are the things that I need to be doing. If

they're playing a musical instrument in high school

and they want to continue to play, I got to get

them an outlet for that as well. So, all of these

opportunities, all of these experiences, are

incredibly important for our students, for your

students, and they start with the academic program

in the college providing those opportunities. So,

I mean, I was a trumpet player back when I was in

elementary school and high school. When my kids

went through school, they did choir and musical

theater. My daughter performed in, I don't know, a

dozen shows, my son was in a dozen shows, I went to

every one of those performances, some were okay.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: Some, not so much.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: But, you know, I think it's a huge

opportunity. I think the arts are tremendously

important. I don't think you can run a, you know,

I think it's a tremendous asset for a university,

to have a great arts program. I think it's

important to have, and I fully support them in

every way.

COMMITTEE: Wonderful. Well, we have about 15

minutes left, so I told you that we would reverse

roles and let you ask us questions. Address the

questions to me, and then I will figure out who

would be the most appropriate to answer your

questions. So, with that, I will turn it over to

you and let you ask a question.

CANDIDATE: So, I'm going to turn the question

around, because one of the questions that we didn't

really get to, which is on your list, and I'm going

to explore it and ask you to help me on this one a

little bit, is the issue of administrative

experience. I know what my administrative

experience is, but I'm interested in hearing from

you, what is the characteristics that you're

looking for in your next president? Specifically,

not what's in the advertisement and all of that,

but what are you specifically interested in, and

what are the key elements that you think somebody

coming into this role has to be sure to have.

COMMITTEE: Well, what I think I'm going to do

to answer that, I think I'm going to ask trustee

Elneus, who is the student body perspective, I'm

going to let the two faculty members fight and

figure out who's going to respond from their

perspective. I want to have Dean Gregerson do it

from a dean's perspective, I'm going to have Mr.

Call do it from a foundation perspective, and I

will finish up with a trustee perspective.

CANDIDATE: Wow.

COMMITTEE: Is that fair?

CANDIDATE: That's fair.

COMMITTEE: We'll give you one of everything.

I don't want you to leave without knowing.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: So, trustee Elneus, you have the

floor.

COMMITTEE: Thank you, sir.

COMMITTEE: We're going to have a Board of

Governors perspective as well, if Mr. Morton

thinks that's appropriate, from a guy who has a

child and a grandchild that goes to school here as

well. Any of those will work.

COMMITTEE: So, I'm going first. On the

student end, the big thing that students are

looking for is someone that's willing to adapt to

what's going on on campus and realistically look at

and understand what the direction the Board of

Governors is giving, the direction the Board of

Trustees is giving, and use that direction to

infuse it with what our campus culture, the key

things that makes FGCU what it is, focused around

environmental sustainability and diversity, and

that's really what students are looking for, is

someone not to lose sight of that, of those things

that make us who we are as students, but to take

the direction and use that as, um, a tool to

enhance what we have already.

COMMITTEE: And I've changed my mind. I want

Dr. Allen to take 2 minutes and Dr. Isern to take 2

minutes, because one of you is from the College of

Business, and one is from the College of Arts and

Sciences, which is our two biggest colleges on

campus. Dr. Allen, I'll let you go first.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. I think we're ready

for someone who's going to put a process in place

very quickly, to dig down into the infrastructure

of the leadership here at the university and decide

if the right people are in the right roles. That's

probably one of the most complicated tasks that the

new president is going to face. We think it's

critical for the success of the new president.


COMMITTEE: Sure. So, we're looking for a

president who can put the students front and

center, who has a vision that can be driven through

leadership, influence and by example and

transparency, so I think just the whole idea of

shared governance and, um, we're going into our

next 20 years, so we want someone who can lead us

into that direction. We want to see the next

president take us to the next decade.


COMMITTEE: Yeah, so, the foundation is, um,

looking for all of those things, I would agree with

that, and then the metrics and those types of

things, but I'll answer from a foundation side as

well. Just making sure that we are connected to

our communities, making sure that we are connected

to the businesses in our communities, and our

communities run a long way up this coast, so, you

know, we start in Marco Island primarily, so all

the way up through, I always say all the way

through Sarasota, even though that may not be

exactly where, but we've got Henry and Charlotte

and several counties right here locally, but, so,

making sure, and then donors, because donors are in

our communities, and they may not be businesses, we

have a lot of people that retire and move here,

and, so, collectively, those three, trying to make

sure that we're staying in touch with those, and

then adding our alumni, but alumni, again, is a

very different world here, because we're 20 years

old, right? So, the oldest are still young and

still striving in most cases. So, staying in touch

with them and bringing them onboard as well.

COMMITTEE: And I'm going to add too, and Mr.

Casimir, Nicole represents our SAC, which is the

staff advisory, and they're awfully quiet, but it

just dawned on me, I want you to get the benefit of

all the different views. So, Nicole, would you be

willing to give from your group's perspective what

you guys would be looking for?

COMMITTEE: So, from a staff perspective, we

really find transparency and open communication

very important, as well as, um, shared governance

between faculty, staff and students. That's been,

um, we've made great strides towards more of a

shared governance between the three groups over the

last couple of years, but there's always room for

improvement, and that's a concern in comments that

we receive on a regular basis, that the new

president, you know, we want open communication,

transparency and shared governance.

CANDIDATE: I just want to interrupt for a

second, because I'd like to know a little bit more

about SAC. So, could you give me a 1-minute

summary?

COMMITTEE: Absolutely.

COMMITTEE: So, the Staff Advisory Council is

made-up of 24 staff members that are elected every

year. We meet on a monthly basis. We, along with

faculty and students, we review policies that come

through before they go through the open, before

they go to the community, and we represent, um,

staff voices, so we take in comments and concerns

and maybe, you know, suggestions, and we, um, take

off of that and find solutions and, um, we're just

there for staff. We put on, um, during spring

break, we put on professional development

opportunities, we, throughout the year, we really

try and bring staff together to try and get them

out of their bubble, to meet new people and to

bring all groups together.

CANDIDATE: Great. Thank you.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Casimir, who is our alumni

rep, he is the chairman of the Alumni Association

for the university. So, Harry, with that, or you

may be the past chairman now, I'm not sure if it's

swapped yet.

COMMITTEE: Not yet. I still have six months

left.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Who's counting?

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: I only have three meetings and 27

minutes left as the chair of the presidential

search committee, if all goes well.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: All right, well, to echo Mr. Call

earlier, as a young university, we do have a really

young, um, alumni population, and, um, an ideal

president will really help us cultivate the

relationship with those alumni, and also,

hopefully, bring them back when the time comes to

help contribute to the foundation and help the

university pursue what they need to pursue with

funding eventually. So, that will be, that would

be ideal, a candidate that would, again, help

cultivate this relationship with the students that

graduated from here.

CANDIDATE: Are the alumni engaged on campus

now?

COMMITTEE: Yes. We are really involved.

There are about 24,000 plus graduates worldwide,

and we have a board of directors here, about 27 of

us, and we meet on a regular basis and talk about

how to cultivate this relationship, but it's

important for the president, the next president to

help with that cultivation also. Thank you.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Morton, if you don't mind.

COMMITTEE: Sure.

COMMITTEE: Do you mind giving your

perspective?

COMMITTEE: Yeah, I'll be very brief. A

passion for excellence and a willingness to hold

accountable him or herself.

CANDIDATE: Mm-hmm.

COMMITTEE: To the critical constituents that

making Florida Gulf Coast University, and they

would include faculty, students, taxpayers and

employers.

COMMITTEE: Okay.

COMMITTEE: And I would echo Mr. Morton's

sentiments. I think as one voice of the Board of

Trustees, um, I think it's imperative that we get a

dynamic, high-energy leader, who wants to figure

out what, we're going to be 20 years in a few

months, and will just about be rolling off as the

chair, but, um, we need to find what we're going to

be when we're 40, and we need a dynamic leader, we

need somebody who is a change agent to address some

of the things that Dr. Allen brought up, so we need

a high-energy, highly motivated, results-driven,

accountable individual to move us over the next 20,

or to set us on a path for the next 20 years, and

so I would say that would be my take on what we are

ultimately looking for, and I want to point out,

the reason I let everybody from the different

groups, we are a family, so it's important, we all

have a stake in this, and the region does, and I

didn't ask the community people, because I had Mr.

Morton and Mr. Casimir and Mr. Call who represent

that constituency as well, but very much a

community-driven, this is the economic engine in

this region, and in some ways, the cultural hub, so

I wanted you to get a feel. It's all of us that

the next president has to work with, which I think

is what Mr. Morton was saying. So, your next

question.

COMMITTEE: Can I add my two cents first?

COMMITTEE: I'm sorry, I forgot the dean. I

started adding people on. The last and the best of

all.

(Laughing.)


COMMITTEE: I don't know that I have anything

new to say, but I might say it in a different way.

I think, you know, everything a president does can

sort of be boiled down into two components, the

outward-facing and the inward-facing. I think the

outward-facing part, we need an unrelenting

champion of this university, and there's a lot of

pieces to that, and part of that, championing the

university, is helping to develop the overall

vision and the presidential input on that is going

to be key. The inward-facing part of the job, I

think, um, we need someone who is a, um, ongoing

member of this academic community in lots of

different ways, but we're, like all organizations,

we've got a hierarchical structure, and I think the

next president has to flatten that a little bit and

be a real day-to-day participant in the life of the

university. So, those are the things I would say.

COMMITTEE: See? We saved the best till last.

CANDIDATE: I see that. Now you know why he's

a dean.

COMMITTEE: So, we'll move back to you and let

you ask your next question.

CANDIDATE: So, the next question I have is,

and I guess, this is, this goes back to a question

you asked, and I started to give you a little bit

of an answer on the issue of student success, and I

talked a little bit about some of the things that

we're doing in Youngstown. I'm wondering if you

can talk a little bit about some of the things that

you already have in place, some of the things

you're thinking about, wild ideas that you have

that you might just be able to just have some

impact, and how you structure that within your

university.

COMMITTEE: I think, Dean Gregerson, you may

be the most appropriate person, because you're, day

in and day out, probably dealing with this. Dean

Gregerson.

COMMITTEE: One thing that you touched on in

your remarks, I would echo. Continual improvement

of advising processes, um, that's something we've

been taking a hard look at and making improvements

there. Some of that is technology, improving the

tools that we have to work with students, again,

echoing some of the things you said. Some of it is

better methodologies and training and more touches

with students, so that's an important component,

and I think it's, a lot of data shows that that's a

critical aspect of student success.

COMMITTEE: We have time for one more

question, as long as it's not like the first one, I

have to have seven people answer the question.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: Well, I was actually hoping for a

little bit more on student success. I mean, the

technology issue is a big thing, we have challenges

as well in terms of students registering and

advising, and we put holds on student accounts and

all sorts of other things, but, you know,

particularly, when you talk about the freshmen and

retention in the freshmen, you've got a lot of

challenges that students have in adapting to a

university. They may have been perfectly

successful in high school, but they don't

understand what it takes to find their way around a

university, and, so, from that perspective, are

there things that you're engaged in?

COMMITTEE: We have freshmen programming that

helps students make that transition. Again,

everything can always be improved, but I think

that's working well, providing students with tools

that allow them to be successful, and most of those

programs are actually run out of the Student Life

section of the university, and I think, um,

marrying those with some of the academic pieces can

be improved over time as well so that there's less

separation of those.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Allen.

COMMITTEE: In the business sector, we're

seeing them as they're preparing to go out and

finish their degree. We have a great attention for

job placement and where the students are going to

go. We do a good job, I think, of preparing them

for those first interviews and making sure they hit

the ground running. We have, um, an internship

coordinator within the business school who is

greatly overworked and could certainly use some

more staff.

CANDIDATE: A subtle plug for resources.

COMMITTEE: Exactly. Get it in early.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: But the point is that, um, we have

so much demand for our students right now that

they're going to find that job, and, um,

internships and co-ops, we just have to make the

opportunities available and coordinate well on our

end, but we've been successful at it. I'm

impressed. The faculty really care about the

students, and we see their success as ours.

CANDIDATE: Great.

COMMITTEE: Anybody else to add to what has

been said?

CANDIDATE: Can we get the College of Arts and

Sciences perspective?

COMMITTEE: That's me.

CANDIDATE: Oh, you're faculty in the college?

COMMITTEE: Yes. Dr. Isern, do you have

anything you'd like to add?

CANDIDATE: Yeah, actually, there's courses

through the honor's program to sort of try bringing

in and recruit students that are maybe a little

higher caliber and offer enriched curriculum for

them, and also as far as getting students ready for

college life, there's dual enrollment programs with

high schools, so students come and take college

classes, and a lot of them don't even need to

apply, they roll in directly and become FGCU

students, and they've already had that college

experience for maybe one or two years.

COMMITTEE: We also have something called a

humanities initiative in the College of Arts and

Sciences that pairs students in the humanities

with, um, career coaches, mentors and provides them

a whole lot of, um, workshop type opportunities to

allow them to connect what they're doing in their

academic programs to the world of work that's, I

think is a great step in that direction for folks

who may be less vocationally-minded in terms of

their undergraduate discipline, which I'm very

proud of.

CANDIDATE: Great.

CANDIDATE: Well, I think we've reached the

end of our time. I'd like to say we've enjoyed

talking to you today, and I want to, on behalf of

the committee, thank you for taking the time to

come all the way down from Ohio and spend some time

with us, letting us learn more about you and you

learn more about us, and once again, thank you for

being here today.

CANDIDATE: Thank you. It's been a pleasure

to talk with you. I look forward to the next step.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. We will stand in

recess. Lunch will be coming in here, and we will

reconvene at 1:25. We stand in recess.

(Break Taken.)�

Dr. Helena Wisniewski

ROUGH EDITED COPY



7:30 A.M. ET



[email protected]

COMMITTEE: Welcome back. We will reconvene

our meeting. All right, here goes the true test of

being chair, when you get a last name like this

one.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Dr. Wisniewski, welcome. Did I do

okay?

SPEAKER: That's perfect.

COMMITTEE: You say it.

SPEAKER: Wisniewski.

COMMITTEE: She's going to say that, because

she wants brownie points.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Welcome to Florida Gulf Coast

University, or FGCU, as you will hear us call it

during your time with us today. Committee, I am

pleased to introduce Dr. Helen Wisniewski. She is

the vice president for research and graduate

studies and the dean of the graduate school at the

University of Alaska Anchorage. She wins the prize

for traveling the furthest distance.

Dr. Wisniewski, we are pleased to have this

opportunity to spend some time with you. Our



roles and give you 15 minutes to ask us anything

that you may have as far as questions we've asked

you or just general information about the area and

the university. With that, I will get started with

the first question. Why Florida Gulf Coast

University? And why at this point in your career

do you want to be the president of our fine

institution?

CANDIDATE: Well, indeed, it's a fine

institution, and there are many aspects that make

me very excited about the university, but I'll just

pick a few in the interest of time. One is

innovation. It has an emphasis and focus on

innovation, and innovation is something that I've

done throughout my career, whether it be in

industry, academia or within the government, and

most recently, I've been working with our governor

in Alaska and our mayor in Anchorage to set that

up. I read your strategic plan and was very

excited, one of your focuses was on centers of

excellence, and recently, in Alaska, at the

university, I led funding for Department of

Homeland Security to setup a center of excellence,

and that was the first time DHS ever funded an

institution in Alaska to lead the center. The

center actually got us national recognition, and I

was invited to the White House by the Office of

Science and Technology Policy, so it is a good way,

when you're talking about visibility, to gain

visibility for the university, and it's a good

focus. Your emphasis on stem. As a mathematician,

I'm the M in stem, and, so, I appreciate that

focus. My background in leadership skills really

aligned with many of your goals for the university,

and I feel I can provide the leadership to bring

you to the next level. I've talked about the stem

and the innovation, but I'd just like to mention

one other thing, if I may, and that is that your

performing arts center and being a cultural hub for

the community and for the university, I think is

terrific. I noticed that one of your students

actually won the international Chopin competition.

I play piano and Chopin is my specialty, so that

caught my attention, but that's a huge honor for a

student to achieve. This is a point in my career

where I have, I think really built on the strong

framework to lead a university, especially one like

yours, with all the great things you've done and

the potential you hold for even greater things.

COMMITTEE: Outstanding. Dr. Isern.

COMMITTEE: Hi. Florida Gulf Coast

University's shared governance tradition brings

together faculty, staff and students. Furthermore,

enhancing diversity is a high priority at FGCU. We

would like to know what shared governance means to

you, especially the role you feel a president

should take, and, um, in your answer, if you could

also please tell us about a time that you adapted

your style to work effectively with those who are

different from you.

SPEAKER: All right. I'll take the shared

governance part first, and I really believe in

shared governance, because if people in the

institution have an ownership in what you're doing,

then you can be really successful in implementing

your plans, and at UAA, I established a vice

Provost research council to develop a strategic

plan for research. It's been very effective, and

we've actually used it to increase our research

funding, pursue new funding and establish centers,

and I gave you one example of that. As dean of the

graduate school, I have a graduate council that

provides guidance on policies and procedures for

the graduate school and get their input. The

Graduate Academic Board, the GAB, I work with the

faculty representatives there to institute new

policies and procedures for graduate education and

programs as well. So, I really support and have

practiced shared governance and transparency, but

I'm also decisive, so there are times where you

really have to make a decision, and as president,

that's something that I think is an important

factor. I'm a very collaborative leader and

consensus-builder, and even in industry, law keep

was very much that way, I was an executive there,

so you may not maybe picture industry being

consensus-driven, but there are ones that are, and

I've been very successful because of it. The

diversity, I grew up in the New York City

Metropolitan area, and it's a very diverse area, so

diversity has been a part of my life, and, so,

therefore, I don't really, when I sit across the

table from someone or meet someone, I don't really

think about how they're different from me, maybe

because I've been used to so many diverse

ethnic/cultural/religious groups, but I think about

how I can actually forge a relationship, what do we

have in common. So, I wouldn't say I alter my

behavior, but I look for the commonality with whom

I'm interacting.



COMMITTEE: Um, a lot of the people who are

sitting around this table today, I'm not one of

them, but a lot of the people here were part of the

founding of this university and its original

supporters, so they have a strong sense of

ownership of this school, and that extends all up

and down the southwest coast of Florida. Um, what

has prepared you to serve as the external face of

FGCU to ensure that the relationships that we've

created and the new relationships that are possible

are successful?

CANDIDATE: Quite a few different aspects.

Interaction with the community. So, you had

mentioned that many of the founders are around the

table, and from what I've read, those founders are

from the community, so it's very, relationships are

very important, and having the university be a

leader in that, and let me give you some examples.

Um, first, I am active in the community, so I

belong to a rotary club, and, um, when I was in New

Jersey, I was on the New Jersey Research and

Development Council that really forged research

throughout the state, so state organizations, but

I'm also on the Alaska Sled Dog Racing Organization

on the Board of Directors. I don't think there's

much applicability here, but the point is that it

does ingratiate you into the community, because dog

sledding is the main sport for Alaska. So, part of

it is really finding commonality between the

university and the community. I mentioned earlier

about being a cultural hub, and I've read that,

that that's one of the things that you're doing,

and extending the availability for the community to

participate. For the university, I've advocated

for the university in the media, whether it be in

the printed press or televised press, to really

establish what the university is about, and I've

gotten it national recognition as well, so being

able to work with various constituents is very

important. Does that answer your question?

COMMITTEE: Yes. Thank you very much.

COMMITTEE: Okay.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Winton.

COMMITTEE: My question is about raising

money.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: What is your experience in

generating external resources and the successes you

have had? Specifically, what was your role in

resource development?

CANDIDATE: Resource development, to me, has

many different forms. So, one, of course, is

private donors and being successful for that. I've

reached out into the community, and I'll give you

two examples of private donors, and then I'll give

you my other examples of resource development. Um,

in Alaska, as I mentioned, I'm a dog musher, and I

went to a dog mushing meeting, and there was a

famous artist there, and I collect his prints, and

I said, oh, I really have to meet him. So, one

thing led to another, and he said, I want to call

you, so he did, and he said, I'd like to donate all

my assets to the university. So, the point to that

is when you're out in the community, finding what

is the common ground between the person you're

speaking to and yourself or the university and

really making that connection. So, my slogan was

in Alaska, you make deals on the mushing trail, in

the lower 48, you make them on the golf course, so

another example is when I was at Stevens Institute

of Technology, there was a particular donor, well,

it wasn't a donor at the time, but someone the

president had targeted to donate to the university

and was having a difficult time, but the person

with was a venture firm. One of the things I've

done at the universities is establish a

commercialization infrastructure in start-up

companies, so knowing his background, I said, let

me tell you about some of the start-up companies

that we've done, and why don't you come meet the

co-founders. That got his interest and excitement,

and he made over a $2 million donation. So, those

are some examples.

My primary focus has not been in the positions

I've held on getting donors, but those are some

examples where I've been successful, and there are

others. Resource development also involves

external research funding, so increasing the

federal grants and the money, I've been extremely

successful at. At Stevens, I tripled the research

revenues. Here at UAA, since 2013, we've

grown 23 percent, or 23 percent increase in

external funding. I've started start-up companies,

formed start-up companies, I've raised investment

successfully for the start-up companies. Now,

that's a different kind of donor, but the principle

is the same; how do you convince people to give up

their money for the cause that you have at-hand?

And I've been successful there. Those are some of,

you know, some examples. Would you like to hear

anything else? Does that answer your question?

COMMITTEE: Yes, it does, but I'll take

whatever you have.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: All right, Mr. Ackert, it is

among my recollection that you're the only one who

hasn't asked a question yet. I can either give

you 5 minutes to prepare, or I can move to Mr.

Call. Mr. Call. Oh, wait, excuse me, a

follow-up. Okay, so, here's what we're going to

do. Dr. Isern is going to follow-up, then Mr.

Ackert is going to be ready to go.

COMMITTEE: So, that's pretty impressive,

the 23 percent increase in external funding, from

federal agencies, I'm assuming. How do you

incentivize and support the faculty so they're

successful in that way?

CANDIDATE: That's a great question, and I

incentivize them in various forms. One, I

instituted something I call the innovator awards,

and that is to provide funding incentives for

faculty who maybe don't have their grant completely

formulated, but they need some funding to complete

some research ideas or really need some time to

devote to, um, doing their proposal, and the

innovator awards are for that. They're also for

innovation. So, if you apply for the award and you

say, I have a great patent idea, then you'll get

some money for that, and for interdisciplinary

endeavors, and what's been interesting is we've

gotten music collaborating with computer science,

and we've gotten psychology collaborating with, um,

chemistry, so you have a lot of relationships

there, but making it, letting the faculty know

that, one, they're part of a team, so, I'll give

you an example. When I was at Stevens, I had gone

to a department in the intelligence community, but

I can't tell you who, and I said to them, tell me

ten technical reasons that keep you up at night.

So, they did, I brought them back, got a group of

faculty together, and I said, here are ten real

concerns for the intelligence community, which ones

will further your personal research, which ones do

you think we should go after, and then,

collectively, as a group, how could we solve some

of these problems. So, I made them part of the

initiative. I didn't come back and say, here's

something you should apply for, but got them to

tell me how it could further their careers, how

they could contribute to a big national problem.

So, that's another way to incentivize. The same

thing with commercialization, that why should I do

a start-up company? Or why should I apply for a

patent? What's the incentives? And, of course,

the first start-up companies you sell and the

faculty then get a return and dollars on their

investment, then you have a line out the door,

because they say, well, this could be really

beneficial. So, those are some examples, and I

also established a patent hall of fame, so that if

you have a patent issued, you get a plaque and a

replica of your first page of the patent, and it's

put on the patent wall of fame, and there's a big

ceremony, where we invite Board of Trustees and

state legislators to attend. So, again, it's the

recognition, so they see there's an incentive to do

something, but then they get recognized for it, and

recognition is very important to faculty, or to

anyone, actually.


COMMITTEE: Mr. Ackert, but you have to move

your microphone. There you go.

COMMITTEE: I remembered that.

COMMITTEE: Because you haven't asked a

question yet, so I'm just catching you back up.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Well, everything we do here at

Florida Gulf Coast University should be done in the

context of an overall vision articulated by the

president. What experience have you had with

articulating a vision and encouraging, engaging

others in its implementation? What might be your

vision for Florida Gulf Coast University in the

first few years of your presidency?

CANDIDATE: In just about all the executive

positions I've held, one of the charges has been to

create a vision, and I, again, make it a

collaborative effort. So, one example is when I

was vice president of analytic services, they

really wanted to increase their information

technology, and that was one of my focuses. So,

you have a choice, either you can come in and you

can say, this is a vision that I have, and

hopefully, people will go along with it, or what I

did is I had an off-site with some of my direct

reports, provided guidance and examples of visions

of similar organizations and provided guidance, but

they created the vision, and because they created

the vision, then the vision was implemented, and as

a result, um, we increased revenues by 90 percent

in a little over a year, but the incentive was

there, and the ownership. Um, at UAA, I've created

a vision to increase the research and

commercialization and been very successful at that,

but there again, it involved input and a

collaborative effort. I would be presumptuous to

tell you what the vision should be for this

university, however, based on what I've read and

the accomplishments and some of the basis that you

have, definitely to be the national university for

research and innovation, to solve critical problems

and needs of society or that are beneficial to

society with an emphasis, now it sounds like I've

really crafted this vision beforehand, but I looked

at some of the key elements, so if you want to be

successful and be known as an innovation

university, to focus on some areas that you want to

be successful in. So, you can't be everything to

everyone. So, part of that vision statement should

include a focus on what you have in renewable

energy, sustainable environment, and in your health

sciences, now that's a broad field, so, what areas

of health, now I see that you're doing work in the

Zika virus, and that's very important. You have a

lot of biotechnology companies here in Florida,

and, so, how could you combine your health

knowledge with your engineering and contribute to

that area? And so when I say critical needs of

society, climate is very important, renewable

energy is very important, health concerns are very

important, so those are some examples where the

vision should contain a focus on what would attract

others to come to this university. So, three or

four points, perhaps, and then the students, so,

what is your vision for the students? Well, you

want to be able to have students, when they leave

the university, get jobs in the areas of their

profession, and also be prepared for what's now

called the knowledge economy, or the global

economy, but to be successful in their careers and

move on to graduate school.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Dr. Allen.

COMMITTEE: I'm going to ask a hypothetical.

Would you be frustrated to be the president of a

university that wasn't necessarily aspiring to be a

stem-based research powerhouse?

CANDIDATE: I wouldn't say frustrated, but I

think, from what I've read, you are, that is one of

your focuses. Was I wrong?

COMMITTEE: No, it's a hypothetical.

CANDIDATE: Just a hypothetical? Okay. I

think, you know, leadership involves a lot of

different elements, but to be a successful leader,

you should really aspire to be in an organization

that can make the best use of your skills, and, so,

I wouldn't say I would be frustrated, but I don't

think it would necessarily make the best use of all

my background and leadership I've done to that

point.

COMMITTEE: I'll ask a question that's not

hypothetical. Um, we are funded, um, by

performance metrics in the state of Florida, and I

don't think Alaska has those metrics at this time,

from what I've read, but graduation rate is a huge

part of that funding base, and looking at the

graduation rates at your current institution and

along with ours here, there's a lot of work that

could be done. Can you tell me how you would

attack that problem? Because that is how we're

funded, and that drives a number of the other

metrics, so can you give us your thoughts about how

you, um, work with students, faculty, staff,

everybody, to start moving that graduation rate

number up?

CANDIDATE: Well, we are concerned in Alaska,

as you pointed out, about graduation rates, and we

do have metrics, maybe they're hidden from material

you've read, I'm not being sarcastic, but

especially now because we're going through our

self-assessment for accreditation, and, so, that

really involves establishing metrics to adhere to,

and graduation rate is a concern, I think at most

universities, and as you probably know, the

critical time is between first and second years, so

really having, monitoring that and being able to

see where a student is having difficulty early on.

Um, in Alaska, we've used some software that's

helped along with that, like Map Works, I don't

know if you use Map Works here or not, but that's a

way for a student also to get involved in crafting

what some of their issues are and being able to

help them do a self-assessment. So, advising,

having the right kind of advisors in place. In

Alaska, we have the Alaska Native population. We

were talking about diversity earlier. It's a very

diverse university, and it's inclusive of that

population, so when students from that area come,

they have to get used to an environment in a city,

as well as getting used to being at a university,

and they have a cultural difference that they're

now dealing with. So, it isn't always about the

academic side, but it also is how comfortable do

they feel for a variety of reasons, so having the

right kind of advisors who are attuned to that

particular student's needs. So, I don't think

there's one blanket solution that says, okay,

here's what you need to do, I think it's very

student-centric and that if you are very conscious

of what some of the needs are for particular

demographics, that you can setup, like I said,

advising systems or getting them simulated into the

university. Perhaps their only problem is a

cultural issue, so how are you more welcoming to

those students. So, those are some of the factors

that I think are important, but recognizing a

problem early on is very critical, because if you

find something immediately within the first quarter

of the semester, so right in the beginning, then

you can help that student work through. I think

that if it starts accumulating, then, um, then

there would be a really serious problem, but then

after that, I think it gets a little bit easier,

but I think that's the really critical time,

between first and second years.


COMMITTEE: You mentioned or alluded to the

strategic plan that is available on our website.

The next president will join us after that

strategic plan has been created and will have an

opportunity to shape and implement and

operationalize it. Can you talk for a little bit

about your experience with strategic planning

processes and how you might bring that to FGCU?

CANDIDATE: I've done strategic planning in

the government when I was at DRPA and CIA. At

DRPA, I actually started their first mathematics

program and grew it, and it still exists there

today, which is a really nice testimony, but that

involved a lot of strategic planning, because I

interacted with universities across the country,

corporations, so it wasn't just you had the plan at

DRPA, but then you had to fold in these external

constituents into that plan to make it successful,

so that was a little bit different. Strategic

planning at the universities, um, at Stevens, I

worked with the Board of Trustees, with the

faculty, with the deans to create a strategic plan

for the university, as well as one for what they

called Techno Genesis, so involving research and

commercialization and entrepreneurship and

championing that among the faculty, so there, it

was more dean/faculty-centric, but then approval

from the Board of Trustees, but I'm going to give

you a couple more examples, but what's really

important to me with strategic plans is the

implementation. So, you can create all the plans

in the world, but if you don't have the support of

the faculty and the deans and the Board of Regents

or Board of Trustees to really implement that plan,

that's a really key factor that I've been

successful at, and, um, at the University of Alaska

Anchorage, I've created a strategic plan for

research, and there, I established the Vice Provost

Research Council, so I have representatives from

across the campus and different departments and

colleges actually weighing in on creating the plan,

and at Stevens, I was able to triple research

revenues and contribute to Stevens rising in ranks

and the U.S. News and World Report, and that

created more visibility for the university, but at

the basis of that was the strategic planning,

because they wanted to be within a certain level,

so you want to be within the top 20 research

universities, just to pick a number, why aren't you

there. So, you have to go back and see why aren't

you and how can you pull that into your plan to get

there. So, you want to look at external factors

when you create a plan. At University of Alaska

Anchorage, um, the strategic plan for research was

successfully implemented and was part of the reason

why we were able to have the 23 percent increase in

external research funding, as well as establishing

centers, so it was very successfully implemented,

and we are now working on doing the next generation

of plan.


COMMITTEE: I noticed we've already discussed

a little bit about performance metrics, but I

noticed the four-year graduation rate is 9 percent,

and I wonder if you could address how you're

looking at that or how you're evaluating graduation

rates.

CANDIDATE: How are we evaluating it

currently?

COMMITTEE: I guess the question is, is

the 9 percent for a four-year graduation rate

acceptable? Is that something that the university

is addressing?

CANDIDATE: The university is addressing it.

We haven't come up with really definitive

solutions. I mean, just an honest answer.



COMMITTEE: You're the first DRPA person I've

met since I've gotten off active duty. Did you

really create the Internet?

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: Well, DRPA did, actually.

COMMITTEE: I know. It's unbelievable, the

work, I was fortunate enough to deal with some of

them. Um, part of this job is reaching out to the

Board of Governors, to the legislature. Could you

expand or expound for us, um, how you would deal

with the legislature, some of your experiences that

you've related to us, working with lieutenant

governor, etc., etc., how would you work with the

legislature? And the second part of the question,

because it's a two-part question we have here, is,

um, could you tell us how your skills and your

background would assist this university in dealing

with performance metrics? So, a two-function

question. Legislature and performance metrics and

your background and how you would deal with that.

CANDIDATE: For the legislature, I've given

testimony to state legislature in Alaska, both

economic development committees and the finance

committee. As a result of some testimony to the

finance committee, there was intent language

actually put in and advocating for the university,

but it's not only about giving testimony to a

committee of legislature, it's about formulating a

relationship so that you invite the legislators to

come to campus, to really see first-hand what's

going on in the university, so that they really

gain an appreciation, so that when you do give the

testimony, they have something that they can, um,

relate to. So, developing those ongoing

relationships with the representatives, the

lieutenant governor, the governor, and, um, I've

been successful at doing that. Also, I don't know

the importance here, but I work very well at the

federal level, with federal legislators, and I've

gotten money for efforts for universities directly

from them. One was for an effort for finding

missing children using intelligence software

agents, I got $8 million in funding for that,

because the federal representatives saw a real

benefit to society for doing something like that,

and it was successful. So, it's not only at the

state level, but it's also at the federal levels

that I've been very effective in convincing them of

the worth of the institution and providing funding.

The second part of your question was --

COMMITTEE: Performance metrics. Could you

relay to us how you would deal with the performance

metrics here in the state of Florida?

CANDIDATE: Can you just clarify how I would

deal, like, my experience?

COMMITTEE: What is your opinion of

performance metrics, and what impact would it have

on your management style here in the state of

Florida?

CANDIDATE: I've been involved with

performance metrics in a multiple of ways. So,

when I was in industry, this may not be directly

related to university, but in some ways, it's

lessons learned, but I always made sure when we had

contracts with the government, whether it be in

industry or at a university, that if it was a

deliverable, it was on time, on budget. I

established goals and measures in metrics

performance and actually used them as a guidance to

make sure that the goals are being met. In terms

of metrics, and I've read how you have to have

certain metrics here to get the funding from the

state, so, metrics take nurturing to make sure that

they're being achieved, and, so, making sure that,

doing a constant check to make sure that you are

meeting them is really important. So, that

involves buy-in from the faculty and also any

deans, so if one of your metrics is student

performance, they would have a direct relationship

with that. So, I'm not sure if I'm answering your

question though. I've set metrics and measures and

adhered to them and --

COMMITTEE: I'll give you a little bit of a

background. I was CEO of a diversified

corporation, and I was held accountable for six

metrics, and those metrics drove my evaluation and

the evaluation, if you will, in the long run, of

the corporation. How I would handle those metrics

and the management style that I had and how I would

engage the management team in addressing those

metrics and achieving those metrics to the

expectation of our board of Directors and Board of

Trustees. So, I'm looking for how you might

embrace or not embrace performance metrics and how

that might affect or how you would implement that

kind of a management philosophy, or if you would,

were you president of FGCU.

CANDIDATE: If the metrics are already

established, like with the state, but most of your

metrics are, and then you could pick two, I think,

that you can deal with, but if the metrics are

already there, then those that have to, are key to

having them achieved have to understand the

importance of those metrics, and if they're not

achieved, what are the consequences of not

achieving them, and if people understand that, then

I think the performance is there. It's been my

experience that they do perform to task, and in

managing some of the contracts for the government,

if they adhere to the metrics, more funding comes.

People can relate to that, and, so, that's an

incentive, but how do you make sure they're

adhering to the metrics? And one way, of course,

is to have meetings and make sure that the goals

are being achieved, and if they're not, find out

what the problem is so that you can mitigate the

problem and make sure those metrics would be

achieved.



COMMITTEE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm

going to sort of follow-up to Dr. Allen's question.

This university was formed by five, was basically

brought together in southwest Florida to serve five

counties. It is basically focused here in Lee

County and spends a lot of time in Lee and Collier

County, Naples, south of us. University of Alaska

Anchorage probably has a similar situation we have

here in that you have a lot of remote outlying

communities that you have to serve or be available

to them and answer the challenges they have in

their lives, in those little towns and villages.

Um, how would you relate that situation to here

with the university, having to reach out to a

county to the north and two or three counties to

the interior that really don't get the presence

that we should probably be getting? How would you

deal with that?

CANDIDATE: Well, I could tell you how I've

been dealing with it and how that might carry over.

Um, I'll start with the University of Alaska

Anchorage. They have campuses in Kodiak, Kenai,

Homer and in the Mat su Valley, and, so, I think

it's important for the president to make sure they

visit those campuses. When people see you and see

your presence, that makes a big difference. You

can't do that all the time, so one of the other

things we've done is to do a video conferencing, so

now we're doing the self-assessment, as I mentioned

earlier, for accreditation, and we wanted the input

from those other campuses, so we have the video

conferencing, where they can participate in all of

our meetings in setting metrics and other

directions, and when I established the DHS center,

I involved, actually, a village in the Bering

Strait to be a part of that, because we were

looking at different effects of coastal erosion,

storm surges, ice melt. Now, the storm surges and

coastal erosion are problems you also have, so

that's kind of a problem that Alaska has that

translates. The ice, I don't think so, but anyway,

the native knowledge in that particular case was

very valuable, because they could see different

changes occurring that you wouldn't be aware of.

So, getting their input and actually having them be

a partner on this particular grant and being

involved in this center, um, they were just

delighted that the university did reach out to them

and make them a part of things, and in turn, the

government got very excited, because they said

you're actually involving an indigenous group to

Alaska with their traditional knowledge. So,

that's maybe a little bit different than what

you're talking about, but the concept is similar,

is to get them involved in the endeavors that the

university is doing, reach out to them and be

proactive and make sure that you visit with them.



COMMITTEE: I have a question related to the

materials that you provided in your application. I

note that you have a lot of varied experiences in

government and industry and in academia, and I

guess I just want to get a better sense of why

academia and why now. So, what is it that attracts

you to academia at this point in your career?

CANDIDATE: Well, I started out in academia,

but I'll answer your question. So, after I

received my Ph. D, I was at Seton Hall University,

and there, I was in the school of Business and

actually was influential in getting their first

AACSB accreditation, and I know that you have AACSB

accreditation, and that's very important. I've

always believed in education, and what is the most

important thing is really to educate students,

educate people, and, so, that was really something

that, although I left it, I wanted to come back to,

and I felt by getting government experience and

really seeing how the government thought and what

were some of the concerns, what were national

challenges, and I still serve on government

committees, and I've been at workshops at the White

House on commercialization and also grand

challenges for universities, so that gives you

insights that then you could bring, not only in

funding, but directions that the country is going

in to the university, and then private industry was

a broadening experience as well, so that you had

different, but similar concerns, but being able to

then come back to the university, I feel that I

would help enrich the university, and I have both

at Stevens and UAA from that experience, because

now, you can talk to students, for example, and

say, if you're pursuing a career, I've actually

lived three different areas of industry, government

and university, so you have rich opportunities, but

looking at the bigger picture, what are the global

trends, and industry plays an important role in

that, and keeping those contacts, so now you have a

network too that you can draw from, and serving on

public Boards of Directors, I was on one that does

implantable medical devices, in fact, they had the

first patent for the first implantable pacemaker,

and, so, by serving on that board, that really

increased my experience with fiduciary

responsibility, because the board is, has that

responsibility for the organization, or the

company, in this case, and being a public company,

the rules and regulations were very interesting.

So, it increases your experience that you can bring

back to the university, so it's that view, the

broader view, the knowledge experience was all

enhancing, and you can share that with the

university, so that's why I went back and was at

Stevens Institute of Technology and now at UAA.

I've always wanted to be president of a university,

so when I said I wanted to return, um, and that was

also a goal that I've been laying the foundation

for, but does that --


CANDIDATE: Okay.

COMMITTEE: Dean Gregerson with a follow-up

question.

COMMITTEE: One of the interesting things on

your CV is the stint as an entrepreneur, so talk a

little bit about the entrepreneurial thinking that

you developed through that, and you probably

noticed that one of our pillars in our strategic

plan is related to entrepreneurship, so talk a

little bit about that connection, your personal

connection there.

CANDIDATE: I like to call myself a

technological entrepreneur, because I've been very

involved in the technology side of things, but

that's not the only aspect, but it's also, there's

different pieces to that. The entrepreneurship at

the university, really encouraging courses and

direction, but being a champion for that and taking

it a step further to commercialization. So, um, at

Stevens, I started nine start-up companies and sold

two, and two of those companies were

student-generated, and one of them was in the

medical device, and it was a physician in New York

who had this idea, and the senior design for

engineering pursued it and worked with him, started

the company, when they graduated, they went to work

for the company, and then hired other students to

work for the company, and they got FDA approval for

the device. So, it's a really nice story, because

it brings in the commercialization, it brings in

another aspect a university can provide for a

student, and, um, but technology wasn't the only

area, I actually started a music company as well,

so that's a little bit on another endeavor, and the

important thing was establishing a culture of

innovation on the campus so that faculty and

students would be encouraged, and when I started

the companies, I actually provided the business

plans, raised funding for the companies and really

worked with the faculty, co-founders, inventors to

pursue that. In addition to, at UAA, I started our

first start-up companies, and I'm happy to say that

one of them, I submitted it for a national

competition, there were 200 universities

participating and submissions, and they actually

won best university start-up, and, so, we went off

to Washington and did a demo day at Congress with

the federal legislators, and, so, that's an example

where it increased the visibility of the

university, got recognition for the faculty, for

starting the start-up, and, um, now we have

interested investors, which was really important.

I also had, independent of the university, I

started my own company in biometrics, built the

business and sold the company and also raised the

funding for the company. So, those are some

various very direct experiences that I've had with

it, but it is, if you want to have an experiential

experience for students, that's one way to do it,

and it could be very enriching.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Vice chair Roepstorff.

COMMITTEE: Yes. Focusing in on your

administrative experience, because it certainly

sounds like you've got the entrepreneurial and

creative and results-oriented at the end of the

day, a fundamental responsibility of today's

president is to run a complex university, to manage

people and its resources effectively in a

resource-limited environment, while at the same

time, by the way, meeting performance metrics with

our students' results. Um, would you tell us about

your experience and/or approach to building a team

and an infrastructure that will enable you to be

successful, and at the same time, the university

successful?

CANDIDATE: I think I've given some examples

of team-building, where you, my style really is to

manage by consensus, so building a team is

important. I'm not sure if you're asking just in

general or very specific examples.

COMMITTEE: I'm asking specifically, because

you have a university with five different colleges.

CANDIDATE: Right.

COMMITTEE: Different areas of specialties of

which we do well in some. We're a comprehensive

university, so we do a lot of different things and

do them rather well, but now we're going into 20

to 40 years, and how do you put together a team

that in order for you to be out and about in the

community, being the face of the community, raising

money, etc., how do you put together a team that

will take the vision of the strategic plan, the

direction of the Board of Trustees, oversaw by the

Board of Governors, implemented into your team and

let them go out and do their thing and produce the

results from performance metrics? Not just certain

projects, it's the overall umbrella.

CANDIDATE: The concept is similar in the

following regard; that you want to have them

involved in the planning of the process. So, if

they feel a part of the process, then they will do

the implementation effectively. You want to make

sure that they understand why it's important to

achieve the metrics, but buying into the concept,

so, if you have the strategic plan, they have to be

a part of that. So, if you have College of

Engineering, they have to weigh into where they

feel their strengths are and how they could

leverage those strengths, and then give them the

confidence that they could go out and do that, and

to provide them the support that's necessary, the

resources that are necessary to carry it through,

and to incentivize, perhaps having a bonus or some

kind of incentive, that if they achieve their

goals, they exceed their goals, there's something

additional for them. I believe in rewards and

incentives are really important for motivation, and

if you believe in your team, and people who work

for me, I believe that they can do their jobs, so

if you really believe that and you feel you've

chosen the right people, you have the right deans

in place, you have the right staff in place, they

will support you in your efforts, and you will give

them the resources necessary. I think those are

fundamentally or philosophically what is really

necessary. You might want to, and I've looked at

the president's cabinet here, and to achieve some

of the goals, you might want to add positions that

you feel will help you do that, and I've given some

thought to that, or maybe just reconfiguring the

way the organization is, depending on how, um, what

we decide are some of the, you know, on the

strategic plan, but I think that that would be my

overall approach.

COMMITTEE: Trustee Elneus. This will be the

last question, then we're going to let you ask us

questions, so, T, you'll have the last question.

COMMITTEE: All right. Providing that

students being one of the bigger constituency

groups for the president and outstanding

educational experiences that should be occurring,

both inside and outside the classroom, the

traditional space, um, given that that's an

important thing to our campus community, how do you

go about making sure you're aware of the students'

needs, and if you can describe a recent or

meaningful conversation you've had with a student

and what you learned from it and how that helped to

shape some of the things that you have done in your

previous experiences.

CANDIDATE: I have students involved in many

of the committees that I form. So, on the graduate

council, we have a student representative. For

undergraduates, I meet with some of the students

directly, and having the students be a part of

committees that make decisions is one way to gain

insight into the university and how the students

are doing, but I'm a more proactive person, so if

there are events that students are holding, like

the honor's college has a research day, I make sure

that I attend and really see what the students are

achieving. Um, the dorm holds different events, I

go to that, and there, I really have a chance to

sit down one-on-one with students and see how happy

they are with the university or not, what could be

improved, what do they like that's going on, and,

so, by getting them involved in the process. I

think it's really important, and then you get

insights and you develop relationships, and

insights as to where the experiences could be

valuable, and just going to, we have a student

union, going there and meeting with students more

informally. When I've been here, I've had the

opportunity, the person who drove me to the hotel

and one of the, um, managers at the front desk of

the hotel are students here, so I said, how do you

like the university? And they said they were just

really enamored of the experience that they have

here, but, see, it's those personal interactions,

where it's not a formal setting or a committee, I

think that you learn the most. Valuable

conversations, I've had with an undergraduate

engineering student, and she came to me for advice

because she had an invention and wondered whether

she should apply for a patent, and I worked with

her through the whole process, and she got the

patent issued and is now on our patent wall of

fame, but her professor suggested that she come and

speak with me, and I took the time and really

worked with her, so that was more a mentoring

example, but that was a recent conversation, and

through those interactions, I had a chance to learn

about her experiences at the university, so she

provided insights as well.

COMMITTEE: Outstanding. Thanks. So, what we

want to do now is reverse the process. We want you

to ask us questions that you may have. I would

just ask you address them to me, and then I will,

um, give them to whoever I think probably has the

best information to get you an answer.

CANDIDATE: All right. My first question is

what would you see as the challenges for the new

president, if you could give me three?

COMMITTEE: Dr. Allen, you're not looking like

you want to answer.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: But by not looking at me, you're

the winner.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: I'm going to let you start, then I

think I'm going to let Dean Gregerson, and then I'm

going to let vice chair Roepstorff answer.

COMMITTEE: I think funding is a challenge at

any public institution, so that's something that is

going to require a good bit of time of the

president. I think we need a president who's going

to be highly visible in the community, not related

to funding, just visibility and engagement to, um,

establish the university's presence as part of the

culture of southwest Florida. Um, I think, um,

putting together an administrative team is going to

be a challenge for the next president, and I think

the next president is going to have to be involved

in much more than just, um, research. That is a

part of what we do, but the president's job

includes everything from negotiating food service

contracts to faculty promotion decisions, so it's a

very broad job, and someone's going to have to have

a broad look at, um, have to have a broad overview

of the institution to be successful. That's more

than three, but I was thinking as I was talking.

CANDIDATE: No, that's fine, but going back to

number two, the administrative, what in particular

are some of the issues there?

COMMITTEE: I think anytime a new top leader

comes into a position like this, there's some

expectation that they'll want to put together a

team they work well with, that, um, is aligned with

their plan and their vision, and I think that's a

first step that a president would take.


COMMITTEE: Yeah, and Dr. Allen said a lot.

COMMITTEE: Sorry.

COMMITTEE: I'm not sure what's leftover.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: That's fine. As we were going

around, when we were asking questions, um, you

heard performance metrics a lot, so I think, um,

having real plans to continue to allow the

university to improve on all ten of those metrics,

or as many of those as we can, because that's where

all our new funding comes from, that's clearly a

key component, that leadership piece, and then the

second thing I would add, sort of following up on

what trustee Elneus said, is I think, um, becoming

fully integrated into the campus. There's the

external piece that Dr. Allen talked about, but

really being seen as a, um, real part of the campus

community and becoming someone who's not simply

hidden in an office somewhere, but a real, um,

partner with the students, with the faculty, with

the staff. So, I think that's a real important

key.

COMMITTEE: Vice chair Roepstorff.

COMMITTEE: I don't think there's going to be

much that's a challenge for you, listening to your

background and all of the multiple things that

you've done and the diversity within your

background, but the expectations, as they were

saying, we are just coming into our 20th year

anniversary, we do have performance metrics, and it

is so different than what I think faculty and

administrations of universities have been

accustomed to, but it's the right thing, because it

is the taxpayers' money, and we do have to

reprogram students to understanding the longer they

stay in school, the more opportunities they are

missing in getting that right job, in getting their

own paycheck and getting independent on themselves.

Um, so, to come in, knowing that you have a Board

of Trustees who is set on go, we're set on go to

find our bright line, because we feel we are a very

good comprehensive university. We've done things

extremely well. You've got to keep that going at

the same time that you come in and assess and learn

the community, learn the needs of the community,

and see how we can contribute as a university and

do it well and be the bright line and be known for

it, and at the same time, you've got to form your

own team, and change is tough for people, so that's

a challenge, and then understanding the metrics

and, um, just really getting entrenched and keep

the chairman of the foundation over there, um, the

next person that comes in has big shoes to fill

behind him after a $100 million campaign.

CANDIDATE: And that's fantastic.

COMMITTEE: So, that is going to be a

challenge in itself as well, is to keep that going

forward, because it's dollars that's going to give

us the bigger and better programs to get that

bright line even brighter.

CANDIDATE: Have you had trouble convincing

faculty and deans or other administration here at

the university about the metrics?

COMMITTEE: Being a trustee, in my six years,

it has been a learning curve. I think everyone

understands and respects the metrics, but to move

the pendulum is where, because you have people who

want success, they want to be surrounded by

success, and we're one of 12 universities being

measured, we do not want to be in the bottom three,

so that's why, um, we have to see quick success in

our graduation rates, and as we've all said, when

you get the graduation rates right, everything else

is going to be right, and we do extremely well in a

lot of those metrics, but the cost to degree, the

credit hours, the retention, there's things that

the graduation rate would definitely cure.

COMMITTEE: Trustee Elneus, would you like to

give her your thoughts as a student leader about

challenges or opportunities for the next president?

COMMITTEE: Sure.

COMMITTEE: Not really, but you will?

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: I will. I would say the biggest

challenge that the next president would face is

taking the direction from the Board of Governors

and the Board of Trustees, that performance-based

metrics that we all love to talk about and infusing

it with our campus culture and making it a part of

our campus, but not alienating the things that we

as FGCU value the most, two of those things being

diversity and environmental sustainability. So,

with that is somebody being able to infuse that

with the direction that's being given, with the

performance metrics and all else and making that a

part of who we are as a university, but not

forgetting and losing sight of the things that make

us FGCU.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Next question?

CANDIDATE: What about the university that you

have in place now would you say is most responsible

for attracting students and faculty?

COMMITTEE: Dr. Isern, would you like to talk

about the faculty piece of attracting you to the

university or your peers?

COMMITTEE: Sure. One of the things that

attracts faculty to come here is the opportunity to

help, have a voice and an impact in forming a new

university and putting your own footprint into it,

having the ability to design curriculum, design lab

spaces, design research programs, etc., and just

basically making a difference. A lot of older

institutions, things are done the way they are,

and, you know, yes, it's great that you're coming

here to teach or whatnot, but, you know, we know

how to do things, but the opportunity to come here

and make a difference, I think has attracted a lot

of us faculty.


COMMITTEE: I agree. From a faculty

perspective, it's, um, there's no tenure system

here, so everyone has to be moving forward all the

time, you can't retire in place, so that, um, keeps

faculty engaged, and it makes for a dynamic

atmosphere, and what I truly appreciate from a

personal level is that the people I work with, my

colleagues on the hallway, truly care about student

success, and their success is, indeed, our success,

so that's probably the most rewarding thing about

coming to this school, is the sense of

participation that all the faculty share.

COMMITTEE: Trustee Elneus, from a student's

perspective.

COMMITTEE: I would say besides, um, the

destination of southwest Florida, being so close to

the beach and having a beach on campus, um, I'd say

the things that drive students here is, one, our

focus and the mission of the university on

sustainability and two the opportunities that

students have on this campus, one, to interact with

their faculty and not being a large campus, where

you get lost in the numbers, you have that

one-on-one interaction. Um, our average classroom

size is between 25 to 35 students, so the students

really get that close niche feel with their faculty

members, and they build those relationships, and

that's one of the things that makes us who we are

as FGCU and why a lot of students like this

university.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Ackert.

COMMITTEE: I would be remiss if I didn't

bring this up. We have 5,000 kids living on campus

in the luxurious housing.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: And I can tell you that that was a

big part, along with everything everybody else

said, why they're here. Their parents fell in love

with the housing, and the kids have also. We

probably have the finest student life/resident life

program, I'm going to say in the southeast, but

even further. I mean, we really take care of our

kids here. It is amazing what happens,

particularly the freshmen. I mean, that first year

experience and our residence halls is incredible.

I would live in them.

CANDIDATE: That's an endorsement.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Secondly, it's our athletic

program, in addition to everything that everybody

else we've had. When we went to the Sweet 16, that

was, obviously, a hallmark, and we tripled our

applications, obviously, but everything everybody

else has said, this is a very, very, very important

part of why they're here.

CANDIATE: And the athletics, I'm glad you

brought that up, because that wasn't part of the

conversation, necessarily, but I did note about the

Sweet 16, and, um, sports are really important to

the students' enrichment, but alumni, from

experiences at other universities, alumni have a

tendency to give more to a university who's

successful in sports, I think that kind of pride

comes out, and, so, that's important, and I've seen

applications from students, so suppose this

university and another university are equal in what

they want in a university, but one has the sport

that they can participate in, and the other one

doesn't, they go to the one with the sports. So,

they play a very important role.

COMMITTEE: We also can report that our 250

student athletes have a higher grade point average

than the rest of the student body.

CANDIDATE: Well, that's terrific.

COMMITTEE: One last question.

CANDIDATE: I think you've answered most of

the questions, and some of it has been answered,

just by the questions that you've asked me. I

really appreciate the time to meet with you today,

and, um, I would look forward to having the

leadership of this university. You've done a lot,

and it's remarkable, what you've achieved in 20

years, and the next 20, I'd like to be a part of

starting that era.

COMMITTEE: Well, we enjoyed talking to you

today. On behalf of the committee, thank you very

much for your long, long trip to get here, and

we've enjoyed the time with you as well. So, um,

thank you very much. We stand in recess as a

committee for about 15 minutes until the next

candidate.

(Break Taken.)�

Dr. Irma Becerra

ROUGH EDITED COPY



7:30 A.M. ET



[email protected]

COMMITTEE: Dr. Becerra, welcome to Florida

Gulf Coast University, or FGCU, as you will hear us

call it. Committee, I am pleased to introduce

Dr. Irma Becerra. She is Provost and chief

academic officer at St. Thomas University.

Dr. Becerra, we are going to, we're pleased to have

this opportunity to spend some time with you. Our


questions, and then we're going to give you 15

minutes to ask us any questions that you may have

that we can help with anything you may want to know

or if you have questions of us based on our

questions. Um, I think I'll get started with the

first question. Why Florida Gulf Coast University?

And why at this point in your career would you want

to be our next president of this fine institution?

CANDIDATE: Um, thank you, trustee, and thank

you to all of you for being here, for your support

of Florida Gulf Coast, and also your support of

public education. It's a beautiful Friday

afternoon, so I really commend you for being here

and making that investment into our future. Um,

I'm very excited to be here and to have the

opportunity to meet you all, and the reason why I'm

so excited is that I feel emotionally aligned to

this university, and the reasons are that some of

my, most of my strengths and my areas of expertise

really align perfectly to this university, and

that's what really caught my attention. So, you

may know, I wasn't looking for a career change at

this point in my life, but, um, when the

opportunity to meet Florida Gulf Coast first

presented itself, and the more that I learned about

the institution, the more that I was so impressed

by it, because if I was given a canvas and I was

asked to paint the university of the future, I

would have painted Florida Gulf Coast University.

Your areas of strength in stem, entrepreneurship,

building on the foundation of the liberal arts, a

focus on education, which is important, because we

need to continue educating our future students, I

couldn't have done a better job. I, um, am

completely impressed. It really has, in the

light 20 years, I want to really commend our

founding fathers and the faculty and staff that

have helped Florida Gulf Coast get to this point in

such a short time, because you have done phenomenal

work, and I feel that with my expertise and my

preparation, I'm really the perfect alignment with

your areas of strength, I can really help take

Florida Gulf Coast to your next level. I know that

you want to be recognized, continue to be

recognized by excellence and gain permanence, I

know that you have great goals in areas of stem and

new schools of dentistry and a new school of

pharmacy, and I just see your goals to be

completely in the right direction.

At the same time, I know that you're also

educating students that are civically engaged,

students that are not only ready for the workforce,

for the careers of the 21st century, but they also

want to lead lives that matter, and that is

something that is very important to me. As you may

know, I don't know if this is in my CV, but I was

born in Cuba. My parents left Cuba when I was 8

months old. I grew up in Puerto Rico, and I

learned, my mother never really had a chance to go

to college, but the I learned the value of

education early on, because as they say in my

family, nobody can take away your education, and

coming from a family where we had to leave all our

assets behind, I learned early on the value of

education. So, I came to the University of Miami,

where I studied electrical engineering, got my

master's, went to work in the industry, so I have

that experience, and it was there that I became

kind of part-time corporate instructor. My

full-time job was keeping an eye on and building

the reliability of the system grid, and you may

have, you may think that FPL was crazy about giving

that responsibility to a 23-year-old, I think they

probably were, but it was really an interesting

time. I used to have to spend a lot of time coding

this power grid, but one week out of every two or

three months, I was also corporate instructor, and

doing that job, I fell in love with higher ed. So,

I quit my job and went back to school to get my

doctorate when my kids were 6 months and 2, and,

um, put myself through college, and here I am, fast

forward just a few years later, looking at a

presidency. So, I'm an advocate for education, and

I know that FGCU will continue to do a great job to

transform the lives of the students, much like

education transformed my life, and I want you to

know that I am the leader that can take you there,

and I have the skill set that will help you go to

new levels and new heights. So, I hope you see

that in me as well.


COMMITTEE: Florida Gulf Coast University

shared governance tradition brings together

faculty, staff and students. Furthermore,

enhancing diversity is a high priority at FGCU.

Um, we would like to know what shared governance

means to you, especially the role you feel a

president should take, and also, if you could

answer, um, if you could please answer, um, tell us

about a time that you adapted your style to work

effectively with those who were different from you.

So, shared governance and diversity.

CANDIDATE: Okay. Well, let's take shared

governance first. First of all, I came up through

the faculty. I first started as an adjunct

professor. When I was still at FPL, I was an

adjunct professor in engineering, and after I

finished my Ph.D, I worked for a short time at the

University of Florida, and later on, I joined the

faculty in the College of Business, and I worked

through the traditional assistant professor, then

associate professor, full professor and so forth,

so I am a faculty member, and I am very familiar

with the difficulties that faculty face in

balancing teaching, research and service, because

I've been there, I know what that looks like. I

have also worked very closely with the faculty

senate at both institutions, both at FIU, where

there was a union, and also at St. Thomas, where

there is no union, where the faculty also don't

have tenure but multi-year contracts, like here.

So, I am a believer in shared governance, because I

am shared governance. So, with that, I think I

cover that, that I believe in the values of shared

governance, and your other question, if you can

repeat it.

COMMITTEE: Diversity.

CANDIDATE: Diversity. Um, well, I think it's

a responsibility that our leadership recognizes and

is ready for understanding, you know,

multi-cultural diversity. So, um, we need to build

that expertise among our leadership. There are

many universities around the nation that are really

struggling with this issue of diversity, and I have

spoken to a president at one of the great

institutions in Chicago, and she was, um, sharing

some of the struggles in the point that we're at

right now, so I think that we need to be careful

that we are, that we don't overlook the issues

related to diversity. I know there was recently an

issue on campus, where the students felt that,

there were some racial slurs, and they felt it was

not given the proper attention, so we have to

listen to our students, and we have to listen to

those cues and give them the right attention. Um,

I also want to talk about another kind of

diversity, and that is that some things, when we

think about diversity, we're only thinking about

ethnical or gender diversity, but there is also

cognitive diversity, and it reminds me of a recent

book, Diversity Matters, it's very important

research that shows that when you have teams that

are diverse, everybody works harder in the team.

So, in fact, diversity makes us better, and if we

really want to instill those values of critical

thinking that our employers tell us that are so

important for our students, all those self-skills

that students need to have to be successful in the

workplace, problem-solving, creativity,

communication skills, all of those really are best

learned in environments where you are moved to

think a little harder, to see things from a

different point of view. So, I think that when we

think about diversity, let's strive to really give

students the right preparation by having them have

an experience in college that allows them to

understand, um, problems from different

perspectives and have that exposure to cognitive

diversity so they really can excel in the critical

thinking skills.

COMMITTEE: Follow-up by trustee Thieldens

Elneus.

COMMITTEE: Yes. Can you give a specific

example of how you and your team, if selected as

president, would deal with students that have any

diversity concerns on campus or faculty members,

for that matter, that have those types of concerns?

CANDIDATE: So, thank you, T. I actually had

a great opportunity, I stayed in the Marriott

Courtyard last night, and I had a great opportunity

to talk to some of our students there, and I'll

tell you a few things that I learned from them.

Number one is that they love Florida Gulf Coast,

and I love to hear that, and then some of them

expressed that they were a little bit concerned

about their safety. There was one student that

raised that concern, and I think it's important

that we organize, um, a committee, a way for

students to express themselves, and then we work

together as to what would that mean. When I asked

the student, so, your safety, why is it that you're

concerned about your safety, he said, well, I said,

is it because something got stolen, and he said,

no, I'm very worried about this situation happening

twice. So, I think it's important that we listen

to their concerns and that we work together to find

a solution to some of their concerns, because, um,

it's important that we hear, that we listen to

them. I think that's what, you know, the mark of a

good leader is that you listen, and you listen and

you work collaboratively to address their concerns.

So, that's what I would do.


COMMITTEE: It's a follow-up question. So,

shared governance, um, so, I heard you started as

faculty, but as Provost now, maybe give us an

example of how you bring the faculty together or

how you do a shared governance in your job today,

maybe.

CANDIDATE: Okay, excellent. Well, um, I came

to St. Thomas about two years ago, I don't know how

many of you know about St. Thomas. St. Thomas is a

fine institution with a very important mission, and

I'm very happy to be part of it. St. Thomas was

founded in Cuba in 1946, and it's the same

university as Villanova, and they were essentially

forced by the Castro regime, and they restarted in

Miami Gardens in 1961. When I came to St. Thomas,

the president and the trustees shared with me their

vision. They want to be the best catholic

university in the southeast. So, what I did is I

met with my executive team, my deans and some of

the people that report to me, and we sat together

and said, well, what does that mean? What does it

mean to be the best? And we essentially kind of

boiled it down to four areas. Number one is we

have to have excellent programs. We have to have a

portfolio of programs that are innovative, that are

market-based, that are going to be able to really

attract tough students to come to St. Thomas.

Well, that effort, of course, required that we

figure out how do we launch innovative programs,

and how can we best use the resources that we have,

because we also are resource-constrained, right?

So, we came up with an interesting mix of programs,

and many of them were different in the sense that

they really integrated different areas of expertise

that existed at the university in new ways. So, we

did something very innovative in academia, and that

is we broke the silos that typically exist between

departments, and for example, when we launched the

cyber security degree, it included faculty from

business, in computer, from criminal justice and

law.

So, using this interdisciplinary approach, we

were able to design together 21-degrees, but this

effort is something that we needed to do it as a

whole. It requires the entire governance of the

university to come together and say we need to do

this, we need to do this together, how are we going

to do it. So, of course, that requires a visionary

leader that can balance both our DNA, our academic

DNA, if I may say, and our faculty governance

together with understanding that we need to move

the university to the forefront of our

counterparts, because it's very competitive for

higher ed today. So, I think that, of course, that

requires a special skill, I think that that's where

we are uniquely different in higher ed leadership,

because as you know, um, you can call your team and

say, we're going to do this, and everybody says,

okay, Mr. Call, we will, but in academia, you need

to win your team over, and that's why a skill set,

if you've ever done the skills, winning the team

over is very important for a leader in higher ed.

So, in that sense, we were able to transcend, and

we were able to create new degrees that translated

to, um, bringing new students, so St. Thomas was

able to really attract, you know, increase their

enrollment significantly this fall, both at the

undergraduate and graduate level. Well, being the

best also meant that we had to have, improve our

graduation rates, and that meant that we had to

work together in terms of building the

infrastructure and how we advise students and

putting innovations in place that will help us

retain and graduate students, and I can talk a

little bit more about those innovations. It also

meant that we have to deliver great customer

satisfaction to our students, so we had to do some

innovations in terms of what they perceive were

quality of life changes for them, getting a new

vendor for food, etc., and essentially, you know,

these three areas, and of course, we had to also

improve our visibility, the perception of

St. Thomas, our branding, if I may say, and I know

that's another area that you may want to talk about

how we did that, but in essence, this has to be an

effort. Even improving the branding of a

university is something that the president cannot

do alone, it really involves the entire university.

It's not only putting up a great website, it's

actually each person branding the university,

talking about what a great institution it is. So,

the things that we need to do at Florida Gulf Coast

will require that. Did I answer your question?

Okay, thank you.


COMMITTEE: Um, here at FGCU, we've come to

realize that, um, we're going to need to generate

additional resources beyond our funding levels to

support the mission that we're on and to move to

the next stage in the evolution of the university.

So, if you would, share with us your experience in

generating external funding, and, um, your role in

that resource development process.

CANDIDATE: Okay, excellent. Um, so, through

my lifetime, I have raised about $17 million

altogether from research dollars, from

federally-funded research dollars, I spent about 12

years where I worked really closely with NASA as a

principle investigator on a number of grants and

even spent a year at NASA on, um, at NASA

headquarters, where I worked closely with the

deputy administrator and designed the knowledge

management strategy for the agency. So, I've

raised funds in federal funding, I've also raised

corporate and philanthropy, like the $1.6 million

grant that we received from the JP Morgan

Foundation for the work that we did at Miami

Northwestern, one of the high schools in the inner

city to help transform the school. I also have

raised funds from private philanthropy. I've been

involved in both of those campaigns. I have worked

with, for example, fundraising for the business

school, which is a $5 million gift. So, assured, I

am, I like fundraising, especially I love

fundraising for my university. I think that for

me, you know, Florida Gulf Coast is, can I say it?

It's an easy sale. It's a wonderful institution.

I can see such a bright future and a great

opportunity for me to fundraise for Florida Gulf

Coast. I want to also take a minute to talk about

similarly another equally important area in terms

of what the university needs to do now in terms of

its, um, setting up a path for being, let's call it

financially independent, or financially

self-sustainable. It dawned on me, because I was

recently at a conference, and I was listening to a

presentation from a CFO who's brilliant, and he

finally explained it to me very crisply, what is

the, what is higher ed confronting in terms of

financial viability, and basically, if you take our

budget and break it into, and this may be

oversimplified, but if you break it into our

expenses and our revenues, we're in a situation

that our expenses are growing at a faster rate than

our revenues. So, our expenses, which is mostly

our payroll, faculty/staff salaries, etc., that

continues to grow when the cost of living

increases, yet in terms of our revenue, which is

our intuition, we have gotten to the point, the

elasticity of the price point, where further

increases in the price is not going to help us

bring anymore revenues in.

So, similar to healthcare, and I know that we

have one of our trustees that is, um, that is in

healthcare, we can't continue raising the price of

education. So, in the past, universities balanced

their budgets by raising tuition every year so we

can meet that gap. So, where we are at is we have

to find a way that we can be self-sustainable and

really even, right now, Florida Gulf Coast is in

the, about half of your tuition, it's not only

about students, it's also the part that comes from

the state, and part of that tuition is really being

subsidized by the state. That's a privilege, but

if you think about it, we need to figure out how

can we continue to do the great job that we're

doing even in light of continuing, you know,

diminishing state support, because we need to get

there. So, how do we do that? How do we do that?

Well, I have some ideas. Let me give you a little

case that I've been studying. There's a small

university in Orlando, in a very quaint area in

Orlando calls Rawlings College. Well, they have a

hotel on campus, and that hotel, how many of you

have been in the hotel at Rawlings College? It's

beautiful, isn't it? Well, that hotel adds

$3 million of net revenues into the budget of

Rawlings College. So, Rawlings College has been

able to figure out a source of revenue into their

budget that will continue to grow as cost of living

grows. That means that Rawlings College will be

able to continue to give salary increases without

having to raise their tuition, and that's what we

universities are going to have to think about right

now, and the key is that these things, these

public/private partnerships, like the hotel, which

by the way, also provides for internship

opportunities for their students, so it really ends

up being a win-win, these things will take time for

them to ensure. So, we essentially need to be

thinking today on what are the sources of revenue

that are going to sustain this university 10 years

from now when I'm no longer your president, right?

I'm being facetious, but trying to be a little

funny. I know it's been a long day. But in

essence, I did see, I studied your strategic plan,

and I saw that you have a plan for a golf kind of

country club and hotel. Well, I think that is an

extremely important step in the right direction. I

think that those are the things that the university

needs to focus on.

It will be another source of revenue,

internships on campus for the students, and it will

allow the university to rely less and less on the

tuition. At the same time, we will continue to

work on our endowment, but let's face it, there's

few universities today that are really able to

count on their endowment, or so-called hedge fund

universities, but, you know, they started working

on this 400 years ago, so, you know, a billion

dollars, if you have a billion dollars in your

endowment, you can sit down and relax, you don't

have to worry about all these things, but I think

that we continue working on endowment, but I think

we need to start thinking today about 10 years from

now, how will the university be able to sustain

itself in ways that are complementary to our

mission, and that's what, I think this is the

moment to start thinking about those.


COMMITTEE: Since you brought up the strategic

plan, the next president of FGCU will come in after

we've finalized the strategic plan, with the

opportunity to shape and help implement and

operationalize that strategic plan. Please

describe your experiences with strategic planning

processes, including implementing plans and using

them as decision-making tools.

CANDIDATE: So, as a business professor, I am

very familiar with strategic plans, but also, um, I

have been, um, participating in developing and

implementing strategic plans at both universities.

There is a saying that if you don't have a

strategic plan, you're somebody else's strategic

plan, so I think it's important that we have one,

and we have an excellent one. I read it in detail,

I actually read it twice, and I was very excited

about it. I think it's very well done, very well

thought out. I think that you probably already

have gone through the whole effort of getting the

buy-in that is necessary, but I think it will be

important to, um, to create implementation plans

for the different areas. I know that the dean of

Business has a lot to do, and I have less action

items underneath, which is great, but I think that

we'll need to, I understand that we need to create

an implementation plan, strategize, prioritize all

the different action items, identify what are the

resources that are needed so that we can start

working and execute successfully in five years.

So, um, they're necessary, and I'm looking forward

to being part of the implementation of the

strategic plan.

COMMITTEE: So, as part of the strategic plan,

student success is a large part of that, and as

you're aware from your days at FIU, we get funded,

um, by performance-based funding metrics that

Governor Morton and his peers have put together.

We've talked about this a little bit, it does

frustrate me a little bit, because it would appear

to me that those are all things that the university

should be doing for students anyway, but, um, so,

but we do get paid for it, so I guess that's a

benefit. If I look at St. Thomas University's

six-year graduation rate and four-year graduation

rate, they're relatively similar to what we have

here. We're looking for a president that can come

in and really make a difference and start moving

those metrics up. If we don't, we're going to lose

significant funding. So, can you give me an idea

of, two things, one, what have you done at

St. Thomas to help as Provost move that, start

moving those numbers up, and I know you haven't

been the Provost, there's a time lag there, but

then also, what would be your first things that you

would want to do here to improve our graduation

rates, retention rates and those kind of items?

CANDIDATE: Okay. Well, first, let me talk on

the topic of performance-based funding. I'm very

familiar with performance-based funding from my

years at FIU, so I reread the metrics, because they

haven't changed much in the last two years. My

thought about performance-based metrics is that

it's a great thing. Performance-based funding has

made the universities in the SUS better, every one

of them. I know it's made FIU better. In all my

years at academia, we never used to talk about

graduation rates ten years ago, but it is our

responsibility to see that every student that is

admitted to our university gets to graduation

successfully. We have a responsibility, and

frankly, it should be four years. You take four

years to get a four-year degree, so in that sense,

I'm delighted to see that new initiative from the

governor. It's certainly where we have to be

heading towards. Um, also, the other thing that

you know about me is that I am not afraid of a

challenge, so I think competition is good, and I

also read that Florida Gulf Coast has improved in

its performance metrics, that the year before, you

had been in the bottom three, and this year, you

actually got 67 points, so you've moved up, is that

correct?

COMMITTEE: It was the opposite,

unfortunately.

COMMITTEE: I think that was FAU.

COMMITTEE: We were in the bottom three.

CANDIDATE: Oh, okay, because these reports,

there's a lag.

COMMITTEE: That is correct.

CANDIDATE: Okay. So, in any case, I'm all

for performance metrics. I realize in the area of

graduation rates, and I know that is part of your

scorecard, is graduation rates, I work very hard on

improving graduation rates, both at FIU and at

St. Thomas. As vice Provost at FIU, I led a task

force to redesign the way we taught college

algebra, because we have found it's what is called

a gatekeeper course, and oftentimes, students would

have to take college algebra over, as many times

as 12 times. Our passing rate was extremely low,

something like 30 percent, so we had to rethink the

way that we taught college algebra. I looked at a

number of innovations, and we actually ended up

adopting one from Virginia Tech, which is, um, high

touch high tech, where the students, essentially,

they're required to do their homework, it's not

earth-shaking, but they're required to do their

homework in a lab, where there are peer students

available that they can answer questions about

their homework if they're having trouble, and we

actually monitor how many times we're spending with

the homework, because with math, it's simple, time

on task, if you spend time on task doing your

homework, you'll do well in math. So, that's an

innovation that helped us increase our passing rate

for college algebra from, like, 30 percent

to 50 percent, so that's in line with graduation

rates. Also, another area at FIU that I worked

with in the writing, we always, our students, you

know, many of them are bilingual, they just didn't

have maybe strong skills coming in in writing and

communication skills, so we adopted the writing

curriculum initiative from George Mason University,

and we implemented it. I know that your new QAP is

also focused on writing, so this is another area

that you need to really help students, if you want

to be successful with your graduation rates. At

St. Thomas, I instituted a student success center

with professional advisors, and the advisors are

there year-round to help students develop a map,

they develop a roadmap on what courses they need to

take in order to get to graduation, and we are

committed to offer the students the courses that

they need to stay on track for graduation.

We also, this year, when I was there, we

instituted summer school included in the tuition so

that they don't have to pay extra, and they can

continue to accelerate to graduation throughout the

summer. We also, I noticed when I got there that

the students were not buying their books, and

oftentimes, if you don't buy your books, you

perform poorly in a class, and therefore, you drop

the class and you restart again. Well, we have, we

put an innovation in place that books are now

included as a rental program in the tuition and

fees. This was very complicated to get it right,

because, essentially, what we're doing is we're

giving all the students a box with their books the

first day, and we're saying, here you go, I want

As, and it has had a huge impact, because research

shows that if students have the resources they

need, the books and whatever they need to be

reading the reading materials on the first day,

they tend to perform better in class. So, in order

to improve graduation and retention, it's not one

magic bullet, it's really a multi-prong efforts.

It's really looking at your gatekeeping courses and

looking at how you can teach the students in a way

that is more familiar to how they learn. So, math

and writing skills, essential. Um, professional

advising, research shows this is extremely

important, faculty taking more of a mentoring role,

but professional advisors, sharing with the

students the roadmap, the classes that they need to

get to success, really encouraging students to

choose a major early on so that they don't waste

time changing majors, and that's where they get

into trouble, um, books the first day, year-round

studying, take advantage of the summers, all of

those are initiatives that I have launched at both

of my institutions. Oh, and I forgot one. I'm

sorry.

COMMITTEE: No, go ahead.

CANDIDATE: We also find that students that

are engaged either through service learning and

internships, there is data that shows that those

students will persist and get to graduation faster.

So, I can talk a little bit more about that, but at

St. Thomas, every student will be involved with

service learning, which are types of courses where

they actually learn in a hands-on way by working

with the faculty, some kind of a service project,

and also, internships or undergraduate research,

depending on if they're planning to go to work or

they're planning to continue to graduate school,

which also translates to higher retention and

graduation rates.


COMMITTEE: Thank you. Incidentally, um, for

the trustees and others, um, my wife's heavily

involved in a lot of this research about

graduation. Two things correlate highest with

graduation; 15 credits in the first semester as a

freshman, number one. Number two, live on campus.

Those are the two factors that drive graduation

based on the research. Those are peer-reviewed

statistics, it's just not pulled out of the air, by

the way. Um, raising capital, and we've discussed

philanthropy, and we've discussed, in some

respects, performance metrics, at least a couple of

them, and as you know, there's ten, so they're

related to a lot of different factors. I have two

questions. One is do you have any experience with

the legislature?

CANDIDATE: Yes.

COMMITTEE: And if so, could you explain to us

how they came about and the experiences basically

in your own words?

CANDIDATE: Sure. Let me give you one

example. While I was working at FIU as vice

president for engagement, I became aware that we

had students on campus that were homeless, and we

would find out a student was sleeping in a

conference room or in their car, and then I also

became aware of the research that shows that

fostered youth, students who have been in foster

youth, even though they want to graduate from

college, less than 1 percent of them graduate from

college. So, of course, this was something that

really, I felt we needed to do something about it.

I started working with a group of local community

organizations that are, um, working in this space,

and we understood that we needed to fundraise, to

have at FIU what I call a success coach, which is a

dedicated coach to this group of students, who

could help the students with whatever they need.

If they need help with, because, you know,

universities sometimes are a little bit hard to

navigate, if I need help with my financial aid,

where do I go, if I need help with advising, where

do I go, so sort of like a one-stop shop for this

group of students who really don't have anybody

else to turn to, but I realized quickly that it was

going to be hard to continue to fund this in a

sustainable manner, because then I would have to be

writing these grants, you know, every year, and

also, the other thing that I became aware of is

that these students, if they had the opportunity to

live on campus, they would be successful, just like

your research shows, that living on campus is a

strong determinant for graduation. They have a

higher chance if they live on campus, and also,

living on campus provided them with a structure

that they probably had never had in their lives.

So, we put together a bill to the legislature, it

was presented to a representative, to support the

FIU FPP, Florida Panther Pride Program, to focus on

the foster youth, and it was an ask of about

$300,000 a year, every year, and it was presented

in the legislature, and I'm happy to report that

before I left FIU, it was approved.

COMMITTEE: Well, thank you. My last comment

has to do with performance metrics again.

CANDIDATE: Yes.

COMMITTEE: Um, the university's being held

accountable by the legislature and the Board of

Governors, and were you to be selected as

president, you also would be held accountable for

these ten metrics. Do you believe in holding your

entire team accountable? And if so, how would you

do that?

CANDIDATE: Holding my entire team accountable

means that we share the responsibility. You mean

in terms of --

COMMITTEE: Maybe you got some people pulling

their end of the load, and some people not. What

are you prepared to do about it?

CANDIDATE: So, you're saying that, um, if I

was in a situation where some of my team is pulling

their load, but the others are not pulling their

load, what would I do about it?

COMMITTEE: Accountability.

CANDIDATE: Accountability. Okay, so, first

thing is, um, what I would do first coming in is

this measure, this performance measure, you

realize, is a very rolled up measure, right, and

I'm a data person, so I love data, but you need,

for data to be actionable, it has to be at the

right level. So, first thing is we need to

deconstruct this data, and we need to break it down

into chunks that can be managed, where we can

better understand, if, let's say our four-year

graduation rate, remind me what it is right now at

FGCU.

COMMITTEE: 21.

CANDIDATE: 21 four-year, and 43 six years?

COMMITTEE: Yes.

CANDIDATE: So, I will work with the Provost

and the deans to try to break it down into is it

different in different majors, and if it's

different in different majors, what's causing that?

Are there some gatekeeper courses that are

preventing our students from being successful in

certain areas, and therefore they're not being able

to move as fast as we want them to move? Is it

that in certain areas, we don't have enough courses

for students to move forward? Do we need to put

different things in place? So, I would first break

it down, breakdown the data and the performance

indicators into manageable chunks and then try to

explore what can be done to move that indicator

forward. I think that will be the first step, and,

of course, we are all accountable. We're a team,

we're a collaborative team, so we have to all see,

um, ourselves, you know, our responsibility towards

the common good of the university, so we'll share

the joys, as well as the not so good news, right,

Governor?

COMMITTEE: As a follow-up question, so, what

is your leadership style? You know, FGCU is

obviously a much larger institution than

St. Thomas, not as big though as FIU, but when you

think about being the Provost at St. Thomas, and

now you're going to come here, where it's a much

bigger, more diverse, more complicated business

model than where you're currently at, what is your

leadership style, coming into a much bigger and

more complex business than what you're at today?

How would you manage here and those kind of things?

CANDIDATE: Right. Well, currently at

St. Thomas, I have what is called a, maybe a strong

Provost team, in the sense that all the deans

report to me, as well as the VP for IT, the VP for

enrollment, so it's about, and two vice Provosts,

so I have about 70 percent of the organization

reporting to me. So, I feel confident that I've

had, um, a significant breadth of leadership.

Also, at St. Thomas, it's a lot more hands-on,

because as a Provost at a smaller institution, it's

been really a great opportunity for me, because I

need to know a lot more about a lot of things, and

from SACs, our accreditation, to fundraising, to

advancement, to, I get involved with athletics, I

mean, I really get involved with the entire

university, launching new degrees, so it's a very,

branding, I'm involved with branding the university

and marketing efforts, which is an area that, a lot

of times, Provosts are not directly involved, so I

think my experience at a smaller institution has

actually prepared me better than if I may have been

a Provost even at a larger institution, where you

tend to be more specialized, where you have, you

know, an entire group of people that are taking

care of some things for you. I'm very

collaborative as far as style for leadership. As

you know, my research is knowledge management, and

I advised NASA for many years on how to create a

more collaborative culture for the organization,

because it was critical. I actually had the

opportunity to work with NASA for a year after the

Columbia accident and helped them to become more of

an integrated organization and what were some of

the barriers that were preventing them from being

collaborative. So, I think that when you have a

collaborative style, you benefit from the great

minds of the team that is working with you, and we

all are facing very complex issues in higher ed

today, and it really requires to be able to see

these complex issues from different lenses, so I

welcome the opportunity to work with my team in a

collaborative style that makes us stronger.


COMMITTEE: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. FGCU

has a service area of about five to six counties

here in southwest Florida. What is the service

area of St. Thomas University? And I have a

follow-up question.

CANDIDATE: Okay, so, um, thank you. Are you

talking about, um, the service area is where we,

um, recruit students from?

COMMITTEE: Where do you recruit students

from, and how do you respond back to those areas

you service with, um, accountability for the

product that you produce for them.

CANDIDATE: Okay, so, when you're talking

about the product, you're talking about how we

engage the industry in that area to higher ed

students, or are you talking about the service to

the community?

COMMITTEE: It could be the industry, it could

be the high school in which they came from, and

parents, and the student.

CANDIDATE: Okay, excellent. Well, the whole

linkage of the university and the community of high

schools that it serves is an area that I work very

closely both at FIU and at St. Thomas. In

particular, when I was at FIU, I led, um, a

consortium called Access, which is a consortium

with the public school system and FIU, and the

whole purpose of this consortium is to really bring

together the areas of expertise that FIU was

offering with the different high schools and be a

resource, from a resource to educate their teachers

and prepare them to teach college-level courses and

get them to have the proper credentials to teach,

for example, dual enrollment, to actually putting

through some of our expertise to help faculty, for

example, maybe special interest in special ed. So,

this consortium will meet quarterly, and we had a

number of task forces that got together between

faculty and different interests within the public

school system, and we were intimately connected

with the public school system in Miami, which was

extremely beneficial, and they were, for example,

in terms of dual enrollment, when I left FIU, I

think there was something like 6,000 students

taking dual enrollment, which, of course, that

translates to huge savings for the families,

because if students are entering the state

university system with college credits and the

opportunity to accelerate to graduation. I also

formed a similar partnership at St. Thomas, which

is a partnership with all the catholic schools in

Miami, includes Broward and Orlando, and again, we

are now serving about 3,000 students dual

enrollment, and we provide the right coaching to

the faculty so that they are, we know, in fact,

that they're teaching, the teachers in the schools

essentially become our adjunct professors. So,

very important, it’s really translating to billions

of dollars in savings for their parents, and

students are also building their confidence by

being able to take college courses while they are

in high school. I don't know if you also wanted me

to touch on how we engage with the industry.

COMMITTEE: How you engage with whom?

CANDIDATE: The industry as well.

COMMITTEE: Go ahead, please.

CANDIDATE: Okay. So, again, another

important area where I see, I touch a little bit on

the importance of finding these other revenue

streams with these public/private partnerships

really are, it's going to be an entire different,

exciting time for universities. Another thing that

we did at FIU in collaboration with FPL, they

wanted to create a management intern program with

FIU, where they could have the first choice of

students who would essentially hit the ground

running when they got to FPL, so we built a call

center on the campus at FIU, where FIU students

worked as interns, but they also learned customer

service, and essentially, it was a win-win. This

call center was in one of our buildings, so they

actually rented one of our facilities, so we had an

income stream of revenue, they didn't have to drive

anywhere, and they had an opportunity to become a

customer service intern, and FPL gets first dibs at

our top talent. So, again, a very interesting area

that I think universities need to start working on

right now, and it will be able to help us diversify

our revenue services for the benefit of our

students, which is what makes it beautiful.

COMMITTEE: You mentioned Orlando as a place

where you seek out students. Do you seek students

from other regions within the state?

CANDIDATE: Primarily, St. Thomas attracts

mostly students from our region, but

about 10 percent of our students also are

international, and we've had, um, a pretty

significant population of Chinese students, but we

also have, um, Indian students, pretty much

Caribbean and students from all over the world.


CANDIDATE: That's primarily who we serve.

COMMITTEE: It's funny, nobody will look at me

any longer. I'm starting to get a complex. Mr.

Winton, you're smiling, and I like that. Good

energy.

COMMITTEE: Good afternoon, Dr. Becerra. My

question really goes back to the performance

metrics. I read in your letter to our committee

that you had increased, um, the six-year graduation

rate from 33 to 44 percent from 2014 to 2015. Do

you know how much the four-year rate increase

from 14 to 15?

CANDIDATE: So, oh my gosh, I knew you'd ask

me something that I would blank out, but when I

came to St. Thomas, our four and six-year

graduation rate was not that different, unlike at

FIU, where there was a big jump, and I see the same

thing here between four and six years. Our

four-year is slightly lower, but it's not so

different. So, the issues with private

universities is that, um, students tend to, um,

when students use their financial aid, after four

years, they have a harder time continuing at a

private university than they do at a public

institution, so that's why, for us, it's important

that we just focus on that four-year graduation

rate, because I didn't see that big step between

four and six years, and I think that that is the

right thing to focus on for us here as well. A

university like FGCU, that should be, um, the focus

as well here. Again, these things, they take time.

You put all of these things in place, and then it

takes time. It takes four years from now, one year

later, maybe two years later, you start seeing some

of the differences, but for everything to really

come together, it may take four years, five years

later, so that's why you have to try innovations in

different forms, because some will pay off sooner

than others.

COMMITTEE: One more question.


COMMITTEE: You also stated in your letter

that St. Thomas has been a turn-around for you.

CANDIDATE: Yes.

COMMITTEE: And I was just thinking about what

you said, about it takes a couple years, sometimes,

to see the metrics turn. Where are you in your

turn-around at St. Thomas right now?

CANDIDATE: Well, this year, we've been able

to increase our enrollment, 2 percent at the

undergraduate, 16 percent at the graduate, if

you're just looking at students that are, um, doing

the graduate on campus. If I look at the students

that were on campus, um, as undergraduates, our

enrollment went up more like 44 percent this year,

and if I look at, well, we went to 700 students

since I was at St. Thomas. We have already

graduated a hundred students online, so that will

be like 800 percent, but I don't want to give you a

figure that would be so crazy, right? But, um, so,

what we did these last two years, 21 new degrees,

they all have had different rates of successes. I

wanted the market to decide which of these programs

would take off. Some of them, cyber security,

phenomenal success. Nursing. Supply chain and

logistics, a little bit slower start. Science

teaching, a little bit slower start. So, it

doesn't mean that we're just going to try one year

and say no, we're going to try to see, well, what

was it, did we do the right marketing around it,

was the market really ready for these degrees, and

so we're analyzing that a little further. Um,

going online is very important. I mean, we have to

realize that in particular, um, our graduate

students who are already working, this is a viable

solution. Blended is ideal, if you can incorporate

some face-to-face and also the online component for

the flexibility. I think for, if our students can

live on campus and they can come to college, it's

the best way to learn, nothing can replace that,

but even our undergraduates may want to take some

courses online, if they want to be working on an

internship, so maybe one semester abroad, they want

to take, um, a semester abroad and then take some

courses still with us, so online is an avenue for

education that has to be part of our portfolio, and

I know that that's part of your strategic plan, and

I think you've made some strides in that area, but

the proper infrastructure has to be put in place,

the property support for the faculty. I have seen

some of our faculty that are close to retiring,

they take the courses for online, and they're doing

an amazing job. So, it's really something for

everybody to explore, and everybody can do it well.


COMMITTEE: Thank you, Dr. Becerra. We are

now at the portion of the interview where we're

going to reverse roles. We're going to let you ask

us questions. So, we'll change roles.

CANDIDATE: I think it's fair that now you

guys get a little nervous.

COMMITTEE: Just ask me, or direct the

question to me, and then I'll try to figure out who

would be the best to answer your question. So,

with that, first question.

CANDIDATE: Well, I have one first question,

but if you don't mind, I would like to direct it to

T.

COMMITTEE: He says he's okay.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Ask away.

CANDIDATE: Um, and it's not a computer

science question, T, don't worry. I know that

that's your major.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: Even though I could ask you a

question in that area, you know that, right?

COMMITTEE: Would you please? We just want to

see.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: This is getting fun.

CANDIDATE: We'll skip that one for today.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: So, T, if I would have been

president of Florida Gulf Coast, and you had one

wish, I'm also a genie, and I can grant you one

wish, what would you like to see different at

Florida Gulf Coast?

COMMITTEE: What I would like to see

different?

COMMITTEE: T, this is the easiest question

ever.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Not necessarily. Um, I would say

the thing that students would like to see different

on campus, or in general, would be more of, um,

more engagement of the president. Not saying that

the current president is not doing that, but more

of an overall engagement in terms of getting all

components of the FGCU community together to

continue to make it a great campus atmosphere,

because it takes all the parts to be moving

together to create that synergy that is needed for,

um, the university to continue to excel and make

students want to come in and love it here, and

that, in turn, will be beneficial to everything

else and to all the other outcomes that we want to

get out of the university.

CANDIDATE: So, let me have a follow-up

question. When you speak about more engagement,

you want to see the president more engaged, or the

students want to be more engaged in the community?

COMMITTEE: So, I think it starts with the

president, to be, one, more engaged, not only with

the external community, but also within the

internal community, with things that's going on on

campus in terms of student life, focused on the

different components that make-up the student

experience, you know, when it comes to going,

continuing to do service projects with students,

working with students and areas of concerns to

students, attending student events, going to the

athletics, continuing to be a part of the student

culture, as well as the overall campus community

and fusing all aspects of the university into that.

CANDIDATE: You realize you're letting me off

easy, because I love basketball. Dunk city.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: That's not going to be hard for me

to do. Another student today asked me for a

football team, and I'm like, oh my god, I hope T

doesn't ask me for a football team on the first

day.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Oh, I'm not. As much as I would

love to see football, I know that's, as a student

body, we're not there yet, and if that's something

that a president or the university wants to go

into, I think it's important for us to go into that

together and not just, um, the president coming in

and saying, oh, we want football now. It has to be

more of a community effort and more of a joint

effort, all of us together, working to create that

football-ready atmosphere.

CANDIDATE: Right. No, there was a student

that asked me this morning at the hotel, she said

she would like football, so I was afraid you were

going to ask me for football.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: And then I'm committed, because

I'm here on this videotape.

COMMITTEE: We made it to the next to the last

interview before anybody said the word football.

That is a record.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: It was destined. Well, I

actually, I don't know how much time we have, but I

would love to hear from everybody, so I don't know

if we can do this. Um, in your opinion, what would

be the top three things that you would like to see

the president of FGCU do the first year?

COMMITTEE: So, I don't think we have enough

time, so what I think I'll do is I'll pick a couple

representatives from the different kind of

constituencies that we have on the committee and go

from there. Dr. Isern, I'm going to let you

represent the faculty, if you will, because

Dr. Allen refuses to look at me anymore.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: So, I really like T's genie

question, so if you could grant this wish, faculty

would love raises, but, no, it all goes to

resources. So, we've grown very, very quickly, and

we've maxed out in many different ways, so we are

running out of classroom space, research space, and

so I think in order for us to grow and actually be

comfortable with the size that we are now, we need

a bigger infrastructure, and so I think that's

something that I hope within the next 20 years, you

know, we need to grow into who we are right now, I

don't think we have the capacity to bring in more

students, we just have to take care of the ones

that we have, and that we have a hard time offering

all the courses that need to be offered, classrooms

are booked, you know, 24/7, we're teaching evening

classes, and so there's, you know, we need to be

able to accommodate students so that they can

graduate in time and offer the courses when they

need them.

CANDIDATE: Excellent.

COMMITTEE: Mr. Call, from the perspective of

the chairman of the foundation.

COMMITTEE: Okay, sure. From the perspective

of the foundation, because there's so many things I

could probably answer, but I will definitely go

from the foundation. So, it's being active in our

communities. A lot of things that you've already

talked about, which I think are great; being active

in the communities. Again, the communities run all

up and down this coast. The businesses that are

around inside of those communities, and then just

the individual donors as well, so, um, as we march

down those three, those are the three significant

ways that we raise money as a foundation, and then

the fourth one that I bring up, but it's a very

young population, is the alumni population. We

can't lose sight of them, because we do raise money

through the alumni foundation, or from our alumni,

so we continue to do that, it's not near at the

levels that some universities are, just again

because of our 20-year age, but keeping them,

everyone active, because I think we have a great

reputation today, I don't see that slipping or

going anywhere, I just want to make sure that we

continue that reputation and making sure that the

next president is very visible inside of all those

things.

CANDIDATE: Excellent. Thank you.

COMMITTEE: From the staff advisory council's

perspective.

COMMITTEE: So, kind of going off a few points

that T mentioned, you know, for staff, it's about

communication, transparency, and really, um, the

beauty of shared governance, making sure all three

groups really are able to work together, and, you

know, those three moving parts are really what make

a university successful, and just having that

together, I think is really important, and it

really starts with the president and then goes

down, so that's what staff would really like to see

more of.

CANDIDATE: More transparency? Communication

and transparency? Thank you.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Gregerson, from the dean's

perspective.

COMMITTEE: Everything everyone already said,

plus the ability to clearly and concisely

articulate the vision for who FGCU is and where

we're going and to be able to communicate that

effectively to all the constituencies that we have.

COMMITTEE: Mrs. Roepstorff for the Board of

Trustees.

COMMITTEE: Okay. As trustee, and I know this

is going to sound kumbaya, I would truly like a

president who can come in and have that energy

level that will garner the respect of the great

deans and great faculty we have, and everyone get

energized together to work in one direction on some

bright lines and a great way to get more honors

students into this university. Then I think

everything else will fall in place.

COMMITTEE: And from my perspective, having

done a lot of meetings with the community, faculty,

students, a whole host of people, I think

everybody's looking for a leader, and I think,

Dr. Isern, that's the first thing I remember you

saying when we started talking about putting

together the profile, was, ultimately, it doesn't

matter where they come from, we need a leader. So,

I think that we're looking for a leader. Not to

say that Dr. Bradshaw hasn't done a fabulous job,

but we're looking for that next person to carry us

forward in the next 20 years. I think if you look

at our metrics, and to me, you know, from my

perspective, if you're sitting in your chair and

you don't understand how we're going to get funded

and the challenges that presents, well, we need a

change-maker that's going to come in and change the

culture to one of appropriate balance between the

metrics and what the constituents want, what's good

for the faculty, what's good for the students,

what's good for the staff, and there is a balance

there. So, I think that we need a cultural change,

someone from the outside coming in, looking at it

with a different set of eyes and building a team

around them, that can really move the university

forward in a positive way to gain the identity that

we're looking for, and quite frankly, that we are

being demanded to find, and we've got to have that

person. So, I think we have time for one more

quick question, if you have one. Don't ask T. Oh,

Mr. Morton.

COMMITTEE: We have to ratify this. We're

looking, culture trumps strategy, and I think the

Chair hit the nail on the head. We've talked a lot

about hard virtue.

CANDIDATE: Hard virtue?

COMMITTEE: Accountability, responsibility,

performance, money, stuff. There's also soft

virtue, and some of the Board of Governors were

very, very concerned about the faculty and the

students from the perspective of mental health and

the perspective of counseling, are we providing the

counseling, are we giving and devoting the

resources, to counseling students, to counseling

and working with faculty, and mental health is a

major issue on our campuses. We have to do a far

better job acknowledging the role that mental

health plays on our campuses, with our children,

with our students, our faculty, and the entire

community at large, and those are big issues with

the Board of Governors. You may have seen that at

the last meeting. We're devoting a lot of time to

mental health counseling and working with people in

a proactive sense.

CANDIDATE: Yes. Governor, you know, that's

an area that, um, it dawned on me, that's why I put

together the student success center at St. Thomas,

that a lot of times, we have indicators that a

student's mental health, it's suffering, that

they're suffering, and the first indicator is in

the classroom, and now that we have technology that

allows the advisor to look at the student, whether

they're showing up for class, if they stop showing

up to classes, then we know that, we know how

they're performing, and by integrating all of these

indicators about student performance together, we

can be proactive in bringing the school counselor

into play and giving the student the right

attention, because college is a very stressful

time, and we also have a lot of external stressors,

unfortunately, in our campuses as well, that they

are just part of the environment that our students

are involved in. So, I agree with you, I think

that that's an area that we need to improve on, and

certainly, we could use technology to help us

improve the services and the advice that we provide

our students.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Becerra, unfortunately, we've

run out of time.

CANDIDATE: No.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: We've enjoyed talking to you

today, and on behalf of the committee, I want to

thank you for your interest and your involvement

today, and once again, thank you for being here

with us and spending some time with us and letting

us get to know you and you getting to know us.

CANDIDATE: Thank you for the opportunity, and

I'm excited to meet each one of you.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. We will stand in

recess for 15 minutes.

(Break Taken.)�

Dr. Karen Whitney

ROUGH EDITED COPY



7:30 A.M. ET



[email protected]

COMMITTEE: All right, we need everybody at

the table, including Dr. Allen, Mr. Call, Mr.

Winton.

SPEAKER: This reminds me of the room I was in

to do my dissertation defense.

COMMITTEE: That's a bad thought.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: It worked out sooner or later.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Whitney, welcome to Florida

Gulf Coast University, or FGCU, as you will hear us

call it. Committee, I am pleased to introduce

Dr. Karen Whitney. Dr. Whitney is the president of

Clarion University in Pennsylvania. Our schedule

provides for 55 minutes of committee questions, and

then we're going to let you ask 15 minutes of

questions of us, so that ought to be fun. Ask T

questions. He really likes that. So, with that, I

think I'll get started, and I'll ask the first

question. Um, so, why Florida Gulf Coast

University? And why at this point in your career

do you want to be the president of our fine

institution?

CANDIDATE: Yes, sir. Thank you very much.

Um, let me say, I'm really glad to be here today.

It's an honor to be here. It's a lovely area. Let

me, um, I'm going to attempt to answer your

questions in economical fashion, because as most

groups like this, you probably have other questions

as well, and time is limited, so I am going to take

an approach to try to be very uncharacteristic as a

president and be brief.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: It's really hard for my people,

but I'm going to try to pull this off, all right?

So, um, why FGCU and why now and why me?

Opportunity, region, and I just, I'm so curious

about learning about this other phrase, the FGCU

effect, the team and the overall fit. Opportunity,

I'm very straight-forward, I’m a what you see is

what you get kind of person, and basically, the

simple answer is I'm intrigued at the idea of

taking everything that I've done in my 35-year

career in higher ed, because that's been my career,

it's been my life, it's been my purpose, taking it,

and particularly the last 6.5 years as a college

president and bringing it to FGCU and southwest

Florida and making a difference. Kind of a simple,

straight-forward thought here. The region, I love

the region. My aunt lived here in the 60s and 70s,

and I'd come and visit her as a kid. You know,

little old lady, retiring here to southwest

Florida, and over time, so I've been to Fort Myers,

Naples, Bonita Springs, and most recently, I have

to be honest, I've been here the last 6 and a half

years, secretly meeting with alumni and donors from

Clarion University who live in your community when

the weather's not so nice in Pennsylvania. So,

know the region, the reputation of your university

is nationally known, know the university. The FGCU

effect, and I might be wrong, and I'm learning, so

please consider me a learner, I am not an expert of

your university. So, I believe what it is, is

really trying to tell the story of the

transformative power that an outstanding college

experience can have on individuals and communities.

Now, if I'm anywhere near that, that fits my belief

on what it can do. I always tell a story, when I

talk to students at orientation, that a university

is a place that will help you decide what you want

your dream to be and help you prepare for it.

Those are my words. I think it fits really well to

the FGCU effect.

The other thing I'm learning about, and you've

got to love the Internet for a lot of reasons, but

a good reason is it's given me an opportunity to

read and to look at the FGCU team, the faculty, the

staff, the students, the alumni, community leaders,

such as yourselves, through the board, the

foundation board and the alumni board, you know,

who have given time, talent and treasure to FGCU.

Boy, a lot of stand-out people, just top-notch

people, who, and many of you in this room have

probably been here since this place was just dirt,

and you have a love, and you want to make something

of it, and that gets my attention. I've worked

previously at universities where I was older than

the university. When I was at University of Texas

in San Antonio, and there's a spirit to that, and

it's special. Now, I love where I am right now,

but we're about to celebrate our 150th anniversary,

there is nobody still alive who was there when it

started, and there's a difference in that. There's

a difference of place and context and history, and

I like that energy quite a bit. The fit, to me, it

boils down to, and I never want to get away from

this, and actually, I can ask, I'll be asking Tim

this question, because you said he gets the first

question at the end, I want to talk about --

COMMITTEE: T.

CANDIDATE: Oh, I'm sorry. My bad. My

apologies.

COMMITTEE: Now we want you to ask Tim,

because he's gotten nervous.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: Um, academic excellence. I hope

we can spend quite a bit of time on academic

excellence, what it means to you, giving me the

opportunity to talk about what it means to me, what

it looks like, but the fit for me that I think

might be here, again, I'm learning, is academic

excellence, a commitment to student success, again,

that's very basic, graduating, almost graduating

doesn't count, it just doesn't, so it's academic

success, student success and community engagement,

because this university isn't just anywhere, this

university is right here in southwest Florida, and

again, I've been also researching the area, this

region is exciting. This region, in the country,

people think it's sleeping, you guys are about to

take off, and I want to be here when you do.

That's the fit I'm talking about. Um, I also need

to say, because I don't want to be mistaken for

saying, well, all she does is talk about herself.

Presidents do have a habit of doing that, I know

many of my people that do. I'm going to

continuously bounce back and forth between terms

like I and we and teams. I mean, a president has

to take responsibility, but the way you get a job

done is you might provide the pathway, you might

provide the vision of we're here at point A, we

need to get to point Z, that's presidential, but,

really, it's a team of people that get there, and

if I start talking, like, gosh, does she talk about

anybody but herself? I really will do my best to

balance back and forth, but I want you to let you

know how much I believe in collaborations with the

faculty, who are the intellectual heart and soul of

the university, with the staff, who are the heroes

day in and day out of the university, and I'm

talking the heroes as the little old lady who

serves you turkey dinner in your residence hall,

all the way to, you know, a vice president.

Um, the students, who are the best brand

ambassadors in the world. Actually, the alumni are

the best brand ambassadors in the world, because

they've gone through that experience and they’ve

created that successful life. Students are the

next brand ambassador. They're all part of the

team when I talk about team. Let me close on this

question. I promise I won't take as much time on

the others, because we've got a lot to talk about

today, but I do want to say that as a current

president, I'm intrigued by this opportunity to

move to the larger stage. I bring a wealth of

experience and accomplishments, and, um, I hope

during the rest of our day together, we can get to

know each other a little bit more. At the same

time, and I want to put this out at the beginning,

and I'll talk about it any way you want, being a

current president, I've had to lead my university

right now through the best of times and the worst

of times. You probably already know this, if you

Googled me, but I've made decisions that have been

wonderful and joyful and terrific, and I've made

some of the toughest decisions of my life. I've

been able to launch academic programs, pivot the

university in whole new areas of service and

teaching and learning, and at the same time, as of

about two weeks ago, I got through a faculty

strike. I’ve had to make courageous decisions.

I've had a chance to hire and promote employees,

and I've been obligated to lay off employees and

have even added academic programs and eliminated

academic programs. Not surprisingly, I have fans,

and I have critics, and they all love Facebook, but

do you ever notice, your fans don't talk that much

about you on Facebook, but your critics do? That

probably doesn't happen in Florida.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: So, I wanted you to know this

about my work, because the thing that I've always,

there's a couple of things you can expect from me.

While I can't guarantee your satisfaction, I will

always guarantee your engagement, and I will

always, always work to never surprise the people I

work with. Those, I think, are really great things

to work with and that you can count on me from. By

the way, everybody in Clarion knows exactly where I

am right now and what I'm doing, so no surprises

there. That concludes my first question and

answer.

COMMITTEE: Thank you. Dr. Isern.

COMMITTEE: So, first question. Florida Gulf

Coast shared governance tradition brings together

faculty, staff and students. Furthermore,

enhancing diversity is a high priority. We would


especially in the role of a president, and if you

could please, um, tell us about a time you adapted

your style to work effectively with those who were

different from you.

CANDIDATE: Sure. The first thing that comes

in my thoughts and my beliefs on shared governance

is, actually, I'd rather use the phrase shared

responsibility. I often have to explain to people,

because sometimes, people think shared governance

is, um, shared authority, and there is not really

shared authority, because, ultimately, the

president and the administration has the fiduciary

responsibility for the institution, they're held

legally liable for the institution, you know,

students aren't, faculty can't, shouldn't be, so

it's a real, shared governance, to me, is a,

there's a formal framework that ensures, um, a

shared experience of advising those who have

responsibilities. Like, for example, the idea of a

faculty senate or caucus or some, a university

assembly of all constituencies, those are really

good, healthy, um, vehicles to ensure a continuous

and timely engagement on topics of importance to

the institution and in ensuring a dialogue, and I

think there are formal and informal, and I work in

both realms. Um, we are an industry of

relationships, and, so, everything from, every

year, I ensure, um, that I, I try to take to lunch

all the faculty, not at the same time, but in

groups of three and four, a couple times a week,

and we talk, and there's no, they bring the agenda,

I don't. Well, that's a type of engagement, that's

a type of advice, and so if I just came out of a

meeting on something, I'll say, what do you think

about this? That's a type of, I would call shared

responsibility. There's formal things, again, like

I said, we call them assemblies or senates in a

collective bargaining environment, you would call

it a meet and discuss or collective, a union, so I

think the idea, it's a framework of a system

whereby people give, um, advice.

Now, if, again, usually, in a union

environment, there's been a negotiation of

authorities, so maybe it's not, maybe that's what

it is, it's a negotiation, but the classic form is

advice and perspective-giving to those who have the

formal authority or responsibility, and a good

leader, if they're smart, will take as much of the

advice as they can, even if they don't first agree

with it, and there are many times that I went into

a meeting thinking one thing, but after listening

and listening hard, I came away better informed and

made a different decision, and that's courageous

leadership, willing to admit when, I'm the first to

admit when I'm wrong, my mom kind of got me going

on that one, and I'm quick to want to ask people

lots of hard questions, but I can be convinced.

It's open-mindedness. I hope I'm answering your

question. Your also then, can you repeat the

section on diversity?

COMMITTEE: Diversity is very important to

FGCU. If you could please tell us of a time that

you, um, tried to convince somebody or talked to

somebody who was different from you and what style

did you use, if their style was different from

yours.

CANDIDATE: Um, that's, thanks. A classic

one, and you may have already caught on to this,

but I'm a bit of an extrovert, and I can be very

chatty in meetings, and one of the things I

learned, once I began running meetings, not just

sitting in them, is not everybody is like me, and

what I observed is, oftentimes, the, um, introverts

had really great ideas, and maybe some of you all

are in this room, but you guys needed some extra

time to get there, you needed a pathway and I

learned that when, at one point, somebody told me

early in my career, why don't you ever make sure I

have the time to talk, and I thought, well, we were

talking about that 10 minutes ago, where were you,

you know, but some people process, and they talk,

and they need the time, so I've incorporated in my

leadership style an understanding that when we go

around and we're talking in a meeting, I always

make sure that every person in the room, if they

don't do what I usually do, that I ask them their

thoughts on an important topic. I had an executive

staff meeting yesterday morning on some very

important topics and very sensitive issues, and

there were three people that were very quiet, and

it was very helpful that I stopped before going to

the next item and said, Sam, what do you think, and

Marilyn, what do you think, and it was very

important to the discussion. So, that's, I mean, I

hope that's getting to the point of diversity of

engagement and styles and how I acknowledge that

and incorporate that into the way I run meetings.

We live by meetings, you guys. Meetings, e-mails,

get-togethers, and I'm a real nerd and a numbers

person, once a year, there are about four groups

that I lead that are really critical to the

university's success, and once a year, I actually

do a survey on how do you like your meeting, how do

you like the way we run the meetings, and I try to

get feedback, and then I incorporate that, because

we've all had to sit, maybe you haven't, but I've

sat through meetings with chancellors and

presidents, and I could have given them an earful

on how they could run their meeting better, but if

they didn't ask, I wasn't going to tell them, so

about once a year in the summer I do that, and it's

made our meetings more effective.

COMMITTEE: I think we've also had some recent

incidents on campus, I don't know if you've heard

about those.

CANDIDATE: Oh, yes, you want to do that right

now? We can do that.

COMMITTEE: Sure.

CANDIDATE: I've been a chief diversity

officer of a major university, it's very much at a

core of who I am, my entire life, you can see it, I

am an out lesbian, I champion safe spaces and

places where students, well, actually, let's be

really honest; I want a university that each of us

can be and do our very best, and to me, that's my

fundamental view on diversity. I mean, we can

break it down, we can talk about demographic

diversity, we can talk about institutional

diversity, we can talk about inclusion, I can

outline in great detail assessment plans to know

the extent to which the campus climate is or isn't

doing this, but I never want to forget that really,

it's a commitment to ensuring that each of us,

student, employee, alumni, community member, can do

their best at the university, be and do their best.

I'm fully aware of what you've had to go through,

and I will be candid with you about it, I've

actually, I used the first incident as a teaching

tool, because once a month, I have, um, a tabletop

exercise on critical incidents with my executive

team, and we actually used the white board thing as

a critical incident, so thank you. We walked

through it with the police, we walked through it

with best steps. I'm big on planning, on planning,

preparedness, response and recovery, and planning

and planning and planning, whether it's an ice

storm, a natural disaster, or quite frankly, I'll

respectfully say this, what is a human disaster,

and, so, we've used it to plan, because I've been

watching this, and my heart breaks, because I do

have some thoughts on what I think I'm seeing. I

can tell you, and what you probably most want to

know is what would be the role of a president, if I

were the president, and I was at a university that

I believe is going through or has had happened what

you're going through. Would you like to know what

I would do?

COMMITTEE: Yes.

CANDIDATE: Okay. Um, again, the first thing

you try to do is plan for these things before they

happen. It's really hard to do your best work once

it's already hit the fan. So, if you haven't

planned ahead of time on, again, planning,

preparedness, response and recovery, I mean, you

guys, first of all, you did an outstanding plan on

the hurricane thing. I know that, because I came

over and did a secret shopper and visited the

university and the community the day after you all

closed for a couple days, and again, I'm

meticulous, I wasn't going to put my credentials in

if I didn't do my own planning, so I was impressed

that you planned for a hurricane. I want to be

very respectful here, I don't want to offend

anybody; I don't think you planned for the series

of hate incidents that you've experienced in the

same way you planned for a hurricane. That would

be my first consulting tip that I'll give you for

free. I think, so, a lot of that is getting

trained up. The president has to be the first one

out. The president sets the tone for the campus

culture. The president's the one that everyone

tees off of and figures out, will I get rewarded or

will I get hurt for this, and I'm talking about

students, faculty, staff and the community, and

you've got to be willing to get out there in front

of it, although a president should only get out in

front of stuff that they've already cleared with

the board. That's that coordinating with the

board, and that agreement on how far do you get out

in front. I would have to at least get out in

front enough to be very clear that there is no

place for hate at FGCU, we'd even have a hash tag

prepared, we would have people on-site, we would

understand what the role of police are, what the

role of the dean of students, what everybody's role

is.

The faculty would have had some engagement, on

when you see certain things, or employees, see

certain things, say certain things. Key students,

I meet with key student leaders every year

throughout the year, and we talk about these

things. Every year, for the last two and a half

years, we've had panel discussions on race and law

enforcement. The students will know my position

before there's an incident, so when there is an

incident, they won't be surprised by what I do.

See, no surprises? I could go on, but I'm very

sympathetic, what you're experiencing is being

experienced throughout the whole country, and it's

really set a lot of my colleagues on their head,

and you got to understand, a lot of presidents

spent more time in labs and doing research and

doing, and discovering inquiry, I've spent a lot of

my time in this arena, dealing with students and

crisis, and it's tough, talking about race, talking

about homo phobia and hate, there's a lot of really

great and smart people that aren't equipped to do

that, and it's terrifying, and it's easy not to do

it. My view is a public university must stand

strong and actually be a standard bear in the

community on these issues.


COMMITTEE: Mr. Winton.

COMMITTEE: I just want to follow-up on

something. You said you think you know what we're

going through.

CANDIDATE: Well, only because, I qualified

it, and I'm going to qualify a lot of the things

because I'm learning. Yes, sir.

COMMITTEE: What is that?

CANDIDATE: What are you going through? Well,

I'd really love to spend 10 minutes with your chief

of police. Let me put it to you this way. Um,

people who express themselves in the way, with

white boards or etching vandalism on someone's car,

you have, you could have simply one to two people

who are hateful cowards, and there's two things,

there's the incident itself, then there's the

institution and the individuals in the institution

reacting to the incidents, and it's possible you

may just have one hateful maladjusted individual

who's turned the institution on its head. I don't

know if that's an answer to your question or not.

COMMITTEE: That's fine, I don't want to dwell

on it.

COMMITTEE: Trustee Elneus.

COMMITTEE: You mentioned, um, meeting with

students and talking through certain situations.

Can you give a more specific example of situations

that you've ran through with students and how that

one taught you as a leader and how that enabled you

to further process certain situations and further

expand that information to your team, to enhance

that overall student experience on the different

universities that you've served?

CANDIDATE: Sure. I learn, well, I learn from

everybody all the time. I'm pretty nosy, and I ask

questions all the time, I ask people how are they

doing, I'm the kind of person that if I don't have

plans for lunch, I'll go to wherever students are

dining and, my favorite thing is I'll walk up to

someone and say can I have lunch, and they give me

the goofiest look, and I just sit down, and we have

a sandwich, and I ask, do you go to class, and

how's it going, and it is amazing where you can go

with those questions, and learning about everything

from personal challenges in someone's life that

might be challenging them from doing their best, to

who their favorite faculty are or who maybe their,

um, not so favorite faculty are, and I learn from

that. Um, so, in large and small ways, I try to

keep, on a regular basis, in tune with the pulse of

the students. I have to do it in a more formal

way, like scheduling, have lunches scheduled with

faculty, the serendipity doesn't work as well, so I

structure it in. Again, I'm a nerd. Actually, I

have a chart, a constituent chart, of all kinds of

people, students, faculty, staff, alumni, you guys,

and actually, I think about ahead of time, how

often do I want to make contact, and then I have it

on my desk and try to run it every day, but I learn

from everybody. Your question almost implies have

I had an epiphany or a major life-changing thing,

is that what you mean, or in any way?

COMMITTEE: Any way.

CANDIDATE: Okay, because most of the things I

learn are little things, but little things can make

a difference. Actually, a lot of times, I'm just

trying to confirm are we having the impact on the

student that we hope to. The worst thing a

president can do is not be accurately informed. I

can give you one. Last night, we had a trustee

meeting till 9:00 o'clock last night, and we always

bring, we have a tradition, we bring students into

the trustee meeting, and they give a presentation

on some aspects of their college experience. It's

a great event. Trustees love it, it's a lot of

fun. Last night, we're really big on high impact

educational practices, which includes internships

and work and study abroad, undergraduate research.

In this case, um, we had a group of students, 9 or

10 of them went to the Democratic national

convention and about 9 or 10 went to the Republican

national convention through an internship, and we

had someone who went to the RNC and DNC, and they

spoke last night about their experience, and I

learned so much. Have any of you guys been to a

national convention? First of all, I was jealous,

and the student was surprised that I was jealous of

them, but I'm that way. I'm very, you know, I was

so proud of her, because this woman is 21 years old

from a small rural town in Pennsylvania, she went

to the RNC, she was so poised and so thoughtful

about this lifetime experience, and, you know, I

was asking her questions, and she got to have her

picture taken and work with, they all had to also

work through the convention, so I learned from that

last night. What I learned is no matter who you

are, if you put somebody in a position, a situation

to rise above, they will. They will exceed

expectations, and now she's jazzed up, she's

changed her major, she's thinking about law school,

she's thinking about politics, and that's what I

learned last night, and tomorrow, I'll learn

something else.


COMMITTEE: I wanted to go back to what you

were talking about, sort of a crisis management,

planning and being ready before the crisis hits,

but I'd like to hear how that played out in the

faculty strike, because there was so much in the

news. How did preparation for that, or was there

preparation for that, and how did you work your way

through that?

CANDIDATE: You have to understand, my

academic area is higher education, administration,

my specialty is finance and economics, but again,

what we did was case study work. I apologize, I'm

going to brag about a team of people, we started

planning in August, what you have to understand, we

were planning extensively for something we hoped

wouldn't happen, and we planned, and I could not be

more proud of the outcomes and results of what was

a historically difficult moment. It was horrible.

Never want to go through it again. Hate it.

Terrible. Terrible. However, we set certain

objectives in August, we began planning in a timely

way, we executed the plan, and it met every

objective we intended. Our number one objective

was, because the way this works there, I have

nothing to do with the labor negotiations, it's

done at the system level, Clarion is one of 14

schools in a system, so I knew I wasn't going to be

dealing with negotiations. I dealt with the

orderly running of a university and the health and

safety of thousands of students. That was my,

actually, my number one goal is to not lose one

student because of an employee and employer issue.

You know, it was the unknown, it was unprecedented,

and we achieved, no one got hurt, no one behaved,

because, I mean, well, you guys don't have this,

you know what snow days are? All right, it was

going to be like a big spring break, okay, and that

would have been terrible. We kept students

focused, we had activities, nobody got hurt, nobody

got off-track, nobody left, we met our objective.

Furthermore, we were able to enjoy the best labor

relations post the strike of any of the other

universities. I hope I'm answering your question,

but I'm a big believer that if you plan enough and

people know you're planning and they're confident

and clear in what they're doing, that you have a

better chance of being successful.


CANDIDATE: Sure, and I don't want to do it

again.

(Laughing.)


COMMITTEE: Hi. Could you, um, explain for us

how you work with the Pennsylvania legislature and

successes and failures you've had and how you go

about working with the legislature.

CANDIDATE: Sure. Um, I've worked with

legislatures in Texas, Indiana and Pennsylvania in

my different capacities. Early in my career, I was

responsible for, um, public/private partnerships in

financing of housing and student facilities, and,

so, I mean, that's not as sexy as what you're

talking about, but that was my first dealing with

legislation and a capitol. I've also always worked

with, um, delegations of alumni and students in

particular to periodically directly engage law-

makers in the wonderful annual ritual of trying to

secure additional state appropriations. Um, kind

of a forced march of the penguins or whatever, I

mean, into the capitol, to try to, um, do that.

Um, I've also worked with, um, the current

chancellor, and I've worked with previous systems

on legislation for what I call ease of operations

or modernizing of operations, you know, whether

it's academic policy or procurement or things like

that. So, it's been around securing additional

funds, improving any kind of regulatory oversight

of the university or the system, and then specialty

stuff. Um, generally, I have no idea if I've been

successful, because you have to understand, I do

get frustrated at the national extent, this isn't

just Florida, of the underfunding of public higher

ed, so I just have to put that out there, I get

distracted by that, because I just firmly believe

that the states' investment in a college student to

complete is just the best investment in the world

you can make given the return on increased taxes

and earnings and civic engagement and all that good

stuff, but that aside, um, I mean, I think I've

been reasonably successful. I give testimony, I've

given testimony, both at house and senate meetings

many times, I've been asked to explain higher

education funding, everything from students to

alumni groups to community groups, not just being a

president, but my, um, my research is in higher ed

finance and the states financing, trying to break

that down.

Um, you know, I'm not as successful as I want

to be, but I think I'm probably being hard on

myself, because I'm as successful as anybody else

has been. Pennsylvania's been tough. It got,

in 2011, 22 percent cut in state funding in one

year, and we recovered 5 percent one year and

3.5 percent another year in my time as president,

and that was hard lobbying work. That was hard

advocacy work, to get the increases. I have

excellent relationships with, um, the state reps

and senators in the region that I most work in.

I've also cut across the aisle, Pennsylvania's a

long state, so, on the eastern side of the state,

based on certain policy issues, one of the things

I'm very proud of is we've pivoted the university

to be a leading university in health professions,

so I've gotten to know elected officials who have

particular interest in that area. I've also, um, I

think counties are very important, and I have

excellent relationships with county-elected

officials and the local town-elected officials.

COMMITTEE: Our legislature are partners with

the Board of Governors on paper performance. Have

you had experience with that?

CANDIDATE: Yeah, Pennsylvania led the way, I

could be wrong, I can't remember if Pennsylvania

stole the idea from Florida or Florida stole it

from Pennsylvania, I think you guys may have stolen

some of that from Pennsylvania. Um, performance

funding is fine. Again, being a numbers metric

person, I appreciate it, I understand it. It

actually gives, I'm not afraid of it, I've got

colleagues that are terrified of it and run out of

the room screaming. Um, it has to be used in a

balanced, thoughtful way, in my opinion. The

devil's in the details. It's about, um,

understanding what you're trying to do and the fact

that metrics and data should be used to get there.

If you're really great and you're doing exactly

what you desire to do, then the numbers sing for

you. If you're not, then the numbers can give you

insight on, um, what's the broken window, you know,

what's the smallest thing you can work on to have

the biggest impact. I also don't mind a certain

amount of funding being connected to performance.

I do worry, again, this is my academic hat on, I do

worry about how much could be actually detrimental

because of the tendency to have a volatile nature

on performance funding, you get good years and bad

years and good years, but, um, a vast majority of

any university's budget is payroll, and that

doesn't go like that, so I worry about, it's a

ratio issue. I do think it can be very

incentivizing to help people focus, have a common

vocabulary, and let's be really clear, I like

football, so you can know if you won or not

COMMITTEE: Are you familiar with our

particular metrics?

CANDIDATE: Yes, I've looked at them briefly.

I've also looked at some of the other institutions

as well, because I was curious to see, you guys are

almost using this as kind of like a ranking thing,

and that's unique, and I'm not sure how I feel

about that. I just need to talk through on that,

but, yes, I've looked at them. I particularly try

to understand, um, the categorization that seems to

be evolving. I mean, I think this is also very

much evolving still. My interest would be talking

to the board and the community leaders about what

the overall interest and goals for this institution

are, and then look at the establishment. The

metrics seem generally all right, although the

devil's in the formula. You can have something

that sounds good, like, well, we want enrollment

growth, but then what's the formula on that? And

to what extent can a university affect those items?

But that's what you use a president for, to dig

into that, to understand all of that.

COMMITTEE: I imagine there will be a

follow-up from the chair.

COMMITTEE: Yeah. So, there is no gray area

in our metrics. The only way you'll get more money

at this university is to perform. Unfortunately,

that hasn't been our history. We did have a spike

two years ago, I guess, in our graduation rate, but

if you look over a ten-year history, we're actually

right where we started.

CANDIDATE: There was one year you guys popped

up, and I really wanted to know what happened that

year.

COMMITTEE: Retention probably drives that as

much as anything, and, so, but, so, the question,

so, I appreciate what you're saying, but our cold,

hard reality in Florida, not just at FGCU, but in

the SUS system is, um, we have to perform.

CANDIDATE: It's the only pathway to

additional funding?

COMMITTEE: It is the only pathway, and in

fact, if you don't perform, you lose the previous

two years in percentages, so not only is it the

pathway to funding it is also the pathway to make

sure you don't give your money back.

CANDIDATE: Yeah.

COMMITTEE: Which we're about to learn more

about, I'm afraid, but with that said, um,

graduation rate, and I know you, in the academic

world, like six-year, but I want to talk about

four-year graduation rate, because that's the only

thing, for a lot of students, that should be, when

we call them four-year degrees, we ought to get out

in four years, but given all that, our graduation

rates are not good, by any measure, nationally, in

the state, you just figure out where you want to

compare us to, and we're not as good as yours are,

from what I can tell. So, the question is, you

come in, you're the new president, what do you do

immediately to start attacking four-year graduation

rates? Because if we fix four-year graduation

rate, things like cost of degree, excess hours,

those all will fall in line. So, what do you do as

the new president of FGCU to make that change

quickly?

CANDIDATE: Well, I can tell you right now,

the first thing that would make it the quickest,

but then it'll cascade into a conflict with

possibly some other interests, so let me just tell

you what I think, and it may completely butt heads

with other institutional interests, but you asked

me a direct question. The fastest way to increase

your retention rate is to understand who does

graduate here and understand who does not graduate

here, and then, again, if I was going to be very

brutal and efficient, and I'm using words that I

have a lot of issues with, but, um, you asked, I

would analyze who graduates, and I would reset the

shape of the enrollment entrance requirements to

that formula, but that probably collides to issues

of equity, diversity, access, opportunity.

COMMITTEE: It does.

CANDIDATE: And, so, I think the key is to

clearly understand and for the institution, so,

faculty, staff, students, alumni, the community to

understand who's graduating and what are their

incoming profiles, and who's failing and their

incoming profiles, and then the big ethical

question is, and this is where faculty, where

governance comes in in a huge way, to your

question, is, um, let's get our arms around that

and find an operable, maybe not even middle ground,

but close enough that gets us to an increase. Now,

there's a lot of other things. We've had a lot of

success on intrusion. I'm pretty straight-forward.

The biggest loss and the most expensive anything is

a failure to complete your degree, and while I am

a, I love students and I love hugging them, and I

have a student development background, I am all

about if we accept you, we're going to work the

heck out of you to graduate until you run out of

here screaming and on your own. So, intrusive

advising, data analytics for advising, assigning, I

mean, quite frankly, college athletics has it these

days after about 30 years of trying to get it

right. They put a coach on a player, they're

studying, they're not letting go till they get it.

Um, that's why your athletes have a better GPA, I

believe, than the overall student body. So, again,

the question I will point out here, because it is

institution-specific, there's no silver bullet,

there's no one thing that hits all of the country,

if it was, I'd find it out and patent it and be

really rich, what works here, and, so, what works

here, and then you do that. The kind of changes

I've made before is there was a correlation between

bad student debt and, um, bad behavior and failing.

We dealt with that population of students. If you

owed so much money, you had to stop till you got

your life back together.

We also required students to live in housing.

I'm not saying that should happen here, you don't

do that now, that's not what matters, but we

required freshmen and sophomores to live on campus,

because we did a study and analyzed those who lived

on campus did better than not. I'm showing you a

mindset. The thing you have to do is put the

students' graduation above everything else and cut

to that like a knife. The other thing that's

actually hard for my people to do, and not just

presidents, but everyone who works in higher ed, is

to admit when something isn't working and stop it.

We're good at addition, we're terrible at

subtraction, and one of the hardest things I have

to do to show people data to say your program's not

working, whether it's your academic program isn't

something the students want, or the service you're

providing isn't correlating to success, but you

have to do that on a, if you do that regularly

enough, then it's okay. I don't know if you guys

do that, I didn't see any reports on that, and

you've been, you're so young and running toward

growth so much, that I bet, I have to ask myself,

when was the last time there was a real deep dive

on what I'll call impact and effectiveness? I hope

I'm answering your questions.

COMMITTEE: You are.

CANDIDATE: But, difficult.

COMMITTEE: I agree.

CANDIDATE: The other thing is certain fields

lend themselves to tougher retention, and you have

picked some fields that are right, but engineering,

certain business, certain other things, you've got

to put a lot more into it.

COMMITTEE: Are you guys, are you currently

using, or did you implement analytics into this

whole --

CANDIDATE: Yes. We were behind in 2010, and

we're leading the system now.

COMMITTEE: Okay. Vice chair Roepstorff.

COMMITTEE: A follow-up question. How would

you as president and your Board of Trustees know

that the data you're provided is the right data to

get to the root of the problem? You know, because

everybody, it's human nature, you get defensive of

your areas, you don't want to show the bad, and you

think you're getting the right data, and then the

results still don't come. How do you control that?

CANDIDATE: Well, in my family, we play a game

in the holidays called fact or crap. Have you ever

heard of that game?

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: And, um, that's one of the things,

sorry, it came to my mind. I'll get there in a

minute. Um, the reason why you have a president

and the reason why you have vice presidents and the

reason why, and I don't know if this is an office

of institutional research, is so that you can

expect that you're given legitimate information,

relevant, best practice information. Um, you know,

you should expect your president and all your

executive officers to be at the top of their

profession. Three weeks ago, I was just elected to

serve on the board of the Association for American

State College and Universities. I'm leading an

institute in March of one of the leading student

affairs organizations to help people become really

good vice presidents of student affairs. I'm not

bragging, I'm just giving you some evidence of how

I try to be at the top of my game so I can explain

to you is this fact or crap. I mean, is this

really relevant information that we should base

policy on, that we should spend money on? It's

about having people who show that they're keeping

current, that they're engaged, they either do

research or know it in their areas of expertise,

they read about it, they're honing their critical

skills. The other way you hedge against bad

information is by teams of people looking at it and

vetting it, and then also, um, testing it against,

again, in this case, let's say freshmen retention,

freshmen to sophomore retention, so I think it's

being very rigorous with the data. The hardest

thing to know is what is data, there's an old thing

in stats, what's causation and what's correlation,

and oftentimes, behavior, we're not, um, you know,

chemicals, you know, you can't really know

causation, you can know correlation, you can know,

well, if we do intrusive advising with this data

analytics, we see an increase. Did it cause it?

It occurred at the same time, you know, and, so,

you kind of tease these things out and test and

retest. That's the key here, and that as you make

policies, um, I'm a stickler on evidence-based

decision-making.

Again, within, understanding culture and

strategy, the fellow who said culture eats strategy

for breakfast, so I learned, I used to just be

about the data, oh, I have these numbers, so I have

the answer, you have to understand then the culture

that you're trying to achieve in. Um, you know,

so, something that works at my current institution

may be a disaster at FGCU, but it is a lot of hard

work. I also think a president should try to set a

tone of people telling the truth, that, you know,

and I think if you try data you think is right and

you make decisions, and as soon as you think it's

failing, people should have the confidence to know

it's okay to say we're failing, and you won't be

punished. Now, I have no idea that that's here,

but you asked the question about data. A board

does rely on a president, and that's probably the

biggest trust, whether it's audited financials,

which I presented last night to the trustees at

Clarion, you know, um, there's a trust issue,

whether it's audited financials, operation audits,

or the latest information on retention. It's all

the same thing.

COMMITTEE: I want to follow-up real quick,

not to intervene with everybody, but I want to go

back to Dr. Isern's question, because I still want

to know more about shared governance, because I'm

not, I wasn't clear on your view, and I go back to

my academic days, and I think about the faculty,

and I know that's a big topic, but I didn't leave

warm and fuzzy, I wasn't sure I understood your

view on shared governance, and I don't know,

Sharon, where you were, but I still, I'd like to

know a little bit more about what you think about

the shared governance model, because at FGCU, it is

a big part of the culture of this university and

how we make decisions, so I'd like to hear you talk

more about that.

CANDIDATE: I apologize.

COMMITTEE: No, I didn't get to where I was

totally comfortable, and I'm doing this because I

know the faculty, this is something that's

important, so I want to make sure you get the

opportunity to discuss that.

CANDIDATE: Absolutely. Let me be very clear.

Um, you know, being a CEO of a university, you're

actually chief engagement officer, and it's

constituencies, multiple, multiple constituencies.

In this case, to governance, you're talking

faculty, students, alumni, and depending on, and I

believe in this case, in faculty, there's also a

union. Is there a union for other groups beyond

faculty? Okay, that's what I thought. Okay, these

are all roles that have been formalized into the

organizational culture of FGCU. They're known. As

president, um, it is extremely important, again,

and in some of these, I know the union, it's by

legal contract, all of the constituents may

actually have, by statute or by board policy, very

specific ways and expectations for engagement, so I

start there of what we've got to do, and as

president, I want to make sure you absolutely fully

meet the spirit and intent of that and more. I'll

give you an example. Um, the strike that we had

lasted Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, gave a little

cooling off period until about mid-day on Saturday,

I e-mailed the president of the faculty union. It

was tough, it was very emotional, and I said, in

our recovery plan, I knew this, I want to reach out

to you, how are you doing, and we're friends, we

know each other, we've worked together for years.

I said can I invite you over to my home with you

and your leadership and me and my leadership, and

can we begin to find this new way to work together.

That's governance too. So, governance is about all

the formal things, about engaging people in all the

prescribed and expected ways of task force

committees, assemblies and such, and it's also the

commitment of knowing when to reach out, so that we

can work together and find a way forward.

COMMITTEE: That's good.

CANDIDATE: But I think, you know, there are

classic battles between faculty and presidents,

that's why I'm very upfront, I guarantee

engagement, I can't guarantee satisfaction, I can't

guarantee that as president, that everybody will be

happy. We may have a decision that is a tough one,

and some people will be happy, but I can guarantee

involvement and being listened to and everything

everyone has to say to be considered. I think

that's the spirit of governance.


COMMITTEE: Wonderful. I'm going to maybe

combine a couple questions, but all of it around

community, and since I'm the chair of the

foundation around fundraising and that type of

thing, so I think my question would be, we've

reached a level in fundraising, we know we have to

continue that, how do you, and as a president, you

do this, so I think more specifically is what have

you done in your current position to engage the

communities, as well as donors, and how do you go

about fundraising.

CANDIDATE: Sure. Um, well, I mean, there is,

and you know better than I, there's an art and

science to fundraising. I've worked for decades to

verse myself in the science at different levels,

whether dean, president or vice president. Um, the

art of it, I believe gets down to a couple of key

things. One is relationships, friend-raising,

authenticity. As a president, giving a clear

message about, um, the kinds of things that we're

working on that philanthropy could be critical to

the success and future of the institution. Um, I,

you know, we're in the middle of a campaign, we're

about 60 percent through, and we'll hit the

campaign, it's going well, I mean, it's a small

campaign, but for who we are and where we're going,

it's what we knew we could achieve. So, I'm used

to annual ongoing efforts and campaign efforts.

So, there is the whole individual, corporate and

foundation fundraising. Also, um, you know, beyond

your world, there's, I believe it'll be beyond your

world, there's contracts, there's private/public

partnerships, and there's also commercializing

intellectual property of our students and our

faculty, alumni and students. So, the world of

fundraising or acquiring of funds has become very

complex, and depending on the institution, there

are many roads one could go down, although all of

them must be done thoughtfully. Um, there's also,

yeah, so, I think, and I can answer any specific

questions, I have no problem sitting across the

table, and my general style, but again, I would

have to fit it with what is successful here, again,

I'm results-oriented, what works here, like your

give day, I want to know all about give day. I

read about that, I said that was cool, but, you

know, generally speaking, a president might, with a

major donor, it helps with the initial contact to

really submit how important that person and their

interests are to the institution, and then they

come in and work with the in-part on moving, you

know, working with and thanking donors, and if

there's an infrastructure for what I will call the

important middle stuff, you know, but again, it

depends on what has been successful here, it

depends on the role of the foundation.

Also, what I couldn't tell was the fundraising

infrastructure outside of the foundation, if there

is any. I'm afraid I couldn't understand that.

So, there's a lot of variables there that would

guide me. I think what I can tell you is I have no

problem in being a champion, because the president

should be the first cheerleader of being very

upfront about how fundraising and external funding

can make the difference and then putting in quite a

bit of time to being part of that machinery. Quite

a bit of time. Of course, I call it friend-raising

and fundraising. I also consider the advocacy and

lobbying in Tallahassee to be part of

friend-raising and fundraising, because for most

universities, really, still, the greatest revenue

source is every successful student and the tuition

and fees that they bring in. Does that help?

Okay, thanks.

COMMITTEE: Don't make me call on you.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Thank you, Dr. Allen, for

volunteering.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: You have no respect, do you sir?

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: The next president will join FGCU

after it has finalized its strategic plan. Um, can

you describe your experience with either leading a

strategic plan, implementing the plan and using the

plan as a decision tool?

CANDIDATE: Sure. Now, what I thought, if I

read that right, feel free to correct me, because,

you know, I often can miss things, you've already,

um, determined the mission, vision and the four

pillars. Has the entire plan been completed in

terms of actions and tasks and timelines?

COMMITTEE: Well, so, the plan has been

completed. The administration is working with the

deans to get an implementation plan, or an

operation plan, so it's been approved by the Board

of Trustees, but we're kind of in that phase of the

administration now working it down through to the

colleges.

CANDIDATE: Okay. First of all, from what

I've seen in the mission, vision and pillars, I

wouldn't be here if I didn't see myself leading

them. I'd be wasting your time and mine. Um, so,

I don't know about the rest of it, although my view

on planning to be successful, it's more, it's a

plan, which means as you go and as we succeed, you

learn from that and should update it, as you fail

or are disappointed, you should adjust, and, so,

it's a dynamic plan, in my view of planning. In

fact, the worst thing is the plan that is so

steadfast that it ends up being put in a notebook

on your shelf and you don't ever look at it until

you have to make the next plan, which that's

happened before in my life previously. Probably

never to anybody here. Um, so, it's a dynamic

document, it's one that's looked at regularly. I

pull, I actually keep the abbreviated version on

myself, and I report on progress at every trustee

meeting on key elements. The idea that it has to

be part of daily living for a lot of people and

monitoring, or it gets old, and it's an artifact.

Does that make, now, I think, particularly, given

our earlier conversation about key performance

indicators and performance and performance funding,

the plan becomes excruciatingly important, I would

think, because, um, you know, if you're going to

hit those performance indicators, you've got to

have a plan, and it would probably be wise just to

have one plan, not lots of plans. Am I hitting, is

there anything else you'd like me to answer on

that?

COMMITTEE: No. Thank you.

COMMITTEE: I think what I'm going to do,

because we're within 2 minutes of when I would have

normally flipped it around and let you ask us

questions, I'm going to go ahead and thank you for

responding to our questions, but now we're going to

give you the floor, and you're going to get 2 more

minutes than what we had planned, but I'm getting

the sense you have lots of questions for us, so I

think I want to give you the opportunity to ask

what you want to know from us.

CANDIDATE: Well, I always bring more than I

need, because I never know where we're going to go,

and I have a fun one, and, look, you guys, it's

Friday afternoon, you've worked really hard, I want

to end on a fun question.

CANDIDATE: If you tell us you're a genie like

the last one and you ask our student government

president what he wants and he doesn't say beer

after 5:00, he’s done.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: I want to talk about academics,

because I think that's the core of why we exist.

So, my question is what, in your opinion, what does

FGCU do best academically? I mean, I've read

stuff, but I want to hear it from you guys.

COMMITTEE: Dr. Isern, from a faculty

perspective, I'll start with Dr. Isern, or would

you like me to go to Dr. Allen?

COMMITTEE: She's all good.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: All right, so, I'm in the College

of Arts and Sciences, I'd like to say, I mean, I

don't know how you mean, like, if you could maybe

rephrase the question or focus it in some way,

because I'm biased.

CANDIDATE: I purposefully tried to use very

large language to not lead the question. You know,

for example, again, I'm nosy, I've already met two

of your students here since I hit ground this

morning at 9:45. I met Ashley, who works at the

Marriott, and she's studying in, not surprising the

hotel and resort management degree, and then I met

Marina, because I went to the steak and seafood

place, and she was my server, and she is undecided,

and, so, but I can tell you, I said, so, what do

you like best about your academic experience at

FGCU? First thing they said, faculty are going to

like this, not surprising, I love my faculty.

Okay, I was pushy. What do you love about them?

They know my name, they care about me, they've

given me the attention I need to be successful.

Okay, what you all don't know is that is not

everywhere. That's a lot of places, but it's not

everywhere. Both of them said that, and, so,

that's what I learned with that question. Two

different women, bright, capable, I'll be curious

to see where they go in life, but that was their

story when I asked about that. This idea of doing

best gets back to performance, so that's why I

asked the question, what do we do best. You could

go back and say, well, academically, what's FGCU

most noted for or known for regionally, but I

really didn't want to lead you, but I just did.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Okay, fair enough. Um, I think a

lot of what we do well is what we do beyond the

classroom. So, we take our students, we give them

a rigorous curriculum, and they succeed in our

coursework, but I think that what we're doing very

well and it's how we prepare them for their next

level. So, for example, in my experience, I both

teach and run a research laboratory, I have many

students that go through my research laboratory,

and they end up getting placed in and graduating

from school med schools, vet schools, so I feel

like I'm preparing them for the next steps. So,

they go to their graduate places or professional

schools, and a lot of people still don't know about

FGCU, but when our students finish and they're top

ranked and first in their class in medical school,

they take a second look at FGCU. So, how we

prepare them, I think that's one of the things that

our faculty can offer beyond the classroom.

CANDIDATE: Thank you. That's very helpful.


COMMITTEE: About all I'll do is concur with

what Dr. Isern said. I think one of the hallmarks

of this institution are those, um, intimate

faculty/student interactions. Sharon talked about

sort of, um, in addition to what happens in the

classroom, but I want to talk also about what does

happen in the classroom and teaching laboratory and

that sort of thing. Um, we don't have amphitheater

seating style classrooms, we have an awful lot of

emphasis on active learning, teaching types of

approaches, and I think students appreciate that

and learn more deeply because of that. So, um,

this is a self-selecting group, the faculty who

come here, and we could parade lots more in front

of you. They come here for a reason. They want a

balance between scholarship and teaching, and

teaching is important to them, and again, that's a

cliché, a lot of places say this sort of thing, but

I've seen it lived out here very effectively.

>> CANDIDATE: Thank you. Okay, well, you

mentioned research, and I think one aspect of going

to a merging status, um, what impact has or do you

hope faculty research would have on students in the

community? I apologize if that's obvious, but I

just needed to hear it. I mean, I've read stuff,

but I'd like to hear it from anyone here.


COMMITTEE: Well, all of our faculty, we do

have a set of faculty called instructors, who are

much less engaged in scholarship, but the majority

are what we call ranked faculty, who do have

scholarly requirements for promotion and take that

very seriously. Most of them are working elbow to

elbow with students, so, um, their scholarship

involves students, and that happens in part

theater, the sciences, the social sciences,

humanities across the board, so there's an awful

lot of that, what I think is really at the top of

the high impact practice pyramid is engaged

scholarship. We also have community engaged

scholarship, where people are in the community.

You directed part of your question towards that, of

active engagement with the community and scholarly

efforts.

CANDIDATE: In terms of the research, is there

a general sense or mission on research overall, or

is it more by discipline or individual? For

example, is there an ethos of applied research, or

is it basic research, or is there a mixture there

in terms of personality?

COMMITTEE: Yes.

CANDIDATE: Okay. I couldn't read it in the

materials I had before, so I was just curious,

because is teaching load four four?

COMMITTEE: Well, it's an effective four four,

so it's a three three standard look.

>> CANDIDATE: I need to stop, because I start

looking at things, and if you want to achieve

certain things, you have to have an overall

environment to do that, so things connect other

things, so thank you very much. That was very

helpful.

COMMITTEE: It's your time. You can ask

whatever you wish.

CANDIDATE: Well, okay, I want to talk, um,

football.

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: Yeah, so, we'll go ahead and

change the subject.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: Okay, no, I mean --

COMMITTEE: Really, we can change the subject.

Next question.

CANDIDATE: No problem.

COMMITTEE: I'm teasing. We can talk about

it, but it's kind of a path to nowhere.

CANDIDATE: Okay. There was a study done, I

guess, is there a sense that it's been studied, but

it's been stopped at the moment for lack of funds

or a plan? Is it an expectation into the next

president's presidency?

COMMITTEE: Well, no.

CANDIDATE: Okay. I mean --

COMMITTEE: The correct answer is, at the time

they did the study, that was $114 million, so in

real dollars today, that's $130 million without a

stadium. I'm sure that some of my colleagues from

the business community are about ready to give the

money to build the stadium, right, Mr. Winton?

(Laughing.)

COMMITTEE: But football is, um, I would say

today, at least, is a non-starter. I would think

the distraction to our other athletics, um, and a

lot of that cost would be equity issues.

CANDIDATE: There is a lot of stir, I just

wanted to get an early sense.

COMMITTEE: We did get to the last two of you

before football came up, and I appreciate that, but

vice chair Roepstorff is going to handle all those

calls that are going to start coming in.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: I apologize.

COMMITTEE: No, you're fine. It's your time.

You can ask.

CANDIDATE: Thank you very much. Achieving

emerging preeminent status, that's the fourth

pillar, is there any other insight? Because the

elegance of that is it can be a pathway for the

future. I mean, the elegance, and I could see that

that the key for me though is to what extent do the

faculty believe in that. I've got to be honest

with you about it, do the faculty believe in it,

how is that compatible with other priorities and

the culture and history. I think it's achievable.

I put that in my cover letter to you, because I was

looking at metrics and numbers, and when I looked

at other institutions, I could see the pathway, but

I think the idea of how ambitious, how fast on the

change, how fast on the development, those are very

complex mixtures there. So, I believe it's

attainable, but the key is to what extent do all

the constituencies one could imagine would desire

it and be willing to work toward that end.

COMMITTEE: So, lucky for you, I'm the one

that pressed this issue the hardest. My vice chair

was, she and I have had, um, numerous conversations

during meetings about this topic, so I'm going to

give you my view, and if she wishes to give her

view, we will gladly let her, but, so, at the end

of the day, the reason I pressed that was because

if you look at that, what it takes to become

emerging preeminent, most of the topline items are

the exact same thing that we should be trying to

work on for the performance-based funding metrics,

so from my perspective and the board of Governors,

they came down and talked to us about this, and I

made the point to them, so, if I double my research

dollars, is that a bad thing? And they had to

admit, no, it is not. We're not going to become

emerging preeminent anytime soon. Maybe my

grandkids will come here, and maybe that'll be the

case, but it is important to note that an emerging

preeminent university gets a lot more money than

the standard line university, so if you took away

the emerging preeminent word, anything you look in

there only adds to what the faculty and others

should want to do. So, there was a big

miscommunication that we really thought in five

years, we would be there, and the Board of Trustees

has no thought that that's going to happen. I

would say if you doubled your research dollars, and

we got a student in that had a higher ACT/SAT or

GPA, if we had higher retention rates, if we got

national merit scholars, if we got patents going,

even if it's one, it's more than we get today, so

at the end of the day, anything on that list, and

my point in doing this was you have to have an

aspirational goal, as any organization, whether

that's in higher ed or other business lines, and,

so, this was, from my perspective, and I believe

other trustees, we thought this was a great

aspirational goal, it falls in line with what,

ultimately, we have to do for performance-based

funding, and my point in this has been if others

had looked at this at age 20, would they have

gotten there faster, and even if they wouldn't

have, would they have gotten, because they are not

emerging preeminent, but would they have been

farther along than they are today?

So, I believe having an aspirational goal that

isn't a deterrent from everything else you should

be focusing on is a positive win. I also think

there's a great selling point. If you look at the

money we raise, that Mr. Call and his group have

worked diligently at, one of the things we're going

to have to do is we have to start figuring out how

to fund programs. We get lots of scholarship money

and things like that, but if we're going to do

things on, um, entrepreneurship or, um, renewable

energy or these other items, we're going to have to

get industry-driven dollars to fund those programs.

So, having this out there with research

opportunities, there are companies that will gladly

give money but want something in return, so

research dollars and having that as something

we're, um, moving towards is, in my opinion, is

helpful across the board. It also builds the

brand. There's, I mean, we could go on and on.

So, I'm not sure how the faculty feels about it, I

know there was some concern, but I think some of

that is just there needs to be a better

explanation, and that would be helpful as to why

this is the case or why we have thought about this

as a board. We are saying let's keep our eye on

the ball and where we're going. By the time we get

there, emerging preeminent won't be the word

anymore, by the way. Today, that's the buzz word,

and, so, that's what we did.

CANDIDATE: From a leadership standpoint,

you've articulated very well a real set of

important ideals from a stewardship standpoint. A

president's interesting job is to take that

mindset, perspective, culture and translate and

build a bridge with the faculty, and also, the

staff, and so that there's an understanding, try to

develop that common understanding of where we're

going versus this, which is conflict is wasteful,

and it gets in the way, and it's really, that, to

me, I think is a lot of what a good president is,

understanding cultures and being able to translate

across cultures, and then the real good day is when

you can bring people together so there can be a

common understanding of where we're going forward

and why, and that may be, under trusteeship, you

might understand, maybe, the angst or concerns of

faculty, and a dean here or there, but then again,

you're hearing their perspective, and then the

president is a broker. That's my preferred

leadership style, because a president, all by

herself, is not going to do what you just said,

it's a team sport, and it will require, um, the

willingness, if not, I would prefer the heart and

soul and belief of a critical mass of the faculty

to be successful and to have some fun. I mean,

that's good, fun is good, and, so, but I, so, this

is interesting. So, really, what I might take the

perspective is it's not a matter of if, but when,

and what's our trajectory going forward. Is that

fair?

COMMITTEE: That is perfect. I would ask the

faculty, but I don't perceive there's this, there's

not a lot of friction, I don't think. I think

there's some understanding issues and those things

and a question of how do we do this with limited

space for labs and time, and they're already

teaching full loads, you know, and we have this

funding source, and, so, um, I'd let you guys

respond, but to me, that's my sense.

COMMITTEE: I guess just with regards to, um,

the achieving the preeminent status, it's lofty,

and, um, we're going to need more resources to get

there, particularly in stem fields. As Dr. Smith

said, we're running out of space, we are already

out of space. We have more students now than we

can handle, and so we just need to be able to

increase our infrastructure so that we can, um,

take care of the students that we have and then be

able to add that eminence to it and pockets of

excellence. I think that's going to require

additional, you know, for the sciences, laboratory

space, equipment, access to, you know, so, things

that matter, and in addition to being able to bring

in the funding, um, time to write the grants, a

reasonable buy-out rate, if you do get funded, so

that you can get some reaching release, so there's

a lot of conversations that need to happen to

double that research dollar amount that we

currently have. There's things that can be done to

improve that.

CANDIDATE: I mean, the fun question here is

what would it take to achieve emerging preeminent

status. That would be a great retreat. I mean,

can you imagine having a conversation about that?

So, it's not a, because, truly, I don't know why

you would say we wouldn't do it, it's like, well,

what would it take, and you step back and create

the space. That's what presidents are good for.

(Laughing.)

CANDIDATE: I have students ask me that,

what's a president good for? And I had to think

about the answer to that, but really, it's creating

the space and creating the pathways, knowing how

to, who to bring in to facilitate worthwhile

discussions so that there's a common understanding

going forward. That would be a good day

COMMITTEE: Outstanding. So, we have reached

the end of our time. So, I've really enjoyed

talking to you. Your energy is wonderful.

CANDIDATE: Thank you.

COMMITTEE: On behalf of the committee, I want

to thank you for coming all the way down here and

visiting us.

CANDIDATE: I appreciate your service. I've

served on several of these committees, and I know

what Friday afternoon feels like, and I, um, I

don't know if we're going to talk again, I'd love

to talk again, because, actually, you've increased

my interest because of where we've been going and

the kind of information we've been talking about,

but at least I hope I've entertained you. So,

thank you very much.

COMMITTEE: Thank you so much. We're going to

stand in recess for about 10 minutes, and then

we're going to need to get back, and let's get down

to work.

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ITEM: 2 Florida Gulf Coast University Presidential Search Advisory … · 2017. 2. 6. · Approved February 6, 2017 1 1 Florida Gulf Coast University 2 Presidential Search Advisory