Second Candidate Would Lead YSU to Next Level
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The underlying strengths of Youngstown State University will sustain it through challenging times and become the foundation that transforms it into a nationally known urban research university.
And Gary L. Miller, chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, would like to be president as YSU gets back on track and lead it to the next level.
That was the essence of the second presidential finalist’s message Tuesday afternoon to the public assembly of students, faculty, staff and trustees. Addressing an audience who filled every seat in the trustees meeting room, Miller answered 17 questions that touched on finances -- especially fundraising, budgets, allocation of resources and potential cutbacks -- student enrollment and retention, YSU’s relationship with its constituencies in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys and his willingness to make a long-term commitment to the university.
Where the finalist who answered questions Monday, Jim Tressel, is also a finalist for the presidency of the University of Akron, Miller is a finalist as well to be president of State University of New York at Buffalo. And as had Tressel, Miller deftly avoided answering the question of which position he would choose should he be the first choice of both.
Tressel, vice president for student success at the University of Akron, is the former YSU head football coach who led the Penguins to four national titles in his 16 years here.
Miller, whose original goal was to become a physician, was a biology major as an undergraduate at the College of William and Mary (B.S. 1976), earned a master’s degree in biology there as well (M.A., 1979) and received his doctorate in biology in 1982 at Mississippi State University.
Meeting with reporters beforehand, Miller declared that YSU is “a solid institution” with what it takes to be “a nationally known urban research institution,” a goal of the university master plan.
Having grown up in the South and worked in right-to-work states, including Kansas, he has never negotiated a labor contract but has read the collective bargaining agreements YSU has with the four unions who represent faculty, staff, the YSU police department and classified employees, Miller said.
The educational leader Miller said he admires most is Robert Khayat, chancellor of the University of Mississippi from 1995 until 2009. Khayat, a graduate of Ole Miss who went on to become a kicker for the Washington Redskins, hired a national public relations firm to conduct a review of perceptions of his alma mater upon taking office. He wanted to learn why enrollment was falling and suspected it might be the symbols of the university that included the Confederate battle flag. When word got out of the review, an uproar broke out. Khayat “showed the importance of courage,” Miller said.
In addressing the assembly, Miller employed humor -- much of it self-deprecating -- an extensive knowledge of YSU and its recent history and why he values education so highly.
His wife accompanied him and he introduced her, remarking, “I hope you get to spend some time with Georgia and the chances of my candidacy will improve.” That broke the ice. Laughter followed and tenor of most questions was friendly and respectful.
Three things his listeners wouldn’t know about him from his resume, Miller said, were where he grew up, Dayton, Va., in the Shenandoah Valley; the role teachers and mentors played in his life; and “I’m also a husband, father and grandfather – all perfect, unlike their parents.”
Neither of his parents is a college graduate, Miller said, while he and his two brothers all earned advanced degrees. His post-high school education was “a transformational experience” he wants all college students to experience and become informed citizens involved in their communities.
Miller’s 21-page resume includes a lengthy list of his community involvement and service to academia.
Because of the brief tenure of Randy Dunn, who abruptly resigned as YSU president after only seven months, the audience homed in on Miller’s willingness to commit to staying at YSU. His answer was yes, “I’m well aware that what you need more than anything else is stability.”
A philosophy professor, Victor Wan-Tatah, asked Miller point-blank, “Can we trust you?”
“Uh, yes,” Miller responded as the audience laughed. The trustees of SUNY Buffalo asked the same question of him, he added.
To concerns about student retention, Miller responded that it is unrealistic to expect YSU to match UNC-Wilmington’s 49% graduate rate any tine soon. One step he would take is strengthening retention management efforts. “We must invest in retention programs and intervention programs,” he said.
He allowed such a budget allocation is “a zero-sum game because if you invest in retention, you take away from something else.”
With 42% of YSU undergraduate students working full- or part-time, the definition of success should be broadened, Miller said.
“What is success?” he asked rhetorically. “A student starts [college] and a student finishes.” The state allows six years. If it’s seven, eight or nine, Miller suggested, it’s still success. And he believes it’s better to attend part-time and work if that situation allows the student to avoid taking out student loans.
On how he would develop budgets, Miller advocated “a lot of transparency. You must agree on the data. Maybe not the interpretation of the data. [Laughter] This is a period [in education administration] when shared governance has never been more important. … At Wilmington, we put a lot of our faculty on our budget council.”
To a question on his “fundraising views,” Miller shot back, “Have you made your contribution yet?”
Fundraising “is a team sport, a continuous process,” he continued, that requires the efforts of faculty and trustees as well as the development department. Moreover, fundraising “is not a sales job. It’s an intimate process. It’s connecting their passion with the right person on campus."
Such gifts are needed more than ever “in times of state disinvestment,” Miller said. He suspects many states have reduced their levels of support for higher education because legislators, reflecting their constituents’ perceptions, see tuition support benefiting individuals instead of society at large. “A degree has become a commodity” that helps a graduate get a better job, he explained, not something that allows the recipient to be a better citizen and give back to the community.
And public universities should stop giving away some of thing they could sell, such as certifications.
On the qualities he would like to see in the next provost, Miller immediately responded, “Academic credentials. Such an individual “must manage huge amounts of detail and still be visionary.” His ideal chief academic officer has to be “credibly creative and innovative. He would be willing to assume risk” and get people to buy into assumption of that risk.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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