BizVoice March/April 2016

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24 BizVoice/Indiana Chamber – March/April 2016
STATE OF
EDUCATION
There’s talk on the street; it sounds so familiar
Great expectations; everybody’s watching you
The lyrics from the Eagles classic hit, “New Kid in
Town,” poetically sum up the challenge – albeit
exciting in many ways – for today’s higher education
leaders.
Four lifelong educators, all who came to their positions less than
three years ago, joined us in mid-January to provide their thoughts on
the current collegiate landscape:
• Kathryn Cruz-Uribe, chancellor, Indiana University East, at
• Paul Ferguson, immediate past president, Ball State University (this
roundtable was held less than two weeks before his announced
resignation), at
• Gregory Hess, president, Wabash College, at
• David Wright, president, Indiana Wesleyan University, at
Seeking the students
Competition for students is obviously fierce; the trick, says the
panel, is to define one’s niche.
“We are going after all the same students, but I think we have to
fully be honest to say I’m not coming up with an engineering program,
I’m not going to get into that sphere. If it is telecommunications, I am
in play. You know, if it is fine arts, I am in play,” Ferguson explains.
“And really you can have multiple programs, but I think you have
to really define your niche honestly and appropriately within Indiana’s
higher education. … It is up to us when we go looking for funding to
make sure that is defined. … I think it’s been healthy in my experience.”
He notes efforts in his first year to establish Ball State as an
entrepreneurial university.
Cruz-Uribe first emphasizes there is not competition among the
IU schools. “The way the regional campuses are set up within IU is we
each have a defined service area; so (instead) we are very close
collaborators. It is a way to build our own strength and see what things
we might be able to offer across our campuses that maybe any one
individual campus can’t do.
“But that being said, it is a very competitive (overall) landscape. In
our town of Richmond, for example, we have IU East, the small
private Earlham College, Purdue Polytechnic and Ivy Tech, so we actually
have a lot of educational opportunities in quite a smallish town.”
Wabash’s size presents another layer to the situation.
“We are a small institution – which we think is one of our
greatest strengths – but it is not the economic model that most people
look for. You know, there is still only one president here and I only
have 900 students; I don’t have 9,000 or 19,000 students, so some of
those fixed costs are a little bit harder to spread around,” Hess shares.
Managing the expectations
With the inherent competition comes unique pressures for those
at the top.
“The challenges of leadership in higher education are evolving
daily,” Ferguson asserts. “Leading a major public research university of
20,000-plus, 106,000 alumni, you really want this institution to be
relevant and impactful. You want the vision to be real; you want your
constituencies to own that, to believe in it and to be partners in
moving the institution forward to really prepare students for their
future careers to impact your community.
“And the challenge of that leadership is becoming more and more
acute with the environment we live in, social media we live in; the
constituencies are so diverse and have strong or deep opinions.
“The challenge of doing that in a micromanagement moment is
the challenge of being president in 2016,” Ferguson stresses. “You
want to lead by consensus, you can’t lead by unanimity, but you are
always attempting to bridge the gap between so many diverse opinions
under a momentary change of notice.”
Wright likens the job more to being a mayor than a CEO because
of the many varied interest groups within a university.
“They are all groups of people who have strong opinions and are
ROUNDTABLE
By Rebecca Patrick
This roundtable discussion took place on January 13, 12 days before the
unexpected departure of Paul Ferguson as president at Ball State University.
Nevertheless, selected comments based on his many years of experience in
higher education provide valuable insights and are included in this article.
University
Leaders
Offer
Impressions