Just as in the old soda commercial, Sharon Hahs believes in the pause that refreshes.
Hahs, a candidate for the presidency of Emporia State University, said that it’s vital for a university to stop every so often, size up its situation and look to its future needs.
“Renewal is the rule,” said Hahs, who is currently the director of special projects at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. “When SIUE was founded 47 years ago, there were people who thought far enough into the future that they set aside 2,600 acres. Today we are the beneficiaries of their long-range thinking. I hope 10 years down the road, people will say ‘When Sharon Hahs was provost, they did these things that we are the beneficiaries of.’”
Hahs visited Emporia today and Tuesday, the first of the five candidates to come to town. If selected, she would start in January.
At the moment, she said, Emporia State seems to be doing a lot of things right. Most of the issues require tinkering rather than heavy lifting. That’s a change from 1995, when she came to Southern Illinois as the new dean of arts and sciences — and her first job was to create the college of arts and sciences.
“It took a sense of purpose that everyone could share,” said Hahs, who had the job of merging the schools of science, social science, humanities and fine arts. Instead of getting bogged down in what a music major needed that a physics major didn’t. She kept the conversation to the key point: what qualities do we want to see in our graduates?
The answers began to look more and more alike. A solid grounding in their discipline. Critical thinking skills. Common qualities that crossed the old boundaries.
“You find the commonalties, on behalf of the most important people — the students,” she said.
Hahs holds bachelor, master’s and doctoral degrees in chemistry. She described her leadership style as one based on team-building, communication and a lot of energy.
“I can work circles around most other people on any given day,” Hahs said.
At an on-campus meeting Tuesday afternoon, senior Charles Long asked how she thought the campus could raise funds effectively, given its alumni base.
“Let’s be honest,” Long said. “KU gets lawyers and doctors. K-State gets engineers. ESU gets librarians and teachers. We don’t have the alumni pool that other institutions do. So how do we overcome that additional challenge?”
“Never underestimate the trouble that a number of wonderful graduating teachers can stir up when it comes to fundraising,” Hahs answered, drawing a few chuckles.
“The real question is, what is an appropriate goal for ESU and can we move towards that?” she continued. “It will never be in the same domain that KU is. KU will never be in the same domain that Harvard is. ... We have to focus on how we can maximize what we can do. Good things are happening. More things can.”
Ultimately, she said, fundraising is friend-raising — making as many contacts as possible and then using them.
At a breakfast this morning, City Commissioner Bobbie Agler asked how Hahs would deal with the Legislature in getting funds. Part of that is in making the contacts, she answered, and part is in going about it the right way.
“You want to be a good steward of the resources you have been provided by the state, so that when you come back to ask for next year’s allocation, your track record is of someone who’s used them well,” she said.
Several questions dealt with recruiting minority students or faculty. With any students, she said, it’s a matter of identifying their needs, whether it’s financial aid or the need to stay in touch with family. For faculty, she said, it often works to build a critical mass, a few qualified diverse instructors in one subject area who can reach out to others, and to students.
On top of everything else, she said, you have to keep your programs sharp. It’s hard to market a university, Hahs said, if you don’t have anything to sell.
“Some of you will remember New Coke,” Hahs said to the Tuesday afternoon audience, getting some laughs in response. “The Coca-Cola company had unlimited resources to market New Coke. It failed because people didn’t like New Coke. You have to have quality programs and goals to attract fundraising.”
Hahs and her husband, Billy, have been married for 37 years. They regularly travel to foreign countries to watch eclipses, a hobby that her husband began.
“Since I’m the scientist, people assume it must have been me,” she said. “But he’s had an ongoing interest in astronomy for a very long time. He had gone down to Costa Rica for different reasons, liked the country and wanted an excuse to go back. So we went to see our first eclipse and the rest is history. You do one, and you’re hooked.”