Michael Lane was already on the way back to Arkansas when he learned he had become the new president of Emporia State University.
Lane had been interviewed privately by the Board of Regents on Tuesday. As he drove back to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, where he serves as provost, a call came on his cell phone offering him the job.
“It has been a hectic 24 hours,” Lane said Wednesday.
It’s going to be a hectic month and a half, for that matter. Lane starts with Emporia State University on Nov. 1, about two months earlier than had originally been projected. His wife Peggy, an instructor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. will not be able to join him until the semester ends.
It’s not a separation he welcomes. But it does have one advantage.
“It gives me the opportunity to get a jump start,” Lane said. “If I work 16 to 18-hour days, I’m not taking any time away from her.”
Lane will be formally introduced to the campus at a 10 a.m. press conference Friday in the rotunda of Plumb Hall. There will be a 2 p.m. reception the same day in the Colonial Ballroom of the ESU Memorial Union.
Members of the search committee said Lane had had several strong points as a candidate, such as his experience with smaller schools, his comfort in working with foundations and his ability to learn a new situation.
“Dr. Lane has a very high level of energy,” said Regent Janice DeBauge, who was also part of the search committee. “I think he’ll bring a lot of good ideas to ESU. And I think he will be very effective in working in the higher education system of Kansas. He’s good with systems.”
Art Bloomer of Wichita, a member of the search committee, said he had been impressed with Lane’s history of working in difficult situations. At Mansfield, Lane helped build recruitment at a college that was far from urban centers. At Arkansas, he came to a school that was turning from a community college into a university.
“He’s the kind of guy where he’s always been in the underdog position and managed to come out on top,” Bloomer said.
That may be needed when it comes to financing. A report by the Board of Regents showed state spending on Kansas universities is going down, leaving families to bear more of the burden. Lane said that one thing he wanted to do early on was to sit down with development director Sandra Kramer and see where the school’s fund-raising efforts are at this point. He also said he would ask the public relations staff to put together a marketing proposal for ESU.
“I prefer to leave that to the experts on the marketing side,” Lane said.
Lane said his own visit to Emporia had been very positive.
“I felt so comfortable on the campus,” he said. “I think that may be why I was chosen. If people felt that comfortable with me, that probably had a lot to do with it.”
Rod Sobieski, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a member of the search committee, said that Lane brought a strong resume to the table.
“He’s certainly highly qualified administratively,” Sobieski said. “He’s been a successful individual in his various roles who has the skills to move ESU forward.”
The search for a president has been a months-long process, with the committee sifting through 65 applicants to reach its five finalists. Those five in turn were brought to the campus over a two-week period before the committee made its report and the Regents made their choice.
“It’s something I would not want to start again next month,” Sobieski said. “A lot of people did a lot of work that resulted in a quality candidate.”
Lane will succeed interim president John Schwenn. The last full-time president at Emporia State University, Kay Schallenkamp, left after the spring semester to take up the presidency of Black Hills State University in Spearfish, S.D.
Ironically, Lane had been one of the people helping the Fort Smith campus find a new chancellor.
His first couple of months, he said, would probably be spent getting a grip on the essentials of his new position, as well as learning the campus and the community. At this point, he said, his learning curve is everything.
“I feel as though I want to have a complete understanding of the institution as quickly as I can, yet obviously that takes time,” Lane said. “It’s going to be a wonderful challenge.”
And at 54, it’s a challenge he’s ready to meet for the long term.
“I think a good period of time for a president to get things done and have an impact that can last is 10 years,” he said, adding that that would put him close to retirement. “So I expect and hope that this is the last stop of my career.”