Q A new school year has begun. What can the community expect from ESU under your leadership?
A One of the biggest things we are going to do this year is develop a new strategic plan. We are in the process of identifying members of the community that we are going to ask to serve on the work groups for the strategic plan.
We want to make sure we are integrating the community into our planning process. That is my single largest initiative for the year and (the) most visible.
We are also in the process of planning the community advisory committee and we want to make sure we are getting a variety of perspectives from the community.
Q How does the enrollment look this year?
A As you know, we had a fairly significant tuition increase but we are hoping to have small-to-moderate increases in full-time equivalent in enrollment. Our freshman class looks good and our retention looks good. The one area we are down a little bit is non-degree-seeking students.
Q Coming in as a new president, has it been easier or harder than you thought to get your plan going?
A I think it is about where I expected. I came in intentionally not trying to change things immediately. But I wanted to take time to learn about the community and the institution.
Right now, we are in the process of planning to gather significant input from the community and university constituency. So from my perspective we are right on schedule on planning process and things are going well.
Q What do you think ESU’s core strengths are?
A Certainly the Teachers College because very few of our graduates leave the state unlike some of our sister institutions. In the teaching profession the national retention rate after five years is 50 percent but our graduates have a 92 percent retention rate.
We have a very good business school and we need to increase its size and reach. We also have a very unique program with SLIM. We have three, out-of-state locations with that program.
Q You offer classes in Kansas City. How is that going?
A I expect significant growth over the next five years in our Overland Park office, which is in Corporate Woods (in Johnson County). We really want to focus on nontraditional adult students. I really think we can grow that campus substantially and that is good news because it would provide resources to us back here.
Q Internet education is growing. Is that a concern or opportunity for you?
A It’s an opportunity. All of our graduate programs in education are offered online. That was intentional so we could serve all the school districts in Kansas without having people to travel here.
We have some other programs that we need to move a significant portion to the Internet and the MBA program would be one of those. I think we have a lot of opportunities and we will continue to take advantage of those to expand our offerings online.
Q You have spent a lot of time at the Legislature and meeting with legislators. Tell us about what you have been doing.
A Last year, I tried to get up to the Legislature at least once a week, and I did that to meet people. I want to get to know the legislators better, our own legislators better and some of our alumni who are legislators.
I think that has paid some dividends already. State Sen. (Anthony) Hensley recommended me for the 2007 advisory committee for math and science education.