Opening remarks from Dr. Wilson: Just expanding on the remarks that you’ve already heard, I have spent my entire career learning about how to enhance the quality of higher education, in the teaching, scholarly, and public engagement aspects of each institution. And one of the primary reasons that I was attracted to this position was what I perceived was an abiding interest in how to enhance the excellence of this institution.
There are many dimensions to that, and as I got to know the institution and became acquainted with people, saw the dedication and the spirit that existed, I concluded that this place is positioned to move forward as a national leader, and to take the kinds of steps that a lot of institutions hope they could take, but are not positioned to take. And I think that the resources are here, both financially, I think the human resources are here, and I think the will is here. And I think that is a wonderful foundation from which to move forward as an institution. And I think I’ll stop there and will be happy to answer questions.
Question: What are the steps that Illinois Wesleyan can take to enhance its already wonderful reputation? What are those steps — what vision to do you see for an institution that is already regarded as a success?
Dr. Wilson: Well, I mentioned to Janet [McNew} as I was walking in the door that I probably know just enough to be dangerous at this point [pause for laughter] and so I hope you’ll take my comments in the spirit in which they are offered. These are tentative ideas that have emerged as a result of conversations that I’ve had in the interview process, in reading materials, but I don’t know the campus intimately. So, maybe even before I do that, let me say that my own style is one of building a collaborative agenda. I don’t come with a plan that I somehow want to unfold at Illinois Wesleyan. I’ve listened to people and I hear what people are telling me. And what I’ve heard is that there is a strategic plan for this institution that has been initiated, and they have taken some steps — most recently with the multicultural study group report that’s part of that plan. But there are other pieces to that plan that have yet to unfold and so I think part of my work over the first year, working with the other senior staff and faculty, is to begin to put some shape around that strategic plan and to define in a more detailed way some of the specifics that you’re looking for.
I think that it will not surprise you that Illinois Wesleyan, like many other private institutions around the country, places heavy emphasis on private support and there is a campaign that is at some stage of closure and I think we will begin thinking about what are the priorities for private support as we move to the future. I think that there is the issue of diversity itself that I think will be front and center on the agenda.
The report that I mentioned has several recommendations that the committee felt might be implemented in the short term, and then a longer list of things that could be done over time. I think what we have to do now is sit down and go through those and decide the ones that we can make progress on and exactly how they get implemented — and, from my standpoint, how do we monitor progress over time? How do we know how we’re doing? It’s one thing to say we’re going to do things, but I am really oriented toward being able to assess progress. If you look at my background you’ll see that for eight or ten years of my career I was responsible for an evaluation component and planning activities, and part and parcel to that is not only setting the plan but tracking progress. And so that’s my orientation and what I would bring to the task.
Question: Dr. Wilson, you alluded to being attracted to things that Illinois Wesleyan is doing that other universities are not. Was it strategic plan, solely, that attracted your interest here as opposed to some of the other schools?
Dr. Wilson: What I was trying to convey with that statement is that there are a lot of institutions that engage in a strategic planning process. Sometimes, though, the institution is so constrained — because of either human resources or fiscal resources — that it sort of overwhelms the planning process and they really can’t move forward until they get fundamental issues taken care of. For some institutions, even physical facilities are a hindrance to making progress.
Well, one of the first things that you see when you walk around this campus is what’s happened over the last 12 or 13 years. In fact, this might be an appropriate place for me to comment that: You know, Minor Myers put a high mark on the wall. He had a wonderful tenure as president of this institution. And he really moved the institution forward. My view, however, is that Minor Myers also created a door for the person who would follow him, because he built the platform and established the base from which to work. He elevated the aspirations, he elevated the institution, working with the faculty, and for me it’s the opportunity to come into that environment — to, in fact say, all right, how do we move to the next level. And you’ve got resources in place to do that.
Question: Dr. Wilson, you mentioned diversity and the idea that that would be front and center on the agenda after you begin your work here. Can you elaborate on that a little – would you like to see the staff more diverse, the student body more diverse?
Dr. Wilson: I don’t mean to be flip, but the answer is yes. [pause for laughter] My view of diversity is you move forward on a student front, a faculty and staff front, and a curriculum front all at the same time. You can’t think of this as: well, we’re going to take care of the student diversity issue and then move to curriculum diversity.
The one thing that I sensed as I interviewed was, as much as any place I’ve ever been and places that I know, there seems to be a consensus view on this issue that it was an important priority for the campus. Students said: we want this campus to be more diverse. Faculty said: we want this campus to be more diverse. And that’s sometimes the toughest part, is to build that consensus. Once the consensus is there you then have, again, the base from which to work to say: all right, how do we do this?
And that’s where, again — I want to be careful here because my experience base is about 35 minutes — but I know a report has been produced with several recommendations, and I think we would sit down together with various faculty groups, student groups, administrative groups, and trustees, and say: all right, which of these can we begin to move forward on, and which ones will make a difference? And, in the short term, I said to the search committee: frankly, in the final analysis, you also have to make a difference in the long-term. There are certain things you can do that can affect numbers in the short term — for example, providing scholarships to attract students or attract faculty. In the long term, we have to worry about the pool that we’re drawing from, and we have to, as an institution, figure out ways that we contribute to expanding the pool. And I do have some ideas on that, but I think I’ll want to discuss that with a lot of people.
Question: Dr. Wilson, you’ve spent most of your administrative career at a very large university and are now coming to a much smaller university. Are there differences that you see and are there differences that you should be prepared for?
Dr. Wilson: Well, absolutely there are differences. But let me say: as I move through this process, for me it seems that the context is less important than the sensitivities that someone brings to this job. And there is a scale issue here. On the other hand, I kept scratching my head as I moved through the interview process because the issues that you’re struggling with here are the same issues that we’re struggling with at the University of Illinois. And the diversity percentages here are identical. The absolute numbers are different, but the percentages are the same, and so we’re trying to move that organization in the same way that you are. And the solutions, I think, are very similar in how one goes about addressing those problems.
I don’t know of a university in the country where salaries and benefits are not an issue, and I expect to find them here. The issue of globalization: People talked with me about how do we position our students to deal with what we believe is an increasing global society? That issue is on every college campus, or should be. So I found, frankly, more similarities on substantive grounds than differences among the institutions.
Question: Dr. Wilson, following the line of diversity, you said earlier that you think Illinois Wesleyan is positioned to move forward as a national university, yet nearly 90 percent of our students come from the state of Illinois, which may place us right now as more of a regional rather than a national institution. Would you like to invest more human and fiscal resources in getting students to come to Illinois Wesleyan from outside of the state than are currently being allocated?
Dr. Wilson: You know, I guess the way I’d like to answer that question is that the objective is to increase the diversity of the student body in general. Now, some element of that is out of state, some element of that will be international, some element of that will be minority. So what we’re trying to do is broaden the perspective of students and faculty. I think that one of the objectives that an institution can have is to approach diversity in its broadest sense – monitoring all of its pieces, but trying to build a class of students that, in fact, represents a more diverse experience than currently exists. And I think that can take you in lots of directions to try to do that.
