Michael J. Hogan took the helm as University provost
in May. He succeeded interim provost Patricia Cain,
the Aliber Family Chair in the College of Law.
Hogan most recently served as professor of history
and executive dean of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences
at The Ohio State University. The Waterloo native
earned master’s and doctoral degrees in history
from Iowa and currently holds a faculty appointment
in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ history
department.
fyi asked Hogan about higher education and his plans
for his first year back on campus.
First of all, what exactly does a provost do?
A provost is the chief academic officer of the university
and reports directly to the president. The provost
oversees all academic units and programs, including
all colleges, and is responsible for strategic planning
and affirmative action; for the appointment, tenure,
and promotion of faculty; and for the quality of
research and educational programs. A simpler way
to put it is that the provost is the chief advocate
for the academic needs of students and the champion
of faculty rights and responsibilities.
How do class size and stagnant salaries affect teaching
at a university?
First, if our salaries stagnate and continue to
decline by comparison with our peer group, it’s
going to get more and more difficult to recruit and
retain the best faculty. If we have a second-class
professoriate, we’re going to be delivering
a second-class education.
Secondly, the quality of our research will go down.
Even though this is a major research university,
faculty teach, and if they’re forced to choose
between research and teaching, they’re likely
to disinvest themselves of research time in order
to spend more time with students. For example, there
are some professors here who are entitled to take
a research leave of absence who don’t feel
they can do it, because there’s too much need
for their services in the classroom. I admire faculty
who are so devoted to their students that they’ll
forgo a research opportunity. But from an institutional
point of view, it’s disastrous if they fall
behind on their research.
Students who come here are exposed to faculty on
the cutting edge of research. That’s the value
added of a major research and teaching university
like The University of Iowa. If we don’t deliver
that, then we’re just another college. I don’t
want faculty to be forgoing their research. I want
to encourage and celebrate that research and do whatever
I can to support it. From that research comes the
classroom lectures of tomorrow.
How does Iowa compare academically with The Ohio
State University and other peer institutions?
I think it compares very well, and I’m anxious
to make sure that continues. Iowa always does very
well in the rankings systems, including the one by
U.S. News & World Report, and has a lot of top-ranked
departments and programs all across campus. Iowa
is the smallest of the Big Ten universities. It’s
one-third smaller than Ohio State. I mention that
because there tends to be for most departments a
pretty close correlation between the size of a department
and its ranking. In other words, being big is one
of the keys to being good and highly ranked. So if
we were to handicap ourselves for size and adjust
the rankings accordingly, well, we’d be even
higher ranked in department after department, college
after college.
I think it’s a tribute to the state of Iowa
that year after year after year, the people here
have supported three very good public universities,
two of them—including The University of Iowa—members
of the American Association of Universities. I think
we are the only state of our size that can lay claim
to that honor.
What are your immediate and long-range goals?
First, we’ve got this financial problem we
have to get our minds around. We have to replenish
our faculty so we can get class size under control
and offer courses with normal frequency so that our
students can graduate in a normal period of time.
We also have to get faculty salaries up and reinvigorate
research support so we can recruit and retain the
best faculty and be competitive in the national academic
market.
Secondly, I think it’s important for us to
take a comprehensive look at what we’re doing
at the undergraduate level. We have good, quality
undergraduate programs here, but I want to make sure
that we provide the very best academic experience
for our undergraduate students. Since Iowans are
paying a good deal for their education, both in tax
dollars and in tuition, we have a responsibility
to provide a high-quality undergraduate experience
and send those students out to Iowa communities.
Third, I can’t tell you how important I think
it is that The University of Iowa have a diverse
population. Diversity is almost a buzzword these
days, but there’s a good reason for that. Even
Iowa, with a population that isn’t all that
diverse now, is becoming more diverse by the minute,
as is the nation as a whole. On top of that, we now
live in a very interconnected, global village and
we’re part of a global economy. We have to
prepare our students for life and work and happiness
and success in the world they’ll face after
graduation. You simply cannot deliver a quality educational
experience unless you have a diverse campus. We just
have to find creative, imaginative ways to do better.
Do you have any new initiatives planned?
I hope to get first-year seminars off the ground
this spring and add more of them next year. I also
hope to build a consensus on campus for a comprehensive
diversity action plan that will bring positive results
in the years ahead. We have a lot of people here
committed to diversity, but they’re spread
all over the place. What we need, I think, is a focused,
comprehensive diversity plan, and I would like to
see that in place by the end of my first year. In
addition, I would like to complete a comprehensive
review of the entire undergraduate experience. Finally,
I am also working with colleagues to finish a review
of the Honors Program, and to consider a new scholars
program, which could help us to recruit and retain
the group of students just below those who qualify
for our Honors Program.
There’s still more to be done, of course,
but if I get these things done in the first year,
I’ll be happy—not to mention my ongoing
work on the critical issues of faculty replacement
and faculty salaries.
What are some of your best memories from your time
as a UI student?
I was the first person in my family to go to college,
so I didn’t know what a PhD program really
was, let alone how professors lived their lives.
The possibility of a creative life—the life
of the mind, the life of learning and teaching—that
kind of world opened to me at Iowa. I’ve always
felt indebted to Iowa. I had great teachers, and
they excited me and helped me discover myself and
what I wanted to do.
The other part is that I met my wife, Virginia,
here. She came to get an MA in the College of Education.
We got married here, and three of our four children
were born here in Iowa City. I lived in married-student
housing on Hawkeye Drive and in the old Quonset huts.
I had good friends and a wonderful personal life.
Why did you return to campus? What was the biggest
draw?
People move from one university to another for one
of three reasons. There’s a pull factor—they’re
attracted, they see an opportunity to do more or
do better at another institution. Sometimes, there’s
a push factor—they’re unhappy where they
are, things have soured for them. Or there’s
a push-pull factor.
In my case it was completely a pull factor. I was
very happy where I was. The Ohio State University
was very good to me. I never imagined myself leaving.
I had been approached by other institutions several
times. But I’m from Iowa, I have my degree
here, and I could identify with this institution
in a way that wasn’t true of any other institution
except Ohio State. Iowa offered me a job with a new
world of opportunities. And there was a tremendous
search committee. I want to stress that. They just
kind of lassoed me and pulled me in. I will always
be indebted to them for that, not to mention the
debt I owe President Skorton and to everyone else
who had a hand in the process.
What do you enjoy most about being back in the Iowa
City community?
It is a great community. When I left years ago,
I loved Iowa City and I thought I’d never be
happy again, that I’d never find a community
like this again. Well, I did find happiness, but
I’m back only two months and already I’m
feeling that pull of the Iowa City community. It’s
a very friendly, very interesting environment.
I am aware that I have a lot to learn. Iowa is facing
some of the same problems that every major public
research and teaching university is facing, and I
am familiar with those issues, but every institution
is different. The process by which business is done,
the people involved, the local culture—all
this is a little different and I have to learn it.
Fortunately, everyone here has been very kind to
me and very, very patient.
How do you spend your free time?
I have pretty simple pleasures—I love to go
to movies, for example. I have a brother in Iowa
City who is married and has two daughters in town,
and I really enjoy spending time with them, as I
do with my older brother and his family in Waterloo.
I also jog on a treadmill. I’m a reader. I
still like to read history, but I also have my airplane
books. I’m a big fan of disaster novels—popular
histories about disasters. Nothing too exciting,
I’m afraid, but then again I don’t seem
to have a lot of free time.
For information about the provost’s office,
visit www.uiowa.edu/~provost.
by Sara Epstein Moninger
|
