Fethke: Professional and merit staff are the face of the University

	Gary Fethke, UI Interim President. Photo by Tim Schoon.

Gary Fethke, former dean of The University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business, took the helm as UI interim president June 2, when David Skorton stepped down to take the top job at Cornell University. Fethke, a native Iowan who received a BA and PhD in economics from The University of Iowa, served as dean of the Tippie College of Business from 1994 to 2006. He also is the Leonard A. Hadley Professor of Leadership in the Department of Economics and Management Sciences. In an interview with fyi, Fethke talks about his priorities for UI faculty and staff members.

How do you plan to stay in touch with needs and concerns of faculty and staff?

I have regular meetings with Staff Council and with faculty leadership. I prefer lunches and one-on-one conversations—agenda-driven meetings where people say, “Let’s see if we can work on a problem together.”

Communication with staff is really important. The middle core of the management of the University is professional and merit staff—they are the face of the University to many people—and they need to be told how important they are to the running of this university.

I’m in communication constantly with the faculty. I enjoy talking to them and finding out what they are doing. I appreciate them, and I’m a big promoter of excellence.

What are the most pressing issues you expect to face?

There are always financial challenges. If we want excellent faculty, for example, we have to provide excellent compensation. Part of it has to do with our willingness to be a bit more focused and to channel our resources a bit more effectively. Part of it has to do with the need to generate new resources beyond the generous appropriation the state provides. We have to be entrepreneurial and innovative, and that’s a real challenge.

I’m very interested in what we can do ourselves to make our world better. My history is one of looking for ways of generating additional resources.

There’s always the question of providing a strategic focus for the University. What is it that we need to do well to succeed in the future? And if it’s really strategic, then it involves grappling with trade-offs: “We’re going to do Program A and not Program B.” Those are the toughest decisions you can make in a leadership capacity. Everybody has good ideas about what to do. The really tough part is to decide what not to do.

Under President Skorton, we had the Year of Arts and Humanities and then the Year of Public Engagement. Is there a designated theme for 2006-2007?

While I applaud the idea of focusing on those kinds of issues, there are more permanent themes that I think are important: self-reliance, responsibility, stewardship. Also, why shouldn’t the University be one of the premier destination universities for undergraduate and public education in the country? The state has long supported education, and this is a great community to be a student in. When people are here, they love it. So why don’t we draw attention to that and proclaim ourselves a destination university?

What are your priorities for UI faculty and staff over the next year?

My priority for everybody is that they are the masters of their own jobs. No matter what you are doing, you have a job to manage responsibly and successfully. My job is to try to facilitate that.

You have been quoted as saying that you’d like the University to focus on “creating opportunities and partnerships, while requiring accountability and responsibility.” What specifically do you mean?

We can’t do everything ourselves. So, in educational programs and in research and clinical programs, we should seek partnerships, relationships where we’re not bearing all of the costs and we’re sharing the rewards. I’m a big fan of cooperation and partnership. There are so many opportunities in the world to cooperate.

You have publicly asked for comments and ideas from the University community. What kind of feedback are you receiving?

I’ve learned in life that most everything that’s a good idea comes from somebody else. My talent is to recognize a good idea and implement it. So I’m open to ideas, even ideas that don’t pan out. I don’t care about the credit. A very high percentage of the things that were accomplished when I was dean of the Tippie College of Business came from suggestions made by faculty or donors or students.

Promotion is an issue. I think Iowans are inherently unable to boast about their accomplishments, and I think we need to be a little bit more forthright in terms of what we accomplish in this state, a little more out in front. We’re working on a theme right now around the word remarkable: remarkable academics, remarkable athletics. I like it. I think we should be more marketing-oriented—I’m a business person.

What is the most important thing the next president should understand about The University of Iowa?

There are so many important things. I think the first one to understand is our long history of quality and our long history of emphasis on excellence. Just look at the contributions of luminaries like E.F. Lindquist in education, Jack Kennedy in hydraulics, Wendell Johnson in speech and hearing, May Brodbeck in the philosophy of social science, Jim Van Allen in space physics, Allen Craig in statistics—the list of people who have made seminal contributions to their fields is endless. We have to provide opportunities here for excellence. Providing the opportunity for The University of Iowa to compete with anybody in the world is something that has to be maintained. I’ve stayed here all my life because I believe you can do it here.

What has kept you at this university for more than 30 years?

I absolutely can’t think of a better place to be. And I’m not some provincial. I’ve spent a lot of time in Europe. I know London probably as well as I know Iowa City. So it’s not just a matter of being here and not knowing something else. I have wonderful colleagues, the students are great, and I like very much the feel of Midwestern culture.

by Sara Epstein Moninger