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UW’s New President: Hometown Boy Makes Good |
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Written On: May/June 2005 |
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Written By: by Ron Dalby |
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His career has taken a number of strange geographic twists and turns to places like Louisiana, Colorado, Montana, Australia, Hong Kong, Okinawa and Guam among others, but Dr. Mark A. Emmert has ended up at the pinnacle of his profession in his own backyard. He and his wife DeLaine both grew up in Fife, and Emmert graduated from the University of Washington in 1975. He was named UW president on June 14, 2004.
But...based on current funding and capacity problems, he might be forgiven for idly wondering in reflective moments if returning to his roots was such a good idea.
In the 10 months since being appointed president, Emmert has made his presence known in various public forums and in front of the Legislature. As he told a recent AWB luncheon, the UW has done a "...dreadful job of telling its story to the state." If you listen closely as he talks for a few more minutes, it seems like Emmert is on a mission to single-handedly fix this public relations problem among a host of others on his plate.
He knows the numbers involved in running his $3 billion a year organization. "We have," Emmert said, "the ninth best hospital in the country. We’re second in the PAC 10 for student athlete graduations rates, and the Chinese call UW the eighth-best university in the world."
Emmert also notes that UW has led the nation in research grants for 20 years. He expects that about a billion dollars in research funds will find its way to the institution this year.
And, if you listen to his message, you quickly realize he’s right about not getting the story out in previous years. Relatively few people have heard those statistics. With Emmert at the helm, however, that’s a fast-changing situation.
When speaking, Emmert naturally enough leads with the good news. That done and the audience on his side, he plunges ahead into the bad news, the things he wants most to fix. His transition from good to bad is a declaration that highlights his strong beliefs: "I’m convinced that, for Washington state, higher education is absolutely essential to our future."
Describing the higher education as an "unbelievably competitive business," Emmert zeros in on the heart of the capacity problem plaguing Washington’s system of colleges and universities. He points out that from 15,000 to 30,000 academically qualified high school graduates in the state can’t find a slot in state schools—universities, community colleges or other post-secondary education facilities.
"We turned away 3,500 academically qualified kids who applied to UW last year," he said. "We also had to renege on guarantees to community college students." The latter were undergraduates expecting to move up to a state university after completing two years at a smaller, less-well-known facility.
Putting this into perspective when talking to a business-oriented crowd, Emmert notes that, "We’re not producing enough trained people for your businesses."
This problem, and others he is tackling, relate to money in some form or another. Or better, perhaps, to say the lack of money. Emmert notes that financial support from the state general fund covers only about 15 percent of UW’s overall $3 billion operating cost. To that add a billion or so from research grants and you still have to find $1.55 billion to fund UW’s annual budget.
Tuition brings in perhaps $200 million, so Emmert has to spend a fair amount of his time chasing funds to the tune of about $1.25 billion a year just to keep the doors open these days.
But, by education and experience he is probably up to the task. His undergraduate degree from UW is in political science and both his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Syracuse University are in public administration. Experience-wise, he’s been both the chancellor and provost at the University of Connecticut and the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Montana State.
This experience and the education will stand him in good stead as he plots a course for the UW in the years ahead. Being a hometown boy probably doesn’t hurt, either, especially when it comes time to face the state Legislature and ask for more money.
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