Auburn’s 18th president, Jay Gogue, had his 100th day in office Wednesday. He sat down with Senior Reporter Sarah Brock last week to reflect on his time so far and Auburn’s future.
Q: At first, I was hoping you could talk about what it’s like to be back at Auburn in this capacity.
A: Many, many things are different. There are new buildings, the grounds look better, more students. More places to eat – fast food restaurants. Something that’s striking as not different is the passion from students you run into. I would say it’s very much like it used to be. I was over in Foy one day this week and four freshmen came up to talk me . . . they just go on and on about how great it is. So there really is a passion on campus. When you go out to talk to people, they may have graduated in 1950 and they’re still passionate. It’s been different, but there’s been a lot that’s the same.
Q: You’ve already touched on some of the differences, anything else that stands out to you as being noticeably different?
A: Yeah, I think the buildings. There’s the new engineering building, poultry science, the baseball field. Even some of the older buildings look like they’ve been spruced up.
Q: When you first came, you had the slogan, “Hit the Ground listening” – you’ve been here almost 100 days, what have you learned in this phase of listening?
A: We’re still in the listening phase. I’ve visited with about a little over a third of the academic departments. We talk about a whole bunch of stuff. For example, one that was shared just this afternoon is the department of pathology and entomology. The fees that our international students have to pay for health coverage. The hardship that creates in some cases because the cost of spouses to come. That was something I hadn’t heard before, so that was important. Yesterday I was with staff council and they brought up some issues with the new engineering building coming up and what are we going to do about parking issues? So that’s helpful. I had made a commitment to visit all the counties in the state. Auburn has offices in every county in the state. When you go out there, you get things that those people look to Auburn University to address. I was in Henry County - that’s Abbeville - and they have a mill closing there, and I think I remember them saying 500 to 600 jobs will be lost. It’s a little town of 3,000 people. So the impact - what is Auburn doing in that community to try to help them? They’re doing a lot of things. A lot of little programs to help people develop skills, develop resumes, how do you look for a different kind of job. You really see it from a variety of different ways as you go out in the state and as you visit different departments on campus.
Q: Then how do you take all that information that people have been giving you and use it in your leadership?
A: Well, you ask questions. You come back and ask questions. You say hey, what are we really doing here and there? Mechanical Engineering for example has a system that people in higher ed have encouraged universities to do for a long time. At the end of the sophomore year, they test engineering fundamentals for the first two years that you should have. And if you don’t have them, then you in essence have to do more work before your junior year. They do the same thing at the end of the junior year. And so they’re looking at how to make sure that their kids when they go into the next year have the basic principles and can be successful the next year. So you see that. Over in one of the departments in education we have the people who are sort of the authorities in the state on autism. When I grew up, you didn’t hear much about autism. It was probably misdiagnosed, but one out of every 150 kids in Alabama has autism, and so there’s a lot of work and effort in that part of an institution. Then you have meetings with students, in which they talked about sustainability. I took great delight in saying, “Well now what are going to do about rolling Toomers and the environmental sensitivity sustainability?” With one group I said “You know, some of the things with sustainability cost more money and are you guys willing to help with that?” And one student had a really clever answer, and I think it’s a good idea. He said why don’t you put meters on various dorms and compare our energy usage in January 06 with January 08 or whatever and we can show savings and that can be used as an offset. That’s a good idea. So you learn a lot by listening, and that’s where you culminate your efforts in strategic planning.
Q: That goes perfectly with my next question. Where are we with strategic planning and the process?
A: The process is that there’s a Web address that I think is up this week and it has a variety of stuff. It will have information on our previous efforts on strategic planning. So a person can read through and see what the university is about, and there are several other efforts to collect data, so we have that kind of data that is available on that Web site. There’s a series of questions that we ask people - and this is open to students, faculty, staff, alumni, community people, anybody who chooses to share their view. After that’s been available for some time, we’ll take the input, and it will be driven by the provost. John Heilman will take the input and really refine it to where there’s some questions or discussion points that you then can sit down with, the goal is 20 sessions on the campus with about 20 people each, where the makeup of the 20 participants is mixed so it’s not all faculty, not all staff , not all students. So there’ll be some faculty, staff, students, some administrators, and some community people that are all involved in each of those groups. The goal at the end of those 20 meetings is that you further refine the things Auburn should focus on. The final step – well, I should say the final step is Board approval. So, the step after that, is to actually do the same little small-group settings in different locations in Alabama . . . and see if the public buys into the vision. Then we’ll present a draft to the Board - that is scheduled in February - and seek their input. At that point it will be this is where we are. Then it’ll be open for anybody to give final comments, and the goal would be for the board meeting after February to ask the board to approve it.
Q: How hard is it to actually narrow it down to just a few things that this University is going to focus on?
A: Well, the broad topics of what we’re talking about, to be honest, I think most people could do that today. I would expect there would be a continued effort to improve undergraduate education. There would probably be an effort to boost the graduate and professional programs. There would probably be a bullet about international activities. There will be something that looks at access and equity related questions . . . Infrastructure is probably going to something we’re going to have to look at from parking to computing to roads, facilities and so forth. So those will be there, but the real action will be you want to improve undergraduate education. Wherever it is, you want to make it better. So what we’ll ask is “What do you think we should apply?” I mean “What are the things we should do?” So there’s likely to be things like scholarships. It’s going to be really important if you want to change the metrics by which quality of undergraduates should improve. So that tells me if that comes out, we sit down with our development folks and say guys we’ve got to look at our scholarships as a major priority. So that could be an example. Under internationalization, you’ve got a lot of choices. You could decide you want to an international component in every discipline. You could try to get buy-in from the faculty and see if that’s reasonable. You could say well why don’t we have two or three courses available to all students to improve their international awareness. You could choose to focus on study abroad. You could choose to increase your enrollment of international students on campus. So those would likely be the tangible things, but the debate really comes in which is the better route.
Q: I know you’ve talked at University Senate before about shared governance, but you can reiterate – what are your thoughts on shared governance and what role will it play in this administration?
A: Well shared governance is the belief that groups that care passionately about the University have a voice in the decisions made by the University. At a minimum, you’re talking about student voice, staff voice and faculty voice. For the faculty, things that relate or pertain directly to the academic part of the University, that voice has to be heard. The number of hours in a degree, the curriculum issues; we have on the board this time the changing from a department to a school over in building science, so that’s a voice you would expect faculty. Things that pertain directly to tuition, fees and cost, I would think the students should have a clear voice in that and understand it. At the end of the day, I still have to make a decision. But it’s still important to know in general students were supportive of this or in general they’re all opposed. So it helps you as you look and see the kinds of decisions you’re making.
Q: Let’s talk a little about diversity. How important is diversity on this campus, where are we at, and where do we need to go?
A: Well, you know I’ve noticed compared to my past two universities, we’re not very diverse . . . It’s more than just ethnic diversity. Its students with disabilities, it’s gender-related in certain areas. Then we also have diversity in our faculty and staff that becomes important too. So there are plans, there are guidelines.
Q: Do you think we’re doing enough here at Auburn?
A: No University ever does enough. We’re looking at some ideas of incentive programs that if in a particular program, you have a shortage of faculty based on the number of hours you teach, and if you have permission to hire, and if there is a minority candidate in addition to a non-minority candidate, that you get some preference to actually hire both.
Q: How safe is this campus? I know it’s been a big issue, and a consultant came to visit, but how safe if Auburn’s campus?
A: Well, all the statistics show us to be very safe. But I always tell our people when you have to talk to your mother or father or when you have to talk to anybody after a bad event, statistics don’t mean anything. So, a lot of effort - and it’s not just from Virginia Tech - but a lot of effort in colleges across the country is just to look at safety-related issues on their campus. They’ve had deaths from binge drinking on some campus, so they pay attention in that area. You’ve got issues in very diverse, international type campuses that are different than those that don’t have international populations. An interesting physical security idea is that when you build a new building, you do a security audit on the building before it’s built. It’s much cheaper to make security changes during construction than to retrofit after the fact. It sort of makes sense. When we had the Columbine shooting out in Colorado, suddenly in high schools, many of them changed dramatically all of their ways to enter a building. Usually one door, in the front of the building. Well, all the parking lots are in the back of the building. So people have to walk all the around. So we begin to look at how do you deal with security issues during design as opposed to just focusing on the aesthetics and function of the space, so it’s really a design component.
Q: Is the security audit something we do, or something we’re looking at doing?
A: We did some. It’s not a part of the way any university has historically worked. I think we’ll give additional attention to it in the future.
Q: Are there going to be any changes made from the consultant’s visit?
A: Yes. There will be some changes made. I think there’s interest in having more visible law enforcement on the campus with skill sets that have information. They’re not just reacting to an incident, but actually doing preventive law enforcement by being on the campus, being aware, being part of the community. Talk to people; know that we intend to see them regularly. If there’s anything unusual, we know who they are, we know their names, and we can ask them to do something.
Q: Let’s talk a little bit about the relationship between you and the Board of Trustees. You’re over the campus and a lot of people and entities, and the Board is over you, and those two groups don’t always agree, and you’re stuck there in the middle. What do you do?
A: I really haven’t had any situations that that’s happened. There’s still time, it could well happen. The board reminds me very much of boards in other places. They’re very interested in accountability. They’re very interested in making sure that prices are reasonable for students. They’re very interested in making sure the University doesn’t have embarrassing events that happen. So I certainly haven’t seen anything irregular or unusual. They’re very well read. When they get that notebook that’s two inches thick with all the board stuff, they’re quite aware of the details. They ask questions ... certainly at this point, they’ve been a very professional, responsible board.
Q: Recently, Auburn has gained some negative national press and had a few scandals. As Auburn’s president, what do you do to rebuild the reputation of Auburn and the credibility nation-wide?
A: I don’t think you have a marketing campaign or an advertising campaign. Auburn is most known in spite of any event for the quality of its graduates. When you really think about it, when a university makes a mistake or does something that causes embarrassment, there’s not a lot a university can do to change those perceptions in certain people. But over time, the quality of graduates and them being successful is what people notice most.
Q: I know there’s been a lot of talk recently, especially with the writing initiative, about improving the quality of the students, both as they come in and once they leave. How important is it that we increase our admissions standards?
A: Let me talk about the writing initiative first. At the last board meeting, someone shared an article that said 90 percent of graduates nation-wide go into jobs with poor writing skills. So it’s very timely that Auburn is going to try and say, “OK what can we do in the four years you’re here to improve your writing skills?” And there are several ways that campuses look at this. Auburn will start next year to require the writing sample with the ACT. Theoretically if we get a student that we’re going to admit and we see the writing sample, maybe they’re a good student but they don’t write well. Well, some schools will then say . . . go take some remedial course or go work so many hours in the writing center. Some places do it as formalized courses and some do it where you have to invest the time on your own. Then what it leads to is how do you get writing across the curriculum because your writing is different than writing in the engineering school. At my former university, what they did was the writing center had contracts with the business school, law school, engineering school, and health and science programs. It was really to critique their writing in the way you write in those particular disciplines. As an example, you take an exam in engineering and the content is reviewed by a faculty member and graded. Then a writing specialist gives you a second grade. So that’s one way to improve writing skills across the University. On the quantitative side, there’s a different issue. Eighty percent of students have trouble in math. That doesn’t mean you need to take more math, but maybe a different sequence. When you look at our entry requirements, our average went up this year. It’s been going up the last three years. There’s some interest in trying to improve students. At the same time, the mission of the school is that it’s for the sons and daughters of the working class and you don’t want to penalize those people either.
Q: Auburn is one the fastest growing areas in the state. As the city continues to grow, do you think Auburn University will still maintain its small-town appeal?
A: I certainly hope so. We’re at about 24,000 students, and the board policy is 25,000 total. You don’t see an interest in a large school. Last year, 18,000 students applied, and about 4,100 were admitted. If you wanted to be at 30,000 in three years, you could. What I do see is Auburn will continue to grow but with electronic programs. I don’t see that for freshmen, but for degrees that lend themselves to the electronic format.
Q: I wanted to end with a few “fun” questions if that’s alright. If there was one book you could require all Auburn students to read, what would it be?
A: “The Lessons of History.” It’s a short, and written by a husband-wife team – Will and Ariel Durant.
Q: What is one Auburn event or tradition you think all students should attend before they leave?
A: Graduation. Seriously. Of all the events – Tiger Walk, Rolling Toomers – graduation is the most important event for a university.
Q: How do you spend your free time and relax?
A: My wife and I read a lot. That’s probably it. We get up, go from event to event and read.
October 24, 2007 - 8:42pm
Spell check?
Editors? Where are you? You misspelled Gogue's name in the headline.October 25, 2007 - 4:40pm
That's how you spell Gogue.
That's how you spell Gogue. . .