Washington, D.C.
October 16-18, 1996

Redefining Higher Education

Four Actions Required for the Public to Reinvest in Research Universities

Martha Gilliland, Academic Vice President for Information and Human Resources
University of Arizona

Introduced by

Carla Stoffle, Dean of Libraries
University of Arizona

MS. STOFFLE: It is my pleasure to introduce Martha Gilliland, the Academic Vice President for Information and Human Resources at the University of Arizona.

Prior to that, she was the Interim Vice President for Research, and Dean of the graduate college. Before that she was a faculty member at the University of Nebraska and at the University of Oklahoma.

She has a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Florida, and on our campus she took leadership in our Continuous Organizational Renewal Program (COR). She was a leader in training with the Pew Roundtable to our campus and is carrying on the Pew ACE Project on the development of department heads as academic leaders.

She has a Pell Grant for leadership development for the campus, and a grant from the university administration for faculty development to allow her to introduce new technologies that change the way we teach. She is also on the Arizona Steering Committee for the Western Governors University. After only a few years of being in this role, in 1996 Arizona received two Governor’s Awards for Excellence and Quality Management.

She received the 1995 Association of American Universities (AAU) Exemplary Models of Leadership Award for the Transformation of Higher Education; and, in 1994, she received the Governor’s Award for Excellence for Total Quality.

And so it is with great pleasure that I introduce Martha, and her insights on what needs to happen in higher education.

MS. GILLILAND: Thank you, Carla. When Duane told me about this panel, he said it would focus on actions research universities need to take in response to internal and external changes, answering the question, “What will cause the public to reinvest in us?” And so we need to think ahead as well as have a conversation about what we have done in the past that has made a big difference in order to find those key things that will cause the public to reinvest in us.

In my opinion, there are four things that are absolutely catalytic and key to success over the next few years, and they transcend the way we tend to think about universities in terms of what needs done in the teaching, research, and service arenas. We should stop thinking about those distinctions and instead think much more broadly. We need to develop strategic partnerships, embrace technology, and reestablish trust, and to do that we need a different leadership style that, in fact, accepts and even embraces the fact that things are out of control, and uses that fact in a creative way.

Developing strategic partnerships.

I want to make a real distinction between any concept we may have of corporate relationships or contracts, and really think about strategic partnerships, where both parties have something major to gain from the partnership.

A recent example of a corporate partnership is one we entered into with Lucent Technologies, a systems and equipment company that came out of the AT&T divestiture. Lucent wants to be a leader as we move toward a multimedia environment in businesses, on campuses, and in homes. In order to do so, they need a high-speed, high-band width, multimedia, interactive capability. But no one has the proper solutions, protocols, and interfaces to go with everyone’s different equipment, and to create them is expensive.

At the University of Arizona, we have the same goals as Lucent has, both for our campus and in our relationships in the state. So, a strategic partnership between the University and Lucent will allow us to better achieve those goals and still both be successful. It is just a matter of finding the places where you actually have something to gain by working together with a partner. We need partnerships with corporations, government, K-12 schools, etc., in addition to within our own universities, in order to transcend old barriers.

Carla mentioned our department head and faculty development efforts. They are special arrangements that relate our central administration directly with our department heads in a real alliance. Some of the deans are struggling to understand its value. But, in truth, as they have seen the creativity that it is bringing about, some of that fear is going away.

In many ways, the whole idea of the Western Governors University came about because universities and community colleges may consider these relationships as a cause for concern and a call for them to protect their turf, rather than as a collaboration. Yet, every single person in this room represents a university, and we are able to work together and discuss accepting each other’s courses and what have you. So I absolutely believe that letting go a bit of the turf is what in fact will bring us more power. Because we have, in fact, a trust problem with our public constituents, and we will not fix that problem until we give up some of the things that we think we are protecting.

Embracing technology.

When technology is discussed, there are certain comments that tend to come up. You can hear, “We have to be careful how we use technology,” “We need to make sure the technology is used appropriately,” and the question, “Are we really gaining in terms of learning outcomes, or are we just dealing with this because technology is popular right now?”

Right now there are a huge number of technological developments. At the recent Educom Conference the entire subject for discussion was Internet2, a concept which is based on the need for research universities to support the exchange of information, and the recognition that the current Internet setup is not capable of supporting the types of exchanges that universities make. We need to embrace these developments. A multimedia environment, a multimedia interactive capability, is going to change things dramatically. And, although we are all struggling with creative services data integration, where each department has its own databases yet the administration is constantly missing and isn’t able to get the proper data, we will have some breakthroughs in that arena.

The solution is to not wait. But because no one knows quite how to do these things, we need strategic partnerships to start down the road in small steps.

Reestablish trust.

One of my favorite quotes is by Abraham Lincoln: “With the public trust, anything is possible. Without it, nothing is possible.”

At least in public institutions, we don’t trust that our students will graduate in four years, that they will get career counseling to relate jobs to their majors, or even that we are spending money wisely. At private institutions there is the concern about tuition costs and whether people are getting their money’s worth. Within our universities there is mistrust among sectors, frequently between the administration and faculty.

Carla has opened up the library, and in many of our other areas at the University of Arizona we have completely opened up the structures, eliminating a whole layer of middle management and replacing it with a team-based organization. And in the library they have formed a real trust relationship with the customer via feedback they receive twice a month.

Probably the key thing to reestablishing trust is achieved not by protecting information, but is the result of allowing everybody to have access to the data, instead of worrying about whether they will misinterpret it. The right interpretation will come when the dialogue occurs.

Changing leadership.

Lastly, we need to adjust and, in some cases, change rather dramatically the way we lead, both in libraries and in institutions as a whole. We need to give up the notion that, because we have a good education and a lot of experience, we could actually understand precisely where we ought to go and what steps will take us there.

I don’t think one can ever understand how a university works. We should quit trying to, and instead we should take responsibility for putting a vision out there, the guiding principles or intentions; this is where we need to go to achieve our goals. We need to form partnerships, reestablish trust, and embrace technology. We then need to allow everyone to interpret as they choose, and, through dialogue, support what people see and what people want to do.

It feels terrible because you give up control. Others see things you would never see for yourself, but, if you let them come forward, while requiring accountability, amazing things can happen. A particularly successful example at the University of Arizona is in our faculty development effort between the library and our computer center. I would have never believed it could come out this way. There were several times along the way when people wanted to do things I thought wouldn’t work, but they saw things I didn’t see, and they did work well.

So that is what we need to do — develop strategic partnerships, embrace technology, work on trust, and let go of thinking that we have all the answers. We do need to present a vision as leaders, but not necessarily point out the specifics of how to get there.

Thank you.

Copyright � 1998 by Martha Gilliland