University President-elect Neil Kerwin sat down with Editor in Chief Lauren Gardner to talk about his vision for AU and the changes he would like to make to the university, among other topics.
EIC: Outline your vision for AU for me. What exactly is it that you would like to see change this year for the university?
Kerwin: Well I think it's important to understand, to start with, that when I talked with the [presidential] search committee, with the board, about American University, I started with the assumption that this is a very strong institution, so much of what we have to do in the coming year is to ensure that the fundamental strengths of the institution are bolstered and improved. So we're going to continue to invest a lot of time and effort in the academic core of the university. I'm going to do everything I can to support the provost, the deans and the faculty in their efforts to improve our academic programs, both in terms of content and in terms of teaching. I'm going to work very hard to make substantial progress on completion of the campaign that's currently underway to raise funds. Most of that campaign is devoted to the academic core of the institution including new homes for two of our most important schools - the School of International Service and the School of Communication. My vision for American University is that we always be a place that's known for doing important, influential and exciting academic work, and that students who come here experience that immediately upon their arrival, that we attract faculty who are dedicated to our scholar-teacher model and feel supported in their attempt to build rewarding careers. I think finally what I'd say is American University's strengths can always be better known across the country and around the world, so I'm going to devote a considerable amount of my time during this next year, in both my travel and in my writing, to ensuring that audiences that may not know as much about American University learn about us, and that's everything from the city of Washington to our international and our global commitments.
EIC: What would you like to see remain the same about the university?
Kerwin: I'd like to see the spirit of service that this institution has made so much a part of its life for so many years remain consistent. And I'll, this Thursday night, Aug. 23, congratulate the freshmen who participated in the Freshman Service Experience, I'll do that along with the mayor of the city of Washington. I think that symbolizes in many ways what this university has been about for much of its history. I want the intellectual influence of this institution to remain the same. We have a faculty that are, in many cases, leaders in their fields. Whether it's in the social sciences, the sciences, the arts and humanities, I want American University never to be thought of as anything but a first-rate source of important scholarship, important professional work and important art. I also want the reputation, I think well deserved that we have as a pre-eminent teaching institution never to change. I think based on every important indicator that I see with our internal surveys, and some of those that are done externally, there's a high regard for the quality of instruction on this campus, the quality of learning, the mentorship of students by faculty, and I hope that never changes.
EIC: There's been a lot of scrutiny recently about the college ranking system - U.S. News and World Report and systems like that. To you, how important are these listings and rankings, and do you think that AU, in the future, might boycott or opt out of the U.S. News and World Report ranking system.
Kerwin: I don't think that the major ones that I see from time to time tell even a tiny fraction of the story of what happens on this campus or on any other. They are, by their nature, oversimplifications. Their methodologies are limited in many very important respects, so I never use those rankings internally in my conversations with vice presidents and deans as serious indicators of how well this institution is performing its basic mission. But I'm a realist, and I know that the outside world does take note of U.S. News and World Report's rankings. We have not decided at this point to boycott U.S. News and World Report or any other organization that purports to measure how well we're doing. I respect the decisions that have been made by other presidents to do that, and we're of course almost a year away from the next cycle, so there's always the opportunity for me to reconsider it. My hope is that the story American University has to tell is told more directly by us based on terms that we think are important and the issues that I just mentioned to you - the quality of the intellectual life on the campus; the ability of this university to help men and women develop themselves as whole people, and that includes our co-curricular activities that work in the Office of Campus Life; the quality of the teaching that occurs here; the quality of the service that we perform for the nation and the city and, ultimately, for the world. We need to define ourselves, those measures of performance that better capture what AU is about and spend some time and some money publicizing it.
EIC: Taking a look back now at the presidential search process, do you think that the secrecy involved in the search process was necessary to guarantee that the process would turn out the way everyone hoped?
Kerwin: I think I was something less than a secret as a candidate. I have to respect the judgment of the search committee and respect the advice that they were given, and in order to develop a credible group of candidates they had to maintain a degree of secrecy. It is hardly unusual - it is the norm, frankly - for presidential searches, so I didn't find it either surprising or disturbing. Obviously I think it was fairly widely known that I was a candidate for the position, and I didn't have any difficulty with that, either, so I don't find anything in the presidential search as it was conducted unusual given what I know about norms across the country.
EIC: Now looking ahead, how do you think, you being an alumnus of American University, will affect your outlook on being our president?
Kerwin: That's a very interesting question because I think that I have experienced this institution over a period of 40 years in almost every capacity that one could enjoy - as a student, then as an alumnus and then back as a faculty member. I think a number of experiences I've had have been formative. The experience as an alumnus, I mean I take the same pride in this institution as an alumnus as I hope any alumnus does given the progress we've made over the last 40 years or so. ... My job as president is made easier by my status as an alumnus because I can look every one of our tens of thousands of alumni in the eye and say that "I've been where you've been," "I've experienced many of the same things you've experienced," "I take your status and my status as an alumnus very, very seriously," and I will make one of the priorities of my time as president engaging alumni at a level and in ways that they may not have been engaged in the past. The alumni are a source of immense strength to this institution if they can be mobilized appropriately. We have made very good progress in the recent past getting alumni identified and engaged. I think it's immensely important to me because of my status as an alumnus to take that as a special obligation as president.
EIC: What are your fundraising goals and focuses for the next year?
Kerwin: Over the next year, we're going to pay very substantial attention to three broad areas - one is to complete, or at least make substantial progress on, fundraising for the two major building projects that are still standing, and that is the renovation of the McKinley building for the School and Communication and the construction of the brand new School of International Service. Second, I hope to focus considerable time and attention on raising funds to support professorships on this campus. I have said many times I think this is a faculty whose quality is such that they deserve a larger number of chaired professorships than we currently have, so I will make that a priority over the coming year as well. And I will make scholarships for students, and fundraising for scholarships for students, a high priority. I believe that as important as buildings and faculty are, we also need to be very clear about the ability for young men and women to choose AU and not have money be the defining force in that. So I think in talking with people around the country, there's usually a very strong, positive reaction when you suggest that some of what they could do for us is to help another student finish their work here. And every year our scholarship luncheon, which honors the people who support students through giving, grows, and I hope that continues throughout the time I'm president.
EIC: This is a smaller question, but it relates to something that's been an issue since I've been working at The Eagle that we've covered before - the issues with the sports teams being cut and other programs. Is that going to be addressed at all?
Kerwin: Well, we have a brand new athletic director [Keith Gill]. He's been on the job two months, and he's a very capable man, someone who we have great confidence in. I think that we don't have any immediate plans to alter the current group of sports that we engage in intercollegiately. However, we're an institution that's always open to suggestions and ideas, and Keith Gill I think is an individual more than capable of taking measure of our athletic offerings and deciding whether we're currently situated correctly or whether we have to make some changes. We are deeply committed to intercollegiate athletics. I think our membership in the Patriot League makes a very strong statement about the academic values that underlie that commitment, and we're very proud of some of the recent accomplishments of our program - our national championship in wrestling last year was just an absolutely wonderful accomplishment. We've had great success in field hockey and in volleyball; good, solid performances in soccer and track and field, basketball, and we're just looking to get better and better in each of those sports. Swimming is a strong program, I think, as you know. I probably left one of the teams out, and if I am, I'm sorry, but when I was provost and as acting president, I tried to make my support for that part of campus life obvious and conspicuous, and I intend to do the same as president.
EIC: You've talked a lot about fundraising, and in order to do that, that involves a lot of travel time. How do you plan to balance your fundraising time with also being a presence on campus?
Kerwin: I didn't find it all that challenging in the first two years. I think, like anything else, time management is a critical aspect of this job, but making myself visible on the campus is relatively easy. I'm 100 yards away from the quad, so I can walk out and see people any time I feel like it. I also have a pretty good handle on which events in the life of the schools and colleges, which events in the life of campus organizations and clubs are important. I'll try to whatever extent I can make myself available for those when people think it's important for me to be there. I'm a known commodity. People are used to interacting with me, but I think they also understand that as president, I have obligations that are going to take me away from the campus on a regular basis. The purpose of that travel, of course, is to make things better back here, so I don't foresee any great challenge in making myself available both on campus and off.
EIC: What would you like to do that previous presidents have not done for the university?
Kerwin: I think that we often talk about making sure that the reputation American University enjoys is equal to its actual performance, and I would like to be able to do a number of things that we have not yet been able to accomplish. But perhaps one of the most important is to ensure that the world outside these walls understands the extraordinary work that's being done here by faculty, students and staff. Beyond that, of course, there are always new goals set for every new president. We certainly have a fundraising campaign that needs to be completed. If we complete this fundraising campaign, it will be the largest in our history. We are always very concerned and very dedicated to ensuring that we bring to this campus the most highly qualified groups of students we can, and we'll always be looking to improve on the margin there. But I want to leave this job, however many years I have it, looking back and being able to say that American University is now properly appreciated in the outside world for the extraordinary work that it's doing. And the job is an easy one because there are many, many wonderful stories to tell about what happens here. But it's a crowded market - people are also distracted by lots of other subjects, so we're going to have to be fairly aggressive in the way we tell our story, and I expect that's what we will be over the next few years.
