A look back at some of her accomplishments and challenges, and look forward to her new role as President of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. The conversation started with how she was recruited for the role 15 years ago.
I don't look like, I don't sound like anyone in Montana. And I remember then lowering my head and say, saying to him, what do you see in me that I'm not seeing? Because inside my head what I was thinking, there was a lot of fear. Like there's no way a woman, a Latina, five feet tall, speaks with an accent background in comparative literature. There's no way. But what he said really.
Surprised me and resonated with me. He said, um, what we see in you is your experience with land grant universities, your passion for students, and we're looking for someone with a lot of energy. And on that note, I said, well, in, in that case, I was the last person to apply for the position, candidate number 59. And the rest was history. And I was blessed with this opportunity
How have the last 15 years here in Bozeman shaped you? Changed you?
I, well, I have loved every minute of my time here, and I always like to, to expand that a little bit more and save my time in Montana . Because, one of the things that I have tried to be very careful about is also take the time to get out of Bozeman and visit our affiliated campuses in Billings and in Great falls and in Havre, our agricultural stations.
As a good land grant university, we have extension, which means. We have literally a storefront serving every county. So we have 55 offices in the state serving 56 counties in Montana. And over the course of 10 years, actually, we visited every county in the state. And it has been just a joy. And I say Montana's home now for me.
I'm curious, especially just looking around this room, lots of mementos. Is there any, object in this room that, or just a story that you feel like, um. You know, resonates, especially, um, strongly over these last decade and a half?
There are so many memories, right? And the mementos and, and, and the notes that these days, particularly I'm receiving are incredible.And they said they're, they're notes everywhere in the office. So, um, it's hard for me to choose just one. And the beauty of the job is that every morning I wake up. And I want to come to off to the office and see, let's see what the day brings. How many wonderful people we meet and how many lives we touch. It's, it's a profound, it's a profound job. It's very beautiful.
I'm glad to hear that you like coming to the office every day. I'm sure there were some challenges also, and I'm just curious, what challenges you did face, both maybe internally or externally, throughout your time here?
Yeah. The job of the university presidency, it's, it's complex. Particularly because you have so many constituents, constituencies to tend to, right? There's students and the faculty and the staff and the alumni and the legislature and the elected officials and the communities at large, and you are in constant interaction and the university is that is at that point of intersection.
So therefore the university's never inoculated right from external forces. So if there are, national events or worldwide events like a pandemic for example, we're going to be impacted.
I don't know how any of us called ourselves academic leaders before the pandemic.
That was the challenge of a generation, right? Particularly in terms of leadership trying to impart. Vision and guidance when you did not even understand clearly what was going on right, or what was going to happen next day, sometimes not even next, next hour. You know, having the, the responsibility of announcing, let's say, a change in the morning and you know, still with a straight face, say in the afternoon, you know, we're not going to do that. We are going to do this other thing instead.So that was, that was an incredible challenge.
What do you think maybe MSU will look like in the next 15 years, how are you leaving it here at this transition?
I think that I'm living in a university in a strong position and now, right. What's in the future? I think that it will be important for us to continue to. To to talk about the importance of the Land-grant mission. That we are here to educate the sons and daughters of the Working Families of Montana.
I think that in the future. The value of higher education will continue to grow. Just take a look at what's happening with ai, right? Artificial intelligence. So if you are going to have machines that are smarter and smarter every day, you better be sure that you have human beings that are very well educated and that stay at the top of their game and ahead of those machines.
So that is going to be one of the, the most important things, affordability. Access so that people feel right that this is their university. They should come here because they want to have a better lot in life and improve the opportunities for themselves and for their children and for the communities they live in.
So it's, it's an exciting time, um, for higher education. It's always replete with questions and, and opportunities and challenges. But that is the nature of the job of being a president, right? It's to address those challenges and to reach out to folks, and to create partnerships, and to ask people, I need your help, right? In building, hopefully a better and afraid and and brighter future for everybody.
What does this moment feels like for you? Where you are in that baton passing, and I'm imagining it's bittersweet after 15 years.
It is hard. First of all, we're running a university, right? And the conclusion of an academic year, it's always replete with opportunities for celebrations, but also there are many things that you need to wrap up, so that is the regular job.
And then on top of that, you want to make sure that everything is in, is in tipped up shape so that when the next president arrives, right, that is a smooth transition for the next president, but also for the rest of campus. And like in with any transition in life, it's an opportunity for a lot of reflection and many memories come rushing and, um, good grief. I have been crying a lot, uh, these days, but these are tears of happiness.
Yes, we have grown a lot in terms of student enrollment, in terms of new buildings, but new buildings is not the most, the most important thing. People are right and the relationships that we have been able to establish hopefully will last a lifetime.
I've been saying I'm going to keep my phone number because I need to have a 406 in my phone every day and see that area code. And remind me of the blessing that has been to serve the people of Montana for the last 15 years.
I know in your announcement that you were retiring, you talked about wanting to spend more time with your grandkids. Yes. And now you're taking on a whole new role. Um, what, what made you decide that this role was right for you and important to take on now?
So internally in my family, um, we have been talking about, so what's, what's the next stage and when am I going to retire?
And, um, there has been a dissenting voice and that was my son, and the way he says it is, mom, um, you cannot, after 15 years of running so strongly, you just cannot stop suddenly. So that was something in the back of my mind.
And then in the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, which is based in Washington DC. So they reached out last year and at the beginning I was like, no, I really want to retire. And then I started to think. I have been talking for decades now about the importance of the land-grant history and telling the story. So I thought if I have been insisting on this history and the importance of this mission, and now I'm being called to serve at a national level, then that's something I should consider strongly. And so that's, that's how it happened.
That makes sense. I know that universities at this moment are kind of facing some unprecedented heavy handedness, I guess from our administration at this moment, whether that's DEI or research. I'm just curious like how you're going into this, what your strategy is to maintain university's autonomy?
The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities is composed of land grant universities and public universities with strong research portfolios.
That is the perfect antidote in a way to some of the negative comments and that you hear about higher education in general or private higher education. So I am, I'm confident that we have, we have a good product to share with people like, look what your local public university is doing.
The food we eat, the clothes we wear, the medications we take, even the water we drink, right? All of that has been possible thanks to the advances. It made possible by basic research and in many cases that basic research has been supported and done at a public and land grant university.
So it's a good story to remind people. What’s not to love about that message.
What would you say to criticism that has come to universities being something that's unaccessible or efforts in diversity, equity, inclusion being an a negative thing?
Land grant universities were possible because Congress passed a bill in 1862.
That means that some of the early homesteaders were our first college students. And I always say, how many homesteaders do you think were college ready? So that was our first commitment to diversity. That was our first commitment as a nation to inclusion.
When you read the land-grant bill, and when you say right, that this new brand of colleges and universities were open, quote to the sons and daughters of the industrial classes, that was the first time that the word daughters was articulated in a congressional bill.
So this is in our DNA, right? And the fact that we passed this in 1862. Tells me that as a nation we were able to leave behind right in the middle of a civil war, all the divisions that we had, and together we were able to envision a better and brighter future based on one premise and one promise. And that is that public higher education in America will always strengthen democracy and make us a stronger society.
Thank you so much for taking some time to talk with me and wish you best on your next adventure.
Thank you so much. And thank you to the entire state of Montana for the privilege they have afforded me to serve this beautiful state and this wonderful university. Go cats. Thank you.
