Knoxville’s Future: Searching for a Chancellor
By Provost Robert Holub
In the past few weeks I have been asked by a number of people on campus what qualities I believe the new chancellor should possess. This question confronted me almost exactly four years ago when Berkeley was searching for a new chancellor, and if you are interested, you can still read my comments online.
Much of what I wrote in 2004 applies, mutatis mutandis, to the current situation in Knoxville. Trends in state support and faculty salaries are relevant for our campus as well, and the difficulties a new chancellor will encounter encompass many of the same dimensions as those faced by Berkeley’s chancellor.
To delineate my thoughts on what qualities I believe a chancellor must possess, however, I thought it might be useful to adopt the framework of second language acquisition. In this realm we find categories that may be adapted for use in assessing the type of leadership we need on the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee.
Most experts in second-language acquisition speak of four areas of competence: the passive abilities of reading and comprehension, and the more active skills of speaking and writing.
Our chancellor must excel in reading — and in being read. What I mean by this is two things. First, this individual must be a respected and learned academic who has attained a level of expertise in his/her discipline that qualifies him/her for appointment to our faculty. Indeed, my view is that an individual who has achieved preeminence in his/her field is more likely to bring high academic values to the campus and to recognize and work for the goals of academic excellence we all hold dear. The second part of “reading” is that the next chancellor must be well read, i.e., well versed in issues of higher education. We need someone who knows best practices across the country, who keeps up with the latest issues and advances in higher education, and who is willing to move our campus in the direction of the finest institutions of higher education in the country. We would like someone well respected in national circles of higher education, or at least someone who has the potential to earn the respect of educators in the United States.
Our chancellor must be not only a good listener, but also someone who understands what is at stake in this complex institution. Research universities have many different constituencies both internal and external. The chancellor will perforce be acquainted personally with only a small fraction of the academic areas found at Knoxville. For that reason s/he must be willing to hear the concerns of all disciplines and make decisions in a non-partisan, objective fashion: the benefit to the whole institution must be his/her guiding principle. Our new chancellor must represent every academic field equally, and beyond academic representation, s/he must learn about and give voice to concerns of students, staff, alumni, trustees, governmental officials, and the general public. Only someone skilled in oral comprehension can fill such a role.
Our chancellor must master written communication. S/he must respond promptly and appropriately to all forms of inquiry, making certain that those who contact him/her have the feeling that they are being treated well and that their concerns are important. In this regard it would be advantageous if the new chancellor would keep a web site where the campus could read about his/her pronouncements at public events and where any interested party could learn about his/her vision for Knoxville’s future and of higher education in general. It would be even better if the new chancellor had received some critical acclaim for writings on issues in higher education. Most important, however, is that s/he be clear, precise, and communicative with the many diverse individuals and groups s/he will encounter.
The chancellor must also master oral communication. It is important in the first instance that the chancellor sees him/herself as someone who ought to be communicating, especially with the faculty, but also with others internal and external to the institution. Obviously one key area of communication will be with alumni and donors; another will be with trustees and legislators, especially those in our geographic area. The success of the new chancellor will invariably be connected with his/her effectiveness in carrying the message of the Knoxville campus to a variety of constituencies.
There are two additional areas in which the new chancellor must excel, and these areas are also related to second language acquisition: cultural and intercultural competence. It has become a truism of foreign language instruction that every utterance occurs in a specific context and that speakers learning a language must be taught to say appropriate things at the appropriate time. That quality is even more important for a chancellor. The message may be the same from one context to the next, but the chancellor must have sensitivity for how the message must be delivered to different audiences. Moreover, s/he must recognize that the various subcultures in the state will be hearing perhaps different statements even when s/he employs the same words. Recognition of differences and an endeavor to draw in various audiences with gestures of inclusiveness will therefore be of paramount importance if the new chancellor is going to succeed, and if Knoxville is going to prosper.
Will we be able to find individuals who exhibit such qualities? That question is difficult to answer. But we are off to a great start with the present search committee, which contains individuals from the campus and beyond who very likely subscribe to precisely the values I have outlined above.
All universities experience good times and hard times. Budgets rise and fall; some programs will succeed, others will fail; some years we will win the big grant, while in other years we will not. If we attract a chancellor with the requisite skills and abilities to lead a genuine flagship campus, however, we will be assured of continued improvement far into the future for our students, our faculty, and the citizens of the state.
February 5, 2008
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