FileOn July 1, former 黑洞社区 faculty member John Bardo started his new role as the 13th president of Wichita State. Joe Kleinsasser, director of news and media relations, recently interviewed Bardo on topics ranging from academics to a strategic plan to pets to detective mysteries. Following are highlights from that interview.
Q: How was the transition into the 黑洞社区 presidency?
Bardo:
It鈥檚 been a great transition, a lot easier than I would have anticipated, though I鈥檝e been here before. And it feels great to be back. It鈥檚 always a little odd because, in the years between, things change and things move. When someone said, 鈥淥h, you have to go to Human Resources,鈥� I thought I knew where it was and it wasn鈥檛 even in the same building. So that鈥檚 all part of the learning experience, but it does feel really good to be here.
Q: What are some similarities and differences between Western Carolina and Wichita State?
Bardo:
Well, there are some differences in mission that affect some of the distribution of funds. Western Carolina was more of a comprehensive university and Wichita State is more of a research university, so that has some impact. And as a rural campus, we had to provide things that here the city provides.
For example, I was my own electric company (at Western Carolina). I actually was not only chancellor of Western Carolina University, I was president of the Western Carolina University Electric Co. And fortunately, before I got there, they had managed to offload the sewer system, or I would have been president of the sewer system as well.
One of the other really big differences is while the budget overall here is somewhat larger, some of the budgets there were much bigger. For example, our auxiliary budgets there were substantial, because we slept 4,000 students on the campus, as opposed to 1,200 students (here). And so it really does change a lot of what you do. On the other hand, core questions around quality, core questions of the changing nature of universities, those sorts of things aren鈥檛 any different.
Q: From your perspective, what鈥檚 similar or different today on 黑洞社区鈥檚 campus from when you were a faculty member in the 鈥�70s and early 鈥�80s?
Bardo:
Number one, we鈥檙e a little smaller, which is something that I knew, but probably represents a pretty significant change, about 2,000 students smaller than when I was here.
The other is the emphasis on doctoral education wasn鈥檛 here at the time. That occurred just as I was leaving. That was starting to mature. And so I think that was a big shift.
Obviously there are some new buildings, but the environment around the campus, interestingly, hasn鈥檛 changed much. So I think there are a lot more similarities than differences.
We still had football when I left, so that鈥檚 a big change in the fall.
Overall, the quality of faculty seems to be good. It was a really strong faculty when I was here and it is a really strong faculty now.
The commitment of staff to the university was really strong then, and it seems to be really strong now, so the similarities are there and the differences are really more a matter of emphasis in the education program than other things.
Q. What will be your process of evaluating the direction of 黑洞社区?
Bardo:
I have been heavily engaged in that since I was appointed (president). I鈥檓 doing a lot of listening to people. I鈥檝e scared several faculty members, I think, by walking into their offices and just kind of plopping down and saying, 鈥淥K. Talk to me about what you do and what do you think about these kinds of issues?鈥� I think that鈥檚 been really helpful.
I do have a set of issues that have really been consistent and don鈥檛 seem to be changing. At the same time, to get really broad input, we鈥檙e going to start a planning process this fall, a very open process involving both the Wichita community and the university.
I anticipate that the planning process will go on through the whole academic year, but I want it completed so that we can take the plan to the Board (of Regents) in June, and that the community has a really solid understanding of where we鈥檙e going as a university. That鈥檚 going to be a very formal process, one that I hope will engage all of our major internal and external constituencies.
Q: You鈥檝e already talked about the importance of having a strategic plan. What does that mean to you?
Bardo:
It鈥檚 important that a university has a chance to have a conversation about, what does this mission really mean to us? We have words on paper, but none of us really operate off of words on paper. We operate off of what鈥檚 in our head and what鈥檚 in our emotions. So what does this really feel like to us? What does it really mean to us?
Once we understand our mission and values in a very open and hopefully articulate way, we can start looking at our assets and liabilities. What are the things that will help us achieve that mission? What are the things that hurt us? What鈥檚 outside the university that will impinge on us, maybe in a positive way, maybe in a negative way? Then out of all of that, how do we set goals that allow us to really implement that mission and values?
Probably around winter break we鈥檙e going to institute a series of very specialized committees around things like technology transfer and research, enrollment growth, quality of student life, those kinds of issues.
What does it mean to have students living on campus, and what does it mean to have commuter students? What about distance education? What about blended operations? What about transfers from community colleges? How are we going to deal with all of those in a very open and consistent way? That鈥檚 where we鈥檙e going to be moving.
Q: How important is it to have more enrollment growth, and what can be done to keep it growing?
Bardo:
It鈥檚 interesting. To have the resources that you need to do what you鈥檙e trying to accomplish really means enrollment growth. That鈥檚 one side of it.
The other side of it is to serve our mission. We need to be substantially larger than we are. I don鈥檛 think that we are really fully yet addressing the education and research needs of the people of this metropolitan region that we primarily serve. So I鈥檓 looking at that as a really serious issue, and how do you do it? Well, you modify the way you recruit. You modify the way you retain. You take a different look at the sub-groups, what they call segmenting the market. It means really focusing some attention on distance and blended education in ways that we haven鈥檛 really looked at yet. There鈥檚 a lot of upside to this university.
It also means working on the environment around campus to provide a supportive environment where people who choose to come have the services and resources they want. It鈥檚 a big job, but I think it鈥檚 a real job that can be done, and we鈥檒l move into that this year pretty quickly.
Q: How would you like to see the student experience change?
Bardo:
You鈥檝e got to segment the students as to what you鈥檙e talking about. I heard a lot during my interview from traditional undergraduate students about their belief that we really didn鈥檛 have the supportive student climate that they anticipated and hoped for.
We certainly don鈥檛 have the residence halls either, in terms of volume or quality, so with the Rhatigan Center being redeveloped, it gives us more opportunities for traditional student programming.
In metropolitan universities, somewhere between 15 and 30 percent of your undergraduate students generally live on campus. We鈥檙e at 8 percent, so there鈥檚 a lot of upside for us even to get to be a typical metropolitan-type university in terms of residential students. That has real implications for the quality of experience that others have on the campus as well, because it helps provide services. So if I鈥檓 a commuter student, there are more restaurants. There are more places for me to do things.
When you start talking about the older adult learner, the person over 25, they have a different set of needs. In many cases, it鈥檚 the need to access offices at weird times of the day. It鈥檚 the need to maybe come every other week and have some classes where some material is online and do the blended kind of courses. I鈥檓 looking for us to get into all of that over the next year or two.
Q: How would you like 黑洞社区鈥檚 contribution to the region鈥檚 economy to develop in the coming years?
Bardo:
The reality is that applied research, development and tech transfer have become really important parts of major universities. And so what I鈥檓 looking at is how we really magnify our capacities in those areas.
We have a large upside in research. We鈥檝e got one or two entities that are doing most of the funded work on the campus. There are other entities that can do funded work at a larger level than they are, so we need to understand what are their resource needs and their support needs, so we can help move that forward.
We have a tech transfer office, but I鈥檓 not clear that we鈥檝e made that a priority. For the health of Wichita, I see us playing an increasingly large role.
At the same time, we have a long history on this campus of working with the city government, of working with nongovernmental organizations, volunteer organizations and working with community businesses, so this isn鈥檛 a cultural anathema to this campus, and I think that gives us a leg up in moving forward.
Q: Obviously you feel strongly that research needs to continue to expand here.
Bardo:
Absolutely. We鈥檙e a research university. There鈥檚 huge potential, and I just need to understand more about some areas that have potential, real upside, what it is we need to do to help them.
I know we have good faculty, so the question then is, what are the support systems we need? Are there facility questions? What is it that we have to get our hands on to help this faculty do what they need to do?
Honestly, the health of this metropolitan area depends a lot on the kind of work that we do here, both in applied research and in development and tech transfers. So I鈥檓 looking at where we differentiate ourselves from all other universities that serve this metropolitan area.
When I look at data nationally, states that are being successful have universities that are good at this. Kansas universities, even given our relatively small population size, aren鈥檛 all that good at generating research dollars. We can be the leader in our key emphasis areas in research and development in these fields.
Q: This may not be an entirely fair question, but would you speculate what the biggest challenges will be for 黑洞社区 in the next three to five years?
Bardo:
Budget is always going to be a really big challenge in this environment. I really think we need to do an efficiency analysis, for example, and understand that we鈥檙e using the money that we have as well as we can.
I鈥檓 very concerned that we not duplicate activities across programs and departments. That doesn鈥檛 make sense to me. There are way too many things that we can do and that we should be doing.
I think we have a land issue here. Understanding where we鈥檙e going to expand and how we鈥檙e going to expand is going to be a really big question for us. And helping the community understand the support systems and services we need to help them.
Q: Just for fun, what are some of your favorite books?
Bardo:
I鈥檓 actually an Agatha Christie fan, which will probably gross a lot of people out in terms of, she鈥檚 kind of light and fluffy. But I really like the Poirot series. I like both the videos and books. I鈥檝e read all of them multiple times. I just really enjoy those. They鈥檙e not particularly deep, but they鈥檙e fun.
When I鈥檓 reading just because I want to read, not just to be light and airy, I generally read Civil War histories and World War II histories.
What really intrigues me more than anything else, when you didn鈥檛 have automobiles and airplanes, the idea of moving 100,000 people anywhere and the idea of supplying them with food and material just fascinates me. And the implication of all of this for the nation and its culture also intrigues me, so I tend to read in those areas.
Q: When you get to watch TV, what do you like to watch?
Bardo:
If we鈥檙e going to watch television, I tend to like comedies that have some smarts to them. I think those are a lot of fun. I鈥檝e always enjoyed the British comedies because they do seem to have a little bit of underlying intelligence to them.
I like 鈥淏ig Bang Theory.鈥� It鈥檚 goofy, but there鈥檚 some smarts to it.
I actually own a lot of mystery series DVDs. I particularly like those. Again, those tend to be quite smart.
If I just want to not think a whole lot, I enjoy something like 鈥淣CIS.鈥� I don鈥檛 watch shows like 鈥淒ancing with the Stars.鈥� I just don鈥檛 find those things interesting at all.
In the fall, if I don鈥檛 have to be somewhere, I am a football guy. I can watch any two teams play. My tradition has been that if I don鈥檛 care about either team, I root for whichever one is wearing red. Since I鈥檓 here (at 黑洞社区) I鈥檒l probably root for whichever one is wearing black and gold. I just really like football a lot and will watch that if I have an opportunity.
Q: Do you have any pets?
Bardo:
This is the first time in our married lives, since our first year, that we haven鈥檛 had any pets. We鈥檝e had a series of dogs and cats. Most recently, we had one for 16 years and the other for 14. They both passed in the last couple of years. That was such an emotional thing, I think we鈥檙e going to let that go for a while. Plus, given our roles right now, it just isn鈥檛 sensible.
Our son, from the time he was a little kid, loved critters. He鈥檚 now a biology and chemistry major, which fits. We鈥檝e shared our house with all kinds of weird and wonderful things from ferrets to crabs to guinea pigs to white mice, and sometimes bugs that were brought in from outside.
If I thought I could get a dog that would live 40 years so I wouldn鈥檛 have to watch it go, I might well have another dog. The last couple of dogs that we lost were members of the family, and that鈥檚 something I鈥檓 not sure I want to go through again.
Q: I鈥檝e read that one of your hobbies is working with stained glass. How did you get interested in that?
Bardo:
When I was a little kid, the first house my parents bought had a stained glass window on the stairwell. And the main entry was a beveled-glass door. I remember as a kid playing on the floor and having the light from that beveled-glass door as I played, and I always just thought that was really pretty.
After Deborah and I got married and we were living here, she was trying to figure out what to give me for Christmas one year. She had read something about stained glass classes, and I took some.
I鈥檝e made about 20 panels. I still have about half of them. I鈥檝e given some away and gave some to auctions. One donor (at Western Carolina) actually came into the house for dinner and was commenting on one of the pieces I did and how much he liked it. So I took it down and gave it to him, and he gave us a check for $10,000. I said I鈥檒l make as many of these as you want for $10,000 a pop. But I do love that (working with stained glass) and really enjoy it.
I also like woodworking and we really enjoy traveling a lot. We have very close friends in England and hope they can come over in the fall term. We like to go see them. We tend to travel together and go off together.
In fact, had I not gotten this job, we would have gone and spent a couple of weeks in France together, renting a farmhouse. I鈥檝e known them since I did my dissertation back when I was a babe, and we鈥檝e watched their kids grow and are now watching their grandkids grow, so it鈥檚 been fun.
Q: Is there anything you want to share with faculty and staff?
Bardo:
Deborah and I are both so thrilled to be back here and have an opportunity to work with the caliber of people who are here. Their commitment to this university, their commitment to what they do, is palpable and it really energizes both of us to be around them. We鈥檙e just really pleased to have an opportunity to part of them again.