Jo Ann Gora was hired and introduced by the Board of Trustees Tuesday as the first female president of Ball State University.
Tom DeWeese, president of the Board, introduced Gora, currently the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Boston, to the university community at a press conference at the Alumni Center Tuesday evening. Gora told the audience that she is excited to begin, and that her first few days as president will be spent listening.
"Now it is time for me to understand the university from your perspective, based on your experience and unique expertise," Gora said.
The new president downplayed her gender, despite the fact that no public university in the state of Indiana has been led by a female president.
"It's not significant," Gora said. "Hopefully that's not what will be the most important part about me."
Gora will take office August 9. She is leaving UMB after about three years. She gave no definite indication of how long she plans on staying at Ball State, but said she does not plan on leaving anytime soon.
"I hope to be at Ball State as long as you'll have me," Gora said.
Gora also plans to acknowledge last year's deaths of students Michael McKinney and Karl Harford. McKinney was shot in November by a University Police officer during an altercation, and Harford was shot in March after leaving an off-campus house party.
"I would like to visit the families of the two students," Gora said.
Gora has presided over UMB at the same time that funding for the school was cut by the state by $29.4 million in three years.
Most Boston faculty give her credit for the way she handled the situation.
"She managed to preserve the academic integrity of the institution in the face of the largest cuts in the United States," Steven Schwartz, chairman of the psychology department at UMB, said. Schwartz also represents the faculty of UMB to the Board of Trustees at the University of Massachusetts.
Schwartz described Gora as a strong, decisive leader who created a strategic plan for UMB that not only detailed what must be done to realize her vision for the campus, but also who would do what, and when.
"She was very forceful," Schwartz said.
However, those same qualities helped her earn some critics at the university. Ann Withorn, professor of social policy at UMB, said she and other faculty were critical of appointments that Gora made within the university. After hiring a popular faculty member to serve as acting provost, Withorn said, Gora removed him in favor of an outsider. The move upset many faculty.
"What she needs is insiders that are really connected to the communities," Withorn said.
But Withorn conceded that Gora struggled with many problems that were not her own. Withorn said Gora is a smart administrator who does her homework.
"Some administrators are total cardboard characters," Withorn said. "She's not that."
Schwartz particularly noted Gora's ability to prepare, describing a situation where she arrived at a meeting full of people she had not met, but knew everything she needed to about them.
"You give her a memo to read before you go meet with her, she's read it and knows it," Schwartz said.
Marilyn Buck, a member of the search committee that identified Gora, said she had a similar experience when Gora first met with the committee.
"She walked around and introduced herself to each person that was there," Buck said. "She also knew who each person's responsibilities were and why they were on the committee."
Joe Losco, professor of political science at Ball State and a vocal critic of the process used to hire Gora, said he was pleased with her selection.
"I think she's an excellent choice and one that shows that she probably would have been selected by an open process," Losco said. "She comes very highly recommended by her faculty."
Losco and other faculty criticized Ball State's Board of Trustees as the search began because of the private nature of both the selection of the search committee and the selection of the final candidates. A confidentiality agreement entered into by members of the Board and the search committee meant that the name of no candidate, other than the final choice, would be made public.
Tom DeWeese, chairman of the Board, said confidentiality is the only way to attract top-level candidates. However, Gora's candidacy for the presidency of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. became public last month. She withdrew from the search at the end of April.
Either way, Schwartz said Ball State has obtained a strong leader.
"It's hard to imagine they would hire her if they wanted a yes-man kind of thing," Schwartz said. "She's far from that."
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