Provost candidate Elliott Pood said Ball State University should not be too worried about its recent dip in student enrollment numbers.
An audience of students, faculty and staff attended an open forum Tuesday to question Pood about views on Ball State enrollment, core curriculum standards and Muncie-university relations.
"Every place I've been, when we've increased standards, we have taken a short term hit on enrollment, but in the long term, enrollment has grown, and it's grown in the types of students that we've wanted to attract," Pood said.
As dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Southern Mississippi, Pood said he always tries to look at changes in a creative way.
He said success of programs isn't always about the money that a university can afford to put into them.
"I think the first thing you have to do is find yourself- by your uniquenesses-the areas that you know you do well-and capitalize on those strengths" Pood said.
He said Ball State shouldn't necessarily be competing with Indiana University or Purdue University, but should instead be competing outside the state.
"You do that by branding the university, by defining who you are," Pood said. "Don't try to be all things to all people, and that's a mistake that a lot of universities make."
Since Ball State is best known for its communications, architecture, education and technology programs, the focus should be on those, Pood said.
This allows the university to put its resources where they will do the best good in growing the institution.
"Just because we've always done it that way for 50 years- that doesn't mean we have to do it that way tomorrow," Pood said.
Joe Losco, vice president of the Ball State chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said he was impressed with Pood's presentation.
"I think his advice not to panic about losing student enrollment is good," Losco said. "There are ways to pick that up and play to our strengths instead of creating all new programs."
Student Katrin Hoffman said though she didn't attend the first provost forum and couldn't compare the two, she thought Pood was a knowledgeable candidate.
"I like that he said we don't always have to do things they way they've always been done," Hoffman said.
Hoffman asked Pood what he would do to stimulate minority enrollment at Ball State.
Pood said Southern Miss has the largest minority population of any university in the state of Mississippi-more than 30 percent.
"One of the ways we've done that is by making a commitment to provide role models to minority students from diverse backgrounds," Pood said.
Juli Eflin, chair of the University Core Curriculum Taskforce II, a group on a model for reforming core curriculum at Ball State, asked Pood about his thoughts on national trends in general education requirements.
Pood said current general education courses tend to increase the hours students are required to take and for the major programs to reduce hours. One of the national trends helping to prevent this conflict is "double counting," or allowing certain courses to count for both general education and major class requirements.
Pood also stressed that requiring students to have a certain grade or standard to pass a general education course is a good idea.
"The research we've done over the years indicates that there are two primary variables that tend to contribute to persistence to graduation," he said. "That's a grade of C or better in English Composition classes-and [Ball State] has that requirement-but the second one is a grade of C or better in college level math classes."
He suggested the university might consider instating a minimum math class grade standard.
"He understands what's on the national scene for core curriculum, for general education, so I think that he would actually be very good for our core curriculum revisions," Eflin said.
Eflin said she appreciated Pood's view that the provost should be a facilitator for the changes the faculty and taskforce want to see instead of a provost taking over.
Another faculty member asked Pood what he had learned from his experiences of being a dean.
"In terms of what I learned I think the biggest thing I've learned being a dean at two universities now is that I'm not always right," Pood said. "I will make mistakes. I'm human. If I accept that fact and if I'm willing to listen to people tell me when I'm wrong, I can fix my mistakes. I can't avoid making them."
Being dean of the College of Arts and Letters, Pood said he oversaw 14 departments, which gave him a diverse background.
"I think what I've learned from that process is the most important thing for any leader in the academic realm is to follow process, to be an ethical person, to be consistent and to listen," Pood said.
Pood said grasping a sense of what Ball State needed to work on would be the biggest challenge.
"The biggest learning curve for me will be to learn your systems and your information," Pood said. "The hardest thing for me, but the thing I committed to doing, is when I first arrive getting around to everybody in my sphere of influence and asking you one simple question, 'What are your hopes, dreams and desires?'"
Another topic that arose during the forum is town-gown relations, also known as community-university relations.
"A good university is a university that is involved in its community," Pood said. "It's involved in ways that help the people of the community."
Pood talked about the example of his work to take two old high schools downtown and restore them to create a new art department building and a new African American cultural history museum in order to connect the university with the community.
"He had some really good advice and good examples about bridging the town and gown divide," Losco said. "That seems to be a nice way to get the students and city together in a joined venture."
Eflin said she thought emphasizing Ball State's stronger programs and community involvement were positive ideas.
"I thought he was very creative in thinking about changes that could benefit the entire university community, but at the same time I felt he would fit well with who Ball State is," Eflin said.
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