[EDITOR'S NOTE: Ball State Daily News reporter Chris Paliga shadowed Ball State President Jo Ann Gora on Friday. What follows is his observations throughout the day he spent with Gora.]
8 a.m. - FACULTY RECEPTIONThe Friday before classes begin is the first day of the academic year for faculty. The day was full of meetings and receptions, beginning with a meeting for all faculty in John R. Emens Auditorium.President Jo Ann Gora arrived at her first event just after 8 a.m.
She starts her day at a faculty reception before the all-faculty meeting where she is to give a speech on the state of the university.
She immediately began to move from person to person. The Ball State University president known most for her efforts to market the university does not stop just because she is talking to people who already work here.
She thanks an emeriti professor for his donation to the university.
She said absorbing lots of information is part of her job. She greets people by name and cites the dates and specific numbers and reports with confidence throughout the day. Although she called a faculty member by the wrong name on at least one occasion, she later corrected her mistake without the faculty member pointing it out.
She met with each academic department her first year at Ball State, something she was told no other recent president had done. She said she has tried to come up with similar sets of meetings each year and reads everything that faculty members send her.Gora considers her leadership style collaborative.
An athletics coach called her "Coach Gora" at a previous job as provost and vice president of academic affairs at Old Dominion University in Virginia, a monicker she feels is appropriate. She tries to build a strong team of "smart, dedicated and hardworking people," while also recognizing individual contributions. She says this allows her to get a wide range of ideas before making decisions.
9 a.m. - FACULTY MEETINGThis is Gora's sixth state of the university speech. She gave her first shortly after becoming president five years ago. This could be the one given at the most tumultuous time.
Gora will receive more than $200,000 for choosing not to take a six-month sabbatical after her first five years at Ball State. This sabbatical was promised in her original contract, but later revised in a contract extension signed in 2007.
This money for not taking a sabbatical was fresh in the minds of many faculty members who are not getting salary increases this year. Some boycotted the meeting.
Gora focused on solidifying progress the university has already made, rather than presenting new initiatives as she had done in the past.
She said the university needs to keep looking forward, even as times are challenging.
Gora acknowledged the tough economic times and thanked the faculty members for their contributions to the "Ball State Bold: Investing in the Future" capital campaign.
She did not mention the compensation in her speech.Gora grew more tense when asked about the timing of the compensation afterward. She said the money is not a bonus or new compensation, but has been a part of her contract for years. She said she did not know when she would actually receive the money.
10:30 a.m. - IN THE OFFICEAfter the speech, Gora walked back to the Administration Building from Emens.
Large windows keep Gora's office brightly lit. It is nicely decorated but not ornate. Her walls are decorated with photos of her with Sen. Richard Lugar and former first lady Laura Bush. A picture of her in front of a stunt plane is on the window near her desk. She said a donor made riding in the stunt plane without vomiting a condition for his donation.
A couch sits in front of a coffee table stacked high with brochures and other information she uses to talk about the university.
Gora sat down at her desk, which is covered with neatly organized papers.
She makes calls and proofreads letters to donors with a highlighter. After about 20 minutes, Gora began a meeting with Vice President for Student Affairs Kay Bales. She tries to meet with each of the vice presidents every two weeks. Gora launches into questions before she finishes sitting down at the table in her office.
She began by asking about a student applying for reinstatement to the university. She was familiar with specific details about the student's situation.She discussed the university retention rate, which Bales said will be about the same as last year. Bales said her office will evaluate bridge programs for freshmen, which are designed to improve retention rates. Gora makes suggestions about the research methods for focus groups.
Noon - WIBLE LUNCHGora spends a bit more time reading e-mail before she walks to her next meeting, a scholarship lunch in the Atrium. Along the way she ran into Happy Friday Guy. She greeted him enthusiastically and told him she thought he was gone. He said he is like 007; there is a new one every few years. Gora takes a minute to chat with him and accept a piece of candy.
The lunch celebrates a gift to the university establishing the Evelyn Reynolds Wible Nursing Scholarship, which is for a senior nursing student. The donation to create the scholarship was made by emeriti professor of telecommunications Darrell Wible in memory of his wife, a nurse.
Gora was handed a name tag when she arrived, but didn't put it on. She socialized for a few minutes before sitting down at the table with Wible and scholarship recipient.
She took Wible's name tag off as she was talking to him. "Everyone here knows who you are," she said.Wible was David Letterman's mentor at Ball State. Letterman asked Wible to arrange his first major donation to the university, which Wible said gave him more freedom than most faculty members. This caused some conflicts in the university and some tried to take Wible's freedom away. He said Letterman warned the university if they interfered with Wible's autonomy, Letterman would never give any more money to Ball State.
Gora told Wible that nothing like that would happen, because the university tries to honor donor's wishes.Donor wishes can be difficult for the university. Gora said she tried to convince Wible to establish a scholarship for freshmen, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
She said this highlights one of her challenges as university president. Donors will give money to what they want to support, not necessarily what the university would like to spend it on.
People often suggest that the university raise money when she tells them there aren't funds for projects they feel strongly about, she said, mentioning new offices for football coaches as a project that donors haven't shown interest in.
She said it is sometimes possible to create the interest. Gora said people talked about renovating the football stadium for 20 years but were not able to find enough donor interest.
Gora was asked to say a few words, which she was not expecting. Gora stays on message. She speaks not only about the scholarship itself, but also successes of the university and the nursing program.Gora apologized for leaving before the event was over and walked back toward the Administration Building. As she came to the Scramble Light, a student shouted "Jo Ann Gora!" and ran across the street to see her. The student was passing out coupon books and asked the president to pose for a picture. Gora obliged, but declined to keep the coupon book.
1 p.m. - INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT MEETINGAfter a phone call with the provost, Gora begins her next meeting with Vice President of University Advancement Ben Hancock and Dean of the Rinker Center for International Programs Ken Holland.
The university is working on increasing its international presence. The university has hired a recruiter in Turkey and plans a trip in May. Gora started by reminding everyone of the trip's two main goals - recruiting students and raising money. But she said they can also serve as an agent for economic development. The university plans to hold one alumni event and meet with officials from six universities and six chambers of commerce.
They discuss getting business cards in Turkish and altering Ball State promotional movies to be more culturally appropriate, without explicit requests for money.
After the meeting, Gora does some more work and prepares for the rest of the weekend.
During a phone call about the Freshman Convocation, Gora said she wants to prepare her own remarks. She learned that Emens does not have enough seating for all freshmen, meaning some may be sent to Pruis Hall. Gora appears clearly disappointed.
As the day progresses, Gora looks more and more tired and stressed during private moments. She sighs as she reads papers on her desk, at one point wondering out loud if a professor who sent her a description of a recent project thought she has nothing to do all day.
Interacting with people seems to re-energize her. Indications of tiredness or stress melt away moments before she greets members of the SGA executive board at a meeting.
3 p.m. - SGA MEETINGShe moved an orchid off her table to make room. Gora said she borrows them to give her an opportunity to talk about Ball State's Wheeler Orchid Collection housed in Christy Woods.
Gora began the meeting by telling a story she was quite fond of, having told it three times that day.
She attended an introduction for freshmen to Ball State athletics at 9 p.m. the previous day at Worthen Arena. An athletics promoter asked the freshmen if they knew the Ball State fight song, and Gora was surprised by how many raised their hands. One person was selected to try. The student told the band what key to play in and then sang it well.
Gora said she was pleased with the turnout. She jokingly said she loves that freshmen will go wherever they are told in the first week.
The rest of the time was spent on updates about SGA's progress on their platform. Gora gave suggestions about specific initiatives.
She also agreed to SGA's plan to select a student to watch a football game in the president's suite. SGA President Beth Cahill said she wasn't sure how to select the student and said they may have to make sure it was someone who would behave. Gora wasn't concerned. People behave in the president's suite, she said.
4:30 p.m. - RECEPTIONSThe SGA meeting was her last of the day, ending shortly before 4 p.m. She spent another half hour working on things at her desk before leaving her office to go to three receptions.
She called her husband to make dinner plans and apologize for being late as she walked to Ball State University Museum of Art for the first reception.
She had barely gotten into the door when her phone rang. She moved to a quiet corner where the energy seemed to drain again. She had a call from a university spokesperson asking her to approve something within the next 10 minutes.
After she finished the call, she plunged back into the reception.
She thanked the professor for sending along the brochure that she had complained about being unnecessary earlier.
As she talks to one group, another often starts to form in what they perceive to be the path she will take. It is difficult for Gora to leave any room. As soon as she would excuse herself from one conversation, someone else would stop her and begin another one.
She came up to the food table as she moved between people.
"You need to learn to grab food on the run or you'll never survive these things," she said as she quickly ate two pieces of melon while moving to talk to someone else.
Gora said university receptions are difficult because people always read into which ones she attends and which ones she does not attend. She does not attend any retirement parties to avoid offending anyone.Gora drives to her next two receptions, both of which are off campus. She said the Board of Trustees has been urging her to hire a driver so she can spend travel time working. She said it would make her uncomfortable and has refused.
7 p.m. - ENDING THE DAYShe left the last reception of the day at 7 p.m., but said she still had two to three hours of preparation for items to work on the next day. The day was slightly less busy than typical because she had time between meetings today.
The day can't be called a typical one.
"No day is typical," she said.
She said the job of a university president requires a wide range of duties that differ, meaning she is dealing with something different every day. She did say that what makes any day, including this one, typical is that she meets all kinds of different people, including donors, legislators, faculty, staff and students.
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