Education  August 13, 2009

New chancellor on a mission for CSU System

Colorado State University has a new structure, and it arrived with a bit of a bump.

The sudden resignation of President Larry Penley in November rattled the system, but provided the Board of Governors the opportunity to rework university governance. Does it make sense, they reasoned, to have one person running one campus, overseeing another and directing the system?

The logic of separating the chancellor’s job of running the system from the presidents’ job of running the campuses in Fort Collins, Pueblo and now cyberspace seemed impeccable.

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The bump came when Joe Blake, a member of the board, stepped forward to take the newly created job of chancellor.

The process may have been flawed, but it is difficult to imagine a better choice in times that call for both experience and an irrepressible zest for the job.

Both Blake and the new president of the Fort Collins campus Tony Frank sat down with the Northern Colorado Business Report to talk about their vision and plans for the future.

NCBR: Mr. Blake, you have been appointed to high-profile councils, panels, boards and commissions by every governor from Dick Lamm to Bill Ritter, and served for a decade as the president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce until becoming chancellor. What makes you appealing to both Democrats and Republicans and the business community?

Joe Blake: I was once chairman of the Denver County Republican Party, but I think what governors have liked about me is the balance and respect I brought to matters concerning water, air quality, transportation, housing and housing finance.

NCBR: Building coalitions of disparate groups and highlighting important assets seem to have been hallmarks of your public service. How do you see that working in your new job at a time when Colorado ranks 49th in per capita state tax appropriations for higher education?

Blake: Right now, the financial situation is dire. Even so, polling numbers indicate that education is not high on most people’s agendas. So I am committed to putting a light on the problem of sustainable funding for higher education. What we are focused on now are symptoms: “lack of this” and “lack of that.” The real question we need to address is why should Colorado care about higher education?

NCBR: How would you answer that question?

Blake: The economic health of the state depends on strong universities. If we want to compete and grow, to attract corporate headquarters, we need to be able to supply an educated workforce. A university or a community college is also an important local financial asset. The community college towns understand the value of such an asset because its presence is tied directly to property values. When you see value, you give support. So my job is to shine a bright light on the value higher education creates.

NCBR: What does CSU have that can bounce light?

Tony Frank: We are a land grant university, and one of our missions is to get ideas out to the public for use by the public. And if we are going to get our research out for use in the market, we need to invest in best practices for technology transfer. To that end, we are investing in the concept of the Supercluster. Superclusters go beyond the simultaneous conducting of interdisciplinary research in the specific areas where Colorado State already excels and getting ideas to a ready market. They produce a synergy that can lead to greatness. The patented products created for the benefit of society are part of the return on the public’s investment in the university.

NCBR: So far, the Superclusters have focused on cancer research, infectious disease and clean energy. Are those in the Humanities concerned that the science and technology Superclusters thrive at their expense?

Frank: I see that as a false dichotomy. CSU grew up as an A&M (Agriculture and Mining) institution, and from the beginning less investment was made in the humanities and social sciences, more in the sciences and agricultural extension. But students come here wanting to transform their lives, and we must offer them the broad education that goes beyond preparing for a career. The goal is balance, but we need to look to our strengths. I think that in introducing the Superclusters internally, we used the wrong language. We made it sound so much like business, we failed to communicate the point that we do this research and get it out to the public for the benefit of society as befits a land-grant institution.

NCBR: Both of you were on the road for the month of July visiting CSU’s agricultural extension offices. What have you seen?

Blake: The extension service is the link between the university and the citizens of state, and if our constituents don’t see someone out there, they may believe that there is nothing going on. My job is to be visible and to communicate to all our constituencies the value of CSU.

NCBR: Dr. Frank, you served as interim president/chancellor after President Penley resigned. How would you compare your old job description with your new one?

Frank: First of all, Joe becomes the face of Colorado State University and keeps the two campuses (in Fort Collins and Pueblo) out of unhealthy competition. The two universities have very different missions. Having a chancellor who is not the president of CSU-Fort Collins takes care of that burr. Some people think that separating out the chancellor’s job from the president’s job diminishes the president’s status. But I would rather have two outfielders instead of one, and three would be ideal.

NCBR: Can you describe what it was like to be the lone outfielder?

Frank: I was six months in the old structure, which meant that I was going back and forth to Denver sometimes three times in the same day. I was stunned by the scope of it.

Basically, there were three major jobs. The first one is in Denver developing good relationships with the circuit of activity going on there. It isn’t just the legislators but all the people who talk with and influence the legislators that comprise that circuit. The system is a $1 billion state entity and needs a strong presence. CU has had it; we did not.

Blake: My job in Denver is to be actively meeting with representative statewide entities and to create better alignments, to knit together the educational community of Colorado and to promote that outreach conversation I mentioned.

Frank: The second job is oversight of the CSU campus, which is an $800-million-a-year operation with 6,000 employees, 1,000 faculty and 25,000 students. If you’re not around and present on campus, you don’t have the platform to speak to this constituency.

Blake: My job here is to highlight the leadership of the campuses and to make sure that there is a lot of support for them. Both Tony and Joe Garcia in Pueblo are extraordinary leaders. It’s a big outfield to cover, and like outfielders we have to be able to move quickly and understand who is going to cover what.

Frank: The third full-time job is off campus, working with extension services and staying connected to alums. We have never positioned the school to conduct a campaign to raise funds for the university.

Blake: There are 43,000 alums in the Denver metro area alone. And they are just waiting to be included in the excitement that surrounds CSU. We need to ensure the access and affordability that define great land-grant institutions. We are on a mission.

How CSUS was born

1985 – The State Board of Agriculture creates a higher education system incorporating Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College in Durango, and the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo. The Colorado State University System is placed under a Board of Governors; the president of CSU becomes chancellor of the system.

2002 – Fort Lewis becomes a separate entity, reducing the system to two institutions.

2003 – The University of Southern Colorado becomes Colorado State University-Pueblo.

2007 – The board creates a new online university, CSU-Global Campus.

2009 – Joe Blake becomes the first full-time chancellor for the CSU System.

Colorado State University has a new structure, and it arrived with a bit of a bump.

The sudden resignation of President Larry Penley in November rattled the system, but provided the Board of Governors the opportunity to rework university governance. Does it make sense, they reasoned, to have one person running one campus, overseeing another and directing the system?

The logic of separating the chancellor’s job of running the system from the presidents’ job of running the campuses in Fort Collins, Pueblo and now cyberspace seemed impeccable.

The bump came when Joe Blake, a member of the board, stepped forward…

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