Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. We've been very fortunate, Carol to
Speaker 1: catch up with some leaders of major universities across the
Speaker 1: country of late and the latest installment in that conversation
Speaker 1: on going is Gary Miller. He's president of the University
Speaker 1: of Akron, joining us on the phone from Akron. President Miller.
Speaker 1: Really nice to have you with us, Great to be here. Well, Uh,
Speaker 1: I have an affinity for your school. We have a
Speaker 1: good friend, Carol, and I do Joe Reese, who's a
Speaker 1: proud alum. I know he's listening right now. So goes
Speaker 1: Zips and Lisa's Sable is an old friend as well
Speaker 1: who works on your team. So really delighted. I've had
Speaker 1: a chance to visit your campus a few years ago.
Speaker 1: I mean, tell us a little bit about the university
Speaker 1: because where it is and the community that it serves,
Speaker 1: I think is really important to understand. Yeah, the University
Speaker 1: of Akron is an urban research university and it in
Speaker 1: downtown Akron, which is you probably knows, a legacy city
Speaker 1: in America, long history of manufacturing, um the tire and
Speaker 1: rubber capital of the world. And and really is representative
Speaker 1: of a lot of what's happened in American cities in
Speaker 1: Middle America in the last since the early two thousand's.
Speaker 1: So what's it like now? I mean, what what is
Speaker 1: the feel on the ground, Because every time we talked
Speaker 1: to someone, especially out of our outside of our little bubble,
Speaker 1: President Miller, we want to know, like, what what is
Speaker 1: it like? And you know, both in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: the both of the crises that I guess we're going
Speaker 1: through just been a heavy you know, it's just been
Speaker 1: a heavy three months and a heavy then three weeks
Speaker 1: on top of it. Yeah, one of the things we
Speaker 1: were talking to our board about last week was, you know,
Speaker 1: even though we've had we have a heavy lift with
Speaker 1: the coming through the COVID thing, this is a real
Speaker 1: historic moment in America around race relations. And there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of emphasis on that and I thought about
Speaker 1: that uh in Acar and a lot of community conversations.
Speaker 1: We've had protests uh almost all peaceful, and the University
Speaker 1: of course is gearing up to think about this uh
Speaker 1: in in many different ways, including with an action group
Speaker 1: that students formed and and community conversations that we're focused
Speaker 1: on and then you know, we've got to examine ourselves too.
Speaker 1: We're gonna announce a task force next week to look
Speaker 1: at our practices and policies around you know, unconscious bias
Speaker 1: and uh and in the way we um assemble a
Speaker 1: nurturing and inclusive environment. What's interesting to hear you say that,
Speaker 1: and and forgive me, because I think we're all trying
Speaker 1: to figure this out. This is not a new dilemma.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been talking about as as many of
Speaker 1: our guests have come on and said, you know, racism,
Speaker 1: it's been around for four hundred years in America, and
Speaker 1: yet there's a lot of discussions. UM, but what do
Speaker 1: you think are concrete steps that need to be taken.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've been in academia for a long time.
Speaker 1: You were chancellor at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington's
Speaker 1: you we're at Wichita State University, UM and more. And
Speaker 1: I just do wonder what are the practices and policies,
Speaker 1: the real actions that make a difference and that help
Speaker 1: a race racism in our country. We're uh, you know,
Speaker 1: higher public higher education should be in the business of
Speaker 1: providing opportunities, and I think educational opportunities is what we
Speaker 1: do best, and we're focused on that. I think in
Speaker 1: a city like Akron, where we have thirty percent of
Speaker 1: the population is the African American forty percent of the
Speaker 1: school district, you know, we've got to be about understanding
Speaker 1: the dynamics of those families, understanding how we can work
Speaker 1: with our community leaders to get UM get these students
Speaker 1: opportunities for higher education. And we know the jobs of
Speaker 1: the future are going to require it. We know the
Speaker 1: jobs in the Acrone area are going to require it.
Speaker 1: So that's what we're focused on. But I do think
Speaker 1: there's a bigger role for our universities. We are often
Speaker 1: UM UH the honest broker in the community. We can
Speaker 1: convene people, We have incredible faculty expertise around many issues
Speaker 1: related to UH systemic racism. We need to deploy those
Speaker 1: better and in some cases, I think we even have
Speaker 1: to contribute some of our resources to making our community
Speaker 1: is better. Is it fair to say UH President Millard
Speaker 1: that students are impatient? I feel like, you know, Carol
Speaker 1: and I both have teenagers, and one of the things
Speaker 1: I think we've since from them maybe in a in
Speaker 1: a in a way that we haven't seen in several generations.
Speaker 1: Is a sense of urgency. I wonder what you're hearing
Speaker 1: from your students, knowing that they're not on campus now,
Speaker 1: But I know you're in touch with them, right we are.
Speaker 1: They are inpatient, but they're incredibly thoughtful too. Um I think,
Speaker 1: um my sense in our students. We have very thoughtful students,
Speaker 1: About seventy of them work. Most of them come from
Speaker 1: middle or lower income families. They have a real experience,
Speaker 1: and they're very thoughtful about the problem. But they are impatient.
Speaker 1: They do want action, and we should, uh, we should
Speaker 1: take a key from that and uh and work toward action.
Speaker 1: Well go ahead, no, no, no, no, no, no no, go ahead. Well,
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say, we want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about coming back. We're gonna do some
Speaker 1: news in a second, but just in the next thirty
Speaker 1: or forty seconds, what's the one thing you're most focused
Speaker 1: on in terms of getting kids back on campus in
Speaker 1: the fall. So we want them to be safe and
Speaker 1: we want them to have campus experience. We've learned a
Speaker 1: lot about education and a lot about technology, and we've
Speaker 1: also learned that you know, we're a high density organization
Speaker 1: that thrives on interaction, and we have to figure that out.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week Carl Master, Jason Kelly,
Speaker 1: and our guest at this hour is Gary Miller, president
Speaker 1: of the University of Grown who, as we mentioned, I
Speaker 1: don't know if we did we talked to it. I
Speaker 1: think after we started our discussion. He took this job
Speaker 1: last October. President Miller is still on the phone with
Speaker 1: us from Akron, Ohio. I have to say, President Miller,
Speaker 1: this was not exactly how you expected your first year
Speaker 1: in the top to go. I'm just guessing, no, it's not.
Speaker 1: But I'm not alone. No, you're not. I think it's
Speaker 1: a really tricky spot to be. Tell us though, about
Speaker 1: the financial pressures that you are feeling on yourself really
Speaker 1: and on the university right now. It's interesting this uh
Speaker 1: this virus really is stressed every dimension of the business
Speaker 1: model for public higher education, and all of our revenue
Speaker 1: UH streams were badly hit. And you know, we're we're
Speaker 1: looking at about a sixty five million dollar challenge for
Speaker 1: next fiscal year and we're working pretty hard to to
Speaker 1: get that figured out. We did do some real interesting
Speaker 1: things fast though. We were able to reorganize the institution
Speaker 1: very quickly from eleven colleges to five, which I think
Speaker 1: gives us a much more nimble administration. We still have
Speaker 1: all of our programs, but they're in um closer proximity
Speaker 1: with the related programs and less administrative costs. The faculty
Speaker 1: here did that in a month and a half, which
Speaker 1: I think must be a world record reorganization our education.
Speaker 1: Have you been able to hold on to everybody in
Speaker 1: terms of your staff? We will not be able to
Speaker 1: or we're still working through that. Uh, we're in negotiations
Speaker 1: now with our union about that. But it's a tough time.
Speaker 1: It's it's a tough time. And so how does in
Speaker 1: the short term the experience change? And again we're asking
Speaker 1: this question in part as parents, but on behalf of
Speaker 1: lots of parents out there and candid least some you know,
Speaker 1: precocious college students who listen to this radio show to
Speaker 1: you know, be smart about business. I'm sure, Um, what
Speaker 1: can folks expect when they show up to accor in
Speaker 1: this fall? This is really into a sting and a
Speaker 1: lot of us don't know. Um, you know, we'll be
Speaker 1: working in a low density environment with twenty thou students. UM.
Speaker 1: They will be taking classes, almost all of which will
Speaker 1: be hybrid in some form or another. UM. Campus activities
Speaker 1: will be very different. We're having to to really emphasize
Speaker 1: the you know, personal health and math, and we're still
Speaker 1: UM trying to understand the kind of testing regime you'll
Speaker 1: put in. There are a lot of things the universities do,
Speaker 1: like studios and athletics and dance and the band and
Speaker 1: the UH that just can't be done in low density normally,
Speaker 1: and we're trying to figure that out. And of course,
Speaker 1: you know, these are UM, these are young adults and
Speaker 1: UM they have minds of their own, UH, so they
Speaker 1: will be out in the community. We're working very closely
Speaker 1: with our local health department, local community hospitals, and we
Speaker 1: do expect, you know, to have some cases on campus,
Speaker 1: so we're ready to take care of those quarantine and
Speaker 1: tests and trace if we need to. It will be
Speaker 1: very different. We'll learn a lot, we're One of the
Speaker 1: things we're doing is getting groups of students together to
Speaker 1: talk to us during the semester so that we can
Speaker 1: make adjustments as we go along. Interesting so if they
Speaker 1: have so we're trying to do some real time adjusting here.
Speaker 1: If they have complaints about the way we're doing it,
Speaker 1: we want them to be innovative. I always tell freshmen,
Speaker 1: make sure you change us before you leave. And so
Speaker 1: we're gonna get them a real, uh real opportunity this
Speaker 1: fall to uh to help us figure it out. Well.
Speaker 1: I have to think you're surrounding community right because of
Speaker 1: college or university. It's about the college community university community,
Speaker 1: but it's also the surrounding community. Right. There's small businesses,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things that you know, are you know,
Speaker 1: rely on you as well. It's a codependency in Akrone.
Speaker 1: We're we're a hundred fifty years old in this city
Speaker 1: and uh we we can't imagine being here without Acron
Speaker 1: and the city can't imagine being here without us, and
Speaker 1: so we that's true. We work very closely together, and
Speaker 1: so you know, it's interesting. I also wonder how much
Speaker 1: you have to coordinate with other schools across Ohio. I mean,
Speaker 1: is that the coordination you have to have? Is is
Speaker 1: it regional? Is it local? Like? Who who has to
Speaker 1: be sort of all on the same page? Dr Miller.
Speaker 1: It's a great uh coordinating effort across Ohio. We have
Speaker 1: a inter university council. We talk, our groups talk virtually
Speaker 1: every week. And the things we're doing are setting up
Speaker 1: common protocols for how we're gonna phase in, how we're
Speaker 1: going to test, how we're gonna do so that we
Speaker 1: get um, so that we can learn from each other,
Speaker 1: and we're all kind of giving everybody the same experience
Speaker 1: and taking on the same risks. Great group of colleagues
Speaker 1: in Ohio. I have to tell you, well, and you
Speaker 1: know some great schools, including yours, across the state. All right, well, um,
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll see in some form of another some Zips football.
Speaker 1: Uh this fault. Gary Miller as the president of the
Speaker 1: University of Akron, John Us on the phone from Akron.
Speaker 1: Great to get. I love catching up with college presidents.
Speaker 1: I do too. I do too, and I kind of say,
Speaker 1: you know, they're under a lot of stress. I think
Speaker 1: about the president of Ithaca that we talked to, and
Speaker 1: I know someone who's been in the administrative staff there
Speaker 1: and was talking to them. I mean, it's just not
Speaker 1: an easy place to be and you're gonna make some
Speaker 1: people unhappy with whatever. Nobody's gonna be happy. Yeah, yeah, exactly,