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University of North Dakota: From the Ground Up PDF Print E-mail
Written by Megan Flynn   
Tuesday, 30 June 2009 23:00
University of North Dakota: From the Ground Up
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When Dr. Robert Kelley became president of the University of North Dakota in July 2008, he landed an additional opportunity rarely seen in academic circles: to build his leadership team from the ground up.

“Many in the existing leadership were nearing retirement, and others were looking for new opportunities,” said Kelley, who prior to accepting the UND position had served as dean of the College of Health Sciences and professor of medical education and public health at the University of Wyoming since 1999. “We have a brand new, completely reconstituted leadership team working for me and for the University of North Dakota.”

The opportunity dovetailed with one of Kelley’s core philosophies about leadership.  “You must surround yourself with the smartest, most trustworthy people you can,” he said. “If you can surround yourself with people who are many times smarter than you are,” he said with a chuckle, “not only does that group help you get the institution where it needs to go, but it also makes it so much more enjoyable to get there.”

University of North Dakota: From the Ground UpHis other key philosophy seems destined to shape his presidency, only the 11th in the university’s 126-year history. “It has to do with having clarity of your goals,” he said. An effective leader devotes almost constant thought toward figuring out what is best for the institution, how those goals can be developed, and what action pieces are needed to meet those goals.

“You set those goals, and they do evolve, but you’re constantly thinking about what is best for the institution,” he said.

The era of specialization
A few central goals regularly inhabit Kelley’s thoughts as the University of North Dakota arrives at a critical moment in the formation of its national identity. “I think one of the biggest challenges now will be defining the university’s competitive niche,” he said.

Universities, despite their name, can no longer be all things to all people, Kelley explained. In this era of specialization, the nation’s successful universities will choose areas of excellence in which to concentrate their resources.

With a relatively low statewide population of about 642,000, UND competes for funding and the best students not only with the other 10 schools in the state’s university system, but also with schools throughout the nation and Canada. Kelley’s leadership team has identified three growth areas that suit the university’s strengths: energy and the environment, life sciences, and aerospace.

The university already has a strong medical school, especially in the neurosciences and family medicine, he said. And the prosperous gas and oil industry in the northwest portion of the state makes continued emphasis on energy and the environment a natural fit. Although UND takes great pride in its championship flight team, the future of its top-rated aerospace school could lie in unmanned flight technology, he said.

All that being said, Kelley admits to a certain bias toward the liberal arts. “I’m a bit of a traditionalist,” he said. “In liberal arts, students refine clarity in the thinking process, acquire knowledge of the past, and learn to apply that knowledge. That is the heart of our university.”

So, how does an institution reconcile the seemingly conflicting goals of technological excellence and a liberal arts core? The answer is by doing both. “The student who ends up in advanced studies in engineering has to have a firm grasp of the liberal arts,” Kelley said. Liberal arts and the humanities become the foundation for targeted graduate programs. “So you could be working on an MBA, but the emphasis might be on running airports.”

Thanks to a strong micro-economy in North Dakota driven by agriculture and the energy industries, the state’s university system is not suffering from the same belt-tightening that is plaguing other higher-learning institutions around the country. In fact, the state legislature recently appropriated a modest budget increase for UND.

State funding, coupled with donations, is enabling the university to continue to build and grow. It has begun renovations on and expansion of the College of Education and Human Development facilities. Kelley hopes to soon begin conversion of the old hockey arena into an indoor athletic training facility, complete with an academic center for student athletes. A new hockey showplace, the state-of-the-art Ralph Engelstad Arena, opened in 2001.

Meanwhile, the university is attracting research and development investment, especially within its identified areas of excellence. Kelley said UND has recently attracted major grants, one in nanotechnology for biomedical devices, the other in energy, through UND’s Energy & Environmental Research Center. “The research expenditures are doing very well; I suspect we are probably going to exceed $100 million this year in all such expenditures,” he said.

Now, after reaching many of the benchmarks set by the university in its 2005 strategic plan (including research dollar figures, annual giving rates, and aggressive expansion of summer and online programs), Kelley and his new team are working on a strategic plan to launch in 2010. No matter how big the challenges they create for themselves, Kelley is certain to enjoy the process—and the work to follow.

“I’m very pleased with the group of people who have come to work in the leadership here. We’ve got such a breadth of experience,” he said. “I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to surround myself with people who are broadly experienced, very bright, and very pleasant to work with.”