Just a general question about President Leath

[Tornado man]

My wife works in engineering, enrollment keeps going up and up, they're running out of class rooms, profs, advisors etc. no help from the higher ups on campus, "deal with it".

This is the exactly what I've been hearing too. Faculty are getting frustrated with oversized classes and no room to put more classes in, let alone provide decent instruction.
Wickert will address this more aggressively. BTW, I hear engineering misses him...

 

[carvers4math]

My wife works in engineering, enrollment keeps going up and up, they're running out of class rooms, profs, advisors etc. no help from the higher ups on campus, "deal with it".
They keep letting a lot of unqualified students into isu, they take up room for a year or two with nothing to show from it but tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

I think they probably need to look at their math assessments closer before enrolling students in certain classes. With my boys, math is their thing, but it seems to weed out a lot of others.

 

[Transient]

I met him at the Fair a couple a years ago, after the Veisha thing, he was getting hammered by the people for it, and the stress was starting to show, hehe. So I asked him what was going in where Davidson hall was coming out and he said nothing now... It was odd that he said he didnt want ISU to look bad but kept flying without (apparently) no insurance do to no copilot thingy, if he would have crashed into a school, or hospital, or mall that would have been it for ISU's rep at least, flying with guns, the vp thingys, bubu, time to go Mr. Bond...

 

[theshadow]

Building more stuff by the towers is not the answer unless they rebuild the other two towers with it

That was part of the study -- feasibility for new housing, dining and rec center on the Towers site.

 

[jkclone]

Disagree with this 1000000000000000000%.

ISU needs to strive to get bigger and stay the largest institution in Iowa. And the standards are fine and haven't been lowered (as proven earlier in a different thread).

There's looking to grow and there's looking to grow at a reasonable pace. Campus is well over capacity right now. It was probably that way when I started and it's just gotten infinitely worse in my four years. We need slower sustainable growth and continued infrastructure improvements.

With that my issues are numerous. Simply it comes down to poor decision making. I think he is excellent at most of the day to day stuff but really struggles with big decisions. Bubu, VEISHEA, land deal, plane, and the hiring issues are all important.

It is important that we get a new president that is better, but I don't get why people think it will be so hard. We obviously need someone who will value athletics but I don't see why people think we will not get one.

 

[cyIclSoneU]

I hadn't heard Marshall. I know LeVelle Moton from NC Central got an interview. Underwood, Drew, TJ, Prohm, Moton, Marshall. That's 6. Any idea who else? Always interested in knowing who's out there - if Prohm beat out some of those names, that's pretty impressive in hindsight.

Maybe now with the benefit of some time we can get a real insider perspective from someone like @Jeremy. I don't know if the list if totally accurate but if memory serves I thought Gregg Marshall was looking for something north of $4 million/year and that was a total non-starter.

 

[Dandy]

I hadn't heard Marshall. I know LeVelle Moton from NC Central got an interview. Underwood, Drew, TJ, Prohm, Moton, Marshall. That's 6. Any idea who else? Always interested in knowing who's out there - if Prohm beat out some of those names, that's pretty impressive in hindsight.

Jamie Dixon IIRC. This was before he went to TCU.

 

[jbhtexas]

It is important that we get a new president that is better, but I don't get why people think it will be so hard. We obviously need someone who will value athletics but I don't see why people think we will not get one.

What ISU gets as a president depends on what the BOR wants ISU to have for a president. Is the BOR comprised of people who truly want ISU to be a leading institution, or is it comprised of Marvin Pomerantz types who want the University of Iowa to be the flagship school in the state, and don't even bother hiding their agenda to make that happen? Where does the governor of Iowa stand on this matter?

In the end, the BOR members are appointed by the governor and approved by the Iowa Senate. Based on the actions of the Iowa legislature regarding the university funding model, there certainly seems to be a UI slant in that body.

 

[Cyclone06]

My wife works in engineering, enrollment keeps going up and up, they're running out of class rooms, profs, advisors etc. no help from the higher ups on campus, "deal with it".
They keep letting a lot of unqualified students into isu, they take up room for a year or two with nothing to show from it but tens of thousands of dollars in debt.

I do not like the sounds of this at all but isn't this the trend in all of higher education? At some point we have to come to grips that it is OK not to go to college as long as you have alternative plans.

 

[ruxCYtable]

You people have no idea the risk that is being taken now. We have allowed our athletics future to be in the hands of what quite frankly looks to be an inept BOR and we are doing it at a time when state reps from the eastern side of the state want to do everything possible to slow ISU's growth in EVERY possible area. What if we are given an academic who is anti athletics? What if the new hire does not approve of higher coaching salaries and financing for athletics facilities? What if this hire does not get along with JP and causes him to leave?(which happens often when schools name new presidents)

Your statements are why I said "careful what you wish for." Look, it's unlikely that this will happen, but it COULD. There are presidents who like to bring in their own people. He could walk in on day one and tell JP, looks like you've done a good job but I want to bring in my own man. A new AD could come in and want to put his own mark on things and screw up everything we've got going.

In all likelihood, everything will be fine. But these are my worst fears.

I think concerns about whoever the new president in caring about athletics are misguided. The value of having a successful AD is so much more clear than it was even 10 years ago. Whoever it is will care about having good sports programs. We should be more concerned about how they'll lead the academic side of the university and how good of a leader they'll be.

As I said above, in all likelihood everything will be fine. But to say that concerns in this regard are misguided is a little nearsighted. The concerns are genuine, even if they're unlikely to be realized.

 

[carvers4math]

I do not like the sounds of this at all but isn't this the trend in all of higher education? At some point we have to come to grips that it is OK not to go to college as long as you have alternative plans.

I think the bigger problem is the decline in our K-12 schools in Iowa. When I was a child a long time ago, we were first in the nation in education. We are nowhere close now and it is getting worse.

We used to have one very good high school math teacher in our school but it is hard to hold onto them because they go to bigger schools for more money. My older kids had him, but we are now at the point where my kids seem to have a better grasp on the subject than their teachers. My husband has an undergraduate degree in physics and has taken an active role in supplementing our kids' education in math and science. Not every child has the benefit of that though.

My oldest is working on a PhD in physics and winds up having to work on a bunch of defense projects his professor has because he is one of the few US citizens in the program. Students want to be engineers and scientists but the decline in our K-12 schools does not prepare them to succeed at college.

 

[LutherBlue]

What ISU gets as a president depends on what the BOR wants ISU to have for a president. Is the BOR comprised of people who truly want ISU to be a leading institution, or is it comprised of Marvin Pomerantz types who want the University of Iowa to be the flagship school in the state, and don't even bother hiding their agenda to make that happen? Where does the governor of Iowa stand on this matter?

In the end, the BOR members are appointed by the governor and approved by the Iowa Senate. Based on the actions of the Iowa legislature regarding the university funding model, there certainly seems to be a UI slant in that body.

Rastetter moves off the Board in April and Branstad will be on his way to China not long thereafter. I don't think they will have much influence on the new hire - that process takes months. The new board president will be Mike Richards who has a great reputation, from what I hear, and the two new board members also seem well qualified.

 

[cycopath25]

I met him at the Fair a couple a years ago, after the Veisha thing, he was getting hammered by the people for it, and the stress was starting to show, hehe. So I asked him what was going in where Davidson hall was coming out and he said nothing now... It was odd that he said he didnt want ISU to look bad but kept flying without (apparently) no insurance do to no copilot thingy, if he would have crashed into a school, or hospital, or mall that would have been it for ISU's rep at least, flying with guns, the vp thingys, bubu, time to go Mr. Bond...

 

[jkclone]

Your statements are why I said "careful what you wish for." Look, it's unlikely that this will happen, but it COULD. There are presidents who like to bring in their own people. He could walk in on day one and tell JP, looks like you've done a good job but I want to bring in my own man. A new AD could come in and want to put his own mark on things and screw up everything we've got going.

In all likelihood, everything will be fine. But these are my worst fears.

As I said above, in all likelihood everything will be fine. But to say that concerns in this regard are misguided is a little nearsighted. The concerns are genuine, even if they're unlikely to be realized.

I just don't get this fear. It should be a non starter for a president that wants to come in and make changes to athletics.

 

[SCNCY]

This is the exactly what I've been hearing too. Faculty are getting frustrated with oversized classes and no room to put more classes in, let alone provide decent instruction.
Wickert will address this more aggressively. BTW, I hear engineering misses him...

Hasn't this always been a problem though? Not just at ISU, but at many big universities around the nation? I am sure that all faculty are all frustrated that THEIR program is not getting the resources that it needs, but I am sure that is the same for every program at the university. The people at the top need to prioritize certain projects over others, and I am sure the faculty that get left out of those priorities are upset. Its' not like you can put down a building and have it be ready over the summer. Having said all of that, I am not sure how Leath handled telling people that. If he did say"deal with it," then that's bad. But if he said something along the lines of 'we currently don't have the resources to do that yet,' and faculty take that as "deal with it," that's just faculty being stuck up and not realizing the bigger university picture/problem.

As for growing enrollment at ISU, wasn't the big push for more enrollment due to the fact that the state keeps slashing the universities budgets. So to counter that, they need to enroll more students in order to keep up. Now the budget formula should change so that it is based on a per student count as opposed to a lump sum of money to each school, but that won't change until more pro ISU people politicians are in the Iowa government.

 

[cyfan4St8]

It really does suck that the VEISHA deal is all hung on by him for a lot of people. Now as an adult beyond college and have enjoyed both sides of VEISHA. We did it to ourselves. I was of that generations that we did have some great fun then we had the few years that we had to "reform" it and it was a dry VEISHA for a few years. And here we are now a few years later and it got ruined again by just really a small group of people that didn't have respect for what it was all for and because they were asked to not have their fun they thought going down welch and trashing it would get their message heard that they shouldn't have to obey what they cops were trying to keep under control. Time and time again there has been a dark cloud that over shadows how great VEISHA was. So how many chances does the student body and alumni deserve when we keep lighting that dumpster ourselves and rolling it down the street?

 

[srjclone]

Leath was very successful at getting the things he wanted done, done. And I can't say that that was a bad thing at all, I think he had one of the more successful tenure's in recent memory, but that did not come with this overarching feeling that he felt better than his position. Every time I heard him speak about Iowa State, what we were doing to advance the campus or the facilities or the staff, it seems as if he was proclaiming it a success because he did it. Not because it was the best step forward for Iowa State. Now, that isn't a good enough reason to dis-like somebody, an assumption, and I know that. But when it comes to a school and community like Iowa State, acting as if you are better than those around you, it rubbed me the wrong way.

Pile that with the VEISHEA, the whole plane incident (which I really am not too upset about because I think this happens everywhere, but it still brought a bad look to our school), and what seemed to be situations that there was a disconnect between what the President, his "staff", and the students all wanted or thought was best.

I don't hate Leath, and think he left Iowa State a better place than what he found it, but I also think there was some stuff going on that was not good for ISU overall, in the long-run. Hopefully we can fill the opening with a person who is not only proven and respected, but respects and understand what ISU means to it's students and community.

 

[jkclone]

It really does suck that the VEISHA deal is all hung on by him for a lot of people. Now as an adult beyond college and have enjoyed both sides of VEISHA. We did it to ourselves. I was of that generations that we did have some great fun then we had the few years that we had to "reform" it and it was a dry VEISHA for a few years. And here we are now a few years later and it got ruined again by just really a small group of people that didn't have respect for what it was all for and because they were asked to not have their fun they thought going down welch and trashing it would get their message heard that they shouldn't have to obey what they cops were trying to keep under control. Time and time again there has been a dark cloud that over shadows how great VEISHA was. So how many chances does the student body and alumni deserve when we keep lighting that dumpster ourselves and rolling it down the street?

The shooting a couple weeks ago proved that VEISHEA wasn't the problem. The problem is to many young drunk people who get crowded into one area without proper controls. The current status quo wasn't going to work, but there could be changes made that minimize the issues.

 

[carvers4math]

I guess I don't really understand the VEISHEA deal. When I was a student back in the early 1980's anyway, it was viewed as mainly a Greek thing and a drinking thing. The Greek community did events they could put on their resumes and the other students went to the bars.

I rarely did anything connected to VEISHEA other than watch the parade if I didn't have work that day, which I usually did since I worked several jobs while in college, and some of the intramural sports they did connected to VEISHEA.

As far as I can tell from having a recent graduate, everyone still goes to the bars during what would have been VEISHEA and the rest of the year too. I suppose the crowds are smaller because fewer people come from out of town. They still run intramurals. I really have no idea what the Greek community does. I guess student groups have lost fundraising opportunities connected to VEISHEA, which I don't remember much of when I was a student. It seems like there are other times with lots of people on campus, like commencement, where they could make up some of their lost income.

With the number of instances of rioting, I am not sure what Leath should have done differently other than perhaps suspending it with a set time to reevaluate it once more time was spent on trying to fix it, but I think they tried that before. I guess he could have instituted other events in its place and given it a go. I just have less problems with the loss of VEISHEA than the political patronage and cronyism.

 

[SCNCY]

I rarely did anything connected to VEISHEA other than watch the parade if I didn't have work that day, which I usually did since I worked several jobs while in college, and some of the intramural sports they did connected to VEISHEA.

As far as I can tell from having a recent graduate, everyone still goes to the bars during what would have been VEISHEA and the rest of the year too. I suppose the crowds are smaller because fewer people come from out of town.

With the number of instances of rioting, I am not sure what Leath should have done differently other than perhaps suspending it with a set time to reevaluate it once more time was spent on trying to fix it, but I think they tried that before. I guess he could have instituted other events in its place and given it a go. I just have less problems with the loss of VEISHEA than the political patronage and cronyism.

The thing about VEISHEA was that Geoffroy did cancel it for a year to revamp it. I came on to campus in 2006, but once I heard the stories about VEISHEA, I kind of viewed Geoffroy attempt as VEISHEA's last string.

I know @ImJustKCClone said that the students who put work in to actual VEISHEA day events were punished, which is true. But the day events of VEISHEA was a reason for students to make it a big drinking weekend and bring their friends in to town. So VEISHEA day events led to week long partying. It's unfortunate to say, but that is ultimately what happened. Even if students still treat a weekend as a big drinking weekend, because there is no VEISHEA, it seems to be smaller based on @carvers4math quote. It sounds like what students do now is similar what other universities do, which is have a random big party weekend (unofficial at Illinois).