Interim President Edward H. Jennings enjoys a light moment.   Photo by Jake Housh

A conversation with Ed Jennings

Staff from the Office of University Relations recently sat down with Interim President Edward H. Jennings to discuss his aspirations for the University and to examine the challenges that lie ahead. Jennings was named to the interim post on July 1 and will serve until the position is filled.

What will faculty and staff be able to see that is different while you are serving as Ohio State's interim president?

Well, I'm not sure they'll see all that much different. First of all, philosophically, Brit (Kirwan) and I are very close. We've known each other a long time and have very much the same attitudes about the University.

The direction of the institution is clear. We'll continue to make progress on the Academic Plan, which includes strengthening undergraduate education, pushing technology and research development, moving forward with the Gateway Project and, as a priority, improving faculty compensation.

I think that's really my assignment, along with making the transition to the new president as smooth as possible.

What specifically do you think you'll need to do to keep the momentum of the Academic Plan moving forward?

We're in the process now of developing the budget and developing the request from the General Assembly for the (fiscal years 2004-05) biennial budget operation. There are a whole variety of initiatives involved, not the least of which is the Third Frontier, which aligns with the research aspect of the Academic Plan. We have several building projects under way: The Biomedical Research Center is in its early stages; we'll be taking bids on the Ross Heart Hospital in the next couple of months; Hagerty Hall is in the early stages of being fully remodeled; then the new Jennings Hall will be remodeled. Those are a few things that are going to have to go on in the next few months for us to keep our momentum.

What do you hope to accomplish during your tenure?

As I said, I think the biggest thing is keeping the Academic Plan going and easing the transition to a new president. It sounds like a simple answer -- to keep the Academic Plan progressing, but there are an awful lot of elements involved.

For example, the Curriculum Review Committee is working right now to improve the undergraduate experience. An admissions committee is addressing the issue of continuing to improve the quality of the undergraduate student body. Another committee is looking at the organizational structure of the arts and sciences, and they'll have a report in September. A revision in Medical School practice will be implemented during the next few months. I hope that I'll be able to help out on those activities.

In terms of the next budget cycle, what types of messages will you take to state leaders regarding funding for higher education?

The state appropriations for Ohio State, and for most of the big public universities around the country, as a percent of the total budget have been declining for about 30 years. The Ohio General Assembly is very supportive of higher education, but they simply don't have money. The legislators are dealing with primary and secondary education, prisons, and welfare, and they're very limited in their ability to increase revenue through taxes.

They have to realize that if state appropriations are not forthcoming, then tuition is going to have to increase and continue to increase. In fact, state appropriations are a subsidy to tuition, and as state appropriations go down, tuition is going to have to go up. We have to do our part in controlling the cost, just like any large organization, but there's a pretty substantial limit to this, particularly since Ohio State has gone through some pretty major cost-cutting in the last year.

What do you think will be your biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge for me is going to be the change in lifestyle. I retired last January and got used to the pace associated with retirement. We've already enumerated some of the challenges, but what we all have to realize is that occasionally events get in the way, whether it's additional budget cuts or some sort of physical disaster or political problem. No matter what, our No. 1 objective is to keep Ohio State on track on the Academic Plan.

You served as Ohio State's president from 1981 to 1990. How do you believe this period will be different from your previous presidency?

I think history has shown that what we did in the 1980s was to lay the groundwork for what's going on now. That's when we began selective admissions for the first time, for example. That's when we began to view the research mission of the institution as a major funding priority. That's when we had our first fund-raising campaign. We made a huge push in the 1980s on diversity issues, everywhere from affirmative action awards to a program that I'm very proud of, the Young Scholars Program, where we bring disadvantaged youngsters into the institution to expose them to the opportunities of higher education.

Those were several of the projects that we started for the first time at Ohio State, and now they're continuing and expanding, and they're consistent with the Academic Plan. So very much of our job now is a continuation of that progress.

Also in the 1980s, we had some fairly major budget issues. While the dollar amounts were not as great as they are today percentage-wise, four months after I got here, we had a 27 percent budget cut in state appropriations -- and that's kind of normal in universities. Right now, virtually every big public university in the country has major financial issues, as does Ohio State, but I think Ohio State is better off than most.

"The biggest thing is keeping the Academic Plan going and easing the transition to a new president." -- Edward H. Jennings

What do you think is the biggest difference between the University of the 1980s and that of today?

Probably the single biggest difference is the quality of the undergraduate students. I think if you talk to faculty who've been around here through all that time, when I came here the average ACT score was 19. For the freshman class now, it's over 25. Our people think we can get to 27 in a couple of years. You're getting to the point where the freshman class at Ohio State will be as good as anywhere in the country. We're not there yet, but in probably four, five or six years, we'll be competitive with anyone in the country. The other big difference is the use of computers across campus. Our operations are so much more sophisticated in that regard. We're in the process of implementing almost an entirely new budget system. Conceptually, the budget is being managed similarly as it was in the '80s, but now the management of that budget is much more sophisticated because of the computer hardware that's available. I think that's going to be a big improvement in terms of financial management. I'm always amused by the youngsters who, as freshmen, take all this stuff for granted. We didn't have that technology in 1980.

What do you think was your biggest accomplishment as president of Ohio State?

It's hard to single out any single thing because so much is interactive. The fund-raising made a lot of our research progress possible. The Eminent Scholars Program has made a lot of improvements in the faculty possible. Selective admissions has improved the academic quality of the student body. Our budget management is markedly more sophisticated. We made some great progress on diversity issues. Now, always understand that a university president really can't look to the next year, a university president has got to look at 20 years out and 30 years out.

We can't yet evaluate many of our accomplishments during my tenure, because so much of this takes so long. With selective admission, we're making progress, but we're not there yet. In terms of research and the quality of the faculty, we've made great progress, but we're not there yet. In terms of fund raising, just the other day I told our development people that in my nine years of presidency, I graduated a third of all the graduates in the history of Ohio State up until that time. The result of that is that a large block of our alumni are just now reaching their full earning power, which bodes very well for the future of Ohio State.