 "Photo: Matt Castro")
The fourth K-State provost and senior vice president candidate, Marvin Kaiser, dean of College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Portland State University described his long trip to Kansas from Oregon as “coming home.”
“I feel, honestly quite privileged to come back here as a boy from Kansas,” said Kaiser, who is also a professor of sociology at Portland State.
As a former graduate student, Interim and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and sociology professor at K-State, he is “no stranger” to us, said John English, dean of the College of Engineering and chair of the search committee, as he introduced Kaiser. Kaiser also won the K-State Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award in 1979.
The K-State alumnus engaged the audience, which almost filled the Alumni Center Ballroom, with anecdotes, demographics charts and an occasional joke in his hour-long presentation.
His approach to explaining the role of the provost at K-State was to layout the context of this position around American higher education and the subset of related issues.
Some of the issues Kaiser addressed were student retention, changing demographics, American educational values and rising costs of tuition.
“We are in the middle of a major demographic shift,” he said. “If we don’t change what it is we are doing, it seems to me that we are in some trouble.”
Kaiser addressed the disparity between low economic status and college enrollment rates. He stated that while the highest college enrollment rate is among white females at 36 percent, the lowest is among black males at 11-12 percent. Also 68 percent of those of higher social economic status go to college versus only 9 percent of those with low income.
In comparison, he said 80 percent of American 10th graders of all races said they want to go to college.
“So it isn’t that people are saying, ‘Well I don’t want to do this,’” he said. “Its an issue of equity and fairness.”
Kaiser said this is where universities, in particular land-grant institutions such as K-State, have a role to address the educational needs of our changing demographics.
Kaiser pointed out K-State’s graduation rate of 54 percent of students within six years. This is a little better than the average but not much he said. Only half of the students who graduate from American universities end up with a bachelor’s degree, he said.
These statistics point toward a failure in the American educational system, he said.
Kaiser urged the crowd that universities need to refocus their attention on the students instead of the institution’s own benefit.
He shared more statistics, showing that in 1996 students paid about 40 percent of universities’ total revenue. In 2006, students paid almost 74 percent of universities’ revenue. He says this is happening because universities are placing the shortcomings in state and other funding in the hands of students to make up the difference.
He noted a fiscal plan in accordance with the university’s mission is important, he said.
“We spend too much time looking at fiscal annual budgets instead of long-term fiscal budgets and strategic planning,” he said.
He ended his presentation with a quote from C. Wright Mills, “The first lesson of modern sociology ... [is] that the individual cannot understand his own experience...without locating himself within the trends of his epoch.”
“In leadership roles, as a team, we can’t proceed unless we understand the context in which we are operating in,” he concluded.
During the question and answer period, two questions were asked. The first was in regards to sustainability. Kaiser said at Portland State, he has helped manage $25 million to fund sustainability efforts on campus and student’s learning outcomes for each major, including sustainability concerns within their discipline.
The second asked him to explain his role as provost and how that relates to faculty and students.
He said as a provost, he would make sure to include the K-State community in discussions about important decisions the university is making, including university-wide general education learning outcomes. He followed by saying he would then assess if students are actually learning what they should be according to the set learning outcomes.
Farrell Webb, associate professor in family students and human services said although he enjoyed Kaiser’s philosophies on education, what he wanted was answers and solutions to the issues that were raised during the presentation.
“I did not hear any solutions,” he said. “What we need are solutions.”
Clyde Howard, K-State director of Affirmative Action, said he enjoyed Kaiser’s presentation.
“His vision for K-State is very clear,” Howard said. “Given the changing demographics colleges and universities have to make sure they are preparing students, especially those who are historically underrepresented.”
Videos and candidate rating forms for all four candidates are available until Thursday evening at http://www.k-state.edu/provost/searches/.
The search committee will gather data including survey input and campus information and analyze the data. A list of qualified candidates will be provided to the president with strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately K-State President Kirk Schulz will make the final decision.
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