Speeches and statements
Interview with Steve Cochran-WGN Radio 720, ChicagoPresident B. Joseph White MR. COCHRAN: Steve Cochran at 1:09. Joining me now in the studio, the new President of the University of Illinois, B. Joseph White. It’s odd to call you B. Joseph. How about Joe, would that be all right? MR. WHITE: Joe works. Hi Steve. MR. COCHRAN: Nice to see you. MR. WHITE: Good to be here, thank you. MR. COCHRAN: Congratulations. MR. WHITE: Thank you very much. It’s a big honor. MR. COCHRAN: I’m sure it is, and a big job. MR. WHITE: It’s a big responsibility. I think the University of Illinois is a treasure for the people of Illinois. It’s 138 years of hard work and we have to make sure we maintain that dynamic treasure for the years ahead. MR. COCHRAN: The veterinary school is one of the jewels there at U of I. MR. WHITE: I think our connection to agriculture and the agricultural community is absolutely essential. Illinois has a great economy, diversified, wonderful in agriculture, still strong in manufacturing, one of the world’s great cities, and I think the combination of the University of Illinois together with the State of Illinois can have a very dynamic future. MR. COCHRAN: What are some of the challenges you’re trying to deal with at this point going forward? When you take the job obviously you’re looking and going okay, the basketball team’s really, really good. I don’t need to get into all of that, they’re doing really well. MR. WHITE: Well actually until I became president that was kind of a problem Steve and we got that turned around. MR. COCHRAN: I couldn’t help but notice you’re pretty tall. How tall are you Joe? MR. WHITE: I’m 6’4” with no athletic ability whatsoever. MR. COCHRAN: So we can’t make you a perimeter shooter at any point in the near future. MR. WHITE: Not with that team. We’re really proud of the team. The big challenges we face simply stated are excellence and access. The University of Illinois is one of the world’s great research universities and we want to keep it that way. Education transforms people’s lives. Knowledge is capital in the new economy and the University of Illinois is vital in these two areas. So the first challenge is excellence. The second challenge is access. There’s no point in being excellent if people can’t afford what you offer and so keeping tuition affordable, providing financial aid, these are really big challenges. Both of these things require money, but money is the necessary and not sufficient condition to meet those challenges. I’ve been thinking a lot about how we make sure that we have the resources to fund our university in the years ahead and I think that if everybody does their part – the state, students and their families, our own faculty, private donors and the leadership of the university – I think we can continue to have both excellence and access at U of I. MR. COCHRAN: Let’s put some pressure on these Illini. How are we doing with alumni giving? Are people stepping up? MR. WHITE: They’re stepping up but they need to step up more. The most disturbing chart I’ve seen since I became president was 20 years of history of the endowments of the big ten universities. Twenty years ago we were all in the same boat, all started at the same spot, $100 million to $200 million in endowments. Over a 25 year period a huge gap has grown. The University of Michigan, where I came from, now has a $3.5 billion endowment. We’ve done a good job at Illinois, but not good enough. We have a $1.5 billion endowment. That’s a big gap and that’s going to have to grow. MR. COCHRAN: Because what happens is to keep the tuition in the state low, to provide the access you talked about, the money has to come from other places so you can continue to expand and grow, bring great minds in, keep the facilities great. MR. WHITE: That’s right. MR. COCHRAN: And at a time when more and more kids are going to school, there’s some imbalance there. I mean that’s got to be...That’s a math problem right? MR. WHITE: It is a pure math problem, but it’s a solvable math problem if all five of the parties I mentioned do their part, including private donors, and I know they will. Since I was appointed, I have found an unbelievable love of U of I and a reservoir of good will. We just need to make it easy for people to do their part to support our university and we will. That enthusiasm for the basketball team doesn’t hurt one bit. MR. COCHRAN: It doesn’t hurt, because it’s great national attention on the school. Do you know the percentages? What do we draw from in state at U of I? MR. WHITE: It’s very high, 88, 90%. Over 90% undergrads, under 90% in graduate school and that’s healthy. MR. COCHRAN: I was going to say, is that a good thing because it’s certainly great for the state, but in some ways does it present some diversity that maybe you might want? MR. WHITE: I don’t really think so because Illinois is such a diverse state and it’s such a big state. The issue about in-state, out-of-state is fundamentally about quality. I’ve looked at the numbers and we have a tremendous student body and it’s overwhelmingly drawn from the State of Illinois and that’s because Illinois is a great, populous, diverse state, so I don’t think it is a problem. MR. COCHRAN: So we’ve got ag and engineering and veterinary science and research. What are some of the other schools you’d like to see grow academically at the U of I? MR. WHITE: All of our professional schools are really important. We have the nation’s largest medical school here at UIC, University of Illinois at Chicago. We graduated more physicians than anybody else in the country. MR. COCHRAN: It’s kind of a well-kept secret, too, by the way. The medical community knows about it, but I’m not sure the general public does. MR. WHITE: Can I tell you something? There are too many things about U of I that are a well-kept secret. Can I give you a quiz? MR. COCHRAN: Go ahead. MR. WHITE: Fine. University of Michigan that I came from. Pretty big brand name nationally and internationally. How many Nobel Prize winners do you think we had at University of Michigan? MR. COCHRAN: On staff, professorships? MR. WHITE: Today or ever. MR. COCHRAN: Nobel Prize winners, I would say a dozen. MR. WHITE: Sadly the answer is zero. How many at U of I? MR. COCHRAN: I’m going to go two. MR. WHITE: Try double digits. MR. COCHRAN: See, I worked this quiz brilliantly and we didn’t rehearse. MR. WHITE: Nice job, Steve. The point is...You know they say in branding you’ve got to have the steak and the sizzle. We’ve got the steak, we need a little more sizzle, especially outside the State of Illinois. We are better than the world realizes. MR. COCHRAN: There’s no question. Aside from putting up billboards, which I don’t see you doing any time soon, what’s the best way to get the word out to the world about what’s going on at the U of I? MR. WHITE: The single best way is word of mouth. We have 550,000 alumni. Their achievements and their talking up U of I and their encouraging young people to consider U of I is the best way to do it. The other thing is rankings and ratings. We’re a ranking crazed country and we love it. That’s fine, there’s no point in fighting it. We have the number five engineering; excuse me, number four engineering college in the country. When those U.S. News and World Report rankings comes up, nobody misses the fact that U of I is top notch in engineering. We need a lot more of that kind of free advertising. MR. COCHRAN: One other thing, too, and you know this, we here in the Midwest we’re a modest lot. We’re not like those schools on the coast, going “Look at me, look at me, look at me.” Maybe we need a little more “look at me.” MR. WHITE: I think we’re not going to really keep our light hidden under a bushel basket at all. MR. COCHRAN: Right. Your Nobel Prize winners, maybe we need to get them tour jackets and start sending them around the country so they could talk about the good things they’ve done. They’re in the lab too much. They’re working too hard. MR. WHITE: Why don’t we interview them at half time at the basketball game on national television, right? MR. COCHRAN: That combines the two greatest strengths. MR. WHITE: I was going to say to you one of the things I love about the winning basketball team is it reminds the world at U of I we’re winners, and guess what, we’re winners academically, e.g., Nobel Prize winners and athletically, e.g., the Fighting Illini basketball team. MR. COCHRAN: U of I in my opinion, and I’ve lived here in Chicago for a little over ten years, is probably the best collection of what this state should be. There is a dividing line on Route 80 between the Chicago side and those folks downstate, but the U of I is where Chicago and the rest of the state come together and nobody points fingers and everybody seems to be happy they’re there. We need you guys to keep the peace. MR. WHITE: If I could say one serious note that follows on that point is this. The whole upper Midwest and the State of Illinois are going through a huge transformation especially economically from what we were, which was manufacturing and ag dominant, to continued manufacturing, continued agriculture, but the service economy, the information economy. The single best tool that the state has to insure a successful transformation is the University of Illinois because educated people and the knowledge created through research are the raw material for a successful transformation. To me this isn’t just about rah-rah, this is about achieving a positive future for the State of Illinois. The U of I is an indispensable tool for that purpose. MR. COCHRAN: And keeping those big brains and that talent in state, whether it’s Chicago, downstate or wherever, and making sure that we benefit from the education those folks get. MR. WHITE: I’m glad you realize that. The two most mobile things in the world are capital and talent. We need to be a place that the big brains as you say, want to be, and I think we can make it that way, but we cannot permit this treasure to erode and we won’t. MR. COCHRAN: Should we maybe consider a border patrol where we don’t let them out after they graduate? MR. WHITE: I think the Berlin Wall discovered that doesn’t really work. MR. COCHRAN: Doesn’t really work that well? MR. WHITE: No. MR. COCHRAN: Would you entertain a couple questions? You know those U of I types are out there. MR. WHITE: Happy to. MR. COCHRAN: 312-591-7200 if you’d like to say hello and welcome B. Joseph White. Joe to me. MR. WHITE: It’s Joe. MR. COCHRAN: The University of Illinois’ new president. Do you know what number you are by the way, president? Do you know how many there have been? MR. WHITE: I certainly do. I’m number 16. Can I tell you something Steve? People have pointed out to me that 16th presidents from the State of Illinois can do great things. I’m going to try my best. MR. COCHRAN: Just don’t go to the theater. It’s 1:18. Let’s take a break and come back on WGN Radio. (Pause for commercials) MR. COCHRAN: Steve Cochran at 1:20. Got a few more minutes with Joe White, your new University of Illinois President, Chicago today, talking up the school because he’s proud of it and he ought to be. Lisa’s on the phone. Hi, Lisa. LISA: Hi. I have a question. My son is going to be auditioning for the School of Music there at U of I. How strict are they on ACT scores, because he did apply to the school and they told him that he obviously needed to audition, but I know that the school is really strict on ACT scores? MR. COCHRAN: Is there a general rule for that, Joe, for all the schools or does it vary school to school? MR. WHITE: Questions from parents about admissions couldn’t be more sensitive and important and I’m not going to wing it, so I do not know the answer specifically. But I can tell you this from my 30 years in higher education. Scores and grades always matter. However, we look at the total person and in the performing arts in particular I know that those who make admissions decision pay close attention to both performance ability and potential. ACT will count, the higher the better, but it will certainly only be one factor. MR. COCHRAN: My experience in shopping around college wise with my daughter, who is going to be going away to school in the fall, seems to me, and you can tell me if this is the same trend that you’re seeing, that the schools are getting away from that focus that that one three-hour test, whether it be the ACT or the SAT matters so much. Because it’s just not fair to take a four-year kid experience and boil it down to three hours. Some kids think that’s swell, some don’t. MR. WHITE: I think even the biggest universities, which face a tremendous problem in handling thousands of applications, have resumed more judgment in making these decisions, looking at all the factors and not placing excess weight on anyone. And I think that’s very healthy. MR. COCHRAN: Let me ask you a general question. This came up the other day in regards to a friend of ours whose kid is going to the University of North Carolina. Do legacies really matter? If you’ve got a family who had a generation after generation of U of I folks, do they get a closer look at admissions or is that urban legend? MR. WHITE: It’s a positive factor. MR. COCHRAN: It’s a positive factor. MR. WHITE: It’s a positive factor at every university. It does not override anything else. You definitely have to be qualified under your own merit, but it helps. MR. COCHRAN: Okay, good enough. Rick is on the phone. Go ahead Rick. RICK: I will tell you that I agree with you. The University of Illinois gets a bad rap about only using the highest-ranking ACTs. I have a daughter that’s there and absolutely adores the place and they did look at the entire kid when they admitted her. MR. WHITE: I’m glad to hear it. RICK: By the way, U of I is still the greatest deal in town. To go to that kind of school for that kind of money it’s remarkable. MR. WHTIE: I’m really glad you see that. You’re so right. RICK: My question is, how much of the endowment goes to help defray some of the costs of tuition increases? MR. WHITE: The way endowment works is we spend about 4.5 or 5% of the total and so that means in our endowment maybe it’s $75 million and certainly the majority of it goes to help students. A lot of it is in pure scholarship funds. A lot of the endowment is just scholarship which is dedicated to nothing but helping students meet tuition expenses, overwhelmingly on a need basis, and I think that’s appropriate. But a great deal of endowment income goes to help students. MR. COCHRAN: And it’s also fairly logical, but it’s worth asking. The larger the endowment becomes and the more alumni giving that goes on, I would think the school would have more scholarship opportunities, true? MR. WHITE: No question about it. My favorite event as a dean or now president has always been when we bring together scholarships, donors and recipients. We often will sit them at the same table at a meeting and I’m telling you it’s very moving. These donors by and large had the experience of education transforming their lives, putting them in a path of opportunity that enabled them to achieve a lot and make their dreams come true. They then give back to the university in the form of a scholarship and they meet the young person who is getting a great U of I education that it would not be possible without their help. MR. COCHRAN: Your admissions folks this time of year, do they look like air traffic controllers on a busy day at O’Hare? Do they shake a little bit this time of year? MR. WHITE: My main image of admissions officers this time of year is every day they go home with two giant canvas bags filled with applications, because there’s no way you get it done in eight or 10 hours a day. MR. COCHRAN: Sure. It’s an exciting time and I’m glad to see you’re so passionate about the job and you well should be. How much of a knot does your stomach get into every time your basketball team takes the court right now? MR. WHITE: Actually what I feel and my wife feels is just excitement. We’ve been to games at Assembly Hall. It’s a thrilling experience. Any game we can’t attend in person, we watch on TV. I have tremendous confidence in Coach Weber and that team. The thing I like is every time the other team starts coming at them, they just take the wind out of their sails with a three-pointer or stealing the ball or whatever. I think they may be the greatest basketball team I’ve ever seen. I remember the great Indiana University teams, but I don’t think they had anything over this team. MR. COCHRAN: Yeah, and Coach Weber, quite a find. MR. WHTIE: Tremendous guy. He’s doing a wonderful job. We’re all really excited about it. Honestly, I think that excellence in basketball is emblematic of our whole university. MR. COCHRAN: That’s the great thing about any major university, a good sports program shines the light on what you’re doing with the rest of the school. MR. WHITE: Exactly. Sometimes people say to me isn’t there an incompatibility between great athletics and great academics and the answer is no. I mean we’re a big, powerful university and we’re entitled to expect it all, great academics and athletics and we’re getting it. MR. COCHRAN: You seem like a real decent guy to work for. Are you tough on your employees? MR. WHITE: I have very high standards and expectations. MR. COCHRAN: Because my contract’s up in a month and I figure I could come down and maybe … MR. WHITE: We have standards Steve. U of I is not for everybody. MR. COCHRAN: At least you let me down easy. One more question and then we’ll let you go because we’ve already kept you later than you can stay. Dan, go ahead. DAN: I have a quick question. I’m graduating from Bradley in May and when I was looking between schools, I was looking between Bradley and U of I and I chose Bradley because it was a smaller school. How do you guys attract small town kids? Do you guys see an issue in that at all? MR. COCHRAN: That’s an interesting question. Small town kids, do they tend to be more attracted to smaller schools like Dan talks about? MR. WHITE: It varies tremendously. One of the things I love about American higher education is there’s something out there for everybody. I mean we’ve got the small liberal arts colleges to the enormous research universities, but there is one thing I’d say to you and it’s this. Even though when you apply over to the campus in Urbana or you look at UIC here in Chicago, you see enormous facilities. We’re broken into human scale units. We’re broken down into schools and colleges and the faculty is never more than a few hundred and they get to know the students. My daughter went to the University of Michigan, and what happens is you create your own little world there. You’ve got your network of friends, you’ve got your school or college, you’ve got your dorm or the place where you live. And so even though on first glance it can look very large and overwhelming. Actually most things that happen occur on a very human scale, and I think we do a pretty good job of that. I’d add by the way, for those students who want to go to U of I and they particularly want to have a small university experience, we have UIS, University of Illinois at Springfield. That’s a real human scale campus. I think we’ve got the alternatives and I’m glad you’ve got the choice. MR. COCHRAN: Outside of lecture halls and professor to student ratios, college is what you make of it. MR. WHITE: Absolutely. MR. COCHRAN: I always laugh when I hear things like this is a party school or that’s a party school. You can go to any school you want and turn it into a party school or go to any party school in the country and turn it into a great academic experience. MR. WHITE: I’m going to have to reconsider that employment decision Steve. You’re a pretty smart guy and you understand a lot about education. You couldn’t be more right. It is what you make of it. MR. COCHRAN: And the constant controversy of the chief, where does that stand at this point and where do people get more information? MR. WHITE: I think the trustees have a good process for examining that matter and I think they’re moving it forward and I have a lot of confidence in them. MR. COCHRAN: And where do people express their opinion? MR. WHITE: Directly to the trustees. You can get on the U of I web site. You can send an email and let the trustees know. MR. COCHRAN: And you’re entitled to voice your opinion and I’m sure you want them to voice it when they can. MR. WHITE: It’s a free country. That’s what we love about it. MR. COCHRAN: Congratulations. I hope you have a good, long run there and I look forward to having you fire me like so many others have in the past when I eventually come to work for you. MR. WHITE: Don’t forget Steve. I-L-L-I-N-I baby. MR. COCHRAN: Okay. Joe White, your new president at the University of Illinois and we’re back after this. ### |
