First candidate talks ideas, innovation
While universities are steeped in tradition, innovation will be their future according Fayneese Miller, a candidate for the University of Idaho provost and executive vice president position.
“If we allow tradition to be the sum total of how we operate, we will miss opportunities to change and to move forward,” Miller said, speaking to students, staff and faculty at an open forum Thursday.
Fayneese S. Miller
Miller currently serves as dean of the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont and has held the position for a decade. She is one of five finalists vying for the position at UI.
Miller said she is attracted to UI because of its land-grant mission of providing students with a quality education.
“Part of our mission is to create opportunities for all of our students, regardless of their economic background, that resonates with me,” she said.
Miller said she is also drawn to UI because of its focus on research and the goal of growing enrollment.
“I want to be a part of something that is building, something that is growing,” she said.
Like Vermont, Miller said Idaho has a difficult time convincing high school students to continue their education into college. She said UI should focus on increasing conversion to grow enrollment and recommended connecting with K-12 partners throughout the state to close the bridge.
While Miller said growing instate enrollment is important, UI should look toward recruiting students from outside of Idaho as well.
Miller said higher education institutions face challenges at the national and state level, and will need to analyze its operations to succeed. On the national level, she said federal funding for science in higher education has dropped at the detriment to universities.
“Funding is going down,” Miller said. “The amount of money those agencies are receiving is a lot less than we need in order to do the kind of research, scientific research that we need on our campuses.”
Taking questions from the audience, Miller said she has a strong commitment to diversity and placed a high priority on hiring diverse candidates at her college. As a faculty member at Brown University, Miller was the director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and chaired the university’s Affirmative Action Monitoring Committee.
“I strongly believe in the importance of diversity for making an institution stronger than it already is,” Miller said.
Taking a question from a staff member, Miller said staff members play a critical role in the quality of an institution, and should be represented in faculty governance.
“I tell my staff all the time, ‘I can’t do my job without them, and neither can the rest of the faculty,'” Miller said. “We need staff.”
To connect with new students, Miller said UI should continue to invest in distance education and train professors on how to navigate an online classroom. She said universities like UI have to compete with for-profit universities on the web. She said UI should strive to have a strong presence in this market.
Miller’s presentation received a warm response from John Mangiantini, manager for employer relations and communications in the Career Center. He said Miller had a good grasp on the issues affecting the university and would be a positive contribution to UI President Chuck Staben’s cabinet.
“I think she just gets it,” Mangiantini said.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at [email protected]