A Q&A with the new U of I president
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Robert Easter has been at the University of Illinois since the early 1970s as a student, faculty member and administrator, but he’ll take over as president in July under difficult circumstances.
President Michael Hogan said this week he’ll resign, effective July 1, following months of tension with faculty over his leadership style and plans they feared would rob the school’s three campuses of their autonomy. Easter will be paid $450,000 a year and has agreed to stay for two years.
The 64-year-old native Texan has led a department and held a number of interim leadership roles on the flagship campus in Urbana-Champaign, but he said in an interview Friday that he’ll have to spend a lot of time early on getting to know all three campuses and considering state financial issues — both state pension liabilities and spending on higher education.
Easter said he will spend a lot of time early on listening and talking with faculty, many of whom complained Hogan didn’t take their concerns into consideration.
Here’s a portion of the interview:
Q. Why at this point would you agree to be president?
A. “Part of it is that I’ve been on this campus a very long time. I’m an alum of this university, and we’re not going anywhere — Illinois is our home and our children are in this state.”
“I think it was absolutely reasonable for the board to take the course of action that they did. There needs to be a period where there’s not an interim associated with the title, where someone coming here wouldn’t say, `Who is going to be in your chair in three months?”’
Q. What are the first, most important areas you expect to have to address?
A. “I know this (Urbana-Champaign) campus well, but I need to spend time in Chicago and in Springfield, physically getting to know the campuses and getting to know the faculty. ... I think the other thing is to look at the major issues we’re facing. Clearly the (state) legislature is in session and we’re not sure where pension issues are going to land. We’re not sure where budget issues are going to land.”
Q. What do you need to do differently than your predecessor, and how do you explain that to faculty who were critical of him for, among other things, plans to streamline some operations among the three campuses?
A. “The challenge is how do you preserve that nimbleness and efficiency (at each campus) and at the same time, do things at scale? ... I think it’s a matter of just getting people around the table and just talking through these things.”
Q. You’ve acknowledged that at least to some degree the university’s reputation has been hurt by the problems of the past few years. Do you think other universities use that against you when trying to attract faculty and administrators?
A. “If I were in a battle with somebody as a candidate over somebody I would always use whatever’s available to me as long as it’s legal and ethical. I would guess (it happens).”
Q. Why do you think you’ve been called on the past to take on so many interim leadership roles and, now, to become president on such short notice?
A. “I guess I’ve had enough experiences in life that I know there aren’t very many situations that are the end of the world. You just get up and deal with it every day, get up and keep going. You can’t run away from things, situations.”
Q. Your son, Aaron Easter, died in a skiing accident in January. Did that in any way make you think twice about taking on this job?
A. “Honestly it didn’t. Someone who had had a different situation in their own lives not long after Aaron’s death told me there’ll be something every day in your life that reminds you (of his death), and you have to accept that. And I think that’s true.”