Cover Story: President Lou Anna K. Simon: Leading MSU from Land-Grant to World-Grant
Since Lou Anna K. Simon took over as Michigan State University’s 20th president in January 2005, MSU has boldly moved from its land-grant roots toward a model world-grant vision for the future. Responding to her mandate of Boldness By Design, a strategic initiative to make MSU the nation’s leading land-grant university by 2012 (see pp. 20-24, Summer 2006), the university is undergoing a surge of transformation. Productivity on campus under Simon’s leadership is reminiscent of the Hannah years in the sheer volume of activity, in the consistency with the institution’s time-honored values, and in the alignment with a purposeful, strategic vision for the future.
Under Simon’s leadership, MSU completed a $1.2 billion capital campaign a year and a half ahead of schedule and is now focusing on growing endowments. In response to public needs, MSU is finding ways to channel its vast knowledge-based capital toward helping drive Michigan’s economy as well as enhance the quality of life of the state’s citizens. For example, in response to anticipated medical needs, MSU is reconfiguring both the human medicine and the osteopathic medicine colleges so they can most efficiently deliver medical education in the future in a manner that best serves the state. By establishing a world-grant mindset, Simon has people thinking outside the box and bringing innovative ideas and a global perspective to bear on a whole spectrum of issues. In short, under Simon’s vision, MSU has solidified its tradition as a national pioneer in public education, meeting new and emerging needs in a manner appropriate to the times and technology and yet not deviating from time-honored core values.
This winter President Simon met with Robert Bao, editor of the MSU Alumni Magazine, to discuss some of the key areas in which MSU is advancing knowledge and transforming lives within the framework of Boldness by Design.
Q: I have a huge list of topics here, but let’s start with The Campaign for MSU, which reached its $1.2 billion goal ahead of schedule. Can you comment on this as a testament to the university and also on the current focus on increasing endowments?
A: Michigan State has been a value to people in their own lives and is also something that people are prepared to reinvest in. Alumni already have invested in MSU by coming, and now they are reinvesting so it’s stronger in the future. As far as endowments, all our competitors in the public sector also are relying more and more on endowments—particularly scholarships and endowed faculty positions—for their competitive edge. Named positions help us in recruiting top-notch faculty, and it’s important within the academic community to have this sort of recognition because it means you are among the best.
Q: You and your husband Roy have certainly done your part. You are among the first members of the new Clifton R. Wharton Society, earmarking a good amount of your personal donations to support endowments.
A: People were very kind in recognizing the contributions Roy and I have made, but we’re like many, many people in the Spartan family. We believe in Michigan State and we believe in its future. The faculty-staff-retirees portion of this campaign has been enormously successful—more than $75 million, the highest ever in the Big Ten. People who are here on a day-to-day basis and understand what’s happening are responding.
Q: I think alumni giving also was considerably higher. One particular alumni gift—by Ambassador Peter Secchia to the College of Human Medicine’s expansion westward—affects the future of medical education in the state. I understand our College of Osteopathic Medicine is currently also looking to expand, perhaps eastward. What’s behind these major thrusts?
A: This begins with the projection of a very, very significant physician shortage in the coming years. Access to physicians and nurses is critical for the quality of life in each community. It’s also critical for economic development because quality health care is high on the list of factors that attract and retain businesses. Our responsibility in this world-grant framework is to understand society’s needs, anticipate those needs, and respond in ways that are creative and fiscally responsible. The expansion of the College of Human Medicine into Grand Rapids is based on the fact we’ve been in Grand Rapids for a very long time. We’re keeping the community model for education, and we’re blending our partnerships with Spectrum Health, St. Mary’s Health Care, and the Van Andel Institute with the best of academic medical center research.
Q: How will this impact on the future of medical education?
A: This is critical because you have to get discoveries from the bench to the bedside and that requires clinical research partners. Also, the community campus system permits you to think about population and genomic medicine for the future. Primary care physicians are going to have to understand genomic medicine and how best to treat individuals within the context of their own genetic structure and the genomic characteristics of particular medicines. The community model plus strong research helps facilitate that. The same is true with the College of Osteopathic Medicine and its strong legacy in providing physicians for Michigan. There’s a significant physician shortage in Southeast Michigan, and the osteopathic model can be grown in a cost-effective manner with our partner hospitals in that region.
Q: One buzzword that has permeated higher education is “internationalization.” At MSU we’re certainly ahead of the curve. Tell us about this in the context of the transition to world-grant.
A: This builds on the initiatives that John Hannah started. We were international—to use the word boldly defined—throughout his presidency, doing work around the globe that was really pathbreaking. We now have more than 50 years of relationships. Some are continuous; some were interrupted for a time because of conditions in a particular country, and now the threads have been picked up. We’re trying to define how that model would work in the 21st century. This is land-grant to world-grant. We have strong and deep roots. We have to build on those relationships and find new ways to work in particular countries that are important to the university and its faculty and to America.
Q: One new thing we did that received headlines was opening an MSU office in Beijing.
A: It’s a connector like a county extension office. Again, we’re taking that page of the land-grant playbook and simply putting in Beijing instead of a local county in Michigan. We’ve been able to do that with partnership support from the Sun Wah Education Foundation in Hong Kong. We’re also working on a new model for preschool. Things begin to tie together around that in the same way that things tie together around an extension office in a county. But China is a very big country. Instead of opening other MSU offices there, we’re networking with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and using our partner universities around the country.
Q: Do we have other international offices as such?
A: No, this was a unique venture and it fits with what we want to do in China, which is to build on the finest sustainable model. Sustainability will come with being better connected as institutions in China continue to grow stronger.
Q: Internationalization also implies language education, and we’ve long been steeped in languages and language teaching technology. I’ve noticed quite a few news clips about our association with the Confucius Institute, for example. Are we ahead of the curve again?
A: We’re ahead of the curve to the extent that we’ve seen the benefit of technology and are prepared to approach the need to expand access to language in different ways, again in partnership with China. We’re very fortunate to have great faculty. But throughout our history, you find the same entrepreneurially pathbreaking faculty members who, in retrospect, will have set the course for our work in a variety of countries. There are new names that 25 years from now will be seen as pathbreaking, whether it’s Terrie Taylor and her malaria research in Africa, or Kay Holekamp and her work in behavioral biology, or John Staatz and his colleagues, who focus on agricultural economics. We want to always grow and build on new models that are contemporary and work with the times. We do not want to be stuck in a single model.
Q: The state of Michigan is going through a transformational period, and many expect research universities to play a leading role in turning around the economy. MSU has joined with the state’s other two research universities with medical schools to form the University Research Corridor, which has been likened to California’s Silicon Valley.
A: Bill Gates’ statements and Tom Friedman’s book The World Is Flat point to many markers that suggest that we have to compete in a global knowledge economy. It has to be built on innovation, cutting-edge research, and the capacity to move people to a much higher level of educational achievement independent of socioeconomic status. When we think about it, that’s very much part of the transition from land-grant to world-grant. When MSU was founded, the same kind of turmoil existed. It was a very transformational moment in the country’s history, going from an agricultural to an industrial economy. There was a need for greater production out of agriculture, and time after time Michigan State came through. Now we have to take those same values and move them into this global economy. The state has recognized that its three research universities with medical schools are very critical to that effort. That hasn’t necessarily resulted in more funding, but at least the recognition is there.
Q: How will this corridor work to better serve the people of Michigan as far as coordinating or reorganizing research activities?
A: Previously, each of us might go into a neighborhood and do a project but the projects were not connected. In a crisis, we all responded in our own way. The whole wasn’t necessarily greater than the sum of the parts. The corridor is a way to try to have the whole greater than the sum of the parts. It’s also a way to market Michigan’s knowledge base represented by the three research universities with medicine. You have to offer depth and breadth in your research base to be a magnet to attract companies. We also are trying to organize ourselves to be helpful in crisis situations. For example, when Pfizer announced it was moving all but a small Kalamazoo operation out of Michigan, University of Michigan President Mary Coleman responded because Pfizer’s Ann Arbor facility is in her backyard.
Q: Some MSU researchers are working on projects in which they seem to be on the cusp of new discoveries that can help generate future jobs. Tell us about MSU Technologies, which has been formed to help market these innovations.
A: We’ve reviewed models for technology transfer at institutions around the country and taken the best of those various approaches and put them together for MSU Technologies. You have to think of it as a two-way street—one way helps translate MSU inventions into products and companies and the other is the front door to the university for companies and individuals seeking to partner with Michigan State on new product development and company creation. We need to streamline those interactions in ways that will make this the best tech-transfer operation in the country.
Q: Do we already have economic development partnerships at the local and regional levels?
A: Michigan State has formal engagements with economic development organizations within communities. For example, MSU is a member of Detroit Renaissance, along with the leaders of corporate America in Southeast Michigan, Wayne State University, University of Michigan, and Oakland University. We belong to the Detroit Economic Club, and we partner with NextEnergy, a group in Southeast Michigan. We’re working with SPARK, the economic development unit of Washtenaw County that was started by the University of Michigan, and with Prima Civitas, which has a mid-Michigan focus roughly from the Indiana border up through Flint and Saginaw. We’re working with the Right Place, Inc., as part of the development of the medical school in West Michigan, and in the local community, we are looking at relationships via the Lansing Economic Area Partnership. In addition, MSU Extension, with offices in all 83 counties, is working locally with the appropriate agencies to foster economic development and entrepreneurship.
Q: That’s quite a list.
A: Let me add to that. In addition to MSU Technologies, we also have the MSU Product Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources, which is a partnership with the Michigan Department of Agriculture to spin off businesses that are agriculture-related. It’s been very successful. The Center for Entrepreneurial Strategy in the Eli Broad College of Business provides a wonderful model for students and faculty to work with companies, as well as not-for-profit groups, around entrepreneurship. The Center for International Business Education and Research provides a valuable tool for businesses that are looking to expand internationally as well. There are many assets that are a part of this traditional land-grant mission of economic development.
Q: In the past, our research efforts have yielded some spectacular successes, such as Cisplatin, one of the world’s leading anti-cancer drugs. Would you say the value of research—one of your strategic imperatives—is especially critical in this era of a knowledge-based economy?
A: The value of cutting-edge research has never been higher, and the capacity to translate the ideas represented by fundamental research into innovations is highly valued around the world. It may be one of the defining characteristics of a prosperous society in the 21st century. Again, those are classic land-grant approaches. In order for us to enhance our world reputation as well as make a difference to the people of Michigan, we simply have to do more and more research.
Q: Is there another Cisplatin-type breakthrough awaiting us in fundamental research?
A: Eventually. Think about how many faculty have been working in this area—some for 20 years—addressing problems that nobody realized were that important until an unexpected breakthrough. The great value of the university, in particular the world-grant university, is the capacity for the kind of inquiry that’s not viewed as an immediate need but is fundamentally sound and cutting-edge. We can develop the next generation of solutions at the same time that we’re working on more current applications.
Q: As the nation tries to reduce its dependence on oil, there has been a renewed emphasis on biomass technologies. Can you comment on our role in this area?
A: This is important from a national security perspective. Ethanol is a first step toward that initiative. But we have to move to cellulosic ethanol so we can get the energy and power we need and also minimize the tension between food and fuel as it relates to our renewable resources. We have great faculty who are rolling up their sleeves, working on the issues of the day, and giving great attention to the education of the next generation of scientists. In addition, they also are working to anticipate tomorrow’s problems. What you’re seeing is really a reflection of decisions that have been made over a number of years that have permitted us to anticipate some of the issues around renewable fuel sources and then to be at the cutting edge of providing answers.
Q: One of our research crown jewels, the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, just received $100 million in renewal grants from the National Science Foundation for the next four years. That’s strong support.
A: The laboratory is the premiere nuclear physics program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and an extraordinary investment for the United States. The renewal of the operating grant came after very rigorous review and in a context of very tight resources at the NSF. To have the operating grant actually increased is a real tribute to the leadership of Konrad Gelbke and the entire team. We’re in position to plan for an upgrade that would assure that the program remains world-competitive and the leader for rare isotopes and fast-beam technology.
Q: MSU is one of just a few universities where undergraduates actually can have an active research experience.
A: We want to lead public institutions in the number of students having active-learning experiences. This includes research, because it’s important for them to leave MSU with the tools necessary to become entrepreneurs at a very young age.
Q: Let’s talk about the “Year of Arts and Culture,” as you have called it. So many things are happening, but let’s begin with the new Residential College in the Arts and Humanities.
A: This is another page of the Hannah playbook. It’s the value of living and learning, particularly for the kind of students who are going to come here for the next 20 years. They are highly technology-savvy, sometimes too savvy in my view—they’d rather instant message than walk over and talk to someone. For them, the acquisition of information is going to be so facilitated by technology that the real challenge of education is to define the value structure that surrounds that acquisition and also the analytical cognitive capacities to take bits of information and turn them into wisdom and plans. That requires hands-on work, really interactive deep engagement, living-learning, and undergraduate research experience.
Q: Both the new residential college and a possible new music building would be key components of an “Arts District” on campus. Can you comment on the elevation of the School of Music to full college status?
A: You have to go back and look at this over a 10- to 15-year period. For every academic program, you ask: What are our strengths? What opportunities do we have to be bold and bring distinction to programs? We think we can take the best of a conservatory and the best of what is a traditional music program at a large public university and put them together in ways that help music become a centerpiece for the institution. We have the Wharton Center, so we have a venue. We recruit faculty who are extraordinarily talented but prepared to be engaged in the community in this land-grant spirit so that we can attract very talented students—and the cycle continues to grow. Then, quite frankly, we try to identify the program areas that would bring distinction, where we could be vaulted into the national spotlight for greater visibility.
Q: One area that has been in the national spotlight is MSU jazz studies, which, as I understand, is a fairly unique educational opportunity.
A: In the mid- to late-1990s, you’d see jazz studies programs growing in some of the conservatories as people in New York became more tied to classically oriented places. The MSU land-grant model is America’s model of education, and jazz is a uniquely American model of music, so the marriage seemed pretty clear. The faculty under the leadership of James Forger have used this fundamental framework and gotten spectacular results, and the movement from school to college reflects all of this hard work. Having a college is the model for music nationally, but it’s going to be very connected with the new residential college. The value of connections— part of our core values of quality, inclusiveness and connectivity—is still clear.
Q: Yet another key component of the Arts District would be the Kresge Art Museum, which had been planning an addition but might now actually have its own freestanding building near downtown East Lansing.
A: In the early stages of the capital campaign, the idea of an Arts District involving the MSU Auditorium, Kresge, and the new residential college emerged. An original campaign goal was an addition to Kresge, but as we looked at cost and some other issues, we began thinking about a smaller, freestanding exhibition space funded by private sources. We’ve gone to the board for authorization to plan for such a facility where the Paolucci Building now stands.
Q: As MSU moves from land-grant to world-grant, what is the role of alumni?
A: There are so many ways that alumni can help MSU. I think John Hannah said it best; it really is all about people. The work of our alumni in their daily lives reflects very positively on the value of an MSU education. It’s important that our alumni feel very proud of their Spartan experiences and that they share this pride with others and are ambassadors for MSU. Besides the generous support of the capital campaign that I mentioned earlier, I encourage our alumni to stay connected. After all, connectivity is one of our core values, and there are many opportunities that await their expertise. For starters, alumni should consider joining our more than 120 alumni regional clubs around the world. The could also stay informed about the university. For example, they could subscribe to the MSU Alumni Association’s new e-newsletter, @MSU (www.msualum.com/atmsu). They could also visit the MSU Today Web site (msutoday.msu.edu) and subscribe to regular MSU Today e-mail updates. Other ways to stay in touch are by visiting other MSU Web sites, including my blog (president.msu.edu). I mentioned earlier our need to do more research. Alumni can help by contacting legislators to seek their support in funding much-needed research dollars. MSU Governmental Affairs offers coordinated efforts through the Spartan Advocates program (spartanadvocates.msu.edu), and there is also the Green and White Political Action Committee. On the international front, alumni can encourage strategic alliances between their organizations and MSU. And on the cultural front, I encourage alums to return to campus and engage in all the many cultural activities that we have to offer. Finally, alumni should recommend MSU to potential students and encourage their employers to hire MSU graduates and interns or work in partnership on research initiatives. I recommend alumni participate in college mentor programs, work with student organizations, and even volunteer to give class presentations. These opportunities allow students to engage in active learning, which enhances the student experience and is so important in their future marketability. This is a great way for alumni to be active members of Team MSU. In short, stay involved.