UP prepares for new president

Philip Ellefson |

With President Fr. Bill Beauchamp’s resignation this spring and the RISE Campaign nearly over, the University of Portland is poised to enter a new era. This Saturday, the Board of Regents will usher it in by electing either Fr. Jim Lies or Fr. Mark Poorman as the next president of the University.

Each candidate brings something different to the table. Poorman, who has been Executive Vice President of UP since last year, has plenty of administrative experience under his belt, having served as a vice president at Notre Dame for 11 years. Lies, on the other had, has devoted much of his career to studying and teaching psychology, including six years as an associate professor at UP.

According to John Soisson, who knows both candidates personally and served as an assistant to UP’s last three presidents, no matter which candidate is elected the University community can expect a  shift in focus from expansion of facilities and services to academics.

“I think there’s kind of a pendulum that goes back and forth, and I think the pendulum is starting to swing back toward academics,” Soisson said. “I think whoever’s going to be the next president is probably going to put the University’s focus on the academic side of the house.”

The process of selecting the new president is being overseen by the Presidential Search Committee, a group of 14 regents, administrators, priests, faculty and staff.

On Jan. 14 and 15, Poorman and Lies met with Holy Cross priests and administrators, as well as holding forums open to all faculty and staff. The administration also selected six students who met with the candidates for lunch. Attendees of all meetings filled out evaluation sheets for each candidate regarding their strengths and weaknesses.

These evaluation sheets, along with anonymous advisory votes from the Presidential Search Committee, will be presented to the 50 members of the Board of Regents, who will hold an anonymous vote to determine the next president. The Board of Regents will announce their decision as soon as both candidates have been informed of the outcome.

STUDENT MEETINGS

Although all faculty and staff were invited to open forums with Lies and Poorman, only a small group of students was invited to privately meet with each candidate and ask questions regarding student interest. Six students attended these meetings.

“In previous years, candidates would do an open forum (for students), like a fireside chat, but not very many students attended,” junior ASUP Vice President Elvia Gaona said.

Both Gaona and senior Peter Chamberlain, another student representative, agreed that student input should be crucial to the presidential decision.

“It’s probably the most important point of view because the University is about students first and foremost,” Chamberlain said.

Chamberlain thought the six students involved in the meeting represented the student body fairly.

“It ended up being a good mix of people because there was an RA, we had two in student government, there was a student athlete,” he said. “We had a junior, senior and fifth-year senior, so it was good.”

Prior to the meetings, the student representatives met with Provost Tom Greene and Danielle Hermanny, executive assistant to the president, to formulate questions to ask the candidates. The group decided on a set of questions to ask each candidate.

“The student reps were really interested in the increasing cost of tuition, the image of the University among the community, the degree of involvement and engagement that the future president would have with the students,” Gaona said.

Gaona and Chamberlain agreed that student engagement ought to be the top priority for the next president.

“The number one priority should be the students. Students should be able to know who their president is. They should be able to recognize that individual walking around campus,” Gaona said. “I know they have to maintain a public image and it’s fundraising, but when you’re on campus, it has to be about the students.”

COMMUNITY INPUT

In addition to meeting with student representatives and holding open forums for all staff and faculty, the candidates also met privately with various groups on campus, including the administration, the Presidential Search Committee and Holy Cross priests.

Lars Larson, an English professor and member of the Presidential Search Committee, said it is important to have many different groups of people involved in the process because of the importance of the University president.

“It’s surely the hardest job on campus, so they have to be dynamic at a great many things, from making wise decisions to communicating well to having a strong sense of where we come from as a university and having a strong vision of where we’re going,” Larson said. “And I don’t know how one person could possibly do that.”

Larson said the combination of private meetings and open forums provided a thorough examination of each candidate.

“So many of these things can be quick, executive decisions, but I was surprised at how broad-scaled this process was, how collaborative it was,” Larson said.

According to Larson, the forums were well-attended and he said that he’s confident the Board of Regents will take faculty, staff and student input into account.

“Each of those forums carries weight in the same way the  14-person advisory board’s votes carry weight,” Larson said. “Nothing is the deciding factor, but it brings as much data to the table as possible.”

John Soisson, who served as an assistant to the past three presidents and served as a member of the Presidential Search Committee when President Fr. Bill Beauchamp was elected, said changing presidents is always hard for faculty and staff.

“Any change is unsettling,” Soisson said. “People wonder, ‘How’s this going to affect my job, am I going to have a job?’ Any change is always unsettling.”

But several students and faculty involved in the process are optimistic about the future of the University, no matter which candidate is chosen.

“You have an incredibly tough but easy decision to make,” Chamberlain said. “Both are amazing men. It’s probably going to be a tough decision because they’re both qualified.”

Fr. Jim Lies is the vice president for Mission at Stonehill College, a Holy Cross institution in Easton, Mass. From 2006 to 2012, Lies served at UP as a psychology professor and the executive director of the Garaventa Center. During his time at UP, Lies also lived in Shipstad Hall as the pastoral resident.

Lies spent his undergrad years at the University of Saint Thomas, received master’s degrees from the University of Notre Dame and the Jesuit School of Theology, and has a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.