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Lombardi preparing for leadership transition by Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, Chronicle staff
There's certainly a lot to ask about. The state budget. Infrastructure. External funding. Academic organization. And the loss of upwards of 600 faculty and staff to retirement. The scope of issues facing the campus is long and daunting. So why is the former University of Florida president, now 60, giving up his post as director of The Center for Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences and moving to Amherst? "One of my goals is to do interesting things in an interesting place and time," Lombardi said. "UMass is a very interesting place with a great academic tradition." Unlike the last few chancellors, Lombardi comes to the post having already led a large public university. In Lombardi's nine years as president of UF, the Gainesville campus raised the academic profile of its undergraduates, increased enrollment by more than 9,000 and boosted the number of minority students from 14 percent to 22 percent. At the same time, UF's total budget increased to $1.5 billion and sponsored research funding more than doubled to nearly $300 million annually. The school's endowment increased by nearly 400 percent to more than $500 million and a capital campaign raised $750 million. But Lombardi, whose current work focuses on performance measurements for universities and comparative studies of research universities, said there is really no parallel between UF in 1990 and UMass in 2002. "The whole higher education environment is not the same," he said. His appointment at UF came within a "different structure and a different political space" at an institution with a "substantially different" academic organization. However, he said, there are "remarkably consistent" themes at all public research universities. "There's never enough money, no matter how much you've raised," said Lombardi. "They all think the state is short-changing them." At the same time, he said, the institutions "have to work hard to educate students and compete for research funds," forcing the schools to pursue different agendas simultaneously. "And they all worry about sports, even though some pretend they don't," he said. "Sports have to be done well to be valuable. Sometimes people behave badly when there's too much emphasis on sports or on winning." Based on his conversations with President William M. Bulger, trustees, administrators, faculty and other groups, Lombardi said there is general agreement on the campus's aspirations. "We're all on the same track: UMass is a great place that needs to get better," he said. "Everybody's agenda is the same, but different constituencies use different language." Lombardi also acknowledged there is frustration at various levels, stemming mostly from a "concern that systems could be improved." Disagreement arises over methods to improve various functions, he said. "Everyone finds someone outside their area who's responsible. That's the nature of large, complex organizations. The truth is that everybody has to do better." To move ahead, Lombardi said, the campus needs to define its mission and its message. Because the campus has already experienced a "period of self-examination and reflection, it's ahead of most institutions." Lombardi said the process also must consider the broader landscape. "It's easy to sit at home and criticize the legislature," he said. "But why should the legislature do more? It partly has to do with what the legislature wants from the institution." After faculty, students, staff and administrators agree on a mission and corresponding message, he added, the campus can then establish goals and methods for measuring improvement. At the same time, the campus's message fuels efforts to secure support for advancing institutional values, he said. But pursuing values and raising money must be mutually supportive. "In order to improve values, you have to get the money," Lombardi said. "But it's not how much money you have. It's whether you can implement the values." "Every university is finding money elsewhere," he noted, "whether it's from fund-raising, grants and contracts, licensing intellectual property or finding efficiencies." Lombardi said one of his immediate goals after taking office will be guiding the transition through the huge number of retirements expected in mid-June. With more than 600 employees signed up for various retirement incentives, Lombardi said the campus stands to lose an enormous storehouse of experience and institutional knowledge. "But universities are always in a process of constant renewal - finding good people to replace those who are leaving," he said. "The adjustment process this time will be less graceful than it usually would be. ... We'll be improvising to get from A to B." Lombardi's also untroubled by the large number of senior posts now filled by interim appointees. "I have no problem with interims. They were identified as people who can do the job," he said. "I'll learn what I need to learn before doing anything. I won't come riding in with a posse to take charge. Universities work in a more graceful fashion." On the academic side, Lombardi said the Faculty Senate and its various councils and committees will play an important role shaping decisions. "If you don't have
faculty involved, you often make the wrong decision," he said. Lombardi jousted with the Florida board of regents over funding for UF and also nearly lost his job over a much-publicized incident when he called the state university system chancellor an "Oreo," a racially offensive term for an African-American who is perceived to embrace white values. Lombardi later apologized for the remark. In 1999, he was accused of bullying two out-of-state law school deans who had been hired to review legal education in Florida. But as Lombardi noted in a 1999 Associated Press story, "My take on all these controversies is that in some measure, if you do what the University of Florida set out to do, which is to become a major national research university for this state, you will by definition produce some controversy because you have to push very hard, you have to make changes and you have to drive the agenda." Looking back on his presidency, Lombardi told the Chronicle that "controversy is often generated by context. What's controversial one day is nothing the next. I'm actually the same, but the context changes." In another nod to his days in Gainesville, Lombardi also revealed that he nominated the third finalist for chancellor, Elizabeth Capaldi, who served as his provost at UF from 1996 to 1999. Though she is now provost at the University at Buffalo, Capaldi still serves as research program director at The Center, where Lombardi is trying to complete this year's report on "The Top American Research Universities." With his departure pending, Lombardi said The Center is being reconfigured and he and Capaldi will be "editors from afar." In the meantime, Lombardi and his wife Cathryn are preparing for the move from Gainesville to Hillside, the chancellor's residence. Although Lombardi's compensation package includes a housing allowance, a visit to the stately home overlooking the campus cinched the couple's decision to live there, even if the building does need some work. "I think it's important to live at Hillside," said Lombardi. "It just didn't feel right to live off-campus." In the meantime, he said, the issue of his housing allowance is a topic for further discussion with the president. One legendary artifact of Lombardi's years at UF, his widely-recognized red, three-quarter-ton 1985 GMC pickup truck, won't be making the trip north. "I don't think it would survive the salt," he said. Instead, he'll be bringing a Jeep "inherited" from his son. Lombardi admits to being a motor-head since his teens. "I took every shop class through junior high and high school," he said. In fact, while on the faculty of Indiana University Bloomington in the 1970s, he and another faculty member ran an auto repair business called Farmer's Garage. Lombardi said he occupies himself on trips by reading "airplane novels," books purchased at the terminal before departure. "I don't like to work on airplanes," he explained. "So I can just shut everything out by reading." His other interest is computers, which dates back to the late '60s, when he was using punch cards and IBM machines to crunch demographic data related to his research in Latin American studies. Later, as the small computer market opened up, Lombardi bought one of the first Apple II models. He also penned a slew of hardware and software reviews for InfoWorld magazine and taught computer literacy to faculty at Indiana University. Today, he indulges his interest with three computers and a small network. Though his arrival in Amherst hinges on the "vagaries of the moving business," Lombardi said he'll be ready to pitch in on July 1, but cautioned that the work ahead will require many hands and minds. "Institutions often focus too much on the individual," he said. "What matters is that the people who contribute to quality are supported adequately." The Lombardi files To learn more about John Lombardi, readers can visit his home page and several links related to various as-pects of his life and work:
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