[00:00:05]
>> Well Lou part of this for the visit by next year so in our life as advice for this is we've been writing now for I think this is our 4th year and we got idea was to try to get faculty staff together to learn about the pockets of board to think that we don't always know about and it's too popular so we're continuing and so this year we are out in presidential transition and of course everybody's interested to know about the new people on the block right so we can find to track the oval it's currently serving as chief of staff for President Calderon and it's a 5 times president for strategic initiatives so you know the role that's focusing on the creation of the strategic plan and its executorship so we thought that it would be very interesting to hear from him about how his office will be working how he works with President covering Iraq and in fact he has a lot of insight about that because they've been working since 2004 you know that's for the last 16 years and also the chief of staff capacity at George Mason.

[00:01:15]
And fun fact. Frank was a career diplomat before joining I can be sure that comes in very handy. To both of you but sometimes So thank you so much for being here and I think you'll have a pretty informal no slides open to questions anything thank you thank you thank you thank you very much and thank all of you for for being here.

[00:01:42]
It's a little worrisome that somebody who's been here for not even 5 months is being asked to talk about demystifying of how Georgia Tech works. So I feel like I should be sitting there and you should be standing here and you should be telling me how Georgia Tech works.

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But I'm happy to share. Are some of the changes some of the priorities for the for the new president and then have to answer any questions that you might have. I was asked to talk about a couple things One is the structure in and duties of my role.

[00:02:26]
The president's office organization senior leadership roles priorities for this year and then sort of emerging themes from from the strategic plans I'm happy to talk about that or anything else you want so if you're not interested in what I'm saying just raise your hand and say hey I want to talk about something else and will switch gears so.

[00:02:50]
Don't worry I'm not easily offended so. Again this is this is for your benefit so however you want to use this time is is perfectly fine with me but I'll start where I was asked to start. With my role so so as chief of staff and senior vice president for strategic initiatives.

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My main duty as as some of you have heard me describe it is to make sure everything works. So on any given day. That could be something different. But ensuring you know broadly speaking that the president is successful that institutional goals and objectives are being met. And that the work of particularly the senior team is aligned is my sort of core responsibility.

[00:03:49]
More specifically overseeing the strategic planning process although we have a team here. Led by Sonia whom you all know the Strategic Consulting Group. That is expert in this regard and that if you've been engaged with them you know what good work they do. So overseeing that. Hasn't actually been.

[00:04:16]
A very difficult thing because we have outstanding people who are who are working really really hard and and producing some at least from my perspective very very good results. Setting goals coronating the goals for the senior team and I can talk a little bit about that you know since we came on sort of in the middle of of a fiscal year you know priority and since we knew also and since we're going through a strategic planning process we didn't want to get sort of too deeply or to formalized into the goal setting process for this year.

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But generally speaking there were some things that were pretty self evident in their importance and things where we felt like we needed to make progress right away so 1st of all was strategic plan because it provides a framework for everything else we do. But secondly making additional investments in student mental health student well being you've seen some of that through the.

[00:05:20]
Through the care center and through the car process. We also identified additional resources you know that will be adding to the to the care center both you know in this current fiscal year and then in fiscal years to come. For any of you who have been involved in that you know that you know the student response to that in the demand for services there has has already sort of you know outstripped the capacity to have plenty of seats in the front row that's that's the price you pay for coming in late.

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So. So you know student mental health and well being. A priority and then you know sort of continuing the momentum on things like the what is it the complete complete college Georgia. Program where I was actually quite impressed to see you know a lot of the good work that's been done but continuing the momentum on that.

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We see. Implementing the one u.s.g. system. For those of you who are involved in that that's loads of fun it's going to be even more fun. When we roll it out but you know something that should you know make us all make it ultimately easier for all of us to do our jobs.

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Going forward. The car as I mentioned. So again something that you know strategic consulting was was helping helping lead and we successfully submitted our plan and you know got signed off from the chancellor back in December. So. That was I guess that's one of the goals that's already been checked off although actually doing all the things that we said we would do under car.

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You know is something that needs to continue. Let me see addressing graduate student finances I mean we've heard this from from student leadership President and I heard it I think on our 1st day here maybe it was our 2nd but certainly within the 1st 48 hours and it's been something that's continued to be an issue that students have continued to talk about and when you when you dig into the details of it you can see that you know there are some real financial challenges for graduate students and you know it's not something where we have a magic wand in the desk and we can just take it out and wave it and solve the problem but being committed to improvement.

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And making it you know progressively financially easier for graduate students to focus on what they're here for which is you know studying. And less concerned about their their finances is something that we're we're committed to. And then. To other things priorities and some of these predate our arrival but you know focusing on increasing transparency increasing communications.

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And. And really instilling a strong ethical culture something that Ling-Ling and and team have been have been working on and Renee Cupp Koski in communications as well but that's something where. Where. Investing in culture. Improving transparency improving communications are something that we should be concerned about every single day rain and and as long as we all of us are here at Georgia Tech it's something that is is a continuous or should be a continuous effort on our parts but you know some of the some of the Institute wide initiatives that have that have been launched out of the office of legal compliance and ethics again are things where.

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We've made a priority for for this year and then finally I think this was one thing that you want to talk about too is some trying to figure out a better corporate engagement model for Georgia Tech. It's not the existing model it's not the worst model that I've seen.

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But for those of you who are involved in corporate India Ajman you know that you know sometimes it's hard for the right hand in the left hand to to work in concert and so improving that. Is something that. Is a focus for this for this fiscal year. We see.

[00:10:20]
So stop stop there. And happy to take any any questions on that piece and then we can talk maybe a little bit more about strategic plan. Well so that is yet to be determined right but we've asked. Lynn Durham fair Carson shall we. And it might have been somebody else but to sort of lead a group.

[00:11:00]
Evaluation of our current structure and to come up with a consensus model on how we can do better. I mean I think the the issue is that I mean the easiest piece to clean up is sort of your structural piece is how existing parts of the organization that sit in different departments coordinate with one another set priorities and share information.

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The harder thing to do is is then scaling that across a very diverse you know faculty community because. The faculty at Georgia Tech. Have lots and lots of their own you know relationships with with corporations and those are very positive things those are some of the. One of the one of the primary ways that Georgia Tech delivers value to the community right is through those interactions so we certainly don't want to get in the way of what individual faculty are doing right but how do you coordinate that when you don't even necessarily know the full range of all those activities so that's a little harder but the structural piece you know the things where.

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You know your you have administrators doing things is well should be at least theoretically a lot easier to coordinate and so having you know databases that talk to one another. And having again communication protocols whereby you're sharing information and you're sitting down and talking about how you engage a particular corporate partner in a strategic coordinated way those are the types of things that.

[00:12:49]
Should be able to figure out. Yes there are 2 things that are. Pretty. Cold so. Hard so many things. Sure so I mean you know so from my perspective. So the question is how do we plan to invest in culture and so culture communications ethics transparency they all sort of go together right so how do you how do you invest in culture so there are a couple different ways right so one is structural right so how do you position your organization to do things in the way that you want it to do you know sort of organizational behavior 101 right so.

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A lot of those organizational changes were made prior to our arrival and I think those are good organizational changes I think you know the Office of Legal Affairs compliance and ethics having this mandate to lead. To lead you know an ethics initiative I think was a good was a good move you saw some of the additional measures that we made on our on our 1st day or 1st week I guess I think we announced in the 1st week we may have done on the 1st day.

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But. Sure. But for example. Given the open records responsibility to communications right moving Title 9 to diversity those are those are the types of things again where you're sort of aligning stuff. And without getting too far into the weeds of history. You know my looking at the organizational chart.

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You know prior to some of the problems that occurred. It seems pretty clear that there were structural elements that contributed to those things right. And so you need. What you need is. A lot of autonomous yet coordinated units right so ideally in any organization. This size you cannot micromanage to success right you can micro manage to paralysis.

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Right but you can't micromanage to success so if you really want to harness the full capabilities of everybody in your organization you need to do a couple things Number one is you need to communicate a vision so that every everybody understands where the institution is headed right you need to give people some sense of how their role how their specific role bits into and can contribute to that overall mission.

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You need to give people the tools. To be able to make those contributions right and then you need to have the transparency accountability and communication to ensure that. As you're moving forward there is alignment and people are contributing to that overall mission now I know so that's very easy to say right I said it in 30 seconds.

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But that's something that most organizations this size have a hard time doing. You know even over a 51020 year period but if you start with the principle right that. You want to maximize the contribution of every single individual in your organization right. And then you try to work to figure out how you structure it so that people can make those contributions in a coordinated way.

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You know then at least you have a chance of moving forward you know it's not like we're on a crew team right where you have you know 9 people rowing in one direction and one person rowing the other direction it's pretty obvious what's happening right. In organization like this it's a lot more complicated.

[00:17:30]
So the more transparency you have the more communication you have. The more the signals from institutional leadership about priorities and expectations and the how you're supposed to be doing things are clear the more likely you are again to have everybody rowing in the in the same direction as at you know it's a general answer but.

[00:17:57]
So we could we could talk about this for the next the rest of the day and tomorrow right. And actually we're having. Byron aren't we having an event in May But aren't you organizing this. Yeah yeah organizational effectiveness conference and you know that one opportunity for us to think about how that actually works and people to.

[00:18:28]
You know to to sort of you know crowd source ideas on on how to actually make that happen right because that's another that's another piece of this again I you know I mentioned creating a vision right you've got to get people to buy into the vision. You can't just sit here and say you have to you know you have to buy into this vision brain that's not how that works right you have to have people you know voluntarily saying no I agree with this direction which is part of the reason why we're doing the strategic planning process the way we are right so people's voices are heard and so the outcome of the strategic plan is something the shared.

[00:19:05]
Rather than being you know the vision of one person or a few people. Question about the bankers here and with other nations that later you know in a program that we get later I'm wondering. What it is that is the object that was part of that now that I don't go into the structure of your shoes.

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And your. You know. Sure so I think there was and I'll defer to others who are more specifically involved in this but I think there was a communication. Sort of maybe shortly after I arrived or prior to my involvement in this where. There was basically a sort of.

[00:20:00]
A winding down of that as a separate initiative right and the idea was you know there was a tracker right and I've seen the report actually just got an update on that. Back in December on and there are a few outstanding items that we will fold into institutional planning going forward but I think the you know the broader issue of well being.

[00:20:24]
Is one. That is coming through strongly in the strategic planning process and so you know as we get into discussion of specific goals around well being they'll be an opportunity that'll happen in the spring they'll be an opportunity to you know surface any of the things that the community feels are still you know outstanding.

[00:20:47]
And then you know tie those into the into the implementation going forward. On the questions so I've demystified everything. Yeah Joanne. Sure so there was a report done by a lot of people not me. But people who understand this. The sort of details of this. And I just saw a copy of that last week is still sort of in draft form.

[00:21:37]
With various different options. And I mean I think you have sort of 2 to Lt General levers you can poll right so you provide subsidies. Or you reduce fees. Ok and providing subsidies. Is not ideal because that is taxable income. So you know for every dollar you spend the graduate student reaps you know maybe $0.83 or $0.75 or whatever depending on their tax you know status of benefit so ideally right.

[00:22:24]
You want to reduce cost and so thinking about how to do that is a complicated issue when number one. You know I keep looking for the pot of gold hidden in the president's office I have yet to find it. But until we find that pot of gold you know there's there's no sort of you know immediate and complete solution to graduate student finances so how do you you know find different sources of revenue different sources of funding to be able to sort of chip away at this problem I think is where we're going to end up and I know in previous years George attack has reduced you know fees unilaterally in some cases right and so certainly that's a possibility I think in the past though those few reductions had come with.

[00:23:33]
Funding injections. Which you know in this current environment is probably unrealistic so. But within the car report from we set aside 1650000 in savings Sonia's noddings I think I'm right. 1.1.65000000 in savings recurring annually. That we will allocate in some way. To you know reducing the financial burden on graduate students but specifically how and you know which groups of students and how that all works is is something we're still talking about.

[00:24:33]
Years sure. So the Provos search should start the provost search and timeline and what we're doing so I should have a search firm. Lined up probably early next week my put out a request on Friday with a deadline of this Friday for submissions We'll see how long it takes to go through in an interview and you know get somebody set up in the process of putting together a search committee.

[00:25:14]
Hope to have that. Well I don't want to give a specific when I can you know have that final unpublicized But I'm I'm getting pretty close on that. And my expectation is we'll have the 1st search committee meeting in the latter half of February and what I've told search firms is I want to be in the market with a with an announcement an official announcement by March 1 so we'll see how many search firms are willing to go with that aggressive time frame but.

[00:25:49]
You know that's what I had that's what I'd like to do in order to have somebody in place September 1 you know we have a very very aggressive timeline. So you know we're going to have to do the search. You know in the spring you know March April and try to have somebody selected in in early summer.

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And that's not ideal in terms of you know the public presentations that you know we're going to expect of Provost finalists but I think what we're going to try to do is 2 things One is have more input sessions early in the process right so in early March maybe convenes and campus.

[00:26:40]
Listening sessions with the search chairs. And maybe you know we'll see how many others of the search committee we can get there but for people in the community to. Give their input on what type of candidates they would like to see and then try to nail down some a specific time frame probably in June for the campus visits so that people can plan for it right.

[00:27:08]
So many ways that's not ideal. But I think it's important you know the have somebody you know in place for the fall especially you know the strategic plan will be up and running right and every day that we're running under a new strategic plan and we don't have a new provost.

[00:27:31]
Is is a day where I think we're we're operating at less than ideal capacity and I also one other thing that I'll say is. We've already gotten. Some recommendations and inquiry on potential candidates so this is this is going to be an attractive this is not going to be this is an attractive job this is an exciting place to be and we're going to have my expectation is we're going to have a really good pool of people.

[00:28:03]
So I mean this is even starting before the formal part of it. It sounds like you do. Want. To get. Well so I think that would be you know that's something where. 2 things are going to be relevant one is certainly strategic plan right and alignment with strategic plan.

[00:28:44]
B.. So no we're going through a strategic planning process here at Georgia Tech and the strategic planning process will produce you know certain priorities right and when I'm saying is those will reflect you know the consensus view of the community on where we want to go in the next 5 to 10 years right so so those you know those are the areas there where we're going to want to make more investments now you know how we do that we'll see right but.

[00:29:20]
You know that would be the principal way of of. Allocating. Well I think that that then this is the 2nd part of it is you know there's a budget planning process that works through the various different you know executive vice president portfolios All right so that would be the opportunity right but in terms of broad themes on things.

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Like we've already heard well being is going to be important you know themes so things that are associated with well being right we're going to you know look to try to do more so let me go here in the right there of. How we start some of those emerging churches and other.

[00:30:14]
Things like. Time to use. That yeah. Sure. So I actually took notes from our strategic planning process and Sonia's here to stop me if I if I go off script. And others too. But so. This is not an exhaustive list but certainly impact. The idea that that. Georgia Tech or we as a community desire to have impact.

[00:30:56]
On our city on our state country world that we want to be. That we want to participate in addressing some of the the biggest global challenges. That we want to be seen as a source of solutions by companies by governments by the community. But here in Atlanta I think the sense is that.

[00:31:24]
This city is on the costs of really emerging as a as a technology hub. And Georgia Tech is kind of the driver of that right now. You know you look at all these companies coming in and you know the reason that they're here is because of the ecosystem that primarily Georgia Tech graduates have have created the physical infrastructure that Georgia Tech has put in place in midtown and then the tremendous you know stream of talent that comes out of Georgia Tech you know.

[00:32:03]
And I'm not just talking about the you know the undergraduates But you know also the you know the faculty talent right. And the graduate student talent so. So. Really trying to be thoughtful and strategic about how we you know get this fly wheel really spinning. Is another theme that's that's coming up.

[00:32:29]
In the process of doing that. Well I mean yes excellence right is another theme that's coming out and I saw. Good you did not come in did she Ok. She just probably peaked in som eone. Happens. But it's interesting what we've heard from students and you know for those of you have been in some of these conversations you've probably heard this with your own years is that.

[00:33:04]
Students like on the one hand they're not excited about having to work so hard but on the other hand they're kind of proud that they. Are able to work so hard and succeed and. You know back to the Atlanta ecosystem piece I think part of the reason why companies like Georgia Tech grads is because they sort of go through this crucible of.

[00:33:27]
You know here here on campus. And when they leave they're skilled and resilient and able to produce you know in a way that maybe other. Other your graduates from other places are not. So. So there's a real desire to maintain that excellence in everything. But at the same time there's that there's a desire to support the community better in the process of that.

[00:34:04]
And that you know that goes that goes across the board I mean we hear it most most specifically with regard to students. But you know also faculty and staff and I know you know staff council has been you know vocal on this and to its credit. You know has been you know forcing conversations and you know trying to get resources for faculty and staff so so the wellbeing piece right.

[00:34:33]
I see is kind of a partner with the with the excellence piece. And then. Also. A sense of inclusive 80 so back to. That if it landed as a tech hub right there and again those of you have been involved in these conversations have probably heard this that you know the idea of we want Lana to be you know Silicon Valley you know with a heart or you know but a more I don't know a more humane form of of Silicon Valley.

[00:35:12]
Where there's innovation and there's entrepreneurship but there's more collaboration. And there's more of more of a sense of of impact rather than you know just trying to i.p.o. in cash out so those and there are others but I think those are some of the sort of core. Things that that the community has said we value and we wanted to we want to aspire towards over the next 510 years.

[00:35:49]
As. Sure so. So certainly you know the president's personal views are very much aligned with that. If you were at the investiture or you were at the State of the Institute. Which I still can't believe he gave the state of the Institute on like his 3rd day here.

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That was our August homework. But you heard some of those priorities right you heard. You know a focus on well being you heard a focus on innovation and right you heard a focus on inclusive Indian diversity. And those are things that you know for him personally. Are important.

[00:36:45]
And you know again very consistent there's nothing coming out of the strategic plan that you know is really sort of at odds with I think how how you know his own personal. Now we have a question Becker. How much. Are a lot about what people wait here and how much.

[00:37:11]
Outside. Influence. Policy chlorate be in include corporations into the plan. You know I mean right now there's a bill in the legislature that that would like to mandate the percentage of early missions. That comes days or are things like that incorporate into. Play and develop right yeah great question so I'll start at the system level so the system completed their strategic plan and approved it in December I want to say.

[00:37:49]
And if if any of you have looked at it. You know you will see that none of the things that they're. That they've outlined they're really inconsistent with the discussions that we've had they do have some. You know very specific expectations for the Georgia University of Georgia system as a whole in terms of enrollment growth in terms of research research expanded Ters in terms of you know graduation rates and those types of things.

[00:38:20]
But I think Georgia Tech. Even without a strategic plan even without you know changing anything. Other than sort of continuing on current trajectory probably is able to deliver on just about all of that stuff. That the system is expecting from you know from the broader Georgia University community.

[00:38:46]
In terms of you know sort of individual constituent groups and actually want to know is this much better than I do so so feel free to jump in or stop me if I'm wrong want to but. So we really focused on the campus in October November in the 1st part of December because we wanted to make sure we had a comprehensive view of what faculty staff and students.

[00:39:15]
Perspectives were we also engaged alumni. We did so virtually more than in person but we did have some in person engagements with the with alumni especially the alumni. Alumni Association board. Now we also did various different sessions with community leaders the president did his own personal interviews of the of the regents when he was meeting with them and then with others.

[00:39:48]
Business leaders etc We've had a number of different breakfasts and those breakfasts actually in those little sessions are continuing we had a sustainability discussion yesterday. There's a breakfast with foundation leaders tomorrow morning. There's a breakfast with business leaders at. Thursday morning and then another one next Monday I see nods from Wanna saw him I guess I'm Ok.

[00:40:17]
So and superintendents. Next Wednesday Yeah so those are some examples. Of you know some of the some of the community engagement that we've done. As a student as they're going to go Ok. And. Long term what the goal immiseration is for students and research is taking that research to show that also students it is if you like to drive your state resources or students.

[00:40:56]
Yeah so well let me just kind of preface this by giving you my philosophy and I know this is not. Absolutely. Possible but to the extent possible we don't want that to be a trade off right and I recognize you know at some universities it's seen as a as a trade off and certainly in terms of you know sort of faculty time and attention right there's you know there is there is that tradeoff but so I think what what we would like to see and what I think is good for the community is for those things to flourish simultaneously and to reinforce one another.

[00:41:44]
And I think this is part of. So that the silver lining of it taking 5 years on average to graduate. Is that there are lots of opportunities to do real world hands on thinks right to have internships right to go and study abroad to do research. And I think anybody like.

[00:42:11]
Pretty much every study of how you learn right shows that. Passively receiving information and then practicing it in the plying it and having those things intermingle is the best way of learning right I mean any anybody who's seen a study that says something else you know raise your hand but.

[00:42:34]
But in general so the idea of. You know investing in research is not a 0 sum game investment grade if it's we have the institute structured in such a way that students are able to benefit from it right. So there's I mean there's obviously a longer you know discussion around that but philosophically.

[00:43:02]
If you don't see it as a trade off if you see it as something that is mutually reinforcing right and then you structure things programs. Etc for that purpose you know I feel like generally speaking you can achieve that that outcome and I think Georgia Tech actually does really well on that score relative to other places yeah.

[00:43:33]
We start working. In the working world with. That separation. But it. Would be like. Like this. Resurgence. In. Well beyond. Me writers are. Going back to that question. Thank. You. Yeah there are no specific plans at this point I take your point on especially when you have g.j. or I you know which does what 6070 percent of the research expenditures of the institute you know sitting outside as a as a cause I you know separate entity.

[00:44:43]
And further separated by virtue of doing a lot of you know classified research where you know only certain people can participate in that you know I there is. One thing. You can. Write. In. Yeah so I think. First of all you know a new provost will have the opportunity to you know look at the broad portfolio and make his or her decisions about you know what they want to do so I'm not going to you know try to anticipate that other than to say that.

[00:45:31]
Sort of our general philosophy. Is again not to micromanage you know people that we hire right who are expected to serve as leaders right so the new provosts views on things will be important right and they won't they will be somewhat constrained by you know the reality in the history of this place to some extent constrained by the outcome of the strategic plan which will already be in the implementation phase when this person shows up right so there will be certain things fixed but.

[00:46:05]
But you know the provost the new provost will be given. You know that the space to think about and you know come up with creative solutions for the things that they think are opportunities or challenges so I know that's not a specific answer but that's that's part one of the answer part 2 the answer is I think.

[00:46:30]
A lot of this you know culture and leadership matters a lot. And. I've been very pleased and very impressed with the collaborative nature of the existing senior leadership team right and I you know I've seen the provost and the he v.p. of research and I feel like they have a good working relationship and I would expect the new provost and the and the existing e.v.p. are to also have a good relationship and to be able to you know navigate some of these complexities.

[00:47:06]
Now so I know that's not a specific answer but. I mean basically you know you're saying nothing but no I mean now no right and you know I don't see. I don't see the e.v.p. are being you know subsumed back on to the Provost if that's the question you know.

[00:47:28]
That Martha I'm. Sorry. Do you. Think or do you. Think you. Yeah if you if we didn't have the camera on it be allowed to be a lot more fun in here but. I don't know I feel like I said both of those things every day. You know there's you know certainly running a university in this day and age at this scale.

[00:48:12]
Is a challenging task. And there's no day that goes by where there isn't you know something. That happens. But you know that comes with the territory you've got to be prepared to to deal with that. But I think I've been exceptionally impressed by a number of things here.

[00:48:44]
But 1st and foremost is that is the impact that Georgia Tech has and you know I think I think if you're if you're sort of inside Georgia Tech. Maybe you sort of get used to that a little bit but coming from the outside. And seeing the things that students do in fact we had.

[00:49:16]
We had a presentation to the I don't know facilities. Maybe I don't know there are a lot of acronyms and so that's that's something where. Anyways there are a bunch of different affiliated organizations. And one of them is responsible for the syllabus and there is a presentation by a student group.

[00:49:48]
Talking about. Scooter and bicycle accidents Ok All right. And mostly on the 5th Avenue 1st Avenue. And it was exceptionally well done. Well researched and in about 15 seconds the student team had made their point that if we just fix a couple things we can eliminate probably 75 percent of the scooter of the reported scooter and bicycle accidents on campus.

[00:50:34]
So we're working on that because I know because I walked out of that and I told Jim Fortner I said having seen that right. Like we don't have to do any more research we just have to implement what the student said Right so. So that's an example of the tremendous talents capabilities.

[00:51:00]
That that exist in this community right and you see it in in faculty you see it in staff right you see it everywhere and it and it has a real world impact. You know once we once we implement this you know. We will I'm very confident be able to you know to achieve the outcome I mean it doesn't solve the whole thing right and some new problems may pop up but you know it's the type of thing where.

[00:51:28]
Where all this talent. And you know entrepreneurial spirit is being targeted at a real world impact and making things better for the community so that is the thing that has has impressed me. The most and every day I meet somebody new who's doing something else where I go Well you know I didn't know about that but you know it makes me really really proud to be affiliated with Georgia Tech.

[00:52:03]
Well I mean that that one right there but you know certainly you know the research that's being done I mean it's. Like. I mean the big so the big Actually you probably know the details or he can he can tell you but but I don't want to sort of slow down he can give you the details but generally speaking right and if any of you have driven through that Tom Fowler 5th Street intersection right I mean sometimes I just kind of sit there yeah and you're like.

[00:52:37]
I don't I don't want to turn right into like people are talking I mean you know because I'm like No I mean there's like a scooter and a skateboard and right so anyway so that's that's kind of the epicenter of of all of this but you know there's there's more to it the students are a lot smarter on this than I am yeah.

[00:52:57]
Really. They're here. I. Think that they're. Here we. Can hear it. Ok I was with you until that last part of the question. So so yeah this is but thank you for asking that because this is important. And this is my now my new part time job. And Andrew.

[00:53:42]
Who works in the president's office and he's hiding back there. Is his my partner in doing this and this is the most exciting part of our day every every morning is working on these things but. So here's. You know so this is a mandate from the governor's office and this is in response to projections that you know state revenues are going to be down and they're you know they're they're thinking they're going to need to shave maybe 2 to 4 percent every year what the memo actually said but something something like that right.

[00:54:22]
In the way this was explained to me so the system apparently had then a conversation you know with with the governor's office and. Came up with this structure because they were ordered to implement a critical hire process right which means create a critical here process right so so that's why some of these rules and details have been.

[00:54:50]
Fuzzy or have shifted a little bit is cuz you know this is something that that the system you know also had to had to put in place you know pretty quickly without any really blueprint for how to do it and recognizing too that you're trying to do something for 27 different institutions that have very very different you know compositions so.

[00:55:17]
So what we are trying to do is be very very thoughtful. In the whole process of hiring right so every vacancy we're asking people to really think critically about you know are there alternatives to filling this position. And then and this is really important to your question about how do we make a persuasive case what would happen if this position wasn't filled.

[00:55:57]
So the system has given us some guidance on priorities you know supporting students compliance safety. Yeah Ok Ok thank you all right you've this is your part time job too. Because. So. So though those things right if you can make a persuasive case that like we run the risk of not being compliant right or we run the risk of not being able to serve students right or we run the risk of you know.

[00:56:37]
A less safe campus environment right those those things I think are pretty strong cases. So what I'm doing. Because we don't we still don't exactly know like what the standard is and I think the system people aren't quite sure yet either because they haven't you know gotten into routine yet they're still figuring this out too is I am being super picky and.

[00:57:07]
Really trying to make sure that the justification is our best persuasive writing prose. So Jennifer's getting lots of documents back with red pen all over them or track changes a whole from. But I'm doing that because. In the absence of knowing what the real standard is where the bar is I want to make sure we're putting our absolute best foot forward on these requests so I think you know in a month from now 2 months 3 months will we'll have a better sense of sort of where the standard is I'm also hoping that the system will recognize our thoughtfulness and restraint.

[00:57:58]
Because I think we have been thoughtful and restrained. And you know we haven't just been you know flooding everything downtown but we've really tried to ensure that everything we send over there you know we really believe in and we can really advocate for and if we get pushback like we can you know with a straight face say no this really is a critical hire for these reasons.

[00:58:22]
So I'll leave you with one other specific piece of advice on this is if you are filling out one of these things take it to somebody who knows nothing about that position and give it to him and say tell me if if I'm convincing you that this is a critical hire.

[00:59:05]
All right well thank you. So apparently apparently the president made news yesterday. And said that we're going to have a $2.00 to $3000000000.00 fund raising campaign. To. Get this thing. So I need to be in those meetings in the future it was. No seriously so. I mean if you're if you're not it's in continuous you know quiet or public campaign mode you're just not you know you're not doing your job as an institution right.

[00:59:51]
And there are certainly cycles where you need to ramp up resources and then where you you know wind down resources and where you're more public I mean you can't keep people excited all the time right. It's just like a speech right and you can't have people standing up ensuring the whole entire speech you got to get them excited and then give them a break but.

[01:00:15]
But certainly you know the time for you know new fundraising campaign is close I don't know exactly exactly but also having a strategic plan around which you can build excitement and you can sort of identify priorities and you can have a nice prospectus that you can go out and hand somebody and say hey here's our vision and you know get them you know to share that excitement So certainly this is all aligning.

[01:00:46]
And I will say though. I'll give you an example of. The president's approach to these things. Is so George Mason University very different level of fund raising we inherited a $75000000.00 endowment. And $35000000.00 in annual fundraiser. This past year I think we were a 175 or 200 in the endowment and like close to 100 in an annual fund raising so you know that's from your 0 to your 7.

[01:01:28]
So but so in that environment when the $75000000.00 endowment which I still like like when I saw that I almost went back to Arizona but it was. So we engage consultants to do a feasibility study which is what you always do in a campaign. And the estimate was they came in and they said well you know we think you should have a $350000000.00 fundraising campaign.

[01:01:58]
And President sat there for a minute. That they 500000000 that's around number I like that better. And they're like No but you know and they're going to they're. Now now we're not we're not going to shoot to just be average. So finish the fund raising campaign at $690.00 so almost double almost exactly double and he was mad that that we didn't get those last $7000000.00 or 17 or whatever it was because he wanted to he wanted to double what the consultants told us.

[01:02:39]
So so. You know his his expectation is is going to be that we that we push that we stretch that we go further than maybe what we think we can. And you know part of that is just you know his his energy right in his vision but part of it too is he knows Georgia Tech really well and he believes in this community and and he'll be he'll be the chief salesperson for this too right and he's excited so you know you can guarantee that that he won't be sitting back in his office waiting for you to come report on like how much money raised right he's going to be right there leading the charge so but the numbers are going to.

[01:03:28]
I'm sure the number is going to make at least some people uncomfortable right and that's Ok but no you know. Your whole thing is thank you so much you know I don't particularly every one of your minutes and hours are thank you that you know the answer our questions thank you so thank you very much.