The last few years have been rough for Robert G. Frank's alma mater, but the three-time alumnus of the University of New Mexico hopes to change the tone when he takes over as the institution's president in June. First, he will have to overcome some faculty resistance to his selection.
New Mexico's faculty found plenty of fault with Mr. Frank's predecessor, David J. Schmidly, who was criticized for administrative spending and drew a no-confidence vote in 2009.
"The faculty are really a skeptical kind of group that want, demand, that my administration demonstrate to them that I'm going to do things differently than have been done there previously," says Mr. Frank, 59, who is the departing provost of Kent State University.
A survey conducted in December found that Mr. Frank and one of the other five finalists for the presidency did not have the support of the majority of New Mexico's professors.
Though Mr. Frank received "strong support" from some professors, others thought his management style would be "divisive and polarizing," says a letter that the president of the university's Faculty Senate sent to the Board of Regents. Some faculty were concerned, for instance, when Mr. Frank described himself as "the hammer" for Kent State's president in a campus forum, says Timothy J. Ross, the senate president and a member of the presidential search committee.
Still, Mr. Frank's record of achievement, including the improvement of retention rates at Kent State, make Mr. Ross optimistic about the new leader.
Donald M. Hassler, a former chairman of Kent State's Faculty Senate, says Mr. Frank was a well-intentioned administrator. "I crossed swords with him, but I've got a lot of respect for him," says Mr. Hassler, who is an English professor.
Mr. Frank says he is proud of his record at Kent State, where he took the unusual step last summer of declaring his intention to step down at the end of the academic year. He did not like the idea of "having to almost sneak around" in pursuit of a presidency, he says. The move invited speculation that Lester A. Lefton, Kent State's president, might not have wanted to retain his provost. Mr. Frank says that he "suspects" he could have stayed on, but that his decision to step aside came as he discussed his future with Mr. Lefton.
"It wasn't like 'You're fired; go do this,'" Mr. Frank says.
Already, Mr. Frank is taking steps to distance himself from his predecessor at New Mexico. He agreed, for instance, to take about $100,000 less in pay than Mr. Schmidly, whose nearly $600,000 in compensation drew faculty ire.
New Mexico's regents have high expectations for Mr. Frank, whose medical background was a key factor in his hire. A board-certified clinical psychologist, he led efforts to establish colleges of public health at Kent State and, before that, at the University of Florida.
At Kent State, freshman-retention rates rose by nearly 6 percentage points in Mr. Frank's first three years. Rigorous tracking of student progress and early intervention for those who struggled, Mr. Frank says, helped bring retention to 79 percent, although it fell to 75 percent last year. New Mexico's regents would like to see improved retention on their own campus, where the rate has hit a 10-year low of 74 percent.
