University of Wisconsin-Madison students, faculty and staff met Dr. Nicholas Jones, one of the four finalists for the university’s chancellor position, at a meet-and-greet Tuesday where Jones outlined his future plans for the university.
Chancellor search committee staff member Mary Czynszak-Lyne said the committee hopes opportunities for the public to engage personally with the finalists will promote visibility and communication between students and chancellor candidates.
Jones has served as the dean of students to the Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering for the past eight years and highlighted his department’s long-held attitude that higher education institutions should embrace technological innovation.
He said he plans to stay at the forefront of new learning technologies and is excited about UW-Madison’s recent launching of a Massive Open Online Courses trial, which offer free online courses to the public, in which five professors are participating.
“I absolutely think we need to take advantage of all innovations that are out there in education,” Jones said. “A place that is as broad and diverse and creative as [UW-Madison] will actually be at the cutting edge of some of those innovations.”
He also emphasized cooperation between different entities within the university and addressed the approach he would take in his role presiding over the three governing bodies on campus, which include students, faculty and staff.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about the people,” Jones said. “You lead effectively by having a great team around you and below that team, you have a series of great teams. I really embrace here–at University of Wisconsin-Madison–this principle of shared governance.”
Maxwell Love, a UW-Madison senior studying political science as well as African-American and Chicano studies, asked Jones at the meet-and-greet how he would keep tuition costs low in the wake of decreasing support from the state.
Love said he is concerned Jones’ background at a private university has not equipped him to deal with the complexities of a public university and its reliance on state funding.
“I don’t think our university is really accessible to everybody right now,” he said. “For me that’s the only thing, moving forward in our country, that we need to have—more accessible higher education.”
Jones said Johns Hopkins has implemented some successful fundraising practices during his time, which he plans to bring to UW-Madison.
“Opportunities for fundraising for this institution are extraordinary,” Jones said. “I would really look forward to helping Wisconsin move itself in that direction more, in response to some of the funding challenge we often see moving forward.”
Jones is the first chancellor finalist to visit campus after being announced a contender for the position. The next candidate scheduled to come to campus, Michael Schill, will appear Thursday at 1:30 in the Mead Witter Lobby at the Chazen Museum of Art, and the other two will visit next week.
