When Duane Acker assumed the presidency of Kansas State University on July 1, 1975, he inherited both the management team of his 25-year predecessor and their operating traditions. Though universities were past the student unrest days of the Viet Nam era, the average tenure of university presidents was only three and a half years. Acker told his friends his goal was to "survive for six years and stay no more than ten." Acker shares anecdotally and with some humor a sample of his encounters, several involving pairs. There were the two horse blankets that could not be found for President Reagan's visit, red-in-the face "debating" by two basketball coaches, the two staff tenure systems he found, his two trips to China and the two franchises he wanted, "lines in the sand" with two local bankers, whether two regents had made their way to Heaven, and strategies that yielded two new building projects at one time, twice. Two at a Time provides a telling glimpse into the life of a state university president and the challenges faced, as well as satisfactions that the presidency yielded for him and his wife. Acker also shares later experiences, and shows that life doesn't end after a university presidency.
TWO AT A TIME
Reflections and Revelations of a Kansas State University Presidency and the Years that Followed.By Duane C. AckeriUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Duane C. Acker
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4502-1966-2Contents
Acknowledgements........................................................xiIntroduction............................................................xiiiChapter I. The Summer of Discovery......................................1Chapter II. Year 1, Expectations and More Questions.....................24Chapter III. The Web....................................................53Chapter IV. Intercollegiate Athletics...................................59Chapter V. Political Theatre............................................79Chapter VI. Leadership and Management...................................119Chapter VII. The Campus Beyond..........................................151Chapter VIII. Building A Tradition......................................173Chapter IX. University Guests...........................................181Chapter X. Faculty and Staff............................................198Chapter XI. Students and Surprises......................................218Chapter XII. Apprehensions and Satisfactions............................249Chapter XIII. After the Presidency......................................272Citations...............................................................280Index...................................................................287
Chapter One
The Summer of Discovery
Just a Loan 4 p.m., June 30, 1975
Grace Lindquist, secretary to retiring President James McCain, called mid-afternoon as the movers were yet unloading boxes and furniture in the garage at what would be, after necessary rewiring and some remodeling was completed, our new home on the Kansas State University campus, "The president is going down to a four o'clock meeting with the Foundation executive committee on some athletic department issues and wondered if you would like to go along."
I had learned a sport or two was being dropped because of financial problems. This was an opportunity to learn more. "I would be pleased to," I said.
En route to the First National Bank upstairs meeting room, McCain told me there was a financial shortfall in athletics and that he needed some help from the Foundation "to tide them over." He wanted to get it wrapped up so I would not have to deal with it.
In my years as K-State's associate dean of agriculture a decade earlier I had met a few of those in the meeting room, including Foundation executive director Ken Heywood, Director of Athletics Ernie Barrett, Foundation Chair Al Hostetler, and local abstractor, Robert Wilson. I find no record of others in attendance, but I believe the small group included Dr. Bob Snell, chair of the athletic council, local attorney Richard Rogers and businessman Jack Goldstein. I shook hands with all, and sat down to listen.
McCain told the group he needed some help from the Foundation for athletics and asked Barrett to outline his situation. Barrett's presentation was short; athletics needed enough money to pay the previous fall's yet unpaid charter flights for football, bus trips for other sports, and visiting team guarantees. At this writing I find no record of the dollar amount, but it covered a mass of unpaid bills, back for most of a year!
There followed a moment or two of stunned silence, then banker Al Hostetler spoke up, "But the Foundation already has three loans to the Department, Ernie, that aren't current!"
That opened a flood of questions, "How will you pay off this loan?" "When can you bring current payments on the other loans?" "What caused the problem?"
Barrett offered no answers. He was only optimistic about the coming fall; with a new football coach there would be increased ticket sales, more income. "Let's think positive" was a repeated theme. He just needed some help. Next year will be a good year!
It was a difficult meeting. A long-time and successful president, on the eve of his retirement, was asking for help. He deserved to retire with a feeling he had solved a serious problem. Foundation trustees were dedicated to helping the University. Yet, they had fiduciary responsibility to protect and wisely use the Foundation's private funds.
In the discussion I learned that the executive committee had earlier approved three loans, none current in re-payment, to an operation that now had nearly a year of unpaid bills. And in this meeting they were being given no useful data, no plan, and no schedule for loan repayment. Should they approve the loan?
After much consternation, the loan was approved, but with several conditions, including 1) that the Athletic Council chair co-sign the note and 2) that the Department bring the other three loans current.
I could not imagine any thinking council chair being willing to co-sign a note in such a circumstance. As to bringing the other three loans current, it was obvious from information presented that was impossible. Having those conditions on record, however, would let the assembled trustees feel a bit better about their action. And, McCain could retire feeling content.
I was not impressed. Nor did I believe any problem had been solved. It was apparent that intercollegiate athletics would be occupying much of my time in the immediate days ahead-for a new president, far more than it should.
Why and How Here?
Five months earlier, yet in my first year as vice chancellor for agriculture and natural resources at the University of Nebraska, I was invited to submit my resume for consideration for the presidency of Kansas State University. Should I submit my resume?
To go back to K-State as president would be a thrill and a great opportunity, but it would also carry some risks. I had had a totally positive experience as associate dean of agriculture and director of resident instruction from 1962 to 1966. We had had increases in new students and in student retention, good relationships across campus, and many friends from my travel across the state.
However, I had some concerns. The first was that I had seen too many campus jealousies related to K-State's large agriculture budget and faculty, relative to student enrollment, and agriculture's political clout in obtaining state funds. I wondered, "Would one with an agricultural background be readily accepted campus-wide?"
Of course, most who had exhibited those jealousies likely did not know or had given little thought to the fact that much of the agricultural funding was federal formula allocations or state line items to the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) and the Agricultural Experiment Station (AES). The College's instruction budget was, by comparison with other colleges of the University, modest.
Though the Agricultural Engineering curriculum was in the College of Engineering, that department's research and extension programs were parts of the AES and the CES, both of which reported to the dean of agriculture (title changed in 1966 to vice president for agriculture). The same was true for extension and research in Home Economics and Veterinary Medicine. And, in contrast to agricultural experiment stations in many other states, the Kansas AES then was providing most of the research funds for the college of Arts and Sciences, largely in the physical and biological sciences, and for Veterinary Medicine.
Though President McCain had worked hard to increase political and financial support for engineering and other colleges, the budget and faculty size disparity between those units and the total agricultural programs remained very large, larger than at many other land grant universities. The Engineering Experiment Station and Engineering Extension budgets at that time were yet modest.
The College of Business had been elevated from department status in 1962, the Colleges of Education and of Architecture and Design a few years later, during my time as an associate dean. I did not know how much budget progress McCain had made with each.
Would my identification with agriculture bring undue concern to those faculty or administrators with such jealousies? Would I be perceived as fair in my judgments and dealings with all colleges and units? Or, would I be perceived as too loyal to the several agricultural units?
My second major concern was McCain's long tenure, twenty-five years in the presidency. I recalled a comment by one of my early mentors, Iowa State's Associate Dean Roy Kottman, when he resigned from Iowa State to succeed a twenty-five-year dean at the University of West Virginia, "A long tenure is usually followed by a very short tenure!" After two years as West Virginia dean, Kottman had moved on.
In my nine years away from K-State, though fully occupied as dean and director of agricultural programs at South Dakota State University (SDSU) and vice chancellor for those and related programs at the University of Nebraska, I had been cognizant of developments at K-State. The most obvious and public was in athletics. McCain had made a major thrust for football, with a new coach, a new stadium, and aggressive player recruitment. K-State had had some winning seasons, beating traditional Big 8 powerhouses Nebraska, Colorado, or Missouri. Such dramatic success had attracted both national media attention and, in time, an investigation that had resulted in a recent conference and NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) probation for major rule violations.
As chair of the SDSU athletic council, I had attended a special NCAA conference on the steady rise in intercollegiate athletics rule violations. The violation patterns described, plus K-State's announced probation, had bothered me. I still had pride in and concern for K-State.
During those nine years, K-State had made tremendous progress in other areas, including new buildings, enrollment increases, and, with an enrollment-driven formula for state funding, new faculty positions. The CES and AES, though, had not had parallel increases in state funding or faculty positions.
Nation-wide, Extension was under intense scrutiny. Both Congress and many state legislators worried that Extension had not adapted its programs to technology advances, farm consolidation, and Rural America's demographic changes. In many states, Extension funding had been held level or had decreased.
In the research arena, Congress was providing major funding increases to the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health. Money to USDA was moving from the traditional formula (based on farm numbers and rural population) for experiment station allocations to competitive grants and contracts.
How about K-State's central administrative personnel? Most in central administration had been with McCain most of his twenty-five years in the presidency. Max Milbourn had been McCain's assistant and legislative contact from the beginning and Vice President for Finance Dan Beatty and Information Director Ken Thomas most of that time. Could they adapt to a new leader?
Chet Peters had advanced from director of placement to dean of students and vice president for student affairs during that time. Paul Young, who was departing for the University of Arkansas when I arrived in 1962, had returned as vice president for facilities.
John Chalmers, who had come as dean of Arts and Sciences in 1963, had replaced John Lott Brown as vice president for academic affairs in the late 1960s. I had been contacted for interest in that job but had declined. I was then in the middle of a rich experience at SDSU and did not feel I would be content in the academic affairs role. I was not willing to give up state-wide work with industry leaders, legislators, and other university supporters.
The other significant change had been the retirement of Glenn Beck, the person who, as dean of agriculture, had brought me to K-State in 1962. He had taken several years leave in the early 1970s to lead programs in West Africa for the Rockefeller Foundation, then returned to his vice presidency a year or so before retiring. He would be replaced by Roger Mitchell, a former Iowa State University colleague, Mitchell coming on board just weeks before I was hired.
It was no secret there was considerable stress between Chalmers and some of the campus leaders in agriculture, largely on budget allocations and program direction, but not limited to those issues.
Though I recognized the risks, my concerns were dampened by the good experiences I had had in moving to new jobs, to K-State as associate dean and since. At SDSU, each of my three administrative associates had been in their jobs nearly eight years. Though I had known only two of the three, and them only through professional meetings, we had meshed quickly and smoothly.
At Nebraska, I had become the first vice chancellor for a new structure, an Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The five central Institute administrators who would report to me, plus a special assistant, had each been in their offices for several years. I had had good professional acquaintance with two and modest acquaintance with a third. The other two, before restructuring, had reported elsewhere in the University. Not only did they not know me, they were concerned about how the new structure would work. From the first day, though, we were on track with the first three and within a few months there was mutual confidence with all.
My work with industry leaders, legislative committees, and state agencies had been comfortable and productive in both states. In Nebraska I had had close contact with and virtually unlimited support from members of the University's board of regents.
My previous time at K-State, my eight years as dean and director at SDSU, and my brief time at Nebraska had been highly productive and had yielded appreciated support and positive feedback from faculty, administrators at all levels, and statewide leaders.
As important in considering a university presidency, during all of our university years Shirley had received many compliments and seemed to relish her role, hosting and being well acquainted with students, faculty, and university supporters. We both enjoyed the Midwest and the University environment. Our daughters were both in college and would soon be on their own. These reinforced our feeling that a presidency was the next step and that it would be a good step. I submitted my resume.
After a series of March and early April interviews with a twelve-member committee that had chosen six finalists, and an evening for Shirley and me with the full Board of Regents, I would have a final interview with the Board at the Kansas City Airport Marriott.
A chance meeting between my fourth floor hotel room and the downstairs meeting room, where members of the Kansas Board of Regents would invite me to become K-State's eleventh president and I would accept, was surely an omen to what would demand my attention the first weeks and years of the presidency. As I entered the elevator, its lone occupant exclaimed, "Duane, what are you doing here?" It was a person with whom I had worked closely at SDSU just a few years earlier, SDSU's Director of Athletics, Stan Marshall!
It had been an honor and thrill to accept the invitation to become K-State's president.
* * *
As we drove back to the campus that evening, McCain told me he had athletics' finance officer reporting directly to Dan Beatty, Vice President for Finance, rather than to Director of Athletics Barrett. It was the only way he could feel comfortable about Department finances. I did not question McCain; he was leaving the presidency and it would now be my problem. But, how could a director of athletics not be responsible for the Department's finances?
What is a Financial Statement? 8 a.m., July 1, 1975
First thing this morning, I stepped in to ask Beatty to brief me on athletics' finances. I hit a nerve. "Don't ask me about athletics' finances! I've got nothing to do with it! The president wouldn't do what I told him had to be done so I'm not involved!" He was adamant.
I had known Beatty from my first tour at K-State, but not well. I knew him to be honest, conservative, and cautious in handling university funds, and that he could be trusted. I also knew that a vice president is likely to be on edge the day a replacement for his long-time boss arrives. Will he still have a job? Can he work with the new president?
For my own benefit, I should have been able to say, "Dan, as of now you are totally responsible for getting to the bottom of the athletic department's finances." However, this moment was not the time. He alluded to that, "If I would have to be responsible for athletics, then I'm not the person for this job."
Beatty, remaining adamant, followed up, "You need to get hold of Brad Rothermel, the assistant director of athletics. He's their finance man."
I placed a call to Barrett; he, not Rothermel, reported to me. However, Barrett had left town on a fund-raising trip (a surprise and disappointment, considering my presence and the issue at the previous day's meeting), so I asked Rothermel to come over to brief me on the Department's finances. I was to learn that Rothermel had a doctorate in Physical Education; his knowledge of finance I would also soon learn.
Most income to an athletics department is from ticket sales, payments from host universities for "away" games, a share of bowl and tournament receipts through the conference, and donations. Modest state funds are often provided. In the case of K-State, the Department also operated an athletic dormitory, so records should show room and board income. Department expenditures would range from team equipment to travel to food and staff salaries, presumably categorized by sport and, in this case, the dormitory. It was a sizeable operations.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from TWO AT A TIMEby Duane C. Acker Copyright © 2010 by Duane C. Acker. Excerpted by permission.
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