Oracle Online

Oracle: So what exactly brought you to Hamline?

Stern: Several different things actually. First, I was interested in working in private higher education. My previous administrative experience[s] have been at public institutions of higher education. Public institutions have been suffering from declining public support from all across the country. It was clear to me they have to begin to think and operate like private institution[s]. So in effect I wanted to learn something new.

Hamline was of particular interest to me because I was really attracted by the combination of programs that Hamline has. I like the fact that it is a liberal arts college that also offers, at the graduate level, programs that the community particularly needs, in education, management, law, etc. That combination strikes me as just the right one for a institution particularly in an urban setting. [Hamline’s] profile just seemed right for me.

What also attracted me was the long history and good reputation Hamline has to build on, and yet new leadership eager to make it a better place. It is always fun and exciting to be part of a new team.

O: One thing that a lot of students struggle with the titles that administrators have. How would you explain your job to the average student, who might not know how the university’s administration works?

Stern: I am chief academic officer, which means that I have responsibility for academic standards, quality, and decisions on the allocations of resources such as hiring, for all the academic units, that is all of the schools in the university. That’s the academic side.

As for the student affairs side, under the direction of Alan Sickbert, I have the same ultimate responsibilities for overseeing the services provided to students, undergraduate, graduate, professional and the like.

One of the other things that attracted me to Hamline is the fact the two were combined, the academic affairs and student affairs positions and they are not always combined. I found that attractive because I understand both as an educator and as a parent, that the whole college experience is crucial to education, not just the class or preparation for the class, that extra and co-curricular experiences are important as well. The fact that I have both divisions, both academic and student affairs joined together under me is not a guarantee but at least a promise that they will work together.

Part of my charge, as I understand, is trying to enhance that collaboration. That doesn’t happen all the time. That was part of the attraction; Hamline understood that and was committed to enhancing it.

O: Now time for the abstract questions. What do you see as the biggest challenges facing your position?

Stern: The first big challenge, not the biggest, but the first challenge is coming to know Hamline, the people and the culture, coming to know how things work, and finding out what’s working and what needs to be improved. It doesn’t matter how much experience you have from the outside, the way the place works form the inside is crucial. That’s not an unexpected challenge, but a crucial part of what I have to do and been doing for the first couple of months and what I’ll have to do for most of the rest of this year.

The second challenge would say is that my responsibility cuts across the university, and there’s a lot of work to be done to get Hamline to function as a university, and not just a collection of discreet units that have their own histories and own cultures, of course that will remain to some degree. For example, over the last couple of years there have been surveys of faculty needs saying that we haven’t provided the faculty much support in using current technology in the class room. One of the things you will see as you move across campus is that most classrooms have been mediated, and some the real small we haven’t yet figured out what to do with. If we try to improve technology needs by saying “CLA do your thing, Law do yours,” we’ll run out of resources. We will be inaugurating the Center for Academic Technology to support faculty and the faculty’s knowledge on how and what to bring into classroom. That won’t be a challenge, it rather will be welcome on campus.

Other challenges will be trying to identify things we need to do as a university, to respect the independence and autonomy of the schools but allow us to function as effectively as we can.

O: Anything else you'd like the students to know?
Stern: My undergraduate years were spent in a liberal arts honors program at Louisiana State University, it’s really dating to that experience that my love of the liberal arts is rooted. Now it's a cliche but [the liberal arts education] changed my life.

Editor's note: Parts of this interview were edited for content and space.