Next semester, don’t be surprised to see Kent Fuchs on the way to class.
The president of a university should be visible, he said. That is the most exciting part.
The five-month search for the 12th president of The Gator Nation ended in October, selecting Fuchs as President Bernie Machen’s successor. The former Cornell University provost’s term will officially begin Jan. 1, and he will settle into the president’s office a day later.
“I’ll be out walking around campus, meeting people and talking to them, learning from them,” Fuchs said.
He has visited UF twice in the six weeks leading up to his term to learn about the campus and begin connecting with the UF community.
“As president, one of the most important roles is serving as the spokesman and being the public representative of the university,” he said. “It’s really important to enhance the reputation of the university to become visible nationwide.”
And among the most important relationships to build are with students, he said.
Both the president and students have time constraints, and there’s not much opportunity for him to be in a classroom or laboratory. Coming from another university, interaction is even more essential for him.
“You can learn from students about issues they’re facing, things that they would like to improve on or change, things that they’re really happy and proud about,” Fuchs said. “By being engaged and visible, I will have the opportunity to learn from them.”
He said he hopes to become an active presence on social media and be physically present at events around campus and in the community. He is also going to look into writing a column in the Alligator.
UF Student Body President Cory Yeffet said he is excited student visibility is one of Fuchs’s top priorities as he begins his term.
“Dr. Fuchs appreciates the diversity and uniqueness of our student body and I am looking forward to him getting the chance to meet and learn about our students,” Yeffet wrote in an email. “He wants to work together with the student body to achieve the goal of becoming a top 10 public institution.”
To do so, Fuchs said it is important to convey a positive tone and set of aspirations.
“Students want to be a part of a university that has great aspirations for the future so they can be even more proud of it after they graduate than they are now,” he said. “And it’s important they know it’s one of the best in the world.”
When Fuchs was growing up, he saw himself working at an engineering firm. But after graduating from Duke University with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, he decided he wanted to be around students in some way.
He earned a master’s in divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School to become a pastor. Before becoming ordained though, he switched gears to be in a university environment and attended graduate school at the University of Illinois, earning master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering.
He said he became more people-focused as a result of these experiences, which proved beneficial as he moved into different leadership roles.
Fuchs began his academic career as a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before moving on to Purdue University. In 2002, he became the dean of engineering at Cornell University and then was elected provost in January 2009.
One of his most significant moments as Cornell provost was working during the economic downturn of 2008, he said. He learned to help build excellence and academic stature despite constrained resources. It was a good lesson to learn, he said, as you’re not going to have all the resources.
He learned to be open to unexpected opportunities when he took the chance to create a new 12-acre Cornell campus in New York City.
Fuchs also led the ivy’s diversity initiative, focusing not only on creating a diverse Student Body and faculty, but also their achievement and engagement. There’s not just one office for diversity. Each leader is accountable for implementing and measuring success and diversity.
Nearing the end of six years as provost, Fuchs said he was thinking about where he wanted to be in the last phase of his academic career. UF was attractive due to its similarities as a land-grant university, as well as its differences in scale and broad opportunities.
“Every time I learned something more about the university, it became more clear to me that this was an amazing university,” he said.
He and his wife, Linda, are looking forward to becoming a part of the Gainesville community and The Gator Nation, where everyone has been welcoming, encouraging and receptive. The new 5,000-square-foot president’s house on Village Drive isn’t quite finished, so they will find temporary housing in the meantime.
Although he won’t have much free time, he said he wants to be involved in Gainesville’s religious community and attend churches, synagogues and other religious events.
Fuchs said he’ll take the first six months to create goals for the next 10 years. He is a proponent of goals that can be measured, and he said UF Rising is one of the university’s most exciting and attractive attributes.
“I’m going to work my hardest to help it achieve that, and it certainly has the capability. It’s one of my personal goals. It’s energizing and exciting, a very public and visible goal. I would love to achieve that goal and then set future goals.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 12/10/2014]
