In a time of great change in higher education, Jim Schmidt, JMU's seventh president, lays out his vision for the future.
Episode Transcript
President Jim 00:00
I want to have JMU be the premier partner for the Commonwealth. I want businesses and nonprofits and the citizens of Virginia to say, you know, if we have a problem, let's talk to JMU.
Narrator 00:16
Welcome to being the change the official podcast of James Madison University, brought to you by Madison magazine. Each episode brings you stories of how members of the JMU community combine intellect with action to live lives of purpose and meaning that's being the change you
Andy Perrine 00:45
What's up JMU? Andy Perrine here, welcome to being the change. This is the start of season three, and we're beginning it quite auspiciously with a very special guest. JMU seventh president. President Jim Schmidt, Jim, welcome.
President Jim 00:59
Thank you for having me.
Andy Perrine 01:00
It's wonderful to have you. And just so all of our listeners know President Jim has a particular way he likes to be approached in public. And that is not President Schmidt. That's not Dr Schmidt. He likes president Jim. Why do you prefer it that way?
President Jim 01:14
Well, I prefer people actually just call me Jim, but people are often uncomfortable because that seems too informal. So I try to mix the formal with the informal, let them know that I'm first. I'm first a human being and a person, someone you can relate to and talk to.
Andy Perrine 01:26
Well, speaking about being a person and a human, let's talk about a little bit about who you are first, before we get into your ideas about what JMU is going to be about. Tell us a little bit about your background, your family, where'd you come from?
President Jim 01:38
So grew up in a really small town in southeastern Minnesota, 1000 people, only 53 in my graduating class. My mom was a school teacher, which means she did everything in a small town. My small town background gave me great experience. I could be a three sport athlete without having any talent at any of them. If you've seen my golf game, you know that my experience on the golf team didn't really help me, but allowed me to be in the band, the choir, speech, yearbook, did all of those things and gave me lots of great experiences. So I understand what a small town can do for person like me. Went on to my local university, got really active as a student government person.
Andy Perrine 02:22
Got your taste of leadership there
President Jim 02:23
I did, and frankly, without that experience, we probably wouldn't be here. It set me on a trail as a kid. By the way, I've always worked. I've worked in family businesses. I worked with my dad and his small business starting in fourth grade. I worked for Matt and uncle in their little motel when I was in seventh grade, I cleaned rooms, did laundry with wringer washers, worked for my grandfather in his factory, sold aerial photographs to farmers with an uncles. So I've always worked and so I bring with me, frankly, strong work ethic into this role and a belief in the strong role that work plays in the development of people. And one of the things I didn't mean to get into this, but I'd like us to take a strong look at student work at JMU. Can be a great teacher, great leadership, and frankly, the ability to work well with others is one of the great skills that someone can leave college with.
Andy Perrine 03:16
You know, we typically have a dozen students working in Marketing and Branding, and often they say it's one of their best experiences here.
President Jim 03:24
Yep, well, and the Mayo brothers. I had a connection with the Mayo Clinic while I was back in Wisconsin, Minnesota. One of the famous quotes of the Mayo Brothers is, "doctors are best when challenged by young learners". And so there's a believer, because young people tend to ask, why not? And what if? And frankly, that that that is part of the topics I talked about in my address to the campus on the 12th.
Andy Perrine 03:46
That's great. Well, we'll get into your address on the 12th in a little bit, but tell us a little about your your family. You've got three sons. Your wife, Kim is still working on getting the house together.
President Jim 03:57
She, she is, and got three amazing sons, and most and maybe as importantly, as I've got my first grandchild. So our oldest son and his wife have given us our first grandchild.
Andy Perrine 04:08
Right, what's her name?
President Jim 04:09
Her name is Maxine, spelled with a Y, and they call her Maxi. She's about five months old. And of course, the most adorable, beautiful little girl that's ever walked the face of the earth.
Andy Perrine 04:18
Well, she's already walking. What a precocious child!
President Jim 04:20
Not quite, haha.
Andy Perrine 04:22
Well, I'm sorry this is only audio, because I know you'd like to show the listeners a photograph of Maxine
President Jim 04:28
Absolutely.
Andy Perrine 04:37
Well, this is all great background. One of the things that folks may already know about you is that you were Chancellor at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and you are the first president of James Madison University who actually led another institution. What drew you to JMU?
President Jim 04:53
Well, first of all, JMU has had a great, great reputation across the country. It's an institution I've been hearing a lot about. Actually. Had alums who lived in Virginia when I'd visit them, from two institutions ago that would talk to me about this amazing institution, what was happening in their own backyard. So I had a little bit information. My past institution, I was developing our third strategic plan, and I was really encouraging that school to think bigger, to imagine themselves at another level, and I gave an assignment to my university leadership to identify former teachers colleges that had reached new levels of heights, and they came back with three or four schools. And of course, JMU is one of them. One of the things I focus on is around student outcomes, and so seeing the retention rates for the profile of student that JMU was able to track told me a lot about this institution, and what was one of the things that attracted me. They also had a reputation for the high-impact experiences that I think are really important. Had a former friend, well, a friend and a former colleague from Mary Washington University President Troy Peno, who.. paths keep crossing, including some time at the NCAA, on the President's Council, and he would often tell me about the great things that are going on JMU. In fact, he was the one that encouraged me to apply.
Andy Perrine 06:11
Oh wow. Well, and while you were in the application process, you actually came to campus unannounced as a quote, unquote, secret shopper. What did that reveal to you?
President Jim 06:23
Well, it revealed a lot. And I couldn't, you know, frankly, the search process was going well. Every interaction with the search committee really made me more excited about the opportunity at JMU. And I was talking to my wife in the kitchen in January, and I said, you know, all of the interviews are off campus, and for us to move halfway across the country, and to leave a really good institution, I needed to have a sense of the student body, the faculty and staff, most importantly, the culture of the university. I also wanted to get a chance to really understand the community. Was it going to be a good place for us as a family to be? And I had a couple days opened up on my calendar, jumped on a plane, third week of January, and was here Wednesday through Friday.
Andy Perrine 07:04
Unbeknownst to any of us. They're friendly a lot, aren't they.
President Jim 07:05
I tried not to get eye contact with too many faculty and staff because I thought someone might ask me who I was, and I certainly didn't want to upset the apple cart or the search but I remember calling my wife from the first night in the hotel room, and she was obviously anxious to hear all about it. I said, "Honey, I think this is the place this, this feels right to me." So that was, I don't think we'd be sitting here. I had not done that right. I confessed at the next meeting with the search committee that I had done this. I wasn't sure how they'd react, but it allowed me to have a greater level of enthusiasm and allowed me to see things that I could build on. And it was a, was an important experience. I had done the same at my previous, so I'm a big believer in that approach.
Andy Perrine 07:05
So this is your MO.
President Jim 07:05
This is my MO. I did my best. I tried to just be in khakis and a sweater. Really tried to be as nondescript as possible. Went up to students, wherever they were, tables full of students, and I said, Can I bother you for a minute? Tell me what. Tell me why you picked JMU. What do you love most about it, and what do you hope to do with your life when you leave JMU? Well, they just opened up, and they raved about the faculty commitment, the relationships they built in the student body, all of the activities that they have access to, and why it was really kind of a hidden gem, and how well-prepared they felt. And maybe not surprising to some, not one student asked me who I was. I was asking them these questions.
Andy Perrine 07:08
Okay. Well, you know when, when you were presented to the university in March as the new president who was going to take office on July 1, in your remarks, you said that you like to lead with joy, audacity and concern for the common good, which really feels like the way we feel about JMU. Could you expand upon that a little bit?
President Jim 09:07
Well, I think that, you know, it can be a challenging time in higher ed. There's certainly a lot going on, and it's been true for decades. These are difficult jobs, and not everybody understands them. And I'd like to lead with joy and remind people, the faculty and staff of the university, why they chose a career at a university, and it really, yep, there's bureaucracy, there's, you know, public, you know, comments that aren't helpful at times. And there's a difference between joy and happiness. Now happy people can be joyful, but even when times are difficult, I've seen not only here, but at my previous institution, that we remember, it's for that light bulb moment where a difficult conversation or difficult academic topic, when the light bulb goes on in the student, right? That's that's that joy you've reached them. It's about helping that student who's maybe having either personal troubles, and they're confiding with the with the housekeeper in one of the dormitories has become like a mother or grandmother, and it's that connection they make. You know, the work of our housekeepers is really hard, and I'll bet you many of them are here because of that personal connection they can make with students, that idea of making a difference, that's where joy really is in. It's at the heart and the soul of who we are as educators. And everybody across this university, no matter your role, has a role in the education of our students. We have to be focused on the public good. We are a state institution. It is part of our three shield, mission, teaching, research, service, and we need to be responsive, and we need to care about what people think about that. And, you know, it's, it's important that we lead with audacity. There are no small tasks that that can't, you know, the a small mission, a small set of goals, does not inspire anyone, whether it's our faculty and staff, whether it's our students, whether it's our citizens of the Commonwealth, our benefactors and alums. Want us to keep doing better and better. I think that's also central to the human condition. We want that for ourselves, and we should want that for our institution as well.
Andy Perrine 11:22
Well, you've been spending your first couple weeks and months crisscrossing the Commonwealth, getting to know corporate nonprofit leaders, meeting alumni. You've been very, very busy. In fact, it was a real trick to get you to sit down for this, this episode. But on August 12, the university had its opening semester meeting, which was the first time that you really had a chance to address a broad audience of faculty/staff. It was in the glittering AUBC, The Atlantic Union Bank Center. And you still have a lot to understand about the institution. There's still a lot that you want to learn, but you really inspired everybody with your boldness and with where you think the university could go. What did you tell folks?
President Jim 12:07
Well, it really was a question. So I was telling them, obviously what I saw in the institution. I'm going to be sharing with them what I've learned from crisscrossing the Commonwealth and talking to business leaders about what our what our alums are really capable of doing, and how they're really prized in their organizations. It's talking to alumni about the great history and stories of the University, but in each of those instances, it led to the notion that we can do even more. And so really, at the core of my message is, why not JMU. Why can't we be the institution that steps forward to solve real world problems? Why can't we lead in higher education? Why can't we set even higher standards for ourselves and goals for student outcomes? And it really was meaning to tee up our entire strategic plan and our outreach. We are going to spend the next several months meeting with people across the Commonwealth, both externally as well as internally. I will be meeting with each of the academic colleges within the university. In the first month, I will be holding meetings with all of the divisions. We will have open town hall meetings will be crisscrossing Commonwealth, talking to alumni and other stakeholders, getting their feedback. But part of that feedback process is be planting seeds and urging them on. And so I am there is no strategic plan in the desk, but I will tell you that among the things that we discussed with the university campus is I want to have JMU be the premier partner for the Commonwealth. I want businesses and nonprofits and the citizens of Virginia to say, you know, if we have a problem, let's talk to JMU. We will look for opportunities of service-learning, for our students, to be engaged, to roll up their sleeves, to actually solve problems. And so in addition to being known as one of the best partners in the Commonwealth, I want our reputation to be one that's nimble, agile, responsive, entrepreneurial, and able to meet people where they're at and how that takes shape in the strategic plan, is something we'll discuss. But I very much want those adjectives to ring true for our internal and external stakeholders.
Andy Perrine 14:30
Well, you know, when you were running the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, your boss, for a time, was former governor Tommy Thompson, and then he was head of the Wisconsin system.
President Jim 14:41
He was.
Andy Perrine 14:42
And he used to introduce you as the entrepreneurial president. And you love that title.
President Jim 14:48
I wear it as a badge of honor. And Governor Thompson's been a dear friend, and it was a great boss to work with, because he egged me on. And if you've ever met Tommy Thompson, no idea was too bold. You. If it was good for the state of Wisconsin, Tommy was on board with it, and and he saw that. And frankly, that makes a lot of people nervous, because I'm constantly looking for opportunity. So what does entrepreneurial mean? It means that we're looking for opportunities of intersection. And if you go back to my core, true north, that is what's best for students. There's never going to be enough money from the Commonwealth. There's never gonna be enough money from tuition receipts. So how can we bring other resources, whether it's financial or experiential, into play to set the JMU experience apart from the 4,000 other colleges and universities across the country? So how working on a specific research project, community service project, what kind of academic programs do we really need for the future? We need to be open to that. One of the things that we've already sets JMU students apart is that broad core of the liberal arts and humanities in the education, this notion that we take a holistic view to education, that you're not just going to be skilled in a technical area, like a vocational school might be. We are going to make sure that you're agile as well, that you have that innovation streak as well. Frankly, AI is going to be very disruptive, and there's a lot of discussion about, does that disrupt a lot of, frankly, those first jobs that college that in some ways, may get replaced. And so what we're already doing is preparing students that second and third rung on that ladder. And I think we need to double down on that to make sure that we continue to make that instinctive of a Duke.
Andy Perrine 16:46
You and I had a conversation shortly after you arrived, and I asked you, if you weren't in higher ed, what might you be doing? And you described possibly being in the in the private sector and using your entrepreneurial spirit in that way. How challenging do you find it to be at a large public that is got some hidebound realities and some bureaucracies? How challenging is it for you to keep that boldness alive and to keep moving forward?
President Jim 17:15
Well, I'm a pragmatist as well, right, right? So an entrepreneurial is opportunistic. They take a look at where what's the power of the possible? And so, you know, I there because I can see opportunities everywhere. I'm able to be discerning and pick those that fit the institution well where I can imagine, you know, sometimes people say, well, so and so will never go for it, or this agency will never go for it. Well, you know, part of it is if you present a bold enough plan, you sometimes can change the bureaucracy and get things moving. But the good news is, I've never been in a shortage of seeing where the opportunity is. The issue is finding the right path through the mountains, if you will, to be able to make sure you get to your destination.
Andy Perrine 17:56
Well, for our listeners, there's a mischievous glint in President Jim's eye as he as he described, busting up the traditions here. Well, you know, you mentioned the fact that we have a very strong liberal arts history, but now that we're in our two there's also the scale and mass of professional and technical education, which we find employers are telling us that we're delivering a different kind of student to the marketplace, one that is out of the box, productive, who works on teams very well, who doesn't have expectations of immediate leadership. What do you think that niche for us represents in our future?
President Jim 18:35
Well, I think you've described very accurately the experience that I've had talking to our employers and, frankly, our students. And I think there's some subtle things about the JMU experience that become really big advantages. I wanted to see firsthand this Duke's holding the door thing right? When I came to campus in January, I wanted to see, was it perfunctory, right? It was it a sense of obligation, or is it really instilled to the core of the culture and and I think you know, this generation gets a bad rap, and also a bit of a fair rap that we spend too much time with our devices, right? And just that simple act of having to look over your shoulder as you enter a building or look forward to notice people around you, to take you out of your bubble, is a reminder that regardless of who you are, what you look like, what your beliefs are, you are worthy of us taking a moment to recognize that humanity and to open that door. I can't think of any other. Some people call that a soft skill, and we're reframing it here at JMU as a power skill. I love it, the ability to relate, interact, because that is the foundation for how you actually solve problems, particularly if it was a disagreement, the ability to disagree in a constructive, professional, human way really sets you apart. And frankly, I think this country. Is, is, is crying for that, and we are preparing the next generation of leaders. But I've heard time and time again, often our students are brought in as the as the leader of these organizations. And if they're not brought in that way, they quickly distinguish themselves when they're working in the marketplace or in their community.
Andy Perrine 20:19
Well, you can see it in someone's eye when they recognize you as a human position, possessing dignity just because you're alive. And I can see it in the students eyes, and that's one of the reasons why for example, our nurses, are so cherished in the Commonwealth, not only because we're one of the top producers.
President Jim 20:38
The top producer
Andy Perrine 20:39
The top producer, but also because they show up and they really care about the work.
President Jim 20:44
Yeah, well, and I often, I do hear from some of the Fortune 500 companies I've met with in the Commonwealth already. You know, they can hire people from the Ivy League or other prestigious schools. Our students have a sense of their own humanity, understand that they can solve the problems, and there's a tenacity and a grit and a stick-to-it-ness and a curiosity. And what I often hear from employers is sometimes the other students have more of a sense of entitlement. And again, I think those skills are really in keeping with kind of America - that those who show up and do the work have the opportunity to move forward, and clearly, our Dukes are are moving forward in all aspects.
Andy Perrine 21:42
Well, you've got your site set on long term and medium term. What are you most excited about here as you begin your administration?
President Jim 21:50
I'm excited to, first of all, meet as many of our Dukes on campus as possible. And I know we got close to 23,000 students on campus and nearly 4,000 faculty and staff. I'm drinking out of a fire hose trying to remember names. I usually remember faces, so forgive me if I have to ask your name more than twice, but it will happen. But what I'm excited about is helping to paint that canvas, that vision of the future together we're in this together, and understand that once we know exactly where we're going, or maybe exactly once we know where we're going, that allows us to confidently put our foot on the accelerator and move towards it. Again. If we're focused on student outcome and goals.
Andy Perrine 22:32
Which you've said is your true north.
President Jim 22:33
It's my true north. Once you have that, then I'm going to ask the question of the campus, what's it going to take to achieve that? And if you can answer that question, that means other things need to step aside so that we can focus. Focus is important. I just talked about a broad vision, but then the individual goals need to have laser focus. And I want to be clear that doesn't mean if your department isn't mentioned as a part of the strategic focus that is not important. It is important. We need to continue to do the great work we're already doing, but what is it going to take to make that next step forward for students.
Andy Perrine 23:12
And you've planned a presidential tour beginning in September, running through the fall. What are your hopes on meeting Dukes out on the road?
President Jim 23:22
Well, I'm one of my many jobs is being chief storyteller, and so I do want to hear the great stories about Uncle Ron. I've already heard a lot of color for stories about Ron Carrier and many of the other presidents have been here, but I want to hear the stories of the faculty members that just made a total difference in your life. I want to hear about the housekeeper in the dormitory. I want to hear about the lunch lady. I want to hear about the people in financial aid that help them figure out a way for them to attend JMU and graduate with minimal debt. I want to hear the stories and the legends of JMU, and then I want to shift the focus to what is it we can accomplish in the future, how do people want to be engaged? And frankly, that'll all be a part of this broad strategic planning effort. We're going to bring in a lot of qualitative and quantitative data. I'm going to be putting out QR codes and looking for feedback. I want to hear both the stories and their hopes and dreams. And then I'm going to ask everyone to lock arms, once that is figured out, and figure out how we're going to do it together.
Andy Perrine 24:22
Well, after this conversation, I'm ready to follow you into a fire.
President Jim 24:25
All right. Well, try to keep you from getting burned.
Andy Perrine 24:28
Okay, thank you. Well, President, Jim, this has been wonderful, and I hope you come back onto the program again at some point and update the community as to where we're headed.
President Jim 24:36
I would love that, again, thank you for your time and attention.
Andy Perrine 24:38
Thank you, Jim, and to our listeners. Remember, if you've got an idea for future episodes or just want to comment on on the podcast, you can reach us at beingthechange@jmu.edu. Until next time. Go Dukes.
President Jim 24:51
Go Dukes.
Narrator 24:55
Thanks for listening. Subscribe to hear more stories about how members of the JMU community are Being the Change. Dive deeper and explore countless other stories at jmu.edu/madisonmagazine. Go Dukes.
Andy Perrine 25:10
The Being the Change podcast was conceived by Jim Heffernan, editor of Madison magazine, and me Andy Perrine, head of JMU Marketing, thanks to Jenna Polk and her team at the Rose Library Studios, where the show is recorded by Cody Troyer, Steve Aderton and Olive Santos, all of the crazy-talented JMU photo video team, who then produced the final episodes at the Ice House in downtown Harrisonburg. Original music by 2019 alumnus, Neil Perine. You can find the Being the Change podcasts on all the popular platforms where we hope you'll like, share and subscribe.
