Raymond W. Alden III replaced Ivan Legg as the new provost of NIU on July 1. The Northern Star sat down to talk to Alden about what he’s done so far, what he hopes to do and why he wanted to work at NIU.

Northern Star: What are you going to miss most about the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV)?

Raymond W. Alden III: The people. I was there nine years, the first three as dean and the last six as provost. I worked with a lot of great people. I hired a lot of faculty members, probably over 400 faculty. When you start interacting with people early in their academic career, you start seeing them advance. A lot of the people I hired as dean I saw their tenure go through as provost. It is kind of that closing the loop and seeing people advance to the next stage in their career. So I think it’s those kind of personal connections.

NS: I know you just took your position on July 1, so only a few weeks have gone by, but what have you done so far?

RA: Quite frankly, the first week was driving up here. I was here last week (July 9 to 15), but I spent some of this week (July 16 to 22) at a national meeting, so I haven’t even been here a full week (as of July 20). I haven’t met with all the deans yet for the first time to get acquainted with what the issues are, although I met them during the interview process. I’m just in the learning phase right now.

NS: What changes do you want to make at Northern?

RA: I think what I heard during the interview process was an interest in developing more strategic plans so that as we go into the future, we focus on certain areas that are agreed upon as areas that need to have greater development. I think that’s an important aspect of higher education in general, particularly during times nationally when there’s financial difficulties, so that when resources are relatively scarce, you make sure you maintain excellence and you grow in areas that are particularly important for the institution and for the state.

NS: You accomplished a lot at UNLV, such as how you guided the university through a massive increase in enrollment and helped develop 43 new programs, just to name a few. Do you feel like you did all you could do an UNLV and you were looking for a new challenge?

RA: Well, it was that, plus there were some changes in the leadership structure. Our president decided to step down on fairly short notice, so obviously the president and the provost are fairly close to a partnership. Generally, it’s practiced in higher education that when a new president comes on board, he or she often wants to pick a new provost that they bring on board, so obviously that’s part of it. The whole system of higher education in Nevada is changed in the leadership at the chancellor’s level, who is taking a much more active role in running the institutions. It’s just been an overall change in the last year that has led to me looking around for other opportunities and challenges.

NS: Where do you see NIU in five years?

RA: I think a lot depends on the strategic planning process because that’s the first thing you start asking once you have a mission statement, a statement of strategic goals. Then you start to build what your direction is, where you’re going to want to end up. I think it would be premature for me to say, “This is the game plan,” because that represents the entire university community, starting with the president’s vision, all the way through the faculty and it has to be done in a shared manner. So I see the strategic planning process as not top down. It is everybody kind of reaching a consensus with this mission and vision in mind… I think that’s part of what needs to be done over the next year or two, to engage students, faculty, staff, obviously the president’s cabinet in those kind of discussions of “Here we are now. What do we want to be? What are our areas of strength? What do we want to be known for in 10 years?” What do both the student population and the university community in terms of faculty and staff and the external stakeholders want the university to become?

NS: Did the science program at NIU play a role in your decision to work here, since you have a background in biology and zoology?

RA: Obviously, some of the opportunities I looked at when I read President Peters’ state of the university five-year address were particularly tied to Fermi Labs, Argonne and the big science initiatives. That’s obviously one of the opportunities you have here, to look at that as the area of strength and an area to build in, but obviously it’s not the only one. There were many others mentioned that sounded very exciting and showed that there were a number of opportunities here.

NS: You said that you liked the growth of NIU when you were being interviewed for the provost position. What were some of the things that stood out about NIU’s growth?

RA: I think there are a number of things obviously. Even during times of financial hardship, there were great things happening — some of the connections we’ve talked about in big science and a lot of the opportunities of looking at a student population whose characteristics are improving in terms of having better graduation rates, retention rates and so forth and yet still having the outreach opportunity to make sure that individuals who may have been disadvantaged because of socioeconomic reasons or preparation reasons in the K through 12 system are still given the opportunity to come here and given the infrastructure to help them succeed.

I think having some of those characteristics, having the potential to develop the research connections and the engagement in this tremendous community stood out. You can drive around and see the technology quarter coming out from Chicago and obviously NIU could be an effective anchor for that. You have a growing population and lots of potential in terms of serving that population. So, I think research engagement and academic excellence stood out.

Quite frankly, when I spoke to the students, they were all very excited. I think that’s the one thing that stood out. Everybody seemed quite positive despite financial hardships and I know that in some institutions, that climate and culture is just not there.

NS: How would you describe your leadership style?

RA: I believe in building consensus. I think to get input from all stakeholder groups is important, but I think leaders have to be willing to make the hard decision when the time comes. You can’t be just laissez-faire and let things happen. I think that doesn’t produce any sort of forward movement or productivity. I think it’s a combination of things. I think I’m a good listener and I think I can read situations pretty well, just because I have experience in that area. Yet I do know that at some point in time, provosts and other leaders of universities do have to make hard decisions. You have to be willing to do that, but only after you’ve gathered all the evidence and made the decision on what’s in the best interest of the institution.