Provost candidate and alumnus John Dunn shared a vision of careful planning for NIU before about 40 faculty members Friday.

Audience members grilled Dunn on issues from retention of minority students to corporate support of NIU’s satellite campuses.

Dunn, dean of the College of Health at the University of Utah, said he was attracted to the provost position because of NIU’s location and size, as well as credentials such as its recent recognition by the Doctoral Research Association. He is the second of four finalists to visit campus.

Low retention rates and minority graduation rates are problems that need to be addressed, he said.

Becoming culturally sensitive is part of Dunn’s solution, but ideally, he said, offices like University Resources for Latinos would become part of a larger retention effort.

“What I wanted to do is to make sure that they become, along with us, central in our collective efforts to address these kinds of questions,” he said. “I don’t want to get into a situation where the University Resources for Latinos center is expected to be the answer for retention for Latino students. That’s not a reasonable expectation.”

Dunn discussed affordability for students, noting that uses the term “stop-out” instead of “drop-out” because students leave universities for reasons other than academics, such as trouble paying tuition.

With NIU operating regional sites in Naperville, Hoffman Estates and Rockford, Dunn said corporations could help students overcome financial barriers.

“Clearly, there’s nothing that prohibits us from asking corporations also to weigh in, in terms of their commitments,” he said. “It doesn’t mean we’re selling things to them — it simply says that we recognize our responsibility that they, too, on the receiving end, we may be able to save them some resources and dollars if they were to invest in this.”

One faculty member mentioned a large number of committees on campus and questioned the compatibility of NIU goals related to undergraduate, graduate, technical and regional education. Dunn said those goals could be simplified.

“I’ve looked at your mission statement,” he said. “It seems to me that it’s not as short or as clear as it might be. It doesn’t capture all the richness of this university. … I believe there’s much to be gained by some strategic planning. It seems to me then that we’d have a much better sense of direction.”

Lois Self, chairwoman of the Department of Communication, asked how Dunn would prioritize NIU’s efforts with so many departments competing for resources.

Dunn said careful planning within NIU’s colleges and departments is necessary to determine where to invest money. Reiterating the concept of shared governance, he said he would want to find initiatives that promised the best return on an investment.

“The bottom line for me is that there should not be surprises in the final decisions that are being made,” Dunn said.

NIU President John Peters’ plan to evaluate academic departments was mentioned. Dunn acknowledged the need to proceed with such reviews.

“Normally these reviews, if done right, will identify some investments that need to be made, or fixes that need to be made,” he said.

After the forum, education professor Jim Lockard gave a positive opinion of Dunn.

“He seemed to do a very good job of trying to address the questions that were asked of him, acknowledged where he lacked information that would be essential to giving a full answer to things, but seemed very thoughtful, very reflective and very supportive of the direction the institution is planning to go,” Lockard said.