WABE: Emory's New President Considers Challenges (2003-08-29)

Dr. Jim Wagner becomes the 19th President of Emory University on September 2nd.

He was recently Provost and Vice-President at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

WABE's Brian Smith spoke with Dr. Wagner at his new offices, on the Emory Campus in Atlanta.

WABE: What connections do you have with Atlanta?

WAGNER: I have some family in Atlanta. And although they are here, I have never lived in Atlanta. My folks moved here as I moved off to college, perhaps concerned that I would be moving back home. Dad took a final career move that brought him here - also brought my younger brother here, and so he and his family have roots here in the Atlanta area. So, it's a bit of a reunion, even though it's not a homecoming.

WABE: Your background is in engineering. It's remarkable that you've been chosen as President of a school without an engineering program. Your thoughts on that?

WAGNER: Well, in fact, it does seem a little bit remarkable that that's the history. Our education comes through - we get our education through a number of different disciplines, and I just happened to choose a route, coming through engineering. But you know, people ask that question, I think, perhaps, with a misunderstanding or a stereotype - an assumption - of what modern engineering, of what engineering is, that is not modern engineering.

Modern engineering is, of course, goes beyond the problem-solving, very narrow kind of intensely-focused profession that I guess it once was. To a point now where engineers, in addressing problems, also have a responsibility to identify those problems. Not just solve somebody else's problem, but identify those. And that requires a connection with society. They need to do so in a cost-effective way. They need to do so in a way that is responsible to the environment, and they need to do so in a way that is ethical. And I would like to think that societal involvement, that economics, that the environment and ethics, are all leadership qualities - are all qualities, anyway, that can be applied to leadership of any of a number of kinds of institutions, including universities.

WABE: What do you see as the immediate challenges facing Emory, as an academic institution?

WAGNER: Oh, I think living into its great opportunity! It's a wonderful institution and you know that, and most folks know that. But when I run down sort of a short list of things that I hope we would pay attention to, early on, it would include things like being recognized more broadly. Beyond the immediate region - well, recognized more in the region, but also beyond the region. Also, letting people know of what is special and distinctive about Emory. In particular, things come to mind. The fact, this unusual blend of being one of the world's strongest research universities - not just research institution, research universities - and the balance or the blend of that, with this unusual character that Emory has, of paying attention to issues of value. A place that values values. So, being a combination of inquiry-driven, research-driven and values-guided. I think it's an usual and distinctive combination. Getting that word out, and then growing on that, by taking best advantage of the resources we have - and taking better advantage of some of the resources around us, through partnerships, is also high on the agenda.

WABE: Historically, many universities with large medical schools have focused on the financial development of medicine - often at the expense of other departments. How will you address the needs of Arts, Sciences and other academic disciplines - regarding funding allocation?

WAGNER: Certainly, and you're right - you're right about the perception, anyway, that research universities involving medical schools have long had - seems to have been a rift, in fact, between medical education and health care and health sciences, and the rest of the university. That rift is a bit artificial. It needs to be bridged. Our arts and sciences programs, in fact, deserve greater investment and must get those. But they also should realize the resource we that have in our school of medicine. The reverse is also true, though - and this is an important point. The School of Medicine needs to understand, and I believe it does, increasingly, the value of being attached to a world-class university. When you think about it, with perhaps one exception, there are really no other major great medical schools that aren't also attached to a great university. So, in other words, as we move our medical school from greatness to further greatness, it must become a priority of the medical school, also, to help the entire university to become great - including the arts, humanities, social sciences, etcetera.

WABE: What do you see as Emory's role in the greater Atlanta community?

WAGNER: It has a couple of roles. First is to be a good neighbor, to actually be part of the community. The other is to be a better partner, and to seek better partnerships. True partnerships, of course, have a benefit for both partners. That is, it helps advance the missions of both organizations, institutions, whatever these are. Whether these are other educational institutions, whether this is industry, other health care institutions, they've got to be two-way partnerships. We have some good starts in some of those - the relationship that we have with Georgia Tech, for example. Formal programs in biomedical engineering, but also a great number of joint research programs. But there are other educational institutions where we should grow that. The relationship that we have with the CDC and Public Health. The relationship that Emory enjoys with Morehouse and with Grady, for example, are all examples of things that need to serve as prototypes for even deeper partnerships. And these are genuinely, mutually beneficial kinds of partnerships.

WABE: What are you expecting from the school's student body?

WAGNER: It's very interesting, we've been talking partnership all along. When you talk with the students, and if you want to get a debate going, you ask them a leading question. Such as, should the students of a major university be the customers of that university - or should they be the product of that university? And it turns into a wonderful debate because the fact is, they should be neither. One can say, well certainly we're customers, we pay tuition, we expect a service. And others could say, well certainly we're a product - we expect to go through the machine of the university and with an incoming raw material that is good and a product, ultimately, that is better.

But the fact is, that the relationship that the student body has with its university should be more of a partnership - just like we've been discussing. Students cannot come here and expect merely to be a product and receive an education. We have to move them from being receivers of an education, to pursuers of an education. And as they make that transition they become increasingly partners in the educational process.