Patti Oda Undergraduate VP candidate

Ota and Richardson disagree on management styles, improving faculty relations

The two candidates vying for a top position in the university administration listed their goals for improving undergraduate education last week.

During four public forums last week, faculty and staff asked Randy Richardson and Patti Ota questions about what their goals would be if they were offered the position of vice president for undergraduate education.

Randy Richardson Undergraduate VP candidate

Richardson, who has been interim vice president for undergraduate education since Mike Gottfredson left two years ago, and Ota, the vice president for executive operations and senior associate to President Peter Likins, had similar goals for improving education in the midst of state-mandated budget cuts.

Richardson and Ota each want to recruit top scholars but say the budget crisis - which has left the university strapped for cash - will make this task difficult.

"I don't know of any ways to recruit scholars that don't cost money," Ota said.

Both also want a more ethnically diverse student body and faculty.

"Your students are becoming increasingly diverse, and your faculty are not," Richardson said, noting that the current hiring freeze makes it impossible to hire faculty.

They also talked about working with K-12 schools to help prepare incoming students from Arizona for their first years at the university. Both would also like to improve academic advising.

But that's where the similarities end.

Richardson calls his management style "visionary" and sees his role - were he to receive the position permanently - as someone who sets goals that others work toward meeting.

Ota said her management style is to build on relationships with others, by asking staff and faculty what needs to be improved, and get their ideas for the best ways of improving it.

Richardson has already had experience doing the job, and his comments reflected his familiarity with issues like advising, how to help non-traditional students and growing enrollment.

Richardson also previously served as associate dean of the College of Science, among other positions at the University of Arizona.

Richardson wants all faculty to teach, as he teaches a geosciences course himself. This would help open up more classes as enrollment grows and keep faculty engaged in teaching, he said.

He also wants the Integrated Learning Center operating at full capacity next fall, which would mean hiring approximately 15 more employees to staff it, and installing technology that was not installed when the ILC opened this spring.

Also among Richardson's goals:

• Obtaining data on non-traditional students' needs and closing down non-credit classes that are not bringing money into the university.

• Making the university more "transfer-friendly" for people from two-year colleges.

• Recruiting more Hispanic students.

Ota has held a variety of administrative positions, both at UA and at Lehigh University, where she was dean of the College of Business and Economics and vice provost for academic administration.

She said if she were to get the position, she would talk to deans and faculty members to find out how to improve undergraduate education. She wants to do outreach, from the UA to local K-12 schools, to get students to think about going to college and prepared for college sooner.

Ota also wants to gather information about why some freshmen don't return for their sophomore year and improve retention rates by talking to students and professors.

Also among Ota's goals:

• Getting more undergraduates involved in faculty research.

• Exploring online courses for students who cannot come to campus.

• Making the UA community friendlier and more student-centered.

Ota and Richardson's forums drew between 20 and 40 audience members - largely UA staff and faculty. Audience members filled out evaluation sheets, giving their opinions on which candidate should get the position. The search committee will review the audience's evaluation sheets and recommend one of the candidates for the position later this week.

Provost George Davis is expected to offer one of the candidates the position within the next two to three weeks, said Charles Tatum, dean of the College of Humanities and chair of the search committee.