On March 1, David Skorton was officially installed
as theUniversity of Iowa's 19th president. Variously described as
a Renaissance man, a good listener, a change agent, compassionate,
a gifted speaker, classy, witty, irrepressible, a talented musician
and avid jazz fan, trustworthy and well-liked, diligent, driven, charismatic,
and optimistic, Skorton has spent his entire professional career at
the University of Iowa.
Recruited and then hired in 1980 by Dr. Francois Abboud, head of Iowa's internal medicine department from 1976 until his retirement in 2002, Skorton joined the UI faculty as an instructor immediately following his cardiology fellowship at UCLA.
He revealed his potential early. "I knew he needed to be more than a cardiologist," Abboud told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Promoted to assistant professor in internal medicine in 1981, the young doctor accepted a second academic appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1982 and a third—this to biomedical engineering—in 1999.
So, what will be the hallmarks of the Skorton presidency? He promises respect for differing opinions, shared governance, and an open university where alumni and parents are part of the community.
"As president, I see myself as an information gatherer and consensus builder inside the institution. Outside the university, my primary role is to emphasize outreach. I believe we need to do a better job of putting a human face on what the university does in service to the state, in health care, arts performance, economic development, and many other areas. It doesn't have to be my face; I want all the faculty and staff to think of themselves as servants to the state, too."
Looking a year into the future, Skorton has told media representatives, "I hope you'll see that I'm a president who brings the media and the watchdogs and the critics of the university into the bosom of the president's office to talk about what's going on."
Meanwhile, President David Skorton will be on the road talking to alumni and community leaders in the state, getting to know them and letting them become acquainted with his aspirations for the University of Iowa.
"I think that it's perhaps a bit old-fashioned, but it would be good to think that an Iowa graduate would have a basic liberal arts and sciences orientation no matter what her or his career specialty was, that such a graduate would have an appreciation of literature and the arts and an understanding of history and its effect on our behavior," Skorton says. "To have a breadth of academic experience should still be a hallmark of higher education in Iowa."
| The President's Priorities |
| University
Role: “The university must be a marketplace of ideas. That concept suggests that there will be disagreement, and I am very comfortable in those situations. I don’t believe that there is any set of human issues that can’t be discussed.” Shared Governance: “Bureaucratic constraint is a bad idea. I believe passionately in shared governance. As vice president for research, I increased the number of advisory committees to the office from one to seven. There’s more chance that a greater breadth of ideas will be taken into account when decisions are made this way. That’s the upside. The downside is that it can be slower and more chaotic.” On Alumni: “Alumni are part of the university community. Both the Alumni Association and the Parents Association need to have more attention paid to them. I know that as an alumnus of another institution, I am always more engaged when someone wants my opinions, not just my money.” |
This is an abbreviated version of a feature that appeared in Iowa Alumni Magazine. To get the full story, please join the University of Iowa Alumni Association.
