The last University of Toledo presidential candidate to visit spoke to about 60 people today in a forum at the Health Science Campus, concluding the final of six public sessions with the three finalists.
Sharon Gaber, 51, University of Arkansas provost, reiterated her leadership capabilities during the morning session, stressing her academic background as an urban planner and her administrative experience at her current institution.
“What excites me about this opportunity is intimately connected to who I am, what I do, and what my academic background is,” she said.
She pointed to her experience as a board member at the non-profit Fayetteville, Ark. hospital Washington Regional Medical Center as preparation for leading UT, which merged with the former Medical College of Ohio in 2006. Her duties on that board exposed her to healthcare-related complexities such as recruiting surgeons, tracking infections, and finances, she said.
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Asked by a professor about her views on having a provost to specifically serve the medical science campus independent of a main campus provost, Ms. Gaber said it’s an issue she would have to study and has looked at different administrative models.
“I want to make sure we enhance bringing the groups together and yet make sure that the medical campus feels fully valued, fully understood,” she said.
She also fielded questions about supporting diversity, an issue that was frequently raised by faculty, students, and others at the public forums; academic libraries; pediatric and women’s health services, and how she would interact with residents who neighbor the university.
Ms. Gaber said at Arkansas, a “town and gown committee” meets monthly to talk through issues of importance to the surrounding residents. When neighbors complained that the university’s no-smoking policy had resulted in students smoking near their houses instead of on campus, Ms. Gaber said the university arranged to have its police officers patrol the area and shoo away smokers.
The other two candidates for the UT presidency are Christopher Howard, 46, president of the private, all-male Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, and Michele Wheatly, 58, former West Virginia University provost. They visited UT earlier this week and last week.
Ms. Gaber is meeting with UT trustees today in a closed-door exit interview before concluding her multiday job interview and campus visit.
The board is expected to meet March 9 to make a hiring decision and then begin contract negotiations.
The chosen leader will follow Dr. Lloyd Jacobs, who left the job last summer, a year before the end of his contract. Nagi Naganathan, dean of the College of Engineering, has been serving as interim president.
First Published February 27, 2015, 4:44 p.m.
