Rod Smolla, President of Furman University

UpstateBizSC:
You started as President of Furman University on July 1. What are your first impressions?

Rod Smolla:
I love the university, love the city of Greenville and love the job. I’m having a great time.

UpstateBizSC:
What is your educational and professional background? 

Rod Smolla:
I was the first in my family to go to college, let alone law school.  When I entered Duke University law school, I had only a vague notion of what being a lawyer might entail. I was an anomaly in that I really loved law school. I went into private practice for a short period of time, but I had a longing to participate in the academic side, to teach and write.

Shortly after I became a law professor, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to practice law concurrently as an appellate court lawyer. I argued numerous cases in state and federal courts throughout the country, and once in front of the Supreme Court. I loved having a foot in both the worlds: academic and legal.  Prior to joining Furman University, I was Dean of the Washington and Lee School of Law.

UpstateBizSC:
What was it like arguing in front of the Supreme Court?

Rod Smolla:
The Supreme Court experience was electrifying, truly the Super Bowl of my law career.  I remember being impressed with how bright and passionate the justices were about the case.

UpstateBizSC:
Several deans of law schools have been announced as presidents of universities this summer. Do law school deans make good candidates for university presidents?

Rod Smolla:
The Dean of George Washington Law School was announced as the president of Brandeis.  The Dean of Pepperdine Law School was announced as president at Baylor.  The Dean of Boston College law school is now president at Catholic University, and I was announced at Furman. It has been a good summer for law school deans!  But it’s not the subject matter that makes a good candidate, it’s leadership style and approach to management.  The second in command at Furman comes from a music background and is a drummer.

UpstateBizSC:
What is the best takeaway from a law degree?

Rod Smolla:
A law degree gives you the ability to see issues from multiple perspectives.  Great lawyers in history have demonstrated a capacity to understand where an opponent or judge is coming from, not in a superficial or tactical way, but out of true respect.  This is a quality that serves you well in many other areas of life, especially education.  A university is more than simply a group of students on a campus at any given moment.  It is a very complex entity with many constituents, from generations past and future and from many areas of the world.  A university president needs to understand and communicate with all those parties. 

UpstateBizSC:
Who are some leaders that have been important in shaping you as a person?

Rod Smolla:
As a young boy, I was inspired by President Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King’s call to altruism, their appeal to character and sacrifice. Both were great visionaries.  On the other side of the political spectrum, I also admired President Reagan for his ability to communicate core values. 

From grade school to graduate school, it was not one golden moment or one specific person, more a series of mentors at each step of my journey.  There always seemed to be one or two teachers who would take an interest in me, call me on the carpet from time to time, implore me to push myself harder and focus on my work.

UpstateBizSC:
Describe the role of the university president. 

Rod Smolla:
Part CEO, part political and intellectual thought leader – the job of a university president offers great variety. One minute I am working with the leaders of the music department and listening to their needs, next I am meeting a basketball recruit, next I am working on the budget.

The great part of this job is how passionate staff, faculty, students, alumni, and trustees are about this university.  People have a very strong emotional attachment to this university. That is a great foundation on which to build. 

UpstateBizSC:
What is your leadership style?

Rod Smolla:
The greatest challenge for any organization, company or individual is to develop a genuine and authentic voice for what they believe in.  Leadership has to be more than beautiful words.  Over time, if there is no substance underneath your words, it will be revealed.  Before the dawn of the Internet, you could maybe get away with being a spin master, a PR phenomenon. Today, people will size you up in five minutes. 

Strong leadership is not inconsistent with an open and democratic approach.  But you have to strike a balance between listen and learn and lead right away (action).  Leaders need to get things done.

UpstateBizSC:
Give a brief overview of the history of Furman University.

Rod Smolla:
Furman is a private liberal arts university that was founded in 1826 by Richard Furman, a revolutionary patriot and a preacher.  He was a great leader who rallied South Carolinians to join the cause for the good of the American whole.  I love that we can go back to the origins of the university and find a commitment both to the country and the human spirit.  Those core values represent a great point of departure for our university.

For most of its history, Furman University was associated with the Baptist church.  After splitting with the church, Furman struggled to reconcile the two parts of its identity.  How can you be a robust marketplace with a powerful commitment to intellectual freedom, and on the other hand, be deeply connected to values?  My role as the new president will be to encourage both of those equally. It is my strong belief there is great synergy between those two ideals.

UpstateBizSC:
How do you execute on values or morals education? 

Rod Smolla:
Our non-academic effort to help develop the student is as organized and as purposeful as our academic side, which is highly organized. In my first address to the incoming freshman class families, I told them that my hopes and desires for them as students were the same as that of a parent. Sure, I want them to receive good grades, but more than anything, I want them to be happy, healthy, and to find their passion in life in order to lead a purposeful life. 

When talking about values or morals, I prefer the word spirit as opposed to spiritual.  We welcome students from any religious background, or no religious background.  We are cosmopolitan and secular, no longer overtly connected to any one denomination, but deeply committed to attracting students who want to search for something larger than themselves. We want students to come to the university with an open mind, to engage intellectually in the larger effort to find meaning in their life. That has always been a part of our history and we are uniquely able to deliver on that principle going forward. 

UpstateBizSC:
How will you measure success?

Rod Smolla:
In the past several weeks, Furman was ranked No. 40 in a Washington Monthly survey among 252 liberal arts colleges that are considered to be service-oriented and meet their public obligations in the areas of research, service, and social mobility. We were ranked No. 41 among the nation’s liberal arts colleges in the most recent college rankings by U.S. News & World Report magazine. While these numbers are great and we want to keep improving our standing, I am one of many who is generally skeptical of the trend towards quantifying every input and output measure at universities. Ranked lists are certainly of great use to consumers.

I would like to see Furman build a more robust applicant pool over the next decade – two or three times the number of well qualified applicants who rank Furman as their number one choice.  I would also like for Furman to attract a more diverse student body – more students from around the country and more international students. We need to be better about getting the word out about Furman to the world, to reach students around the globe who might find in Furman, the perfect fit.  Both of these metrics will be incredibly important to me; both are very easy to measure.

UpstateBizSC:
Why is diversity important to your goals?

Rod Smolla:
It is the world we live in.  When you look around the Upstate of South Carolina and see the economic and cultural impact of international companies such as Michelin and BMW, it’s hard to argue that this region has not benefitted enormously in the global economy.  Exposure to people with backgrounds different from your own leads to a richer intellectual exchange and builds growth in one’s character.  Diversity strengthens Furman’s core values.  We gain strength from participating in diversity. 

UpstateBizSC:
What does Furman do well?

Rod Smolla:
Furman went through an extensive process over the past several years fine tuning the delivery of its academic programs.  Our curriculum is one of our greatest strengths.

We have a term we use throughout all areas of study called engaged learning.  It’s a blend of classroom theory and on the street or common sense learning. The delivery for this engaged learning differs according to subject area, but it is something we do very well.  I would hold up this experiential methodology to that of any university in the country. It is one of the causes that I will champion at Furman. 

One area that we can improve on is implementing technology to deliver our programs and to enhance curriculum.  But no interactive software can replace the value that is gained by two human beings looking each other in the eye and interacting, debating, listening and discovering together. That is the ultimate value a small liberal arts university can provide.

UpstateBizSC:
How important is architecture to Furman? 

Rod Smolla:
There is no doubt the beauty of our campus – the landscape, the green space and the architecture – inspires people to come here. Who doesn’t enjoy being on a beautiful campus?  We had a son go through Furman University a few years back and I recall vividly how he was especially drawn to the overall vibe of the campus. This is simply one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. 

In this day and age, just as important as our physical space is the virtual world of the university.  That world, the web site, needs to be just as vibrant and attractive as our physical plant. 

 

UpstateBizSC:
Where is Furman University in its strategic planning process?

Rod Smolla:
Furman just finished up a strategic planning process.  The university is on solid ground; it is energetic, innovative and creative. My hiring contemplated that the new university president would lead the university through the next iteration of a strategic plan.  One of the first actions that I took was to invite open discussions about our future direction from all constituents. Right now we are listening, testing certain approaches to see what has resonance with people. We will complete this process over the next year and a half and then enter a more formal planning process.  Inspiration will come from building on the values that have animated us and updating them constantly. 

UpstateBizSC:
Will you be engaging in a building campaign?

Rod Smolla:
Other than basic maintenance and renovation, I do not see us building a lot of new buildings over the next decade. 

UpstateBizSC:
What are the challenges that institutions of higher education face in today’s economic environment? 

Rod Smolla:
One thing that we have learned through the economic downturn is that if you don’t innovate, you can become irrelevant almost overnight.

The biggest challenge that all universities face, particularly private ones, is tuition increases.  I believe that we are in an education bubble similar to the housing bubble that started several years back.  Society can’t absorb any more escalation of tuition; the ability of families to pay higher tuition fees is saturated.  The economic pressure that families are facing has led to a legitimate questioning of what a high-priced private education delivers in terms of value versus say, online universities. Our answer to that question is enormously important. 

In my view, we have to live within our means and hold our tuition steady.  We have to lead the way, level out our costs, and set a goal of offering the same quality of education, more efficiently. 

UpstateBizSC:
What is your favorite book?

Rod Smolla:
To Kill a Mocking Bird.  Telling the story from the perspective of Scout, the young child is a brilliant narrative device, and the book has a timeless message. 

UpstateBizSC:
It also has Atticus Finch as its main character, a lawyer who clearly sees both sides of a difficult moral dilemma, a father who has to teach his children about decisions in a complex, changing world. Do you see a little of yourself in Atticus Finch?

Rod Smolla:
[Laughs]. Maybe.