Newly named president Richard McGinity says he’s taking his career day by day.
When asked if he would seek a contract renewal at the end of his term, he replied:
“To be honest I haven’t really thought any farther ahead than maybe tomorrow,” he said. “At the end of two and a half years from now, the only thing that matters to me is when I, and everyone else, looks back, how will we answer the question ‘How good a job did [I] do?’”
At the Wyoming Press Association conference Friday, McGinity addressed questions regarding his new position.
He gave a short speech outlining his goals for the school, which include greater outreach, adoption of a Tier 1 status and rectifying the pay freeze for University faculty.
“We’ve had a period of turbulence in the leadership of the University over the last several months,” he said.
McGinity made it clear that everything is business as usual.
“The teaching is being done, the students are learning, and being tested on it,” he said. “The research in the University is going on. To whatever extent there was distraction from everything that went on, that is gone.”
McGinity spoke about his goals and gave ideas for confronting the issues that currently face the University.
“The University does a lot of things out in the state that are not well recognized in the state, but it’s our responsibility to communicate it,” McGinity said. “There are probably needs out there that we probably could be serving, but that we are not right now, or maybe not with as much energy as we might need to.”
Members of the press raised questions about academic freedom in University research, saying grants and funds given to the University force researchers to adhere to the demands of the sources of the money.
“It is a crucially important issue,” McGinity said. “I think we’re doing all right now, but we have to be very, very vigilant about it.
The president said funds given to the university for academic research grants should not used for outside interests, but further the actual studies of UW professors and scholastic endeavors.
“The source of the revenue doesn’t matter, whether it’s from federal government, donors or industry,” McGinity said.
