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University community meets presidential candidate Marrett
01-17-2001 | University Relations

Cora Marrett

Nearly 100 people attended a diversity forum and many more filed into the Memorial Union Pioneer Room for the open forum of Iowa State presidential candidate Cora Bagley Marrett Jan. 17. Marrett currently is senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Following are some highlights of her comments at the two forums.

On diversity in the university community.
For me, a push for diversity is not just a question of 'What is this going to mean for under-represented groups?' It's what does it mean for broadening the opportunities, broadening the experiences of an entire institution.

On international experiences.
You send a lot of students from here to other countries. And there's a large international component here. That ought to be drawn on, in ways that would be enriching and in ways that would not be duplicated in places that don't have that experience…
This is Iowa State University. It is the people's university. That doesn't mean that all activities have to be confined to the boundaries of Iowa….What we're engaging in is for more than the personal and vested interests of particular faculty. This isn't just trying to make it nice to travel around the world. It's more than that. And I continue to say that it's important, because if one sees what other nations are doing [in international activities], they are really just leaving us out.

On the role of faculty, staff and students in community service.
"I have regarded what we call 'community service learning' as the honorable heir to the earlier land-grant tradition… At the same time that I support that, I support also the strength of the learning part. I don't think it's useful just to have people going out doing random activities.

On evaluating professors whose major responsibility is teaching.
I really do think of a research university such as Iowa State as having that commitment for advancement of scholarship…. That can be the scholarship of teaching. Not just scholarly teaching, but how does one engage systematically in trying to improve performance, improve learning outcomes?

On professors who don't engage in advancement of scholarship.
Especially for people at the beginning of their careers at a research university, I'd like to see that connection [to scholarship advancement]; I like to think about the advancement of knowledge, whatever one's specialty is. [Other] things are possible later, as people think about separating out activities, focusing on particular things.

On active scholars who don't bring in money. I don't measure scholarship by the number of publications or the size of grants. I measure it by the quality of ideas…. Sometimes, if one is in a field where the advancement of ideas is often recognized by others through the support of the research grants that they get, then I expect that to be another validation of those ideas. It can't just be a numerical count of publications. I especially get disturbed when I see a list of publications when I can never figure out what's the unifying theme….I have at many times encouraged my colleagues to go out and get some funding….[If their ideas are] good and there are resources out there, I expect they'll be able to do it.

On sexual orientation
When I think about sexual orientation, that's a part of someone's life, not all of what's there. I don't define all of someone's life on the basis of their sexual orientation. The same way, I'm bothered when assumptions are made, based on someone's geographical homeland, race, ethnicity, any of those….If you’re talking about people being a part of community, use resources to ensure that everyone is fully a part of that community.

On her personal decision-making style.
Excellence and collaboration. Whatever we undertake, we should undertake because we are going to do it and do it extremely well…. [I work in collaboration with others ] to try to see that a vision that we share is carried out.