This essays is one of four written by alumni of the University of Minnesota Forestry Class of 1957 alumni and a dean of the former UMN College of Natural Resources (CNR), which became the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) in 2006. To learn more about this project and to access the other essays, return to the Class of '57 Essays web page.
No edits have been made to the original content; it is published as it was written.
Essay by Susan. G. Stafford, PhD
Written c. 2021
Introduction
The University of Minnesota's (UMN) Class of '57 Forestry alums asked me to write an essay about the former College of Natural Resources (CNR). Because my tenure as Dean of the CNR (2002 - 2006) at UMN was a period of such immense personal and professional growth, I agreed. My hope is to share some of the "lessons learned" so that others can use them to guide their transition from a traditional teaching and research faculty position into a successful academic administrative career.
Serving as Dean of the former College of Natural Resources (CNR) at the University of Minnesota (UMN) was an honor. As this essay reflects, it provided a full rollercoaster of experiences. At the end of my tenure as Dean in 2006, the UMN closed the CNR as part of a system-wise "strategic repositioning" effort and merged it into a new College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Sciences (CFANS). I will spare you all the gory details and share only those stories that I believe could be helpful to those who follow behind me.
In the Beginning
Let me share my journey to UMN and the early days of my career in academia. I grew up in Syracuse New York, earned my BS in Biology from Syracuse University, and MS and PhD from SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry in Quantitative Ecology and Statistics.
When I finished graduate school, no one in my cohort of graduate students was getting a job directly out of Graduate School. Facing this reality, I had 100 resumes printed! Just prior to defending my dissertation, my major professor showed me a job announcement for a Consulting Statistician, Tenure-Track Assistant Professor position in the Department of Forest Science, College of Forestry, Oregon State University (OSU) in Corvallis, Oregon.
As if a new graduate's first job interview isn't stressful enough, my trip to Corvallis was replete with a few additional "wrinkles", shall we say. In hindsight, they are quite humorous, although I must admit I didn't share that opinion at the time. On the day I flew out of Syracuse for my interview at OSU my brother overslept and nearly missed getting me to the airport on time. When I arrived in Eugene, Oregon the airline informed me that my luggage appeared to be lost, and finally, when I went to confirm the reservation for my flight home, I was told I had no such return flights booked. This was long before the days of booking one's own reservations on the internet, so I wasn't very pleased with the travel agent.
Literally, with the shirt on my back, my toothbrush, and slides for my seminar, I began my four-day interview with the Department of Forest Science. Because they say, "All things come in threes," I figured I was safe; what further could go wrong? I decided right then to relax, enjoy the visit and use this first interview as a learning experience for future interviews to come. After all, I still had ninety-nine resumes! Imagine my surprise when OSU offered me the job before United Airlines ever found my misplaced luggage!
It's a Small World
As fate would have it, there was a Professor of Forest Ecology in the Department at OSU by the name of Richard Waring who was a member of the Class of '57 from the University of Minnesota. It is indeed a small world! Little did either of us know at the time, that I would come full circle in my career and return as Dean of the College of Natural Resources, University of Minnesota where Dick had begun all those many years before as an undergraduate in the Forestry program in the Twin Cities.
The Role of a Consulting Statistician
In my position as Consulting Statistician, I worked with our faculty, graduate students and research partners from both State and Federal agencies. I helped them design their experiments, manage and analyze their data, and interpret their results. As a bonus, I got to teach as well, which I loved.
If memory serves, I arrived in Corvallis on a Thursday and the following Monday I was in the classroom teaching the Statistics Module for the Forest Engineering Institute (FEI). The students were US Forest Service professionals from the Pacific Northwest – ranging from northern California to Alaska. I remember all the big, burly Alaskans sat in the very back of the room. scowling and highly skeptical or this new professor – a very young woman from upstate new York who put a cross through her sevens! By the end of the 6-week course, there was a rush for front row seats which I took as a sign that I had earned their respect.
The FEI was one of many continuing education outreach programs the OSU College of Forestry conducted in which J participated. These programs were very popular and attracted a wide range of participants, many of whom went on to very high-profile positions including Abigail Kimball, the first woman Chief of the Forest Service and Lynn Burditt, first woman District Ranger of the Blue River Ranger District on the Willamette National Forest and then Deputy Supervisor of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Thus, I began a life-long career of teaching and research sharing my love of applying quantitative methods to natural resource and real-world problems.
Early in my career, I developed a class called Natural Resources Data Analysis where I taught students how to design their research experiments to ensure their data could address the questions posited by their scientific hypotheses. I can think of nothing more demoralizing to an academic than spending several years conducting research experiments only to realize that, due to improper design, their experiments were not generating the requisite data to satisfy the scientific method.
The experimental designs needed to be statistically sound from the very beginning. My students learned how to manage and analyze their research data. In the process they learned SAS, a statistical software program that included the statistical tools that they would need (regression analysis, analysis of variance, etc.) for their research. Students soon learned that with planning, they would be able to emerge from class with their Methods Chapter vetted and written for their MS Theses and PhD dissertations. It soon became a very popular class! In fact, the students and faculty moved to make this a required course in the curriculum. It attracted like-minded graduate students from other Colleges and Departments across campus. It's not often that a required statistics class enjoys the popularity that this did.
Development of my Management Style
Quantitative Sciences Group
My approach to leadership began at OSU where I created the Quantitative Sciences Group (QSG) and established the Forest Science Data Bank (Stafford 1998, 2016, Stafford et al. 1984 and Stafford et al. 1988). My QSG team was a mixture of Oregon State University and USDA Forest Service personnel. Some received their paycheck from OSU and others from the USFS, but we all shared a common commitment to the long-term stewardship of an immense treasure trove of research data and information.
I hired good people and then got out of their way. Within QSG, I empowered my team to take on issues independently while maintaining an open-door policy to ensure they knew I was there as a resource when needed. Knowing one's strengths and weaknesses is the sign of a self-confident person. The team flourished under this approach.
I liken leadership to being in a raft going down a river. When all is going smoothly, the leader stays in the back as one of the team, but when the waters become turbulent and dangerous, the leader quickly takes the helm, grabs a paddle, and guides the boat through the perilous stretches to smoother water. It's important to know when you are needed and when you are not! I would like to think that I was known for strong, principle-centered management skills.
Long Term Ecological Research Program
In 1980, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program on the heels of the International Biological Program (IBP) on the HJ Andrews. The IBP, while successful on many fronts, was fraught with critical unresolved data and information issues; basically, the data were not easily accessible to other and future researchers. NSF didn't like this and was determined that any future long-term ecological programs would have a strong commitment to data and information management from the beginning of the project. The HJ Andrews became one of the initial six sites to be included in the L TER program (Callahan 1984). They say timing is everything and that was the case for me! Since I had just arrived in 1979 as a newly-minted PhD in statistics with a strong focus on the application of quantitative methods to natural resource questions, I had the good fortune to be named as the Andrews Data and Information Manager. This fortuitous association continued for the next four decades! (Stafford 2016, 2021). At OSU, I did more than manage data and information, I learned firsthand how to form, lead and work in effective research teams.
Provost's Office: Faculty Associate to Provost
At OS , I had another unique leadership opportunity. I spent one year ( 1987- 1988) in the Provost's office as the First Faculty Associate to Provost Graham Spanier, of Penn State infamy. I worked on a variety of projects, most significant was the Family Employment Program (FEP) (Stafford and Spanier, 1990). I helped the Provost establish the OSU FEP which was designed to help OSU be more responsive to the needs of dual-career families in contemporary recruiting. I established an FEP Advisory Board of local employers so that "trailing spouses" would have an instant network of employment opportunities. The program also included an OSU component for professorial spouses to help them learn of academic opportunities within the University. This very new program eventually became part of the culture of OSU and the Corvallis Community. Many informational sessions were held to help educate the broader University and Mid-Willamette Valley community about the two-way opportunities provided by this novel program. Full acceptance of this program took some time because of some initial pushback for a program that, on the surface. appeared to give unfair advantages to some people. From this experience, I learned that open and direct communication is necessary – not easy – but essential when explaining new approaches to common challenges.
My time in the Provost's office was very insightful. I observed quickly that all the thorny personnel issues that should have been resolved – but were not – at the local level of the Department or College, were bumped up to the Provost's desk. I learned a life-long lesson that I never forgot – personnel matters should be dealt with at the level closest to where they occur. It also taught me firsthand, that I did not want to be a provost! That's a good lesson to learn before you commit to a job. A couple of years later, when there was an opening for an Associate Provost at OSU, many thought I would be the first to toss my name in the hat, but
they were wrong. I learned that sometimes the jobs with the fanciest titles are not all that they are cracked up to be.
National Science Foundation - Visiting Division Director
While at OSU, in 1994, I was invited to be a Visiting Division Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Biological Sciences Directorate under Assistant Director (AD) of Biological Sciences, Mary Clutter. This invitation was most unexpected! It came from Torn Callahan, the NSF LTER Program Officer, over dinner during a site visit to the HJ Andrews. Tom asked me if I had ever considered coming to NSF. Mary wanted to institute a policy of visiting Division Directors in addition to visiting Program Officers. NSF has always benefitted from bringing in researchers from academia and industry, known as ''rotators", into the Foundation. Usually, these outside researchers were Program Officers, however, Mary wanted to infuse new blood at the Division Leadership.
Over the next couple of days my husband and I gave this a lot of thought. I remember him saying, "You really want to do this, don't you?" I said, "Yes, I do." "Well then, let's figure out how to make this work," he said. And that we did. For the next twelve months, I commuted across the country. I was in Washington, DC for three weeks and then worked remotely from Oregon for one week. Without the support of a very understanding family, this would not have been possible. Having a supportive husband throughout my career has been instrumental.
It was a phenomenal opportunity to spend a year at NSF as a visiting Division Director (Stafford 1996). I learned a lot about myself: how I liked to be managed and how I didn't like to be micromanaged. I also learned a lesson in personnel management that served me very well. After an opportunity like the year I had, I was no longer satisfied with the position I left at OSU only twelve short months ago. I was ready for something new. I needed a position that held greater challenges. Shortly after returning to OSU, I started looking for new opportunities.
In sum, I was very fortunate to have had a very rich set of life experiences. My collective time in college, graduate school, and at OSU prepared me for my later positions as Department Head of Forest Sciences at Colorado State University (CSU) and ultimately Dean of the College of Natural Resources, University of Minnesota.
Challenges as a New Dean
As all new Deans do, I faced several significant challenges. In this essay, I want to share how I managed them in the hopes of helping others to develop their own strategies.
Immediate Budget Cuts
When I became Dean at UMN, one of my colleagues from another large, well known southern University's Forestry Program gave me the following piece of advice, "Take six months, listen and then decide what you are going to do. Make your decisions decisively!" That was great advice, but I didn't have six months!
Upon my arrival at UMN I faced an immediate fiscal challenge. Governor Jesse Ventura at the stroke of midnight on his last day as Governor instituted a fifteen percent budget cut in the second year of a biennial budget. Because the majority of the biennial budget had been spent in the first year, deeper cuts would need to be found from the much smaller remaining budget for the rest of the biennial. Therefore, the $I.5M cut that should have been spread over a biannual budget cycle, had to be absorbed in one year.
Having been on the receiving end of "across the board" budget cuts in the past; budget cuts that penalize the over-performers and give a pass to the under-achievers, I refused to simply make an across-the-board budget cut. It is for that reason that I searched for and found a way to make sensible "vertical" budget cuts.
Here was the situation: During my predecessor's ten-year tenure, a faculty member reneged on the deliverables of an EPA grant and the College actually had to return $20,000 to the sponsor; yet the faculty member kept his job! Although this would not solve my entire budget problem, it seemed like a logical first place to implement a vertical cut.
The faculty member carried a "Continuous Professional and Administrative" job classification known as a Continuous P&A at UMN. The first challenge I faced was that the administrative category for these positions was a nebulous classification. Despite the term "continuous" it was still an annual appointment. When I made the decision to terminate this position and reclaim the salary savings, I ran up against significant obstacles. In keeping with my philosophy of not wanting to waste time reinventing the wheel, I decided to seek advice from others whom I assumed had experience in these matters, specifically my fellow Deans.
There were monthly "Deans' Dinners" where all UMN Deans would take turns hosting the group. It was an extremely helpful networking and mentoring experience for a newly minted Dean such as me. Between the soup and salad, I recall asking the assembled group, how do you go about terminating a Continuous P&A? When no one responded, I asked the question again. Everyone became thoroughly enthralled with their meal and didn't look up or meet my eyes. I said, "Oh come on, I need your help here." Finally, one sheepishly looked up and muttered, "We're going to let the newbie tackle that one." To say the least, I was shocked! No one had ever terminated a Continuous P&A.
When my faculty member received notice of his termination, he requested a meeting which of course I arranged. He had three points. He claimed:
- He had tenure and couldn't be terminated.
- Since his work was critical to the mission of the Department, I should simply find the savings somewhere else.
- And my favorite, because I was so new, I couldn't possibly know what I was doing.
To his first point, I explained that he did not have tenure but rather an annual appointment. Even if a faculty has tenure, they can still be terminated for lack of performance. It is called Post Tenure Review. To his second point, the Department recently finished a strategic plan outlining the key elements of the Department and the future areas for strategic investment. His area of expertise was not mentioned once in the report. And to his last point, well, I think he was just angry; and I was a girl, to boot.
He brought a grievance against his Department, the CNR (essentially me) and the Dean of Extension because his position had an extension component. Despite the fact that all three of us were mentioned in the grievance, the Provost said that I was to deal with the grievance. Lucky me! I learned a lot. We had many meetings with the Grievance Officer on the Minneapolis campus and every time my Department Head and I drove over to the other campus he implored me to just let it go. As I explained to him then, letting it go was neither an option nor acceptable solution. I once worked for a Dean who prided himself that he had never had a grievance filed against him. While I'm sure that made his life easier, I submit that it likely meant he never tackled difficult situations or made decisions that moved complacent faculty out of their comfort zone.
We resolved the grievance amicably and a couple of years later one dark, wintry evening, I was walking to my car and saw him at the other end of the parking lot. I walked over and extended my hand to him. He took it. We shook hands. He said that he was so much happier and more successful in his new position. He told me that leaving the College, in retrospect, was the best thing that could have happened to him.
There was another upside, too. One of my other Department Heads said that when I eliminated a position that had been so unproductive, it sent the message to the rest of the College that low or non-performance would no longer be acceptable. Unbeknownst to me, that individual had become "job security" for the rest of the College, and that was no longer true. I learned that strong decisive actions have widespread, positive ripple effects.
Budget Model
Another challenge was the University's budget model. The budget model was called IMG which stood for Incentives for Managed Growth. The premise was that if your student took classes in another College, then the college that offered the course kept seventy-five percent of the tuition. The remaining twenty-five percent went to the College in which the student was enrolled. On the surface, this sounds like a good way to manage the flow of tuition dollars; the College, incurring the cost for offering the course, got to keep a significant portion of the tuition. Unfortunately, there were some unanticipated consequences. Larger Colleges (like Liberal Arts) started gaming the system by offering courses about Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (environmental sciences, geographical information systems, weather, climate change, etc.) courses they were ill-prepared to teach, and then encouraged their students to take the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) classes instead of the classes offered within CNR, taught by faculty who were experts and did research in these fields. By doing this, CLA was able to garner one hundred percent of the student tuition. Unfortunately, the fact that CNR's classes were taught by research scientists in the field, was not part of the decision criteria. I learned to always be aware of unanticipated consequences, and then anticipate them. I learned how tempting it could be for some to find the loopholes, and I planned accordingly.
Need for Departmental Refocus
When I came to UMN, I inherited a Department of Wood Science where the student/ faculty ratio was so out of whack that any student could have adopted several faculty members. There were more faculty than students! That created a situation that was neither tenable nor sustainable; something had to change.
A potential solution presented itself when the sitting Department Head left for another opportunity within the UMN system. Although I had no budget with which to conduct a national search, I did have a faulty member who had just been offered a Department Head position at another prestigious institution. After my experience at NSF, I knew that he was going to need new challenges to keep him from leaving. With faculty input and concurrence, I offered the Department Head position to this faculty member and in response, he asked me what my plans were for the future of the Department. In my opinion, this was a great question and one that I would have asked if I were in his shoes. I said to him, "If you envision the future of this department by looking in your rearview mirror as a reflection of the past, I will help you pack! But if you envision a new and different future, you have my
unqualified support." He accepted the position. I challenged the new Department Head to work with the faculty to envision a brand-new future and focus for the department for themselves and their students. And envision a new future they did! They developed two new undergraduate majors – Bio-based Products Engineering (now called Bioproducts Engineering) (Bowyer and Ramaswamy 2005, Ramaswamy et al. 2007) and Corporate Environmental Management (now called Sustainability Systems Management) (Suh et al. 2005). Each of these new majors was developed in collaboration with two other UM Colleges – the Institute of Technology (now called the College of Engineering and Science) and Carlson School of Management, respectively.
How the Bio-based Products Engineering major came to be is interesting and worth mentioning. I met with Ted Davis, Dean of the Institute of Technology (IT), about the resources I would need to develop this new major. I told him, "Ted, you spill more every year than I have to spend!! Let me keep all the tuition from the new classes that we develop." He told me that he agreed in principle, but he didn't like setting a precedent. In response, I said, "Well, let's do this for four years. If I haven't been able to make this new major viable within four years, then I don't deserve your share of the tuition dollars." He said he was fine with that. What's interesting is that his Associate Dean, who later became Dean after Ted stepped down told us that he would have never agreed to that arrangement. The lesson here is that with every good idea you also must have the correct people in place at the right time. The stars must align! It takes the right idea, the right people, at the right time.
Not Being Everybody's First Choice
When I was selected as Dean, I was not everyone's first choice. One member of the Search Committee in particular, Wayne Brandt, was not happy and was quite public with his displeasure. One of the other candidates, a sitting Department Head within CNR, was also very well qualified. He was Wayne's first choice. Wayne expressed his displeasure publicly by publishing an editorial in an industry magazine. After I was selected, the other candidate, to his credit, orchestrated a meeting among the three of us. We met in my office. Wayne's scathing editorial bothered many of my faculty and especially my staff. I viewed it as just "part of the job" and something to be managed, not avoided. Everyone in my Dean's suite knew of the meeting as my calendar was available online. In our meeting, the other candidate who happened to be my Department Head, looked at his watch and said, "Oh I have to go. I have a meeting with a student!" As he departed, I think there was collective gasp within my office suite that I was now meeting one-on-one with Wayne who had written a negative editorial about my selection. Wayne continued to talk, but eventually I was able to interject, "Wayne, do we have something we need to discuss?" At first, he ignored me, thinking that he couldn't have heard me correctly. But I persisted and eventually he said, "Oh that article I wrote?" "Yes," I said. "Well, you were not my first choice. He was," pointing to the now empty chair. "I know that," I said, "but I was selected. Wayne, I got the job and you and I are going to need to find a way to work together." I extended my hand to him. He hesitated for just a second, and then shook my hand and said, "Damn straight we will!" From that point forward, I could not have had a stauncher supporter. In fact, it came full circle, four years later when CNR closed, Wayne spoke on my behalf! What my faculty learned about me that day was that although few can say they really like conflict, we all need to learn how to manage it.
Being Inclusive and Reaching Out
Being inclusive has always been important to me. Throughout my career I chaired several committees, boards and meetings. I often found that the ones who spoke the most, had the least to say! At NSF in particular, I honed a strategy for meeting management where on the first day, before the first mid-morning break, I made sure that everyone had a chance to say something. This helped break the ice. The "activation energy" to speak up and participate, seemed to diminish after having spoken the first time. I don't think everyone realized what I was doing, but those reluctant to speak, appreciated an even playing field, and felt more
involved and willing to actively participate. Often, they were the ones with the most to offer. They didn't say much but when they did, it was worth hearing.
When I first arrived at UMN, one of my very first self-appointed assignments was to meet with each of my direct reports and fellow Deans in their offices. I came to them. I wanted to listen to their issues and learn about their Departments and Colleges, respectively. With the Deans, I wanted to establish a network and a rapport with them for the long term. I remember one Dean looked at me in astonishment and said, "I can't remember when any Dean came to see me in my office."
With my direct reports, I asked each of them individually, what they needed in their Dean. One, said, "Please be consistent." He meant they needed someone who they could depend on to be steady at the helm, particularly in decision-making process. It is very unsettling when a person in authority says one thing on one day and the exact opposite the next! It is far better to say what you mean and mean what you say. In other words, don't be wishy-washy!
It has always been important to me to treat people fairly. People need to feel that they have been heard, regardless of the final decision I may make. There would be times that I may not find their arguments compelling and consequently they may not agree with my final decision , but at least they knew that all their voices had been heard.
I have seen and worked for people who would assess another person's ability to advance their career. It was as if there was an invisible line. If you were deemed to be "of value" you were "above the line" and treated with great deference and respect. But conversely, if you were deemed not to be of value to their career aspirations, then you were "below the line" which meant you were ignored and treated as if you really didn't matter. Faculty – and people in general – can sense to which group they are assigned - the important people versus the "little" people. I had no intention of perpetuating the myth of the "little people." For me, everyone mattered.
When I first came to UMN, I took all my Department Heads out for breakfast. Everyone knows how important food is to Minnesotans! Sitting around the table, I opened the conversation by asking each to tell me the strengths of ... (here is where they each sat up a little taller getting ready to sing the praises of their own Department) of the Department to their right! That was quite a surprise for each of them. My purpose was to demonstrate that I put a high value on collaboration. We all stand taller when we stand together. I fully acknowledge inter-departmental competition and in fact, it can be very healthy. There will be individual differences, of course, but I wanted each of them to hear about the strengths of their own units through the voices of their fellow Department Heads. It was a great success.
Playing Well with Others
I have always been an individual who plays well with others. This harkened back to my early days at OSU working on the Andrews LTER and continued at NSF, CSU, and UMN. No better example of this was my last Budget Compact Request to the Provost at UMN. In concert with the Deans from seven other Colleges; College of Natural Resources (CNR), Institute of Technology (IT), College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences (COAFES), College of Biological Sciences (CBS), Humphrey Institute, College of Liberal Arts (CLA) and Extension) I requested and secured $1.5 million for the: Presidential Initiative for the Environment and Renewal Energy (PIERE). The Provost appointed me as the lead Dean since I had taken the initiative to bring these colleges together. When we speak with one voice, the bandwidth is maximized. The PIERE Compact request, at the time was very unusual. It was unprecedented to have seven Deans buy-into a common request that was not going to merely take the total budget and divide by the number of colleges. Administratively this was not business as usual.
Similarly, when I became Dean of CNR, the Director of the Water Resources Center, which was part of my portfolio, stepped down; therefore, I had a position to fill. Instead of only looking within the College for candidates, I looked across the University and found the best person who happened to be in the School of Public Health, Dr. Deborah Swackhamer. Later I was told by a fellow Dean that when he heard of that appointment, he knew it would not be business as usual in the College of Natural Resources! When I came to CNR, I also needed to appoint a new Associate Dean for Extension. I asked the Director of the Cloquet Forestry Center to come to the Twin Cities Campus. It was a good move for our college as well as for the individual and his family. A win-win!
I credit my tenure at OSU as pivotal in shaping my future career. I took for granted the culture of collaboration and multidisciplinary acceptance. Imagine my surprise when it was far less apparent at both CSU and UMN. There it was more the exception than the rule. Consequently, it became my goal to see it woven into the fabric of my Department, NSF Division, College and any group with whom I was associated.
Philosophy about Development and Philanthropy
Development and philanthropy are important components of upper administrative leadership positions. Developing your own philosophy and approach is critical.
When my colleagues at Colorado State University (CSU) learned that I had been selected as the new Dean of the College of Natural Resources at the University of Minnesota, most were very supportive. However, I distinctly remember one in particular, who said "Grip and grin; you're going to hate it!" She was referring to working in development, meeting alums and building support for the College. She couldn't have been more wrong! I believe it's more important to first make friends and then raise funds - not the other way around. I have always been a relationship builder.
As simple as it sounds, one of the early lessons I learned about development was the need for honesty. At CSU, we had a wonderful Pingree Park summer program (akin to the Cloquet field session at UMN except it was at 9,000 feet in the spectacular Rocky Mountains). While these programs are essential to the natural resource curriculum, they are expensive to maintain and support. To help fund the program, I came up with the idea of building an Endowment for Pingree. l worked with my development director, and we designed a Pingree Retreat for former alums. We went back to the class rolls and invited alums starting from the 1930's and 40's. I discuss this in more detail in a recent interview with the editor of BioScience (Verdier 2020). Here's the gist. I spent the first day building the case for why an endowment was so important. I shared a summary of the financials so that the alums could see how much more expensive this type of programming had become since their day. They asked tough questions and I answered them honestly. If I didn't know an answer, I told them that too. That evening I had invited the Dean of the College to come up and talk with the alums. After his remarks, I opened it up for questions. One individual (a PhD in Fisheries Science and strategic thinker!) asked specifically about the College's financial landscape and how secure was the support for the Pingree program. Understandably he was interested in the future of Pingree. You can imagine my surprise when my Dean answered, "Oh everything is fine. Pingree is in great shape financially." This was in stark contrast to the truth and contrary to the case I had been building all day. I quickly thanked the Dean for making the drive up the mountain and invited everyone for beer and wine in the next room. To say I was devastated would have been an understatement. But my real surprise that evening came when my Alum came up to me individually and said, "The Dean lied to us, didn't he? It's not all that rosy a situation, is it?" At that moment, I realized that if you are going to ask people to invest in your programs, you owe it to them to be honest. How can they trust you if you are not? Authenticity counts! You are asking them to give their money to you rather than leave it to their grandchildren, so you better have your facts straight. Telling the truth is critical to integrity.
At that retreat we began the Pingree Endowment. The Pingree Retreat became a very popular and well-attended annual event. Several years later, after I had left CSU and was Dean at UMN, I got a call from a Development Officer from the CSU Foundation. He said that he had a message to convey. An anonymous donor wanted to make sure that I knew that the Pingree Endowment had finally reached its goal of one million dollars. When I asked for more detail, I was told that the donor specifically requested anonymity which of course was honored. But if I had to guess, it was someone from that very first Pingree retreat all those many years ago.
Gender
I worked in male-dominated environments for most of my career. My career was punctuated by a series of firsts. I was the first woman faculty member in the Department of Forest Science and College of Forestry, Oregon State University; the first Faculty Associate to the Provost in Academic Affairs at Oregon State University; the first woman Division Director of the Division of Biological Instrumentation and Resources, Biological Sciences Directorate, National Science Foundation; the first woman Department Head of Forest Sciences, College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University ; and finally the first woman Dean of the College of Natural Resources, University of Minnesota.
Earl in my career, committees often needed a female member which meant that I had far more than my fair share of time-consuming committee assignments than my male colleagues. I could have been annoyed or angry but instead, I chose to view this as an opportunity. I had a seat at a table where decisions were being made, often far earlier in my career than other junior male faculty. From that vantage, I had a voice at a table that otherwise would have taken years to obtain, but I also had to avoid stereotyping. At the beginning of my career, the term "keyboarding" didn't really exist, the term was "typing" and it was stereotypically a woman-dominated skill. Consequently, I purposely never learned how to type very well so I wouldn't be asked to take notes! When a man could type, it was applauded but it was expected that all women could type. I remember being the only woman at an LTER meeting at Harvard Forest, when the leader said, "Oh Susan, you'll take notes for us , won't you?" I said, "I'd be happy to, but I'll ask Jack (sitting next to me) to help."
Often being the only or sole woman in a group, created some, shall we say, "interesting situations". One of the more humorous situations occurred at a faculty retreat at OSU. The discussion was about "mentoring." This would have been in the early 1990's when mentoring had 't been recognized yet for its importance. My male faculty decided in their infinite wisdom, that since over fifty percent of our graduate students were women, I should simply be the mentor for all the students. The men shouldn't need to mentor students. What they didn't realize is that I was already serving in this under-acknowledged role for most of the students. What I felt was unfair though, was that I was still held to the same standard for productivity (grantsmanship, writing publications, generating student credit hours, etc.). When our women graduate students (and often our male students as well) needed to talk and resolve issues, they usually came to me because my male colleagues were working in their offices with their doors closed. By contrast, my door was always open. I remember early one morning one of our graduate students came to me very upset. Her major professor had just pulled her assistantship because she had told him that she was pregnant. She was understandably distraught. I told her that he couldn't do that. I spoke to my Department Head about it and we resolved the issue successfully.
Back to our Departmental Retreat and the discussion about mentoring. After discussing how mentoring needed to be a Departmental priority, they had the audacity to tell me in all seriousness that some of their wives were a bit nervous about them working closely in a one-on-one basis with our women students. I told them I had two things to say: "First, if mentoring was going to work, it needed to be everybody's responsibility – not just mine." Then I added, "About that other thing – you can tell your wives that they have nothing to worry about because our women students are not that desperate!" (Verdier 2020).
Setting Expectations without Micromanaging
Model the behavior you want to see. While at CSU I had an office assistant who would have been happy to stay in the background and never deal with people, but I needed her to greet people as they came into the office. I watched her as she tried to ignore students and other guests. If they wouldn't be deterred, she would finally have to look up from her desk or the file cabinet and said, "Yeah, what do you want?" I took her aside and explained that from here on out, when someone came into the office, we were going to greet them with "How may I help you?" versus "Yeah, what do you want?" I began modeling the behavior I wanted to see. So, every time I saw anyone, I would always say, "How may I help you?"
"Put On Your Own Mask Before Helping Others"
We have all heard this mantra from flight attendants (note this is pre-pandemic!) But it's true in leadership as well. You can't take care of others, if you don't take care of yourself. As a faculty member, I did a better job of this than as an administrator. As my portfolio of responsibilities expanded, I felt less inclined to make time for myself for exercise, wellness, and doing things that were best for my overall health and well-being. I think I felt guilty taking time for myself to exercise and work out. But in retrospect, I shouldn't have.
We often mistake working harder for working smarter. They can be very different things. Prioritize, delegate, exert self-discipline, avoid distractions and stay focused. Don't waste the time you could have used for taking care of yourself. You also want to have some fun . Know what makes your heart sing! My advice for others is to learn how to successfully integrate exercise and healthy habits into your work life for a more balanced lifestyle.
My Final Chapter
This essay would not be complete without mentioning the closing of our College and sharing the lessons I learned from living through the inevitable changes that come during one's career. These are not easy times, but they provide incredible learning opportunities. You never know how strong you are until not being strong, is no longer an option!
As difficult as this time was, I had two goals during the closing of our College. I wanted my College to stay intact, i.e. all together as one unit as compared to what happened to a Colleague Dean who had her college faculty go to three different colleges when her college was disbanded. It made me think of the opening break on a billiard table where the balls go all different directions.
My second and more important goal was to ensure that none of my faculty would feel diminished in any way as a result of the strategic repositioning and the closing of our College. In a recent podcast, I chronicle this (Verdier 2020).
When I learned that I was no longer going to be considered for the Deanship of the new college, I called an impromptu Faculty meeting at 4:00 pm on a Friday afternoon. I felt it important that faculty hear about this from me – not the rumor mill. To the assembled faculty and staff I quickly stated the decision made by the President and Provost, and then I went around the room, calling each faculty by name as that was the kind of college we had. I spoke specifically about an accomplishment or significant achievement of all assembled. I wanted to make sure that each and everyone knew how much they were appreciated and recognized. I didn't want anyone to feel diminished by the decision to close the college. The college may no longer exist, but their value was certainly not changed. I felt that was my responsibility as Dean. From their comments then and later, my goal was accomplished.
Lessons Learned and Conclusions
Although somewhat cliche, the following passages and sayings ring true and have become the guiding principles of my life:
- Don't procrastinate. Something that is hard to do, doesn't get easier the longer you wait. If I needed to have a difficult conversation or phone call, I did it first thing in the morning rather than waiting util the very end of the day, so I didn't have to worry about it all day.
- If you don't like to be micromanaged, don't micromanage others.
- Understand your biorhythms. Are you a morning person or a night person? Schedule your most challenging tasks when you are at your freshest. Don't waste your best time with trivial tasks.
- True leadership is doing the right thing when no one is looking.
- Integrity takes a lifetime to earn and a second to be lost.
- I want to like the person I've been that day. When I put my head on my pillow every night, I want to like who I was.
- Don't be too big to say you're sorry if you've made a mistake.
- Listen but then be decisive. Don't be afraid to make decisions.
- When you want to make everyone happy and avoid conflict, it is virtually impossible to make good decisions.
- Make decisions not rules! It's often tempting to simply say "Well, that's not the way we do it," rather than considering if a given situation requires a new decision-making approach. Rules are easier, but that doesn't make them right.
It comes down this: Be the Dean, or the leader for that matter, that you would want to work with . That was my purpose here. These were the lessons I learned. I wanted to lay out the road map that I wished I had when I started. As academicians we are very good – excellent in fact – in learning our disciplines and areas of expertise but learning how to successfully manage people and lead others is more elusive. Developing this skillset takes time and perseverance.
To be effective, you first need to know yourself. My hope is that these reflections and insights will be of value to others at similar junctures in their lives going forward I hope your time in academic administration will be as rewarding for you as it has been for me.
Postscript
This essay addressed my time as Dean of the former College of Natural Resources at UMN. After the college closed in 2006, I was offered and took an administrative leave. I used this time to regroup. I came back to the faculty. I team-taught some courses with my UMN colleagues and designed new ones. In particular I created a course entitled: Environmental Leadership: Do you have what it takes? I developed this course further where it evolved into an international study abroad course for our seniors. I did research collaborating with colleagues around the country. I was elected president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) and served on their Board of Directors. I also served on committees and boards of NSF-funded projects and gave talks and presentations. I continued to publish papers, lead workshops and give invited presentations as well as contribute retrospective chapters on research information management to volumes summarizing the impact of the LTER project, now over four decades old. I officially retired in 2016, ten years after the closing of CNR. When I announced to my class that they had just
witnessed my last lecture, I was touched when some of my students actually had tears in their eyes.
About the author: Susan Stafford was Dean of the College of Forestry at the University of Minnesota between 2002 and 2006. Previous to that she was Department Head at the College of Natural Resources at Colorado State University, an Administrator at the National Science Foundation, and a Professor of Applied Statistics in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University.
Literature Cited
Bowyer, J.L. and S. Ramaswamy. 2005. Redefining undergraduate education for the 21st Century: Minnesota moves aggressively to strengthen program. Forest Products Journal 55 (7-8): 4-10.
Callahan, J. 1984. Long-term ecological research. BioScience 34:363-367.
Ramaswamy, S., U. Tschirner and Y. Chen. 2007. "Transforming Academic Curricula: Pulp and Paper to Bio-based Products" ACS Symposium Series, Chapter 4, Section 1, Materials, Chemicals and Energy from Forest Biomass Edited by Dimitris S. Argyropoulos.
Stafford, S. G. 1996. Finding leadership opportunities in an era of dual-career families. BioScience 46: 52-54.
Stafford, S.G. 1998. Issues and concepts of data management: The H.J. Andrews as a case study. In Data and information management in the ecological sciences: A resource guide, W.K. Michener, J.H. Porter and S.G. Stafford (eds.). 1-5. Albuquerque: Long-Term Ecological Research Network Office.
Stafford, S. G. 2016. Data, data everywhere. In Long-term ecological research: Changing the nature of scientists, ed. M.R. Willig and L.R. Walker, 63-71. New York: Oxford Press.
Stafford, S. G. 2021. A retrospective of information management in the Long Term Ecological Research Program. In The challenges of long term ecological research: A historical analysis. R. B. Waide an9 S. E. Kingsland (eds.). 375-402. Cham:Springer. https: doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66933-1.
Stafford , S. G., P.B. Alaback, G.L. Koerper and M. W. Klopsch. 1984. Creation of a forest science data bank. Journal of Forestry 82:432-433.
Stafford, S. G. and G. B. Spanier. 1990. Recruiting the dual career couple: The family employment program. Initiatives 53(2): 37-44.
Stafford, S. G., G. Spycher and M.W. Klopsch.1988. The evolution of the Forest Science Data Bank. Journal of Forestry 86:50-51.
Suh, S., T. Smith, C. Nelson and S. Ramaswamy. 2005. Corporate Environmental Management Program at the University of Minnesota. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 10(6):445-445.
Verdier JM. 2020. In their own words: Susan Stafford. BioScience 70: 213- 219. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biaa012.
For the podcast: Verdier JM, host. 2020. In their own words: Susan Stafford. BioScience Talks (podcast). https://bioscience-talks.aibs.org/episodes/in-their-own-words-susan-stafford.