The interim president of the University of Illinois was asked by the Board of Trustees to fill the vacancy left by the September resignation of B.?Joseph White, who left amidst a scandal over clout-driven hiring at the university’s Urbana-Champaign campus. Ikenberry had initially served as president of UIUC?from 1979 through 1995. 

Ikenberry also served as president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Council of Education for five years. He has been chairman of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and president of the Board of Overseers of TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, College Retirement Equities Fund.)

He returned to the University of Illinois in 2001 to teach higher education policy and leadership in the College of Education on the Urbana campus as regent professor and president emeritus. He also holds an appointment in the universitywide Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

Born in Colorado, Ikenberry received a bachelor’s degree from Shepherd College (now Shepherd University) in Shepherdstown, W.Va., in 1956 and master’s and doctoral degrees from Michigan State University in 1957 and 1960, respectively. Before he came to the University of Illinois in 1979, he was a senior vice president for administration at Pennsylvania State University and a professor in its Center for the Study of Higher Education. Ikenberry discussed leadership and other issues with Springfield free-lance writer Kate Clements Cohorst. This is an edited, condensed version of that conversation.

Q. You were one of the longest serving presidents in U of I history, from 1979 to 1995. How does it feel to be the person the university turned to now, in the wake of this admissions scandal and leadership shake-up?

It’s nice to be back, nice to be wanted. Actually, I was also the youngest president ever to be president of the University of Illinois; now I’m probably also the oldest to ever be president of the University of Illinois, so Alpha and Omega. But, it’s nice to be back, and I’m very pleased to be able to help. 

Q. What lessons did you take from your earlier work as U of I president that you still use today? 

One of the lessons I took from my earlier experience as president is probably not applicable today. And that is how long it took to accomplish things. I found that it took me, many times, two or three or four or five years to get something actually accomplished. This time around, I don’t have that long — maybe nine months, 12 months at the most — so I think I have a greater sense of urgency to make a contribution and to get things done. So far, I’m encouraged that we are going to be able to do that. 

Q. It is 15 years later. You left and were president of the American College of Education in the meantime, and you’ve had many other life experiences. How are you different this time in the job, and in what ways are you the same?

I think I’m pretty much the same person. The one thing that’s changed with me over the last 15 years is technology. When I left the presidency in ’95, I didn’t have a computer on my desk. I didn’t know how to function with a computer. I did carry a cell phone, but I wasn’t, then or now, particularly attached to a cell phone. But computers and electronic communication have become the staple of everyday life. So, the main thing that’s changed in the presidency now from 15 years ago is communication. It’s so much quicker. It’s so much more information that’s passing back and forth, and frankly, it takes more time now to consume the information now than it did 20 years ago. I’m spending probably an extra couple of hours a day working with my e-mail. 

Q. How have the challenges of the job changed, other than that you are on a much tighter timeline? 

The challenges of the job are really very much the same. The challenge is to have a feel for the students and the faculty and my administrative colleagues; to be able to develop and maintain the confidence of the members of the board of trustees; to be able to communicate with the public; to be able to work with members of the General Assembly; and, to do all that while at the same time you are managing a large, complex organization. If you put all of that together, that’s basically the challenge of being president of the University of Illinois, but it’s also what makes it such a rewarding experience. 

Q. Being the flagship public university, there’s always a connection with the state government. What kind of political pressures did you face as the leader then and now? 

I’ve generally found the members of the General Assembly with whom I worked, and the two governors with whom I worked — Jim Thompson and Jim Edgar — both to be very supportive, very easy to work with, and I did not feel those pressures very intensely. 

Right now, we have some very intense pressures due to the precarious financial situation in which the state of Illinois finds itself. As we’re doing this interview in the first part of March 2010, the state of Illinois now owes the university almost half a billion dollars in outstanding payments. So we’re experiencing a severe cash crisis, which in turn is causing a lot of other negative things to happen, including furlough days and layoffs and hiring freezes and other kinds of actions that we would prefer not to take and that are damaging to academic programs. 

I’m hopeful that political leaders will come to a consensus as soon as possible to do what needs to be done. The agenda of what needs to be done is pretty clear. The state is going to have to rein in state spending and that will mean some fairly painful budget cuts. But it also will have to raise taxes because neither taxes alone nor cuts alone will be sufficient to solve the state’s financial crisis right now. It is the worst it’s ever been in the history of the state. 

Q. And because it is so bad right now, do you feel that politics are a bigger part of the job now for you? 

Certainly the public side of the job is bigger now than it has perhaps ever been. The public side includes not just dealing with policymakers but also with the media, because one of the big problems that we face is developing the public understanding of the depth of the financial crisis that the state faces, which in turn is having an impact on every college and university in Illinois. 

Q. How would you describe your leadership style?

That’s difficult to put into words. In one sense I lead by building consensus. Particularly in a university environment, you can’t just go around directing people. You have to persuade people that your recommendations, the course you’re laying out, is wise and productive and so forth. So I spend a lot of time persuading people and building consensus. I enjoy working with new and bold and creative ideas, and I think that’s the exciting, rewarding part of leadership. But in order to do that, you also have to build confidence in the people around you so that they’re willing to experiment with those new approaches and those new ideas. I think trust and confidence are also key to successful leadership. Those who hold power also have the responsibility to exercise that power in a way that builds trust, that merits trust. So my leadership style incorporates all of those elements as I go about my job. 

Q. Do you have a personal leadership philosophy?

I think the most important thing about leadership is to remember that each of us, in some capacity or other, is a leader. We tend to think of leadership as something that somebody else does, but everybody that works with other people is involved in a collaborative effort to move things forward. That’s what leadership is all about. My own philosophy of leadership is to try to develop the talents of everybody that’s around me and to use those to magnify what I can do through other people.

Q. How does this collaborative leadership philosophy apply to what you do now? 

The thing that’s most obvious with the University of Illinois is that we are a single university that operates in three major locations or three major campuses. So my collaborative relationship, my partnership, with the chancellors on those three campuses is key to making the system work. I have a great working relationship with Paula Allen-Meares, the chancellor of our Chicago campus, Bob Easter, the chancellor in Urbana-Champaign, and Richard Ringeisen here in Springfield. They work independently; they carry a lot of responsibility. But at the same time, we work as a very cohesive leadership team, and I think that’s what causes the university to work as effectively as it does. 

Q. Speaking of Chancellor Ringeisen, it sounds as if the university is going to be searching for a replacement for him in the near future. What qualities should they be looking for? 

I think basically two. They have to be able to walk on water and jump tall buildings in a single leap. But seriously, I think we will be reflecting on where we are and where we need to go, over the next few months, to try to answer precisely that question. We will be beginning to identify the composition of a search committee and getting organized, and then launching the search in a full-throated way probably early next fall. 

Q. What sort of qualities do you think the university needs to look for in the next president, and are you a candidate? 

(Laughter) No, I’m not a candidate. But the presidential search is moving along very well also. There’s every reason to expect that that appointment will be made and a person in place by the beginning of the next academic year, and I think that’s great. 

I think we’re looking for a person who has obviously had a lot of very good experience. You don’t want any new president to entirely be learning on the job, so to speak. On the other hand, every new president does learn a lot in the first two or three years, so we can expect that. I think again, the ability to communicate, the ability to envision possibilities and to inspire others to achieve excellence in the work of the university. I think building trust and confidence among diverse groups and constituencies. These are the kinds of things I think will be very important for your new president, and for that matter, the next chancellor of the Springfield campus. 

Incidentally, we will be searching also, in about the same time frame, for a chancellor in Urbana. So we’ll have lots of new opportunities over the next three years, and we’ll be getting acquainted with a new leadership team. 

Q. Are there any challenges for a team like this to lead in higher education as compared to leading in other fields? 

In a college or university, much of the authority and responsibility is delegated to the individual faculty member. It’s not possible for a university president or a board of trustees to outline specifically what a faculty member should teach in a class, precisely what should be learned, where the next frontier of knowledge is, what kind of research could be done. In colleges and universities, we employ highly educated, highly energetic individuals who actually accept responsibility to try as best they can to answer those questions on their own. And we call that academic freedom. But it’s also an academic responsibility that every scholar has to pursue the truth and share it with their students. I think the challenge of being president or otherwise leading this kind of an organization is one of giving leadership and direction to that enterprise, while at the same time you recognize the limits of that leadership. The key is hiring and attracting and retaining top-flight faculty. If you do that job well, a lot of the other challenges begin to take care of themselves. 

Q. Do you think leadership is something that can be taught? 

I’ve tried. Since I came back to Illinois and in my faculty role, I’ve actually taught a class or two in leadership. It’s not easy, I’ve found, because leadership is in many ways like riding a bicycle. It’s hard to teach how to ride a bicycle until you actually get on the bicycle. You have to get on the bicycle and you start pedaling and you probably fall over and skin your elbow a couple of times and then eventually you begin to get the hang of it. And I think leadership is somewhat the same way. There are good books on leadership and the theory of leadership and helpful tips and so forth, but in the end, leadership is a complex human behavior and it’s a behavior that’s perfected through practice and experience. So one can take a class, but the most effective way to learn to lead is to actually go out and lead.

Q. Do you remember a time when you went out and were leading and you learned a leadership lesson the hard way?

Have I bumped my head occasionally? Anybody who looks at my record at the University of Illinois will tell you yes. Part of leadership is being willing to take chances, and taking chances means occasionally that you will fail. Yes, I’ve had failures. Sometimes, however, even failures, you learn through failures. And you call attention to problems by attacking problems rather than ignoring them. You may not solve the problem in the way you set out to solve it, but by the attempt — even if the specific solution that you proposed is not accepted — you may ultimately cure the problem through some other avenue, eventually. I think complacency, not attacking problems, is probably the biggest danger, not failure. You can usually recover from failure. You can pick yourself up and dust yourself off and start all over again, but doing nothing, being complacent, being overly cautious, I think, is probably the biggest risk of leadership. 

Q. You have only a short time left, depending on how the search goes. Where does the U of I go from here? And how are you putting all this into play over the next several months? 

Well, the University of Illinois is just a very exciting place. It has such a rich history, but it also has a very exciting future. It’s sometimes difficult to remember that in the heat of battle during a particular day. But if you look at the great inventions that have come out of the University of Illinois, if you think of the rich array of people who have graduated from the University of Illinois over the years, if you take stock of that, you begin to understand how important the university is to the future of Illinois, to the future of our nation. I think that the most rewarding, exciting part of being president of the University of Illinois is at the end of the day thinking that you played some role in preserving and enhancing that legacy. 

Q. Do you feel like you are having or will have any trouble with sort of a lame-duck effect, knowing that you are only here for a little bit, and with turnover of two of the three chancellors? 

No. Actually, things are working out so well and life is so busy that the lame- duck aspect is pretty much a lame duck itself. It’s just not part of the atmosphere. I think for me psychologically, having been president earlier for 16 years and then coming back, in some ways psychologically, it’s like I’ve never been gone. So, I don’t have that lame-duck feeling. I have a feeling of continuity between the first time around and now, even though it turned out there were 15 years in between. But the other thing is the current environment is so demanding that it takes every waking hour. There are just a myriad of decisions that have to be made every single day and many challenges that need to be met. So it’s really actually an exciting time, even though it’s going to be brief.

Illinois Issues, May 2010