University of Tulsa president Stacy Leeds has only been on campus for three weeks, but already she is working to change how the school engages with the community.
It’s no secret higher education is facing unprecedented financial hurdles, and TU is no exception.
A news report in December sparked criticism about the university’s lack of transparency - along with the worrisome financial situation the school faces.
Now at the helm, Leeds plans an open approach to sharing information. To her, more transparency leads to more trust.
“So, what that means for me is, a lot of meetings in small groups and in large groups and one-on-one, but it's very second nature to me that I would approach this job the same way that a lot of publics approach their work,” said Leeds.
Leeds brings a lot of experience at public universities and says she plans to operate the private university much the same way.
Leeds is emphasizing growth in student enrollment. She also says TU is well situated for research dollars.
“We've had a very even keel research portfolio where even if the federal dollars tend to shrink and grow over time, we've had really strong support from our partners in industry here. And I think that will continue to be the case,” said Leeds.
While the full scope of the university’s financial situation has not been revealed, Leeds says the school exceeded its fundraising goals last year… and closing any financial gaps will require a disciplined approach.
*We must note, the University of Tulsa holds the broadcast license for KWGS, but does not have any say in the station’s editorial decisions.
Dr. Stacy Leeds spoke with KWGS’ Angel Ford about her history in Oklahoma and her new role at the University of Tulsa. The following is a transcript of that interview, lightly edited for concision and clarity.
Angel Ford:
How does it feel to be back in Oklahoma?
Dr. Stacy Leeds:
Home is where your heart is. And so, it's really great to just be back so close to family on a campus that feels so familiar and good to me.
AF:
And you're from Muskogee?
SL:
Yes.
AF:
How has that upbringing in Muskogee – because Muskogee is kind of a tight-knit community–
SL:
It is.
AF:
–But they help each other. And there are, of course, some faults as there are in any other small town. But how has that upbringing in Muskogee kind of shaped your worldview and how you take on your leadership roles? Because you have had many.
SL:
So small and medium-sized towns tend to have their own culture, and Muskogee was a great one. I stayed in touch all these years with so many of my classmates and teachers. And I'm a product of Muskogee Public Schools, so I still have a big affinity for the public schools around here. That's how I came to know Tulsa so well, is at the time, the largest schools in Oklahoma were 5A in their athletics. And so, Muskogee was the only non-Tulsa school in my high school athletic conference.
AF:
Oh, wow.
SL:
So, I've been in the gymnasiums of all of the high schools around here, it seems. And so, it's nice to have that familiarity as now I get the chance to recruit a lot of local talent to Tulsa from those same high schools.
AF:
Yeah, that's great. I didn't even think about that, part of your kind of your goals is to go around and recruit. And now, I mean, you're from here. That's a lot easier for you to do. You know the people around you.
SL:
It's made for a lot easier transition to a role like this. just to have all of those relationships and familiarity.
AF:
Can you tell me a little bit more of your other key goals that you have at the forefront of you in your new role as president?
SL:
Sure. So, our students will also always be #1 at the forefront. And so, making sure that they come here and have the experience that they want and sometimes the experiences that are great for them that they don't even know that they're heading for when they come here. I was a student on this campus, and I have no doubt that the time that I had here absolutely set me up for success in my life. And so, having that same sort of whole person approach to mentoring and bringing students up, it's part of what was so exciting to me to get back to this campus. If you look at, you know, all of the schools in our region and even nationally, we really are a bit of a unicorn, right? We have this great campus environment, but small enough to where you'll never be a number. And getting the opportunity to work with the faculty and actually establish really meaningful relationships with them that last a lifetime. It's not too many places where that sort of one-on-one attention for students is centered, you know, in the way that it is here.
AF:
Is there any specific memory that you have, and this is going off script, of your time here at TU with a specific faculty member or, just really, an experience?
SL:
So, I had two faculty members in the law school, Professor Bill Rice and Professor Judy Royster. And they together suggested to me that I might want to think about being a law professor. And at the time, having no idea how one would even go about that process, their suggestion to me was almost as if they suggested that I go to Mars. It was that wild in my mind. But both of them and their impact on me has always reminded me that one or two people giving encouraging words or one or two people providing negative words can have a really profound effect one way or the other on someone. So those two really stand out and the just belief that they had in me and the energy that they devoted to me and my classmates, they're two that really stand out to me.
AF:
I can say the same about my university, NSU. I had a great faculty. They're the ones that kept me on, honestly. So, to have those here, I'm sure some students would adore that whenever they're looking at prospective colleges. So, TU has a fundraising campaign, and you're essentially kind of inheriting it. It's called “Campaign for TU's Tomorrow.” I wanted to get a little bit into this because I'm new coming into this. I want to understand it. Have you had a chance to kind of review it and understand the goals of it?
SL:
Yes, I have.
AF:
It does have kind of a massive target; $350 million in student scholarships alone, $150 million in student experiences. We are now in a time where traditional higher education is facing a little bit of a crisis in public perception, trust, as well as enrollment “unknowns.” So how do you convince alumni and local donors to really send their money in and know that money is going to be securing a stable future for not only the university, but the students that it's meant to help, rather than just kind of subsidizing what some people would call a shrinking institution. And when I say institution, I don't mean TU by itself, but higher education as a whole.
SL:
Yeah. So, the campaign was launched last fall. And some commentators would scratch heads about a campaign being launched at the same time that you're doing a large presidential search. But I think that it was brand on for TU because the focus of that campaign was 100% on our students, right? Making the university more affordable and more accessible for students. And then making sure that as they transition to the different journeys that they're here with us, that they have extra opportunities to do that internship that maybe you couldn't otherwise afford or take that trip to a foreign country that just completely expands your horizons in ways that you couldn't have imagined. So, I think that it kind of showed and demonstrated just how unafraid as an institution we are, even in the midst of a leadership transition, we know what the core of this university is always going to be. So yes, I picked that up and now I carry it on forward. But it's things that are very easy to fundraise for and to talk about because everyone, no matter where they come from or what their political persuasions are, can get behind making a brighter future for our students and the ones that we will recruit to come to campus in the future. So that piece of it made perfect and total sense to me, and we're now starting the second year of that campaign. This last year, some of the exceptional performance of this university is that they exceeded their fundraising goals last year. Even when we didn't know who the president was going to be, we didn't know how that was going to turn out. But the people who support this institution believe in this institution. And it didn't matter who was captaining the ship at a particular time, it's that they rallied behind the students. So, I think that's a very beautiful thing. And as a new president, walking into that kind of a supportive environment, It's really special.
AF:
Is there anything specific that you're hoping to bring to the campaign or is it something that you're just kind of following? Like I'm not sure how it works. Is (there) a set of guidelines that you're meant to follow or are you able to kind of wing it?
SL:
No, there's always malleability in that plan. You know, our goals of what that final number will be like, they'll either stay the same or if we get more and more momentum, we'll even, you know, increase that goal. But what I would like to see to it is, in addition to student scholarships and those opportunities that I mentioned, I really want to find a way for all of our students to be able to plug in even more with the local Tulsa community while they're here. It's been almost 30 years since I lived full-time in Tulsa. and the momentum and everything that's happening here in terms of the expansion of museums and arts and nonprofits. And we have this fabulous philanthropic community that has always been supportive of not just the students on this campus, but all of Tulsa. So, finding ways where our students can plug in even more than they ever have, really double down on that commitment to Tulsa. You know, that's a piece of it. And then also the cross-disciplinary opportunities. One of the things that you'll find as you start to visit with our students is you'll find a student that's in the engineering school, and they will also be in the orchestra, and they also will have a minor in French, and they will have studied abroad twice, right? And it's very unusual that people can pursue all of their interest in that way. And so, I think that that's one of the things that make us unique, but there's still a whole lot more capacity for that. so that we have multiple programs where you have different pathways in and out of it, depending on where you started in that. So, the cross-disciplinary piece is huge for me. I think of situations like Gilcrease, our partner, where you can go to a museum or inside of their collections and you can look at a document from the 1600s that's part of that collection. And know that just to study that one document, it takes material scientists from the engineering school, and it takes linguists from arts and sciences, and it takes lawyers that understand what was the political and legal infrastructure that created that particular document that we're looking at. And so, I think that's an area of our real strength, but there's so many more opportunities like the one I just described to continue to differentiate us as a community.
AF:
Yes, I do agree with that. Varying voices always kind of create a picture, but also a whole. Which brings me to my next question. You have incredible experience in tribal government. So, you have that perspective that many which I can't say all of the presidents in the past haven't had, but you have specific experience in it. And having served on the Cherokee Nation Tribal Council and in various capacities involving native law and policy, in academia, native issues are often compartmentalized into specific centers or courses. So, with someone who has had your time in tribal government and being Cherokee yourself, has that kind of informed your approach in broaching systemic shifts, essentially, in this institution as well as how you intend to broach any other thing here?
SL:
Yeah, I've always described the history of the University of Tulsa as an institution that frankly has a trust responsibility to its origins. And not everyone in our community knows fully this story, that the origin story of the University of Tulsa is a boarding school for Indian girls in Muskogee, my hometown. And it was a Presbyterian boarding school for Indian girls. And they were predominantly women of the Muscogee Creek Nation, but there were a few intertribal students there as well. And so, originating here in Indian country, but then eventually evolving from a high school experience to more of higher education. And so, it was eventually converted and became Kendall College. And then as the early city of Tulsa and the early state of Oklahoma was really catching its stride from an economic standpoint, the founding fathers and mothers of Tulsa looked around and said, if we're going to be the kind of city that we all aspire to be, we can't be that without a strong university in our midst. And so, they negotiated to move that Kendall College from Muskogee here to Tulsa for the very point of every thriving, growing city also must have a college that they're a partner with. And so, I think that's really powerful because you fast forward, you know, over 120 years later, and here we are again. And, you know, my goal is, that's absolutely right. You can't have a thriving, futuristic city without a thriving university as your true partner. So that piece of it, I think, is just a full circle thought process for me. Now, getting back to the tribes, you mentioned NSU as being a university that thrives in a lot of the tribal programs. big part of that is the proximity to the Cherokee Nation, right? And it's a natural draw for students, but also the work that students can be working on during their time there is very focused. I feel the same thing here for the University of Tulsa. We are in the Muscogee Creek Nation, and not just that history that I described, but very much the presence of the Muscogee Nation and its people. And so, you know, coming from a tribal government background, I want a university that doesn't study Indians as a thing of the past. I want a university that partners with tribes to think about what our collective future looks like together. And so, it's thinking about even the courses that we will ultimately offer in a much different way and really understanding how vibrant and contributing those governments and the people in them are to everything we do in Tulsa and in Oklahoma, and it's an American story.
AF:
I love that. And to go off script a little bit, because something you said kind of triggered a memory. So, the law campus here, they no longer offer the native law specific course. Is that what you're saying, does that mean you're going to, instead of having that specific course center around native law, are you just going to have it within the curriculum itself?
SL:
Well, it is actually offered and there's several Indian law courses. They're just offered at different sequences. So, there's a Native American program and large Native American law collections, you know, there in the library. So, continuing those courses, but I'm a firm believer that administrators at a university should also be teachers and educators as well. And so, I will teach a class myself in the law school. I'll have a joint appointment between the law school and Kendall College for Arts and Sciences. So, the law school course that I will teach will be an upper-level Indian law course. And, you know, we're sitting here in a state with 39 federally recognized tribes. There's so much work to be done and so many opportunities. So, it makes perfect sense that we would continue to, both just offer, but also strengthen that program.
AF:
And it changes every day. I know many of the tribes are starting to have their own autonomy when it comes to putting out their own laws and stuff like that.
SL:
Sure. And, you know, across all of our other colleges as well. The largest rural comprehensive health care systems are here in our state-run by tribes. So, when we think about the Oxley College and all of the health professions and nursing programs, there's great ways to partner in those for tribes as well. When you think about the needs of tribes with multi-billion-dollar budgets of their own, so many people coming out of our Collins School of Business, you know, there's needs in engineering, energy, oil and gas. I mean, all of the things that would be drivers of the economy in Oklahoma are also going to be drivers for the economy, for the tribes. So, it all, to me, is not a separate way of thinking, but it's just this integrative approach of what does a future that's bright for Tulsa mean for the economy and how does TU plug into that and lead in that. And then the same thing, the tribes would just be a natural part of that, but not a separate entity.
AF:
Okay, thank you. That answers that well. Your role, so I've looked into TU before I got here. And the thing that popped up was this article by the Chronicle, The Chronicle of Higher Education. I'm not sure if you've read it yourself.
SL:
Sure, I have.
AF:
You have? Okay, then you've seen it. So that obviously hooked me. And it's probably something some students may worry about when they come in. So, your role is not an easy one, is what I want to say. And university presidents are sometimes made to balance kind of a tightrope of margin and mission; that is not easy. So there has been a history at TU and one in more recent memory (being) the article I was talking about, that has seen faculty frustration in the transparency of the university's finances. How do you respond to the criticism to the university's decision-making that has often lacked transparency? And then also, what will be your approach moving forward when it comes to transparency with faculty, but also if students come with worries?
SL:
So let me first speak to the article that you mentioned in the Chronicle. And that anytime there's an article like that, there's certain granules of truth in there, and there's certain things that might be exaggerated or, you know, from a different perspective that everyone doesn't necessarily share. So, I always read things like that with a completely mixed, you know, contextual approach. But, you know, I come from a long line of public universities that I've worked for. And that's my lineage, and that's how I know how to operate the best. And in those environments, everything that you do is incredibly transparent because you owe an answer to the people of that state, right? I think that the University of Tulsa is the most public private university that I've ever seen. in terms of the media attention, in terms of how much it matters to the people of Tulsa and not just the employees and staff and students of our campus about what goes on here and how we succeed and where we have challenges, they are wanting to know about that too. So, I just approach this with a very pragmatic mindset in that transparency has to be in front of what we do. We're going to need partners of all kinds all across the community. And the number one thing that leads everything that we'll do has to be trust. And if you're not sharing your information or that there's people who feel disenfranchised, then we need to shift gears and make sure that our whole community is well aware of which direction we're heading in, what our opportunities and strengths are, but also what our challenges are as well. I've only been on campus. This is my third week. And all that I see is a very loyal and long-serving staff and very, excited faculty members who are doing great things in their own work, and they just want to know, what's our next step, which direction we're heading. And so, it's people understand the financial challenges that this university and all of higher ed have right now. And people are very commonsensical in their approach of understanding exactly where we are if they just have the information. So, what that means for me is, a lot of meetings in small groups and in large groups and one-on-one, but it's very second nature to me that I would approach this job the same way that a lot of publics approach their work. So, do we have some challenges ahead? Sure. Most of it revolves around making sure that we are very disciplined in our financial approaches and that we think very clearly about what our next steps are for the future and what that means for student growth where appropriate. And, you know, our continued great partnerships in the community. And one of the things that is so interesting to me, and it's a long-term piece of University of Tulsa's history, is we far out exceed the rest of our peers when it comes to the amount of research that we do on this campus that our company and industry funded. Part of what has shaken up higher ed this last year is that a lot of universities don't have a balanced portfolio. So, when the federal funding for research dried up or shifted gears, a lot of panic followed. But we've had a very even keel, research portfolio where even if the federal dollars tend to shrink and grow over time, we've had really strong support from our partners in industry here. And I think that will continue to be the case. We can help solve problems that they're working on, and then we can uniquely involve our students in that research. So, those sorts of ways that we can be different from the rest of higher ed are important for us to capitalize on. But we also have to understand that the moment that we're in right now, we join about 40% of colleges across the country that are, dealing with financial challenges. but they're not insurmountable. And I just kind of approach it in a very transparent and unafraid way.
AF:
Okay, perfect. Last question.
SL:
Sure.
AF:
What do you want to say to incoming freshmen, incoming students coming up in August and Tulsa as a whole?
SL:
Yeah, so for our incoming students, I'm so excited to welcome them to campus here in four weeks. I think that when they finish their time here with us, I want them all to be very, very proud and with no regrets that they came here. And I think that focusing on their experience will make that be the case. To the continuing students, I've met several of you and you're dynamic and, you know, love following your work. So, look forward to, you know, plugging back in with our upperclassmen as they join. And then to the city of Tulsa, I guess first and foremost, it's “thank you” and gratitude. for years and years, be it through private philanthropy or partnerships with the city or the companies and nonprofits here, we really are Tulsa's university. So, I think acknowledging that but also looking for ways that we can continue to pay it forward and be a bigger part of Tulsa and everything that's going on here. We're excited to do it. I think there's great enthusiasm. And so I guess the final thing would just be what I said in the interview where we first met. And that is being the university means truly understanding that we are Tulsa's university and that we're by, for, and with Tulsa and everything they do.
AF:
Okay. Thank you so much. That's all I got.
SL:
Thank you.
