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MIAMI UNIVERSITY
Staff photo by Greg Lynch
David Pearson, from the University of Texas, Brownville, one of three finalists for Miami University's dean of its regional campuses, took questions from the public during an event at the Wilks Conference Center on the Miami Hamilton campus, Friday, Feb. 19.
MU regional dean finalist can relate
David Pearson took a nontraditional path for his education and wants to help others do the same.
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By Richard O Jones,
Staff Writer
1:10 AM Saturday, February 20, 2010
HAMILTON — David E. Pearson believes that the job as the dean of regional campuses and associate provost of Miami University would be a good fit because it incorporates his academic and administrative experience as well as his own educational background.
“One of the reasons I’m so delighted at the prospect of assuming this position is personal,” he said in a public forum at the Wilks Conference Center at Miami University Hamilton Friday, Feb. 19.
“The guy standing in front of you is a nontraditional student,” he confessed.
Pearson is the second of three candidates to appear in a public forum on the Hamilton campus. Last week, G. Michael Pratt, associate vice president for academic affairs at Heidelberg University visited the campus and, at 2:45 p.m. Monday, Feb. 22, Kevin Corcoran, professor in the department of psychological science at Northern Kentucky University, will hold a similar forum.
Pearson said that he took a GED and served in the military before he began his college education and can relate to the nontraditional student.
“You need to be a sensitive faculty to address the needs of a nontraditional student,” he said. “This is the type of study body with which I like to work.”
Pearson is currently the vice president for partnership affairs at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, which is a community college campus under the administration of a university.
“All those were put together in a blanket epiphany that this might be a job I may be qualified for,” he said.
He said that having previously served as a faculty member before moving into administration, this job would allow him to combine both lines of experience.
“The time has come in my perspective to try to fuse all of these things in one position,” he said. “I want to get back to the academic side of things.”
For most of his hourlong presentation, he responded to questions from the audience of about 30, a mix of MUH personnel and community members, who pulled no punches in asking him to address tough issues such as the elitism of the Oxford establishment in regard to the regional campuses and in welcoming to the campus an immigrant population that is not widely embraced by the community at large.
Value, quality, accessibility called regional campus keys
David E. Pearson said part of the reason for the public forum was not only for the Miami and Hamilton communities to get to know him, but for him to know about the job he’s applying for.
“I want to hear from you,” he told the audience of about 30 on Friday, Feb. 19. “I want to know what you think you’re doing well, doing great and how we can strengthen connections in the community.”
He outlined the parallels between his campus and the Hamilton campus, that both are populated by commuting, nontraditional students, more than half female, average age in the mid-20s and largely first-generation college students.
When asked how he would define the success of the regional campuses, Pearson said there are three criteria that Miami expresses that are similar to the criteria expressed at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, where he is the vice president for partnership affairs: value, quality and accessibility.
“We measure success by the ability of our students to move through the process of higher education,” he said.
An audience member expressed the view that the reason the job of regional dean has been created is because of inadequate communication among the regional campuses and Oxford and asked what Pearson thought was expected of him.
“My understanding in the broadest of brush strokes is that the job would effect some greater efficiencies while maintaining the qualities, characters and idiosyncrasies of the individual campuses,” he said. “I think they want someone to come up with some innovative suggestions. If they knew what to do, they would have done it already.”
When asked about developing relationships with the area’s growing Hispanic population, Pearson pointed out that his current campus borders the Rio Grande and that he played a role in coming to a compromise with the Department of Homeland Security, which wanted to build an 18-foot fence on the campus to keep out illegal immigrants. The result of that compromise was a 10-foot fence that looked more like something one would see bordering a country club.
“Diversity is an experience that all of us need,” he said. “Homogeneity may be safe, but it’s not enlightening.”
Some in the audience questioned Pearson on existing problems between the Hamilton campus and the Oxford administration, pointedly asking him if he was aware of the “elitism” that was rampant in Oxford, what amounted to “class warfare.”
After a deliberative pause, Pearson said that yes, he was aware.
“Elitism is not very pretty and most of the time it is not merited,” he said. “It’s unfortunate when it impacts on qualified faculty.
“I’m not impressed by that sort of arrogance and would be a champion against that sort of thing.
“We need to find a way for the Oxford departments to find it in their advantage” to have an effective relationship with their counterparts on the regional campuses, he said. “How do we make it a win-win situation?”
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