Finalist for U's top job opens up

Eric Kaler, the sole finalist for president of the University of Minnesota, promised Wednesday to cut administrative costs, improve graduation rates, support athletics and make the U "one of the most respected universities in America," if given the job.

He also joked about the "sad and tortured story" behind his 10 patents and dared to answer: "Mac or PC?"

The U's Board of Regents will publicly interview Kaler, provost at Stony Brook University in New York, Thursday and could name him president afterward, said Clyde Allen, chair of the board.

On Wednesday, Kaler spent an hour fielding questions before a professor-heavy crowd at Coffman Memorial Union. A few questions and his answers from his first public forum, edited for length:

What are your feelings about university sports -- especially football -- and how will you support them?

Athletics is the window through which a lot of people see the university and the door through which a lot of people walk in and experience the university. This is a Big 10 school, it's one that should have a distinguished athletics program that complements the image of the university and enhances our visibility across the country.

It obviously has to be a program of high credibility, high integrity, one that is staffed by first-class people and provides an important educational pathway for our student athletes. That said, part of athletics, and the judgment of what happens in an athletics program, is whether you win or lose, and that influences how people feel about the university.

I am completely in favor of it. I know the current administration has worked hard to achieve savings. My view is that there is more to be done.

I'm committed to two things: One is using a business consulting firm investigating how to streamline business practices into a wide variety of things that we do, from admissions processing to HR [human resources] to finance to facilities.

I am convinced that we will be able to move dollars out of administrative and overhead costs and into academic budgets.

Mac or PC?

Honey [turning to his wife, Karen], how many Macs do we own? A lot. It's a higher life form. I'm probably going to get in trouble for that.

It is an absolute core competency and we have to protect it. I'm going to invest in the liberal arts and the humanities. They are not going to wane on my watch. That will not happen.

I am extremely impressed by the report that was issued just last week by the college and a committee on its future and its finances. I commend that report to you. It outlines a clear concept, which I share, of how the liberal arts should be shaped for the 21st century. They're committed to doing things more efficiently, more smartly, if you will, and have identified revenue streams and intellectual opportunities that I think are tremendous.

What brought you to the University of Minnesota as a graduate student?

I was looking for next steps and asked my adviser at Cal Tech: "Where should I go to graduate school?" He was a very busy guy and he said, "What do you want to do?" I said, "I don't know." He said, "Well, you should go to a big department that's excellent. The University of Minnesota is the best department in the country. It's big. You'll be fine."

Turns out he was right on all counts.

I wanted to be sure to speak about the importance of the undergraduate educational experience. It's obviously about excellent research, it's about community engagement, it's about branding and marketing and athletics.

But the quality undergraduate experience is central to moving this institution to the premier level in the United States. There are some metrics. The graduation rate here is not where it needs to be.

As president, what would your role be in maximizing private sector giving?

I have a good record in this regard. We just have completed the signing of a $10 million gift to create a center for computational biology at Stony Brook. That came from an individual with a long connection with the university, and I was very pleased to be able to bring that to fruition.

I fully appreciate the import of those private gifts and ... the ability to reach out to donors to tell the story of the institution. If you do that and pay attention, good things happen.