Achiever Winter 1999 - UMUC Alumni Magazine

A Conversation with UMUC President Gerald A. Heeger

Dr. Gerald Heeger, UMUC's new president, met with the editor of Achiever to discuss his vision and goals for the university as it enters the new millennium.

When you first learned of the presidential search at UMUC, how did you respond? How much did you know about UMUC?

I had actually visited UMUC's headquarters in College Park in the early 1990s when I was invited to lecture about some of the projects I was involved with at New York University. [Laughs.] It was so memorable that neither I nor anyone else can remember exactly what I said. But anyone who is familiar with continuing education or international education knows about UMUC and its position as a leader in the field.

UMUC is an undisputed leader in online, distance, and adult education, but competition is increasing. How can UMUC stay at the forefront?

First, I think we have to be careful about identifying other schools as our competition. I don't think we have any competition. And that's not a statement of arrogance; that's simply an attempt to capture the essence of this organization.

We are not like a research university. A research university is very tightly bound. You know exactly where it begins and where it ends. As a student, you are allowed to come in and work with the faculty, almost like a disciple. You study a discipline and when you are finished, you leave.

Nothing I have said describes what UMUC does. We are everywhere. We're geographically dispersed; we are dispersed on the Internet; students can gain access from any place. We select our faculty on the premise that expertise is now society-wide. We identify expertise and work with intellectual leadership where it is.

It's almost as if you're taking this discrete and somewhat exclusive entity-the research university-and turning it inside out.

Exactly. And I think that's a powerful image. Turning the institution inside out doesn't make it any less effective. It just means that we're very different.

As you begin your presidency, where will your priorities be? Where will students first see changes? And-if you could engage in a little imagination exercise-how do you picture UMUC after your tenure?

First, I hope students notice a change in the language we use to capture the distinctive character of the university. This is not a word exercise; it's a way to capture who we are.

Second, we're going to continue to build the virtual university in a massive way. We will have onsite and online instruction, and we will have a lot more that is a combination of both. Everywhere you go, instruction will be enriched by access to the Web.

UMUC is going to be the big dog in the road; everyone will have to acknowledge that we define the standards for distance learning. And that means more courses online, better courses online, and research about online education.

Third, we're going to seek out new alliances. This is a world where many interesting people are coming together to provide educational content-publishing companies, technology companies, Web-based companies, other institutions. We will be working to develop those alliances so that we can share resources.

Finally, what do you want students to know about you-and, in turn, what do you want to know about UMUC's students?

I take great pride in being an approachable person. I joke that I went to the University of California at 18, and I never left. I find universities to be terrific places filled with terrific people, extremely engaging.

If students see me walking down the hall, they shouldn't hesitate to walk up to me and tell me about themselves. I appreciate that, and I appreciate that they have selected UMUC, and I need to know about where we succeed and where we need to improve. They should never hesitate to reach out.

A Leader for the New Millennium

For most universities, August is an important time to think about and prepare for the beginning of a new semester, and UMUC is no exception. This year, for the faculty and staff of UMUC, it was also a time to contemplate the start of a new era, as they welcomed the university's fourth president, Gerald A. Heeger, on August 1.

Heeger's appointment, following an exhaustive search through a pool of more than 100 qualified candidates, caps a long administrative transition for UMUC, beginning in October 1998 with the retirement of then-President T. Benjamin Massey. UMUC's new president brings an impressive panoply of academic and administrative credentials to the institution.

Before coming to UMUC, Heeger served as dean of New York University's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. He assumed that position in 1991 and oversaw a period of strong growth with that school, bringing it to its current enrollment of 60,000 students in undergraduate, graduate, and noncredit programs.

Heeger began his higher education at the University of California, Berkeley, and subsequently received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. Specializing in South Asian political development, Heeger studied in India on a Fulbright scholarship and was a Fulbright-Hayes senior faculty research fellow in Pakistan.

Later, Heeger served on the faculty of the Woodrow Wilson Department of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia. In 1980, he was appointed dean of University College at Adelphi University, where he subsequently served as both provost and executive vice president. In 1987, he became dean of the New School for Social Research, and, in 1991, assumed his post at New York University.

While Heeger officially started at UMUC in August, he had been counseled on and involved with the daily activities of the university since the announcement of his selection in February. Since arriving at the university, Heeger says that his goals have been to retain the best aspects of pre-transition UMUC, such as Senior Vice Presidents Robert "Skip" Myers, Nick Allen, and Julie Porosky, and to augment them with several key appointments from outside the university in order to give it new expertise. For example, over the past few months Heeger has appointed distinguished UMUC alumna Donna Cunninghame, most recently chief financial officer for the Internal Revenue Service, as UMUC's new chief financial officer, and Rachel Zelkind, formerly Maryland assistant state attorney general, as general counsel for UMUC. Indeed, his interest in the university's staff, faculty, students, and alumni is readily apparent.

"We will be placing a great deal of emphasis in the coming months and translating our vision and aspirations into a 'common vocabulary' that we can share and communicate to all of the stakeholders of this institution," Heeger said recently. "We will continue to press forward with new programs and with an expansion on our leadership in distance learning. We will be exploring new partnerships with other educational institutions and with commercial organizations. And, we will seek to leverage our overseas expertise to become a truly global institution-global in its curriculum, its faculty and administration, and its student body."

Heeger's vision will lead UMUC into the 21st century and a new era of education. Some of this vision became apparent in a recent conversation with the editor of Achiever, selections from which appear in the sidebar beginning on page 9.

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