By Kyle Roberts
With Dr. Jim Henderson’s approval by the ULS Board of Supervisors official as of Wednesday, Oct. 25, to becoming Louisiana Tech’s next President, the Lincoln Parish Journal spoke with him to discuss the transition and the vision for Henderson’s first 100 days beginning on January 1, 2024.
Content has been lightly edited for continuity.
Kyle Roberts, LPJ Co-Publisher: Dr. Henderson, we thank you for your time taking the call. How do you envision the beginning of January going? I have no doubt you are working on your transition into your new role, so what do you anticipate your first 100 days will look like for the university?
Dr. Jim Henderson, next Louisiana Tech president: “It’s going to involve a lot of conversations. And in those conversations, I actually get it started right away. I’m already planning to visit with President Les Guice and some of his leadership team in the next week. And then we’ll spend probably a day, a week before Thanksgiving on campus and then after Thanksgiving in two days a week, just getting acclimated to the campus, getting to know people a little bit deeper level and in ensuring that we’ve got a runway in place to just take off on January 1st.
“And after that time, it’s going to be about open conversations, both internal and external, with community members, with alumni groups, with other supporters, and certainly continuing that dialogue with faculty and staff to to advance this exceptional institution from the foundation that President Guice has laid so ably.”
KR: You discussed your approach to your leadership style in your address to faculty, staff and community members back on Oct. 19. Would you unpack a little more about that and explain why you see it as a strength?
JH: “It’s a very collaborative style. I like for everyone in the organization to own the vision and to understand what their role is in realizing the vision and realizing it at a level possible, where before we wouldn’t have thought possible. And so you’re really able to set some stretch goals within your current structure, when your current resources seem impossible, and then after you achieve them, then it’s quite a rewarding experience.
“But at the same time, it’s collaborative. You move quickly. I move at a pretty rapid pace. Those that work directly as direct reports find out quickly that we have a lot of bandwidth, and we’re going to utilize it. We’re going to maximize the use of our time and advance things in a pretty rapid fashion. Not haphazard, not reckless, but at a speed worthy of this institution and the faculty and students that we’re serving.”
KR: From your perspective, what are the biggest strengths that you already see Louisiana Tech doing well?
JH: “I think Tech is the strongest undergraduate experience in the state. When you look at time to degree, for Tech students, it’s the shortest in the state. It’s a great measure as students are coming in prepared, and they’re succeeding within the regular time to graduation. And that’s really the hallmark of Louisiana Tech: the student body. They also do have a great faculty. I mean, the faculty at Tech do exceptional both in teaching and in research.
“I think one of the goals that I’m going to have in short order is to create the conditions where they can do that at scale; do that at even higher levels than they currently are. And that’s probably the organizational skill set that I bring is really creating those conditions that everybody can be personally and professionally fulfilled in their work.”
KR: What opportunities externally do you see on the horizon that will allow Louisiana Tech to be successful?
JH: “I think there’s tremendous opportunities around telling the story of Louisiana Tech as it currently is. It’s an extraordinary institution that outside of its inner circle and outside of those that have a connection to Louisiana Tech is known but not as widely known as it should be. I will tell you that here in Baton Rouge, there are a number of folks that talk well of Louisiana Tech. But but we want to bring that to scale that, because I think as you draw a circle from Little Rock maybe to DFW Metroplex down to New Orleans and up around through Jackson; that’s an odd looking circle, but imagine if that was a perfect circle. We want to own that: to be the institution of choice for students that exist in that area, that are looking for a rigorous scholastic experience.
“We want to own that space for our faculty that want to be involved in teaching and want to be involved in a robust research mission. And so that’s going to be our territory, and it’s going to expand beyond that. But we want to target that area because it’s a natural blue ocean for us. And even the red ocean– I think we can compete quite well in the red ocean. And that gets my adrenaline going.”
KR: In recent conversations, you have mentioned a $150 million endowment. And a lot of faculty and staff say, “Oh that sounds great; so how are we going to do that?” What do you see as the overall plan in order to achieve that?
JH: “First, we have to understand the ‘Why’ and where we are as a state institution. The state is never going to be able to support our institutions at the level necessary to thrive, and so we’re going to have to own our own future. This $150 million unrestricted endowment, once that’s achieved, if you follow the sound investment principle, that frees up about $9 to $12 million in cash resources that can be used to address faculty salaries, that can be used to incentivize research, that can be used to build out learning spaces and bring them up to speed. It just enables us to have the resource base necessary to be a Tier 1, R1 level institution, whether we get that designation soon or not, it empowers us to compete with those types of universities. And that’s why it’s such an imperative.”
KR: That’s a perfect segue into my next question: how will you lead Louisiana Tech into becoming a Carnegie Tier 1 Research institution?
JH: “To reach Carnegie R1, first you have to ensure that there’s a consensus amongst the faculty and those internal to the institution that that’s what we want to be. And you have to have a reason for being there. It’s not just to get the designation– it’s about freeing us up for increased investments of grants and be more competitive in federal grants for research, as well. But once you attain that, it requires you to reach a certain level of research, productivity and research expenses. So we’re going to make sure that when we’re categorizing things the right way, that we’re capturing the whole of our research activities and then create those incentives and provide seed money for faculty so they can they can do that research at that scale.
“Another thing that they evaluate is the production of graduate students, especially doctoral students, and particularly in STEM fields, and that’s there should be a natural strength for Louisiana Tech. And that’s what that resource base will allow us to do– to expand opportunities for students to earn terminal degrees, doctoral degrees in some very competitive fields that already exist at Tech. I think all the ingredients are in place, and now it’s just bringing it up to speed and doing things that at scale requires resources. So that’s the first thing we’ve got to bring to the table.”
KR: Last question: tell me how you see the city of Ruston and Lincoln Parish playing parts in their relationships with Louisiana Tech’s success.
JH: The city of Ruston and the relationship to Louisiana Tech– the word to describe it is “symbiotic.” It’s probably one of the best what we call “town-gown” relationships in the state of Louisiana. But it can be better. And, you know, you’ve got a forward thinking mayor who’s very innovative. You’ve got the local elected officials that are truly engaged in the success of Louisiana Tech. We will be building on that.
“I know when my son went through orientation, one of the first things that happened is Mayor Ronny Walker gave him a business card with his cell phone number. You know, that kind of relationship is an asset, and over time, we’ll make sure we’re maximizing that. And then you look at some of the accoutrements around the Ruston and Lincoln Parish area– it has one of the most beautiful parks with hiking and biking trails that exists. It’s a wonderful community with plenty of places to eat and and have a good time. It’s a perfect place to go to college. And I think that relationship between the university and the citizens is absolutely essential to that.”
KR: On behalf of the Lincoln Parish Journal, we thank you for your time.
