Suncoast Business Forum; Judy Genshaft

The. Fun. You use a special presentation of WTU Tampa-St. Petersburg Sarasota. Every office has one chatterbox that gossip but no office ever had. She was magnificent. You name it she got it. 48 hours between. Freedmen's office for stock options. What does it take to be a vibrant business community. That takes a growth engine. Take Silicon Valley America's high tech capital. Scratch beneath the surface and you'll find a great university Stanford providing much of the brain power. How about Wall Street New York. Well there's NYU and this Columbia University all powerful growth engines. And what about the fast growing Tampa Bay area. Well here it's USF the University of South Florida one of the fastest growing research universities in the nation. And you're about to meet the CEO of this vibrant growth engine. Up next on the Suncoast Business Forum. Imagine running a state of the art business with a budget of $1.6 billion

that has a $3.2 billion economic impact on the community. Imagine overseeing five hundred million dollars worth of construction totaling more than three and a half million square feet stretching from four campuses starting in Lakeland all the way down to Sarasota. Imagine overseeing a staff of 13000 and being responsible for the education and well-being of 44000 students each day. Well that's just part of the job for University of South Florida. President and CEO Judy again Chip. Judy welcome to the Suncoast Business Forum. Thank you it's great to be here. Well with the organization with a business as big and dynamic $3.2 billion economic impact how do you established the goals the priorities that you're going to set and how you're going to measure your success. Well it's not easy but what we do is we bring together a group of people our board members as well as our faculty staff students and look at the university and say are right where will we be.

Well let's put it this way. In 2015 we're celebrating we're celebrating a huge event. USF is now in the top ten of all research universities in the country. What did we do that made a significant difference to get us there. So you're setting goals now for where you want. We want to be in the future. What did we do to make that happen. And so you look backwards and and it's it's a project now that we're engaged in because I've been here since 2000. Now it's time to look again re-establish new goals for our future. Well when you have a university this size in one of the largest in the United States Am I right. Ninth largest ninth largest in the United States which is something I don't think most people in this area even realize. You have to answer to. You have a board of directors of the state legislature of local government. You have local businesses your accreditation boards you have

faculty students and their parents. How do you determine in this whole mix of people that you answer to our priority and the method for serving all these different folks. Well you have to really believe that what you're doing is right and that you're moving the university in a way that makes sense for the community makes sense for this state and makes sense globally that the students that you educate will be able to go out anywhere and find the right job that matches their skills and that's how you answer them you have to work very hard and try to convince them that. This is a powerful powerful vehicle to making a difference in people's lives and in the community. Let's talk about your roots your background your parents your grandparents came to America early in the 20th century. Am I right. Right. Tell us

about their character their values. Well there was a great deal of persistence and strength that they had. They came from Russia and had to leave without anything and work their way through through Europe and coming over through Ellis Island. And so they came with nothing. And so many of people in America have this kind of background and they come over and they have the courage and the fortitude to making a difference. They want to never be hungry again and never be poor again that kind of sense of drive. And that's what both my grandparents and my parents had. And luckily they were successful in that. So growing up I had a great sense of you have to work hard. What good are you doing if you're

not working hard and making a difference and then you also have to be part of the community must give back to the community that was just instilled in me from the very beginning. Well talk a little bit about the beginning about your childhood. Were you a good student. For instance you are running a university. You had hoped that you were a good student. What's your family close knit and a very close close knit very close let's talk about you and your form. Yes. Well I have one brother who is three years older than I am and that's it just the two of us. But my mother was one of seven children and two sets of twins and she is a twin. Youngest of the seven that set her set of twins and my father is the oldest of four. So there are lots of family all around. And I come from Canton Ohio. Yes. The Football Hall of Fame. And and it was all a close knit family

very very much where we would always eat dinner together we'd always be together with the grandparents and with cousins. So it was it was Family First Family first. If you were to think back on your formative years and growing up who or what would you say had had a significant influence on you and your values. Well I think they all did in a different way. My father certainly did from his his fortitude and working so hard in the business started from zero to building it up into a very important meatpacking company. And my mother was one that was very much you know good good manners good good values supporting the family. And of course my grandmothers both of them were like steel you know because they were the ones that came over. And so you'd be true to family but you always give back to others.

And my brother was a very important influence because I could never embarrass him. He was always the one to come on Judy and pull me in and make sure that I was behaving. So that was that was critical as well. But he also used my used his sister to shimmy up trees to look as a lookout person and then forget that the rope would break on the tree and I'd go down or something you know back. He was he was good about putting me forward in risk taking circumstances. You aren't a rebel you sound like you're pretty good. Yeah I was a good kid. I was a good kid. I wasn't a rebel. Now I'm 19. In the 1960s you went off to the University of Wisconsin. Yes. As an undergraduate did you study there and how was your first college experience. Well it was it was pretty dramatic because when I went to the University of Wisconsin there were dorm

rules and women's women's dorms were separate from men's dorms and we had curfews and that kind of stuff by the junior year. Everything had changed because it was the Vietnam War. Everything had changed. And Wisconsin was a very radical spot where people went from Berkeley to Wisconsin to Columbia really stirring up a great deal of of controversy and Vietnam War era sentiment. So it was a very scary time for me in many ways. It was a great education. But the we were all tear gas and pepper gas. It didn't matter whether you were out protesting or not. If you were walking to class you were pepper gassed or tear gas because there was so much activity going on.

So it's a little it was a little frightening here for me because I came from a small town and I'm going to Wisconsin was was large but I made it through and all is well. Well after all this you say gee I love college. I want more. No no. I said to my father upon my graduation with the B.A. degree dad I will never go back to school again. What happened. Well I started working after my bachelor's degree and realized the only way to get ahead was going back to school. And so once I started back to school for my master's degree after a couple of years out and working I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it so. But you know I go from Wisconsin to Kent State with the shootings. What are you going to do. I mean it's just one of those things where I was actually

working full time and going to school at night. So I was in the thick of the Kent State riots at that point. What were you studying when you were going to Kent State to get your advanced school psychology masters and counseling psychology doctorate. And I knew when I was going through that I wanted to move into academia. So this whole notion with my father. I would never go back to school again. Turned out to be completely wrong. So you got your Master's Degree went on You got your Ph.D. both at Kent State. Correct. What happened after Kent State after you graduate with your Ph.D.. Well I worked in the schools in the Canton City schools. And then I received a job or I looked for a job at around the country and ended up at the Ohio State University and where I was an assistant associate full professor

intern to the president head of the Senate chair of my department and I was there for 16 years. You started as an associate professor Juiceman is assistant professor and then you became an interim intern to the resistant professor. It's six years up and out. You know you have to earn your way through your research and your writing. So I went for my assistant assistant professor to associate professor Berkeley got my promotion early in five years rather than six. Then I had another five year stint as an associate professor writing researching and getting grants teaching and got my full professor status. Then after that I said OK I'm a full professor. Time to. See what I can do administratively. And

I went to see the president of Ohio State University and said I would really appreciate if you would recommend me I'll send in an application but send in a letter of recommendation to be an intern to a president at another university across America and that's through the American Council an education program. He said no I won't do that. If you want an internship you have one right here. And I started as intern to the president at all of Ohio State University. Three months later and was also named acting associate provost of regional campuses. So that was a fabulous year. So you really got a chance to look at University Management up close. I did. How was he as a mentor. Fabulous fabulous. And he now lives in Sarasota So I hope President Jennings that you are listening.

He was wonderful. What did it teach you when you had that window into managing in Ohio State's a big university. It is. What did it teach you about what it takes to manage a big university. Well you really have to decide what kind of man management you want to go into if you want to go into college level management then you really need to be in the Dean ship area if you want to get into the academic side with the provost. You need to look at the academic side of things. And if you want to be in the presidential side you really have to have an overview of the whole campus student affairs as well as radio and TV et cetera. So this internship gave me an opportunity to look both both at the presidential side as well as the. Provost academic side. And you know what I did I went back and I went through all of the academic

side chair of the department. I had to I left Ohio State because in order to move up you move out and so I went to the State University of New York at all B'nei where I was dean and then provost for five years and now president. You were a dean of what department of education. So you then you have the responsibility of developing the program for the college of education are correct in a big university system and in a University of New York system and 64 campuses but it was only for the university at all. Any. And then I was provost who was a provost do exactly I think most people don't know what that job you know the term is keeper of the prisoners. That's the term that's what it really means. It was through him. It's a vice president of academic affairs and that is anything that has to do with

courses. Faculty students studying in an academic environment. That's what you're in charge of all faculty and in and academic administration not student dormitories and athletics. So after all these years of doing these and rising up the ladder you decided to leave to take on a president ship. Yes. Here at the University of South Florida what led you to make that decision. Well I've you know you get I believe people go through developmental phases and you work very hard to move up in the ranks and the presidency was something that I had always aspired for. And so it was a natural time after five years as being an academic chief officer. For me to look at a presidency. And I wanted to go to a large

comprehensive university and that was I had heard about the University of South Florida when I was at Ohio State because some of my colleagues left top notch universities to come to the University of South Florida. So it had been on my radar screen for a long time. And when it came open I was very excited about an opportunity to. Become a candidate for the presidency. It was a very competitive position you were up against a lot of people from all across the country. But you won and when you got here what did you see as the challenges and the opportunities in front of you. Well one of the challenges was to make sure that the university was really moving in to the very high research growth category because it really

differentiates our university from all the rest in terms of how it is. It discovers new I knew ideas and makes life better for people. We really needed to focus on our research orientation and we have we've moved into the top status of research universities in the country. How is it how is that measure the status of the university in terms of the research. Well it's it's measured in terms of the number of grants contracts and awards that you receive. The number of federal expenditures and awards and we've moved in the number of doctoral students the number of Ph.D. programs that we have and we've moved very fast in 50 years to be one of the three leading research universities in Florida

and the other two are 100 years older than we are. But we are one of the three top research universities in Florida and one of 63 in the country. So it's a we are no longer a hidden gem. I want it to be a well known sham that USF is has made it to the top level. And there's research generate a lot of additional income ongoing revenue for the university it does it does. This past year we received three hundred ten million dollars of research grants and contracts and that comes to the Tampa Bay area to work on new ideas and new discoveries. And so it makes us well known nationally as well as does some of our athletics. And our medical area and everything

you touch upon those you do. You mentioned athletics the USF athletic program has grown tremendously in the last few years. It has. Why is that important to USF and to the growth of the university. You can't think of one major university that doesn't have a good sport a sports program. I mean a big comprehensive university that doesn't have an equally strong sports program and people learn about the university through sports it's the passing conversation of did you see that game the other night or how did they play and it gives people a window into the university and it fills them with pride. Should we be the winners in in different sports events. So we have 18 varsity sports and moving from each of our conferences into the Big East is huge. But it also makes a difference for us because we start to compare ourselves

to our sister institutions in that conference so USF compares itself to Pittsburgh Rutgers Connecticut Syracuse Cincinnati Louisville West Virginia Georgetown so on and so on. So we're really pleased to be in this conference and hopefully go into a ballgame. Health Sciences is also another big growth area for us from our right. You know if you think about the University of South Florida and you want to know what really differentiates it from other universities we really talk about health and bio bio science and you know it just is so important to our whole our whole being as a university we have 450 doctors but more than that health

runs throughout our curriculum whether you're in education or business or visual and performing arts you know it's all about health and the welfare of people around us. Now you are actively involved in the business community as well outside of the USA. USF as we pointed out earlier is a more than $3 billion economic impact on the community. How do you see you interacting with the business community as we go to the future where we're essential to bringing companies here and growing companies that already are here through the work force that we provide as well as through the expertise that we provide. So I don't know about you and your company sir but I would suspect that you have quite a few University of South Florida graduates in your company because we

graduate about 9000 students every year. And we know that 50 percent stay in the Tampa Bay region 80 percent stay in the state of Florida. So we were able to attract companies because they know that they can find a workforce here and they know that they can find educational opportunities for the families and the people that move here. And we want to work together. That's what a Metropolitan University is all about is working together and the regional campuses are very exciting because they meet the needs of the region that they're in. So as this as this region grows so does USF and as USF grows so does this region. We've got about a minute or so left in closing.

What are some of the personal goals and challenges that you set for yourself going forward from this point making this university the biggest boldest better diversity in that country. No I really want. I see the university as a ship Pathet is on the on the right track and we really want the university to be something that. The whole. World looks to for. For the future. And in my role as a president is to make sure that all of the Lum's with a degree from USF keeps rising in stock. Your degree is better and better as the university improves. And that's my that's my job. Do you see all the elements in place to make that happen. I always I always am a glass half full. I see the elements

we always could use more resources so any of those of you out there that want to provide more to us that we will be glad to make it well worth your while. And I have to be sure that you have your u s f hat. Well I'm very happy to have you. And Judy Frey we're out of time and it's been great having you with us. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. And thank you for joining us. For the sun goes business for. Every office has one. Chatterbox back gossip but no office ever had in my mind.

She was magnificent. You name it she got it in 48 hours. Freedmen's this for. Stop. On the next Suncoast business forum USCF president Judy again shaft. We've moved very fast. In 50 years to be one of the three leading research universities in Florida and the other two are 100 years older than we are. I'm Jeff Simon. Join me with my guest. USF president Judy

Ghanchakkar on the next Suncoast Business Forum.