 V. Lane and Mary Jo Rawlins. Photo by Robert Hubner.
Rawlins arrived to find a school struggling to sort out what it
wanted to be and where. “Our reputation as an undergraduate
institution was suffering, and our research productivity was just
measured by dollars and a few other things. . . it had been pretty
flat for a while.” In the fall of 2000, several months after
returning to Pullman, Rawlins invited the University community to
join in identifying the school’s weaknesses and strengths, with the
goal of developing a strategic plan. Among the ideas that emerged
were improving the quality and diversity of the student body,
recruiting high-quality faculty, and creating a new campus
culture.
Part of the plan’s success was the process. It brought out and
engaged many members of the campus community, investing them in the
University as a whole. Other results included the Regents Scholars
Program, which uses scholarships to bring in high-achieving
Washington high school students, redirected funds to recruit
high-quality researchers for programs like the sleep study effort
in Spokane, and the identification of a character and mission for
each of the campuses.
“Lane stabilized a lot of the squabbling and squawking that went
on around some of our branch campuses,” says Chuck Pezeshki, an
engineering professor and chair of the Faculty Senate. “He also
reminded us that we were a Research One institution (a Carnegie
Foundation classification), and that we needed to align our
priorities with that in mind.”
Many other elements and details will characterize Rawlins’s
presidency. In seven years, WSU has enjoyed a busy period of
growth. The Murrow School of Communication has a new building, a
new state-of-the-art plant biosciences structure now sits across
the street from French Administration, and the Spokane campus has a
handsome $33 million academic center.
Football is one of Rawlins’s passions and, he admits with a
shrug, a slight obsession. “When it gets tight, or when you get
down to the end of the game, I kind of go off and sit by myself.
People leave me alone,” he says. “I want to focus on the game.”
When it gets down to eight minutes left, Rawlins removes himself
from the president’s box and places his six-foot-four figure down
on the field. “I want the kids and coaches to know that football,
or any other of our athletic events, are not separate or apart from
our university. . . I don’t know a better way to do that than to be
on the sidelines.”
His interest was rewarded with three bowl games over seven
years: one Sun Bowl, one Rose Bowl, and one Holiday Bowl.
As Rawlins leaves, several major projects at the heart of campus
are still in the early stages. A student-funded overhaul of the
Compton Union Building should wrap up in the fall of 2008, and a
four-stage remodel of Martin Stadium only recently broke
ground.
While many of his goals have been realized, Rawlins is the first
to admit he’d like to complete a few more projects. “Were I younger
and ready to hang on for another six or seven years, I’d say,
‘Let’s pull together some new focus groups. Let’s gut-check to see
where we are. Let’s ask ourselves what is the next phase,’” he
says. His next big goal would be to attend more to students.
“[It]’s not that we’re not attentive, but we could do more.”
But Rawlins feels he doesn’t have six or seven more years to
devote to WSU. Instead, it’s a good time to “pass the ball to the
next guy.”
He’ll be back to work with the board at the William D.
Ruckelshaus Center on issues regarding policy development and
multi-party dispute resolution, and to teach a class in
economics.
“I think Lane will be remembered as the president who took WSU
further away from that state college where you go if you can’t get
into the University of Washington, says Bill Marler ’82, a former
WSU regent and Seattle attorney. “WSU has become what a lot of
people envisioned it could be.”
Three years after Rawlins left the University of Memphis, that
school dedicated a clock tower and service court in his name. “I
had some good success there,” he says. “But those are not the kind
of things you want your legacy to be.”
He has thought about how he’d like his presidency at WSU to be
remembered and has come to the conclusion that he’s leaving the
school with a higher level of research and education. “I would like
my legacy to be that we focused on quality,” he says, “a legacy
that says we’re big, we’re statewide. We’re also the best.”
Page
1
2
Washington State Magazine Home
|
