Second Ewu Candidate Visits

Collaboration, targeted student recruitment and open, honest leadership could boost enrollment and morale at Eastern Washington University.

At least that’s the approach W. Michael Easton said he has taken at other colleges and universities to combat similar problems.

Easton, the 55-year-old president of the University of Maine at Presque Isle, is one of four finalists for EWU’s top post.

He met with university officials and answered questions from faculty, students and staff during an open forum Thursday.

Questioners quickly gave Easton a picture of EWU’s challenges.

One frustrated faculty member complained about abandoning raises so money could go for student recruitment, only to have administrators resign with enrollment still down. The man said he has survived seven presidents in 28 years.

“I can’t tell you the betrayal this faculty and this staff feels,” he told Easton. “What in God’s name are you going to do, man?”

Easton responded, “I would have to work very hard to convince you that you could trust me. I would never be dishonest.”

Easton also said he hopes to make Cheney his home for good - not use it as a steppingstone to another job.

Rather than outline a specific plan for EWU, Easton focused on his accomplishments.

He said he helped boost enrollment at the 1,500-student school he now runs - but not by marketing in Maine’s biggest city, Portland. Instead, he went after students who matched the school’s student profile.

“Then we worked our tails off on those who expressed interest,” he said.

Easton also suggested collaborating with Eastern Washington’s community colleges on degree programs, and he said he’d like to see a university planning committee of faculty members, students, staff members and administrators. Its role: Determine how EWU will meet its goals.

Easton said he likely would spend roughly 40 percent of his first year on off-campus issues - dealing with legislators, raising funds, finding new benefactors.

“I’m the kind of guy who would be everywhere doing everything … till I drop,” Easton said, describing himself as “active, visible and accessible.”

He said he would support incentives for departments that attract minority faculty members and would look for ways to further promote diversity - even if a proposed statewide anti-affirmative-action initiative is passed this fall.

Easton also said advisory boards of business representatives could help better prepare students for the work force - provided the school were willing to adapt its curriculum.

“You can’t tell the business community what they need,” he said.

Before moving to Maine, Easton was president of Western Montana College in Dillon from 1987 to 1993 and vice president of university relations at the University of Montana from 1982 to 1987. He also spent 10 years at the University of South Dakota.

Easton said colleagues would say of him, “He gets things done, and he gets along.”

Candidate Keith Pretty, vice president for external affairs and general counsel at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, will visit EWU on Monday. Stephen Jordan, a University of Kansas regent, will visit Thursday. Lee Vickers, president of Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C., visited earlier this week.