The fourth presidential candidate forum revealed Dr. Kenneth Evans as the last of four finalist candidates.
Evans currently serves as the president of Lamar University and has served in that position since 2013. Evans has a bachelors in English/political science from University of California-Davis and received his masters in business from California State University-Sacramento and doctorate in business from University of Colorado.
Evans has worked in higher education for over 35 years, including serving as dean at the Michael F. Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma, various positions at the University of Missouri-Columbia and a faculty position at Arizona State University.
Evans started the forum by talking about his knowledge of OCU prior to interviewing for the position, specifically about the more well-known programs at OCU such as Wanda L. Bass School of Music and the Oklahoma City University School of Law. Evans said his sons use their musical training in their everyday lives, even though they have careers in different disciplines.
“He often says to me, ‘dad, what makes it possible for me to do what I do and uniquely differentiates me from my colleagues, is I see patterns and rhythms in the data that my colleagues don’t see,’” Evans said. “The liberal and performing arts more than align with wherever a life journey may take a student.”
Evans said one of the reasons he wants to be president at OCU is because he likes Oklahoma.
“I was in Oklahoma, as you know, for about seven years. I fell in love with Oklahoma,” Evans said. “I grew to love the people here a great deal.”
Another reason Evans said he liked OCU is because it is the only university embedded in OKC and is perfectly situated to help the city grow.
“Being the only embedded university in this city, you have an obligation to this city,” Evans said. “The more you improve this city with the next level of improvements, revitalizations going on in Oklahoma City, unless you attend the gentrification, you will create a massive problem. There’s too much data out there to demonstrate that that is the case.
Evans said he sees a gentrification problem in Oklahoma City, and he sees the less financially capable people in these gentrified areas will be crowded out of their homes in the coming years. He said he wants OCU to be part of helping these communities when and if this process happens.
“You can, indeed, make a contribution as a university to start talking about the important subjects around gentrification, and how we can do intelligent things now in Oklahoma City so we can avoid some of the pitfalls that community after community has experienced,” Evans said.
Evans said he thinks issues of diversity and inclusion in most instances comes from a place of ignorance, and universities like OCU should work to educate people on these matters.
“Our role, and the great thing about being educators, is we have the opportunity to sit in the driver’s seat to do a much better job of preparing the world to understand how the greatest communities that constitute the network, the fabric, this rich mosaic, this part of humanity, how it all fits together,” Evans said. “And if we’re not playing a role in that space then shame on us.”
Evans said OCU has competitive rates, but the public schools in the area could eventually outdo OCU’s prices. Evans said the future of OCU’s success lies in online education.
“What then is the future for OCU? You’ve already entered it. You entered it on Friday the 13 in March, wherein you flipped the switch, and you moved your entire curriculum online,” Evans said. “There is no question that whatever the reality is that we return to, it’s going to be different than the one that preceded that day.”
At Lamar University, Evans said they had over 9,000 students out of about 17,700 student in attendance studied online.
“I am a little more advanced in this space because of what we have been doing at Lamar university for quite some time,” Evans said. “So that will be a changing platform. How you adopt it, how you use it, how you make it a meaningful part of what your future is, of course, is entirely up to you.”
Evans said a successful university administration always thinks about quality.
“It’s always about quality,” Evans said. “Somebody asked me last night at a dinner how would I define the ideal provost, and I would say it was someone who always has quality as their guiding light. And that means quality in curricula, it means quality in faculty, it means quality in facilities, it means making sure that the person who graduates from OCU is the best prepared in their respective area that we can possibly do.”
When asked about cost of living adjustments for university employees and the lack thereof in recent years, Evans said he has hosted fundraisers for faculty raises at LU
“The commitment is really around building professorships, fellowships, endowed chairs. When I arrived, we had I want to say maybe six endowed chairs and professorships and no fellowships. We now have about 35, and this campaign will probably grow that, about double that number,” Evans said. “So where I may not be able to find funds in the operating budget, specifically, I’m finding funds through alternative sources.”
When asked about a time he defended academic freedom, Evans did not provide a specific example but said academic freedom is essential to universities and spoke about the invention of tenure during the McCarthy era to protect professors from being fired and blacklisted for teaching the subject they wanted to teach.
“If we kept doing that, then who really dictates what the message is? Who becomes the governing mechanism to determine what truth is? You tell me,” Evans said.
Several attendants at the general session asked if Evans would commit to creating an office of sustainability to transition OCU renewable energy. Evans said he doesn’t know the specifics of what it would take to do those things, but he is in favor of it.
“I’d have to see a plan, and I would have to see how it plays out. But that would be a really positive and a very exciting objective,” Evans said.
Another attendant asked him about the recent United Methodist Conference decision against LGBTQ+ clergy and marriages. Evans said OCU’s role in the midst of that decision is to encourage discussion.
“I think when misunderstanding and misrepresentation–and oftentimes hate–is a consequence of attitudes that are formed in a social setting. Those attitudes are often a function of misinformation. They are a function of ignorance. They are a function of the failure to perceive alternative perspectives. And the role of the university plays is all about building intelligent dialogue,” Evans said.
BreAuna Shaw, marketing sophomore, said she appreciated how open the candidate was with the attendants of the forum. Shaw asked what brought him to apply for OCU, to which he responded he would like to work with a smaller university, and he said his wife had recently died, so he said he sees working for a different university as a way of moving on.
“I liked how open he was, especially to my question. Of course I had no idea what brought him here, but I thought it was really cool that he mentioned his wife,” Shaw said. “ I also love that, besides his experience as a previous president, he also comes with a lot of unique ideas.”
OCU President Martha Burger declined to comment on the presidential search since it is a Board of Trustees matter, but she sent Student Publications a statement about the process.
“I care very deeply about ensuring the next president of our University represents and supports our full student body. However, it’s important for me to allow the search committee to independently complete its work. I have absolute faith the search committee and our Board of Trustees will choose a leader who respects our students and our mission, and who is committed to honoring diverse opinions and uplifting our community,” Burger wrote.
Evans is the last finalist candidate to host a forum with the campus community. On March 23, the Presidential Search Committee announced Dr. Kenneth Evans as the new president of OCU. Evans will take over as president on July 1.
To see information about the first presidential candidate, visit this link.
To see information about the second presidential candidate, visit this link.
To see information about the third presidential candidate, visit this link.
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