Who will be Eastern Michigan University's next vice president for business and finance is not yet known. But all three candidates in contention stressed the need for the University to find more ways to generate revenue to counter higher education budgetary problems plaguing Michigan.
"If you're going to raise money, you've got to have pizzazz," said Richard Metz, vice president for administration and business affairs at California State University, East Bay since 1995. "We had a $25 million capital campaign to create a home for the school of business. We included some teaching labs and a 250-seat presentation facility with an atrium. That was the pizzazz."
"I wish I had a crystal ball," said Thomas Faecke, director, finance and administration, for the Higher Colleges of Technology System at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates since 2001. "One-hundred thirty-thousand alumni working for you in Lansing would generate money. Dr. (EMU President John) Fallon was a lobbyist. Hopefully, he can help EMU."
"In my business, there are always problems," said Charles Hawkins, senior associate vice chancellor for financial services at East Carolina University since 1999. "Even though we've had enrollment increases, we've had budget cuts on the backside. We're looking for entrepreneurial-type tasks to generate money. Most universities have to contend with that."
Since July 22, the three candidates have visited campus. Each met with key administrators, deans, and business and finance staff. Each also hosted a campus forum in which interested faculty, staff and community members could listen to a presentation and pose questions.
The following are synopses of each candidate's open forum discussion.
Richard Metz
A desire to live closer to family as well as work at a larger university that includes a Division I athletics program are what intrigues Metz about the position.
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MINGLE WITH METZ: Richard Metz, vice
president for administration and business
affairs at California State University, East
Bay, addresses questions during an open
campus forum Aug. 5. Metz is one of three
candidates for EMU's vice president for
business and finance. Photo by Craig Watson |
"I have family here. I'm an individual who has his priorities in order," Metz said. "Family has and always will be my top priority. I have a brother and sister in the area with families and my wife's family is from Columbus, Ohio."
He continued, "This is a good career move for me. Your campus is twice as large as the one I'm at now. You also have a Division I athletics program, which we don't have at Cal-State, East Bay, but that I enjoyed when I was at Lehigh University."
At California State University, East Bay, Metz is in charge of a $160 million operating budget for a school with 13,500 undergraduate and graduate students.
In his position, Metz reports directly to the university president and has responsibilities for the functions of finance, treasury, accounting, internal audit and compliance, budget (both operations and capital), business services, real estate operations, facilities management, human resources, legal affairs, risk management, procurement, administrative computing support and auxiliary operations. Metz also serves as chief information security officer for the university.
Like Michigan, California has had its share of budget woes, he said, mentioning he had to lay off 64 people (none were full-time faculty or full-time lecturers) last year. Over the past three years, Metz said Cal-State, East Bay has sustained a 25 percent cut in state funding. This fall, the university is expected to receive increased funding from the state.
"We won't recover, from a resource sense — fiscal or human — for three years," he said.
With those budget woes, Metz said there has been some creativity in raising money through other avenues. He acted as treasurer for the fundraising group that ran the capital campaign to raise funds for the $25 million school of business, which is expected to open next year. Cal-State, East Bay, could only qualify for general education bonds that could be used for faculty offices, but not technology and classroom space. The capital campaign raised $10.5 million and another $2 million was used from inter-borrowing funds. The general obligation bond share was $11.5 million.
The end result will be a four-story facility with the top two floors housing the school of business and the other two floors handling educational technology, the multimedia masters program, the engineering curriculum, some of the business curriculum, teaching labs and the presentation venue.
Metz previously was vice president for administrative services at Frostburg State University in Maryland from 1987-95 and director of auxiliary services at Lehigh University from 1979-87.
At Lehigh, Metz said he was proud that he was able to "make auxiliary functions truly auxiliary," meaning those budgets — including residence halls, fraternity housing and the bookstore — were eventually self-supporting. He also did the same with the university's sports arena, where the school's athletics teams were charged for the use of its own facility and concerts and trade shows were scheduled to bring in revenue to support the facility.
"If I would make this (career) move, it would be my last one," Metz said.
Metz received his master's degree in administrative services from Johns Hopkins University and his bachelor's degree in education from Ohio State University.
Thomas Faecke
Like Metz, Faecke's desire is to work at a bigger school and to return to his Midwestern roots.
"I talked with (EMU President) John Fallon and feel our philosophies would mesh well," Faecke said. "I'm not a micromanager. I let people do their jobs."
Since 2001, Faecke has been director of finance and administration for the Higher Colleges of Technology System at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The System consists of a dozen colleges (17,000-plus students) located throughout the United Arab Emirates and is federally funded with annual expenditures exceeding $300 million.
In his position, Faecke directs system activities in the areas of finance, accounting, facilities, purchasing, information technology, internal audit and budgeting.
Although he's been in his current position only four years, Faecke said, "Previously, people had come and gone. The longest anyone was in this position was three years."
Prior to that, Faecke was vice president for administrative affairs at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, Minn., from 1982-2001. At Bemidji State, Faecke said he came up with ideas that helped bolster a lack of financial resources. For example, he said he implemented "banded tuition," a concept in which the same tuition price was charged for any number of classes ranging from 12-16 hours. In addition, non-resident students (freshmen through seniors) could pay in-state tuition if they stayed in Bemidji's residence halls.
Faecke is no stranger to unions, saying he has sat at the bargaining table for 10 years at Bemidji State.
Faecke's experience also includes serving as controller at Washington State University from 1978-82.
Faecke received his master's degree in management from Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Calif., and his bachelor's degree in business management from Bemidji State University.
"I've been doing this (business and finance) for a long time. EMU needs someone to steer the ship," he said.
Charles Hawkins
"My next position is going to be vice president and you have that here," Hawkins said.
Hawkins said Michigan faces the same budgetary challenges in education that he now deals with at East Carolina University, which has 23,000 students and a $495 million annual budget. Much like Michigan, Hawkins said "North Carolina is a tobacco and manufacturing state that is trying to find ways to adapt" its industry.
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A CHAT WITH CHARLES: Charles Hawkins, senior
associate vice chancellor for financial services,
addresses a small gathering at an open campus
forum July 22. Hawkins is one of three candidates
for EMU's vice president for business and finance.
Photo by Ron Podell
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In addition to the challenges, Hawkins said he "has a fondness for this institution. This is where I received my master's degree."
Hawkins received his master's degree in accounting from EMU and his bachelor's degree in business administration (accounting) from the University of Michigan.
Like EMU, East Carolina uses the SCT Banner system for many campus functions, including financials, human services and student services.
"We've gotten a pretty good buy-in across campus," Hawkins said.
In addition to leading the implementation of Banner at East Carolina, Hawkins developed a projection model to better manage the reallocation process; and led the re-engineering of the student fee process for the university as well as develop a campus-wide data warehouse. He's also worked with the School of Medicine and the athletics department to resolve budget issues.
Hawkins previously worked at the University of Michigan, where he served in a number of positions from 1979-99. These included assistant director of financial operations and project manager, financial systems; manager of financial operations, assistant manager of financial operations and supervisor I of financial operations.
When asked, Hawkins said, unlike Michigan, there are no unions in North Carolina, but was familiar with the culture through family.
"I am the son of folks who worked for auto companies, worked on the line," he said. "A few (in my family) were union supervisors. Makes for great family reunions."
Courtney McAnuff, vice president for enrollment service, who headed the search committee, said EMU President John A. Fallon III is expected to likely make an announcement "in the next two weeks."
