This is a transcript of the Spur of the Moment episode “How to become a university president and thrive through a global pandemic with Joyce McConnell.” It is provided as a courtesy and may contain errors.
Joyce McConnell: No one sits around thinking, oh, I’m going to have to manage a pandemic.
Jocelyn Hittle: Welcome to Spur of the Moment, the podcast of Colorado State University Spur Campus in Denver, Colorado.
Joyce McConnell: I wake up every morning and I’m really uplifted by the kind of research that’s being done and the way that it can improve the human condition.
Jocelyn Hittle: On this podcast, we talk with experts in food, water, and health about how they are tackling big challenges in these areas. And in some episodes like today’s, we focus on members of the CSU community and their contributions to solving big global challenges. I’m Jocelyn Hittle, the assistant vice chancellor of the Spur campus, and I’m joined today by Joyce McConnell, the president of Colorado State University. Welcome president McConnell.
Joyce McConnell: Thank you so much for having me Jocelyn. I’m really excited to be here today.
Jocelyn Hittle: Thanks for joining us. I will keep my introduction of you very brief today, since we are going to talk more about your trajectory later, but I will mention that president McConnell came to CSU in 2019 from West Virginia University, where she had been provost since 2014. Though her career has spanned a variety of disciplines, president McConnell has a law degree from Antioch and a master of laws from Georgetown and has had teaching and leadership roles in the law school and in the law. So president McConnell, how are you and where are you?
Joyce McConnell: I’m great. I’m doing very, very well. I’m thrilled actually. I’m having the opportunity to be back on campus. So that’s been very, very exciting. So we’re just seeing the beginning of the reopening and as we’ve been calling it on campus, which I love, reuniting.
Jocelyn Hittle: Wonderful. Yes, but that must feel great. And just to orient our listeners, we are talking here near the end of May in 2021, so the school year in Fort Collins has come to a close. So what are some of the things that you all have been doing in Fort Collins to sort of celebrate that, given the unique moment in time we’re in right now?
Joyce McConnell: One of my favorite ways of seeing our students celebrate is our graduating students will come onto the oval in front of the administration building where the president’s office is fully in their regalia with their families, with photographers. And that to me is just a huge symbol of celebration and accomplishment. And one of the things I love to do is when I’m in my office, if I see them out there, I go out and I surprise them. And then we all take pictures together and I get to be part of the celebration.
Jocelyn Hittle: That’s great and it must feel particularly good after a year of on and off again relative isolation and having to be distanced from the students that you are there to serve. So president McConnell, you have been in your role since 2019. Can you tell us a little bit about coming to CSU? Why here?
Joyce McConnell: Such a great question, because I’m so passionate about the land grant mission. And when I was considering a presidency after my role as provost at West Virginia, I really only wanted to be at a land grant institution. I wanted a place that had as its central mission access, and I wanted to be at a large public university that was not just talking the talk, but walking the talk and making it real, and Colorado State University is that place. And the other reason was, as a law professor, one of the areas I was very interested and worked on a lot was natural resources and sustainability. And of course Colorado State University rises above all other public universities in terms of its commitment to sustainability. So it seemed like a really good fit for me.
Jocelyn Hittle: Wonderful. Yes and that commitment to sustainability, that’s obviously something you and I share. We have talked about that. As you mentioned, CSU also has a big commitment and a lot of the work that happens at CSU is focused on sustainability, whether it’s within the curriculum or how the facilities are managed or just in an outreach and education of the general public. In addition to learning about the sustainability work that’s happening at CSU, what are some of the surprising things you’ve learned about CSU over the course of the last couple of years as you’ve gotten more oriented.
Joyce McConnell: One of the things that has just been wonderful to learn and to experience is what a research powerhouse Colorado State University is in spaces that really matter to people and to the planet. And so the way in which we’ve done research on water and disease, both in humans and in animals, in food production, in caring about the issues about feeding the world, in soil research for plant productivity. It’s just been. I wake up every morning and I’m really uplifted by the kind of research that’s being done and the way that it can improve the human condition. And that’s just been really thrilling for me.
Joyce McConnell: The other thing that is really extraordinary is we have amazing students and of course, amazing faculty who teach them, but the achievements of the students this year have just surpassed any other year. We had one of our new students, she’s a native Venezuelan. She came here to study chemical engineering and she became our first Gates Cambridge Fellow, which for those people who don’t know what that means, it’s like being a Rhode’s scholar, but rather than being at Oxford you’re at Cambridge. It was just a huge, huge achievement. And then we also had a first gen, she was first gen and we had another first gen scholar actually win the Marshall scholarship, which is another huge, huge scholarship. And we’ve had, I think, nine students win national science foundation fellowships this year, which gives us the highest number in the state. Of course, I’m very competitive. So I’m proud of that. But what that signifies for me is that the role of Colorado State University in providing access and then support for our students once they come, means that we can elevate and work with them so that they’re reaching the heights that they deserve to reach. And I just find that incredibly satisfying and I’m really proud of our students and our faculty.
Joyce McConnell: Of course, I talked about research, but I want to talk for a minute about what they accomplish in the classroom. This year has been really challenging for all students and all faculty, whether it’s K through 12 or higher ed, but our faculty were there for our students. And when I’ve run into students, I’ve asked them, how’s your experience been this year? The first thing they talk about is the commitment of the faculty and how often their faculty reached out to them. So I’m very, very proud of what everyone’s been able to accomplish.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah. And one of the things that we have talked about and as we’re starting to emerge, we hope knock on wood, from what has been a very challenging time. I would say that CSU Fort Collins has weathered the pandemic remarkably well. Are there some other things about that that you’d like to highlight that you’re proud of around how CSU responded and over the last year?
Joyce McConnell: Well, we were able to do as well as we did because we had really creative researchers who stepped up to really show us the way in terms of how to keep transmission down on campus. We had 4500 first year students in our residence halls, which was really a huge accomplishment for any university in the country. And we had about 65% of our courses in-person or hybrid in the laboratory. And so the way in which we were able to continue to deliver education to our students, keep them healthy, keep them on campus. One student came up to me, I don’t know if your listeners will remember this, but labor day of 2020 was a really bleak day because of all the fires. The sky turned orange, ash was falling. We were doing COVID testing on the upper deck of the stadium. And I had on a baseball cap, sunglasses and a mask. And I was working the testing site. And I assume no one would recognize me, but this first year student came up to me and he said, are you president Joyce? I said, yes, I am. And he said, well, I just want to throw my arms around you and give you the biggest hug, but I know I can’t, and I just want to thank you because I don’t want to go home. I want to be here. And it was just such a wonderful, wonderful, warm statement. And it drove home for me, how important the college experience is for students. That when they’re 17, or 18, they’re really ready for that experience and I was so glad we were able to provide that.
Jocelyn Hittle: Absolutely.
Joyce McConnell: So that’s one thing I just want to give a shout out for our students. They were extraordinary.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah. That is a wonderful story. That’s very heartwarming. And maybe hints a little at your answer to my next question, which is what are you going to be glad to put behind you?
Joyce McConnell: Well, quarantine and isolation, I hated knowing that our students had to be separated out from the residents and the residence halls when they were sick. But we did one thing that I think was really helpful, was we assigned each student a case manager and I heard wonderful stories about our case managers. Like going to Walgreens to get Twizzlers because the student was really craving them and couldn’t get them any other way. Those are really, really important touch points. Just that humanity of our campus is something that’s really important. And what I’m really looking forward to and I keep saying, we have a very vibrant campus and it’s busy and there are always bikes zooming by and students skateboarding and dancing in the Plaza. And I said, I’m going to know we’re back, when we’re really reunited, when I have to jump out of a way of a bike or a skateboard, and then I’m going to be really happy.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yep. That vibrancy. It’s coming back.
Joyce McConnell: Yeah.
Joyce McConnell: We really want that back.
Jocelyn Hittle: So, speaking of coming back. What’s next for CSU? What would you like people to know about the coming months and the campuses emergence from COVID-19?
Joyce McConnell: Well, we will be reuniting on campus fully in the fall. So the great majority of our classes, once again, we’ll be in person. The only classes that will be online are those classes that people want for flexibility. So we’re learning from the pandemic in the sense that we do understand that for example, students on internship, where students who have complex schedules, some of them still want to be able to take advantage of remote learning, but what we want is create the full campus experience. So we will be completely back in August with all of our events. Athletics will be up and as robust as ever. I’m looking forward to homecoming, as I know, many of our students are. When I think about, well, what is it like when we’re back? I think about the marching band, being able to march and play together, which they haven’t been able to for the last year. This summer though, we’re really having a huge reawakening on campus. In particularly at our mountain campus. We have summer programming going on, and our mountain campus for those who don’t know, is at 9,500 feet on the Eastern slope of the Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s exquisitely beautiful. And we have a tremendous amount of learning and particularly experiential learning that goes on up there. So that’s a real sign for me that everything’s coming back. And we have camps going on, on campus right now. We’ve got soccer camps and we’ve got 4-H and it’s just really wonderful to see it opening up even in the summer.
Jocelyn Hittle: So, can we talk a little bit about CSU’s voice in the past year, around some of the national conversations around equity and social justice. Where is CSU on these issues?
Joyce McConnell: It’s such a wonderful question. It’s been such a important year for both the national and global reckoning around issues of equity and racial justice. I’ve been really, really proud of our faculty and students and staff who’ve all mobilized to support one another during a time that’s been very difficult. And we’ve been very mindful about always being in a position to recognize what the struggles have been, what they are and how we can move forward together. And so building that kind of positive climate on campus has been very, very important to us over the last year. One of our professors just published a book. His name is professor Dave MacIver. He just published a book reflecting on many of the incidents this year and our response and the idea that we as a nation are engaged in collective mourning and grief. And I believe that that’s true. And yesterday was the year anniversary of the death of George Floyd. And I think that it was very important that we all pause and share that grief and mourning for a life that was extinguished way too early, for reasons that we know are really unjust. But I raised the issue of the professor writing that book as a way of really trying to capture that this really has been an all campus engagement on these issues and they play strongly in our strategic plan going forward. Is how are we going to be equitable and inclusive, embrace diversity and teach about justice and help people understand how we can be a better nation, a better university and a better world.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah. We’ve seen so many different kinds of conversations on this front. You’ve hit on some very serious ones around justice and equity. And I think there is another conversation that is about inclusion and inclusion very early on in people’s lives, so that we are doing a better job of bringing diverse voices to the table and bringing diverse young people together. So I wonder if you could also reflect a little on that, as you know one of the things that the Spur campus is focused on is how we can increase diversity in the career paths that maybe aren’t as diverse historically in food and water and health. Can you reflect a little on engaging with young people and including more people in these STEM disciplines?
Joyce McConnell: It’s such an important question. I think Spur is going to be phenomenal for bringing students into hands-on learning in the STEM disciplines, but I think what’s really important about Spur and about curriculum at CSU, is that it’s not abstract. It’s not, oh, I want to be a scientist or I just want to work in STEM. It’s connected to improving human lives. How do we use STEM to grow healthy food and make it more available for more people? How do we make sure that water is, that we both have sufficient quantity, but that it’s also clean and that it supports human and animal life and plant life. I think that that connection of food and water and health, whether it’s an animals or people or the planet is really where the rubber meets the road for all of us. And I think to attract a greater diversity and make people feel and actually include them in process is engaging them in what we know motivates students most, which is doing something good in the world. Making a difference. That’s really what motivates. And if we can show how that connects through STEM, that’s a great achievement.
Jocelyn Hittle: Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. And I’m really excited about. It’s one of the things that motivates me around the creation of the Spur campus, right. Is this idea that we are connecting these topics that do seem abstract to the realities of day-to-day life for a variety of people. And really inspiring kids to think about careers they might not have thought about. Can you say a little bit more also about what you’re most excited about Spur and how the CSU Fort Collins campus will engage in Denver?
Joyce McConnell: I’m excited on so many different levels. Let me start with the student level. I’m really excited both about the students who will come from the Denver area or from all around the state to Spur, to have that hands-on experience. I’m really excited about how that can create a pipeline between the Spur campus and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and how those students can get introduced into those larger issues and their role in solving global challenges. And then take that motivation and come to the university and complete degrees, not just undergraduate degrees, but graduate degrees. That’s exciting. And then the other direction, I’m really excited about our students who were already enrolled, having the opportunity to do internships at Spur, to share their knowledge and experience with students who were there at Spur and for our faculty to be able to share their expertise on the Spur campus. And I think that’s going to result in this amazing collision of minds and energy and interest areas. And that’s what I love most. Is sort of the spark that comes from people working together and seeing what they can accomplish.
Jocelyn Hittle: Wonderful. Yes. I’m looking forward to continuing to collaborate with you and your team to make all of that happen and really have that spark and that activity and that center of vibrancy here in Denver as well. We’re going to shift gears a little bit, if you don’t mind and talk a little about you. Also, as I think, you know, one of the things that Spur is really hoping to achieve is to take some of the mystery out of some of the career paths in food, water, and health, and to engage and inspire kids to think about those careers and also tell them how they get there. So one of the things we’re trying to do is introduce people to how certain careers actually come to be. Right. So can you tell us a little bit about your journey? I mean, did you, when you were five years old say, someday I want to be a university president?
Joyce McConnell: No.
Jocelyn Hittle: And everything has been a linear path since then. Right? So maybe you can tell us a little about how you got where you are.
Joyce McConnell: It’s such a great question because I’m not quite sure. I think that my life has been a journey and my career path has really been a journey and a twisting and winding one. I think that the key to what I’ve ended up doing is that I just, I’ve tried to prepare myself for almost anything. And when I saw a door open, I was willing to take the risk of walking through it, even if I wasn’t sure what was on the other side. And I think that’s true for many of us, that when you’re five years old, unless your parents are university presidents, you don’t even know what a university president is. But later on as I went into high school, I did realize that I was really interested in a career that was going to improve the lives of others. I didn’t know exactly what that career would be. Ultimately, it led me to law school and then law school led me to law teaching. And then law teaching led me to being a Dean. And then I then became a provost. And for those people don’t know what a provost does. It’s a chief academic officer for a university. And then after that experience, I was actually approached by presidents who had been presidents at West Virginia University. And they actually told me I’d been provost long enough, and I needed to be a president. And that started my search and here I am.
Jocelyn Hittle: So, that’s wonderful. And you know, I love to hear stories from people where their pathway wasn’t so clear, right? And that there were these moments in their history where they made a decision. One of the things I heard you say is there was a door open and you stepped through it. In your case, you stepped into the presidency of CSU as the first woman president of the university. Can you say a little about what that is like and stepping through that particular door?
Joyce McConnell: Well, it’s really interesting because I feel very prepared for the job. That doesn’t mean that I don’t make mistakes, but it does mean, I feel like I have the background that prepared me for it and I think that’s important. I think when you walk through the door of something like a presidency, you don’t know what’s going to hit you. And I was only on campus for eight months before the pandemic hit. And so, no one sits around thinking, oh, I’m going to have to manage a pandemic. And so, that’s part of the risk, right? You don’t know what’s up ahead, but if you have adequate preparation and you surround yourself with a great team, and I feel like I have a great team, then you can do anything really. And I think you’re right when you walk through that door, it’s almost. I describe it like you’re on the edge of a mountain and you’re on a hang glider and you hope the hang glider will hold you up, but you don’t know, but you step off anyway. And that’s how moving into leadership roles has felt to me.
Jocelyn Hittle: And I ask that question in part, because I do think it’s important for us to remember and acknowledge that nothing is without some risk. Right. And you need some courage to continue to take the next step in your career.
Joyce McConnell: Yeah. You asked a question specifically about gender and about being the first female president. And the first thing I would say about that is, I’m incredibly proud. And not just proud because I am the first female president, but proud that the university was open to having a female president after 150 years of men. And that’s a big step forward for a large public university and particularly a public land grant university. So I’m very proud of Colorado State University, was really ready to embrace the difference of having a female leader. And it brings its own challenges. Obviously, whenever you’re breaking through a glass ceiling, but it’s been a wonderful learning experience for me. I think it’s been a great learning experience for the campus. I think that having been through the pandemic and shown my capacity to lead through the pandemic, that that’s actually accelerated the ability for the entire campus to say, yes, she really is a good leader. She really did get us through a hard time. And so any doubts of whether women can lead during a crisis, I think have been erased. And so in that sense, the pandemic really presented some significant challenges, but I think it brought the campus together more quickly.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah, no question. And I have heard only high praise for your leadership over the last year and a half. So can you tell us a little bit about what’s a day or a week in the life like for a university president? What is the job?
Joyce McConnell: Well, one of the things I love about it is that it’s incredibly different all the time and it’s very, very busy and there’s no opportunity to be bored. You asked me at one point earlier in the interview, did I know I wanted to be a university president? Of course the answer is no, but I did know that I didn’t want to be bored. That whatever I was going to do as a job, I wanted it to be really active. And so an average day is full of very different experiences.
Joyce McConnell: So let me sort of capture. First of all, they’re very busy days. There aren’t many gaps in between, and they usually go from early in the morning, and particularly when we’re on campus, they go until late at night because there are so many events in the evening and it’s important to show up and be part of those events. And then on the weekends, of course, there’s a thousand other things going on. So I might start my day in a meeting with city leaders, either chamber of commerce or city council. Sometimes those start at seven in the morning, and they’re very important meetings because they bring us together in the larger community and we’re able to solve a lot of issues that way. So that’s great. And then I have a meeting with my leadership team and that’s always really wonderful. And then I start really a series of meetings all day long that are solving different problems.
Joyce McConnell: So I always say, it’s like, you’re always turning on a dime. You know, one minute you might be solving a facility’s problem. The next minute you might be solving a classroom problem. You might be solving a budget problem. It’s just crazy how quickly the day moves. But it also presents these amazing opportunities. Like one day I met the governor and we went to the equine reproduction lab, which is where we’re doing just amazing research and work on the reproduction in horses. And not only did I get to go in the laboratory, but I also got to go in the barns and I got to see the newborn foals. It’s extraordinary that I get to do that. Another day, we have something, The Temple Grandin Equine Therapeutic Center, and you’re going to have something similar or we will have something similar at Spur, The Therapeutic Riding Center. And I got to see young children who have different kinds of issues that they’re dealing with either physically or cognitively, work with physical therapists and occupational therapists and ride horses as part of their therapy. And I heard this amazing story about one of the young children. The physicians thought that he might not walk or have full mobility because of neurological issues. And seven weeks after he started riding, he started walking. And this is a great illustration for listeners to think of, is that connection between the brain and the body. And how do you connect those two? And apparently riding a horse, bonding with the horse, the horse trusting you, you trusting the horse, and all of the physical work that goes on with balancing. That’s really making a difference for many young children with these challenges.
Joyce McConnell: So that, when I think about my day, those are the sorts of things I think of. Then I might go have dinner with some students or a student group, and then there might be some events in the evening, like a concert or a lecture. And so as you can see, the university president is a great role for someone who doesn’t want to be bored.
Jocelyn Hittle: Absolutely. And someone who is very curious and has a lot of interests.
Joyce McConnell: Yep. It’s a great fit.
Jocelyn Hittle: Yeah. Well, and it seems to be a great fit for you. We’re really thrilled to have you in that role.
Joyce McConnell: Thank you.
Jocelyn Hittle: We are close to wrapping up here. So I just want to ask a couple of questions in closing. One is where can people find you on social media, your office? How can they stay on top of everything that’s coming out of your office?
Joyce McConnell: Well, that’s wonderful. We have a Twitter account. We have an Instagram. In fact, if you were to look at the Instagram, you would see that on Saturday morning, I was at the Master Gardeners Larimer County Farmers Market. And we took some great pictures of the farmer’s market. It was really fabulous. And that’s part of Colorado State’s engagement and extension program. So it was exciting to be there. I was with the vice president for engagement and extension, and he told his children that they were there to buy vegetables. I told them that I was there to buy pie and gelatos.
Jocelyn Hittle: Well, both are very good answers as to why one might go. Absolutely.
Joyce McConnell: Exactly. And then of course there’s always our website. And there is a president’s page if people are interested in that, but we would love to have people keep in touch.
Jocelyn Hittle: Wonderful. Thank you. And we will share all of those links in the notes as well.
Joyce McConnell: Thank you.
Jocelyn Hittle: So our last question is the Spur of the Moment question, where I’m going to ask you a question that you have no idea what it’s going to be. So for you, president McConnell, I know you have a background in music and you are a big music lover. So I won’t ask the question if you only had one album to listen to for the rest of your life. Cause that’s too hard. I know it is. So do you have a couple of albums that are your go-to albums that you listen to, that help you decompress or that you just love.
Joyce McConnell: I love that question. You know how much I love music. And part of my journey, which I didn’t touch on earlier was being a roadie for rock and roll bands before I went to college. And so I do have some favorite albums. There’s one by Emmylou Harris. I think it’s one of her very early albums that I just love and I could listen to it over and over and over again. So Emmylou Harris, really exciting. Allman Brothers, the Eat a Peach album. I could listen to that forever. It just has such an eclectic mix of wonderful Allman Brothers guitar and it’s pretty spectacular. I would say those are my two top albums. My third one would probably be Miles Davis. And that really captures for me a very different kind of music, but beautiful jazz, really soulful, phenomenal. And maybe a fourth would be listening to Brahms. You know, there’s sort of, that gives you a whole range, but I forgot one genre that I also really love, which is opera. So I think that covers everything, doesn’t it? Jazz, rock and roll, newgrass and country.
Jocelyn Hittle: Well, and it’s a variation on a theme here, right? That you’re a person with various interests. Right. And that’s why this is a great job for you and why your go-to albums span every possible musical genre. Yeah.
Joyce McConnell: Right. So what about yours?
Jocelyn Hittle: Oh. I wasn’t expecting to have that be turned around on me. You know, Paul Simon’s Graceland is one that was on in my house a lot when I was growing up. So that one always has a special place in my heart.
Joyce McConnell: Right.
Jocelyn Hittle: Well, thank you for answering that question and humoring are Spur of the Moment, spontaneous question.
Joyce McConnell: It was fun.
Jocelyn Hittle: Well, I just want to say thank you again for joining us on the Spur of the Moment podcast. And we will, as I said, share the information about how to stay up to date on everything coming out of the president’s office and CSU in the show notes, and we’re very much looking forward to our opening of Spur in January, and all of the ways that CSU will be demonstrating the wonderful programs that will live down here in Denver. So thanks again for your time President McConnell.
Joyce McConnell: Thank you so much, Jocelyn. It was a real pleasure.
Jocelyn Hittle: The Spur of the Moment podcast is produced by Peach Islander productions and our theme music is by Ketsa. Please visit the show notes for links mentioned during today’s episode. We hope you’ll join us in two weeks for the next Spur of the Moment episode, until then be well.
