Volume 78/Number 4
Fall 1998
Tennessee Alumnus
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Business Before Pleasure
With an announcement to the UT Board of Trustees last June, President Joe Johnson made public his intention to retire by June 30, 1999, or when his successor takes over. The Board will select a president for the statewide University that Johnson has led since 1991. Johnson makes it clear that he intends to remain an active president in the months to come.
By Diane Ballard
He can't say it will be business as usual this year, but Dr. Joe Johnson intends to "take care of business" until the last day of his presidency.
"I'll be president until the day I walk out the door," Johnson told the Board of Trustees. "I hope you will not allow me to retire on the job. I don't intend to."
From what Johnson tells the Tennessee Alumnus, his agenda for the remaining months doesn't leave much time for retiring on the job. The areas that he continues to work on "very vigorously" include:1. Working even harder to demonstrate to the governor and other state leaders the value of higher education, including the University of Tennessee, to the social, economic, and cultural success of Tennessee.
"Higher education deserves to be higher than fourth or fifth priority in the state budget," the president says. "That's not a criticism. But we have got to convince people that higher education is an investment and that it returns a lot of dollars in what our graduates make and what our graduates do in the classroom, in the laboratory, in the factory, on the farm, in the operating room."2. Celebrating the successful conclusion of the 21st Century Campaign, which has raised more than $400 million for the statewide University, and thanking the campaign leaders. Johnson, himself known as a skillful fund raiser, ticks off the leadership that deserves credit for a job more than well done: Chairman Bill Stokely (Knoxville '63), Honorary Chairman Howard Baker (Knoxville '49), Joe DeCosimo at Chattanooga, Jim Haslam (Knoxville '52) at Knoxville, Steve Ennis at the Space Institute, Don Pennington at Martin, Bill Craddock in Memphis, and Jim Powell for the Institute of Agriculture.
3. Pursuing yet more private gift dollars for UT. The 21st Century Campaign helped identify many new gift prospects, and UT staff and volunteer leaders have set priorities and are moving ahead with an active program of fund raising. "The need for private gifts is greater than it ever has been," Johnson says. Private gifts are necessary to fund scholarships, professorships, and academic enrichment.
4. Implementing UT's new tenure policy. The policy, adopted by the Board at the recommendation of the administration, isn't "revolutionary," Johnson says. "But it does significantly improve the system of tenure as it operates within the University of Tennessee." The policy calls for -annual performance reviews on the basis of procedures being developed this year. The way the policy is implemented at each campus will be different, and the academic and administrative leadership has "a lot of work to do to implement the policy," Johnson says.
5. Getting better pay for the University's best people, particularly faculty. "We've gotten a little behind. We can't stay up with our competition with the raises [one percent to three percent] provided by state dollars."
6. Helping with the transition to the new president. Although he will not be part of the presidential search process, Johnson says he will help with the transition to the extent the Board of Trustees and the new president want.
7. Saying goodbye. "I've thoroughly enjoyed my 38 years here, and there are a lot of people I need to say thanks to," Johnson says.
Also expected late this year or early next year is the report of the Governor's Council on Excellence in Higher Education, of which Johnson is a member. The group has been studying public higher education in Tennessee with an eye to making recommendations that would lead to enhancing its future.
"It will be important dealing with those recommendations as they apply to the University of Tennessee," the president says.
One thing Johnson doesn't feel that he has to work very hard on this year is the University's top administration. He has confidence in the team he will leave behind.
"I feel very good about the leadership team. There's been a major change in that team since I became president. I've hired a chancellor at Knoxville, Martin, Memphis, and Chattanooga, a new leader at the Space Institute, a new vice president for development, and a new vice president for agriculture. We've replaced good people with good people."
These, together with long-time vice presidents, do "a top quality job for the University," Johnson says. "I feel very confident as I leave that the University is doing well. But it can always do better.
"Whatever has been accomplished while I've been president is the result of those people in leadership roles-the leadership capabilities within our faculty, our student leaders, and certainly our alumni and donors, with solid support from state leaders."
The Board of Trustees already has voted to give Johnson the title president emeritus. Has he started making any plans for "life after UT," perhaps for a new job?
Not an all-day, every-day job, he says. He'll help, if asked, with University fund raising and might do some teaching. He'll be a "better citizen of the community," giving more time to his church and to civic organizations than he has been able to in the past.
"I plan to read more, walk and jog more–and maybe just sit on the porch."The Tennessee Alumnus will focus in-depth on the Johnson years in the spring 1999 issue.
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