UT President Joe DiPietro talks goals, changes
As the University of Tennessee System President Joe DiPietro works to bridge the institution from its current set of leaders into a new era, he doesn’t necessarily have anyone in mind to take his place once he retires.
“It’s not my problem,” he said during an exclusive interview with the USA Today Network Tennessee, breaking his serious tone with a laugh.
Perhaps it isn’t, as a new Board of Trustees readies to take over at the start of July and will ultimately be tasked with finding the next leader for the job while DiPietro, 66, looks forward to days of horseback riding, caring for his grandchildren and escaping to his mountain home in Cherry Log, Georgia.
But the chief still hopes to insert his voice into the conversation on the kind of person who will grab the reins at UT.
“I would hope the board would say as they look at people to replace me, ‘What do you think, Joe?’” he said.
DiPietro’s annual performance review is on the agenda for discussion at the June 21 Board of Trustees meeting, along with any incentive compensation plan payments he may receive.
His base salary is $539,011.
RETIREMENT COMING, METRICS MATTER
DiPietro, who has yet to iron out an official retirement date with the new trustees, has a lot of thoughts about what it will take to steer UT into its next chapter.
Throughout his tenure as the 25th system president, his administration has worked hard to make sure all of UT’s campuses and units “feel like the system cares a great deal about all of them,” he said.
“And we’ve tried to give them autonomy but accountability with the system from the standpoint of performance,” DiPietro added, with metrics in place to gauge how far along they’re making strides in the strategic plan developed within his first year and a half.
“So I would like us to continue to look for a person who would continue to push the agenda that performance is important, that metrics are important, that we’ve come a long way in eight years and our body of work is really strong,” he said.
SUSTAINING UT’S BOTTOM LINE
In addition to a focus on the numbers behind performance is the need for a focus on plowing forward with the institution’s business model, which DiPietro is confident is sustainable through 2025.
At one time, upon projecting out its finances, the university stared ahead at a possible $237 million deficit by 2025, according to the UT president.
“We don’t have that gap anymore,” DiPietro said, crediting state appropriations, the ability to generate revenue and tuition as key resources that propelled the institution’s welfare.
In recent years, UT has made a concerted effort to keep a handle on tuition increases — to the extent that this coming year UT students on Knoxville and Chattanooga campuses will benefit from flat tuition for the first time in more than three decades.
“We’ve towed the line on tuition the last three years and we will continue to do that this year,” DiPietro said.
That’s the first priority DiPietro cited as he discussed the goals he’s continuing to chase before becoming a retiree, noting “we want to keep affordability at the forefront.”
CONTINUED EMPHASIS ON RESEARCH, ORNL RELATIONSHIP
Whoever DiPietro passes leadership onto also will need to prioritize the university system’s research capabilities and the relationships that have added to those capabilities.
“I wouldn’t hire somebody in this job who doesn’t have a strong interest in maintaining a relationship with Oak Ridge National Lab and all it means to us, if I were the board,” DiPietro said.
Within the time he has left, he wants to ensure UT continues “to push the research at the lab,” he said.
“Before I get done, we’re likely to hear about the competition because we’ll be coming down the timeframe where the Department of Energy will be talking about the next contract and we definitely want to keep our relationship with Oak Ridge National Lab,” DiPietro said.
Additionally, UT’s next system-level president will have to divvy up attention between Cherokee Farm Innovation Campus — a research and development park that is “beginning to blossom” but needs more nurturing, DiPietro said — and the UT Health Science Center as its research programming begins to meet expectations.
“We need to keep our foot on the gas pedal there,” DiPietro said, “to make sure it grows even more.”
POSSIBLE INTERNAL CHANCELLOR CANDIDATES
As DiPietro welcomes new trustees aboard this summer and helps them get oriented to their collective role, he’ll partner with them to tee up a plan for hiring UT Knoxville’s next permanent chancellor, following his dismissal of Beverly Davenport about a year after the school’s first female chancellor walked onto campus.
While her termination was trailed by the resignation of Vice Chancellor for Communications Ryan Robinson, it was also preceded by a torrent of leadership changes, including the firings of former football coach Butch Jones and Davenport’s first hire, former Athletics Director John Currie.
Davenport, herself, was the sixth top administrator to exit UT Knoxville since 2001.
Though DiPietro said he’s not taking the time to look into potential candidates to head the Knoxville university, he acknowledged that the flagship campus, itself, may already contain its ninth chancellor.
“I think there are some possible internal candidates, like always,” DiPietro said. “We want to hire the best person for the place.”
That person, he stressed, will bring “continued growth and experience” in higher education administration along with an understanding of how the university works and a background “at a research-intensive place like Knoxville.”
“So you want to see progressive levels of experience, in my estimation,” DiPietro said.
It’s not clear how long it will take for a search to lead to a hire.
“The new board’s going to have to wrestle with that,” DiPietro said, though he predicted it will likely take a year.
It didn’t take more than a day for DiPietro to name Wayne Davis, a longtime campus leader and former dean of the Tickle College of Engineering, interim chancellor for a period of six months to one year.
Much of what DiPietro is relying on Davis — who is “well respected” among colleagues from the president’s vantage point — to accomplish in his temporary leadership capacity, he’s already accomplished.
Among the to-do items: stabilizing the school’s environment and ensuring a smooth transition for the influx of freshmen headed to UT Knoxville this fall to become part of a class that DiPietro said is “likely to be one of the largest ever.”
“I would hope the board would say as they look at people to replace me, ‘What do you think, Joe?’” — UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE SYSTEM PRESIDENT JOE DIPIETRO
“I think there are some possible internal candidates, like always. We want to hire the best person for the place.” — UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE SYSTEM PRESIDENT JOE DIPIETRO