After almost a year on the job, University of Wyoming President Dick McGinity is growing more comfortable in the role, he told the Powell Tribune Friday.

“I’m starting to,” he said. “It’s a steep learning curve.”

But McGinity said he also is increasingly aware of the many challenges that face him and other university and college officials.

“Higher education in this country today has a lot of issues,” he said.

Leaders must deal with questions about the caliber of education, tuition, student debt, declining enrollment and evolving technology, McGinity said.

McGinity had lunch with NWC President Stefani Hicswa. Several staffers from both schools also shared ideas over the table. He described Hicswa, who took office a few months before he did, as “great to work with” and a bright and promising person.

“She’s going to be a leader in higher education in this state,” said Chris Boswell, UW’s vice president for governmental and community affairs, one of two dozen UW staffers who came to Powell Friday as part of an annual tour. “It’s pretty cool to watch.”

McGinity said ensuring college credits can transfer to UW is one topic the two presidents discussed. McGinity first dealt with NWC when he was a business ethics professor at UW.

“It was not anywhere where it needed to be,” McGinity said.

The Legislature prodded the schools to work closer together, and that is happening, he said. That can be done in part with improved advising to students, McGinity said, and such a process is underway. The process must be transparent and easy to understand from the time a student enrolls at a Wyoming college or the university, he said.

“And that really hadn’t existed before,” McGinity said. “The student shouldn’t have to suffer because of that.”

Sara Axelson, UW’s vice president of student affairs, said a new program dubbed TREQ — for transfer equivalency — should assist students and ensure the right classes are taken in a proper sequence to assure a smooth progression toward a degree.

In the past, the Outreach program, Academic Affairs and Student Affairs were all involved. The process will be placed under centralized leadership, McGinity said. Patrice Noel has been named director of transfer relations, Axelson said, and is seen as a strong leader for that area.

“I am pleased that there are now UW staff devoted to community college student transitions to UW,” Hicswa said in prepared marks during a Friday night dinner.

“I am equally impressed with President McGinity’s personal attention to this important issue and his understanding of the important role community colleges play in Wyoming,” she said. “A strong partnership benefits both students and taxpayers.”

Both presidents spoke well of each other, and Hicswa offered a gift: An NWC cap.

She said it would protect his head from ultraviolet rays — McGinity is bald — and give something to wear when he visits other college campuses. He accepted it with good humor.

Enrollment up slightly

The official fall 2014 UW enrollment will be announced this month, but Axelson said there has been a slight increase. There are about 13,800 students overall, with about 10,500 on the Laramie campus and more than 3,000 in Outreach programs around the state.

Retention is up, and there also is a continued rise in international students. McGinity said universities are now competing more than ever before for students as well as faculty members.

Students want larger rooms with better accommodations. They no longer want to share bathrooms with an entire floor of people, and are instead interested in suite-like apartments. Private businesses have noticed the demand and are seeking to provide more off-campus housing.

Faculty retention is, as always, as issue, and UW will request $1 million from the 2015 Legislature to use to entice faculty members who are weighing job offers elsewhere to stay. The state is “at the bottom of the pay scale” compared to other universities it competes with, McGinity said. However, other factors can help keep talented professors on campus, he added.

“I’m biased,” he said. “Wyoming does have some amenities the others don’t.”

UW is also asking Gov. Matt Mead to recommend an additional $31 million for the school in his budget package. Most of that — $25 million — would be to provide matching funds for endowments.

In addition, UW is seeking $1 million annually for operations and maintenance at its buildings. Boswell said some of the university’s science facilities are more expensive to maintain today, which is why the money is being sought.

UW faculty members are also teaming with private businesses to “bolster” the university’s science labs, he said. It’s not part of the UW request to Mead, but Boswell said it is an impressive effort on the part of the faculty.

McGinity said he also favors offering more agriculture education at NWC in cooperation with UW, and thinks a test program at Casper College to explore specialized four-year programs, tied to the needs of the area they service, is a good idea.

“These are four-year UW degrees delivered through the community colleges,” he said. “The need varies from college to college. But there needs to be more of that.”

McGinity and the UW staffers had a busy day in Powell.

In addition to touring Northwest College, they visited the UW Research and Extension Center and the State Seed Lab facility on the edge of Powell.

McGinity then met with Powell High School upperclassmen and PHS Principal Jim Kuhn. McGinity implored the students to pursue as much education as possible. The world is “way more competitive” than it was when he was younger, he said.

“You’re going to have to be smart, you’re going to have to be alert, you’re going to have to be agile,” McGinity said. He predicted the students would have to “re-invent themselves” three times during the course of their careers.

“You must keep learning,” McGinity said.

After that pep talk, the two-dozen UW faculty and staff members toured Gluten Free Oats and wrapped up the long day with a dinner at NWC with invited community guests, including local officials and legislators.

McGinity said one part of his job that delights him is the intelligence and goals of the people who seek him out.

“That’s a wonderful aspect of the job,” he said. “They’re all very bright and have good ideas. Some are better than others.”

‘Day by day’

McGinity, 70, said he enjoys the work and has no set timeline on when it will end. He has a letter of appointment that is good through June 30, 2016.

“I serve at the pleasure of the board of trustees,” he said. “It’s like in the private sector. You earn your job day by day.”

The trustees named McGinity as the university’s 25th president on Jan. 16; he had been serving as interim president since Dec. 6 after the resignation of Bob Sternberg, who ended a short, stormy tenure on Nov. 14. McGinity is paid $375,000 annually.

He had been the interim vice president for academic affairs since September 2013. He joined the UW faculty in 2007 to fill the Bill Daniels Chair of Business Ethics in the College of Business.

A New Jersey native, he earned an undergraduate degree from Princeton and master’s and doctorate degrees from Harvard — which he referred to as “snob schools” during his talk at Powell High School — and then was a naval aviator, which included a hitch in Vietnam that earned him two air medals.

Before joining UW, he was a Wyoming Business Council director for seven years. That was a natural fit for McGinity, who had served on the research faculty of Harvard Business School, co-authored (with Ray A. Goldberg) a book about economic development and agribusiness, and wrote his doctoral dissertation on competition in the meat packing industry from 1945-60.

He worked in venture capital and private equity for several years and was on the boards of numerous privately owned and publicly traded companies. Despite his Eastern background, McGinity said he found a true home in Wyoming.

He has a residence in Crowheart, loves to spend time on horseback and is a licensed professional guide.