AMHERST — Should Paul Tikalsky be selected as the next chancellor for the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he would strive to continue the campus’s growing reputation for academic excellence.

“You don’t have to rebuild anything,” Tikalsky said during a Friday afternoon listening session at the Old Chapel. “You’re accelerating success.”

Tikalsky, dean of The College of Engineering, Architecture & Technology at Oklahoma State University, said he is interested in being the chancellor in Amherst after 10 years running the college on the Stillwater campus, where his successes have included raising $250 million to help faculty and students at the college and for research that has led to tons of carbon dioxide emissions being cut.

In seeking to succeed Kumble Subbaswamy at the flagship, Tikalsky said he’s not ready to set any specific priorities

“I do know it’s well operated, it’s definitely continuing to rise,” Tikalsky said.

Originally from a small town in Wisconsin, Tikalsky spoke about having more than a dozen jobs as a teenager and then becoming a first generation college student with a scholarship supported by Harry Steenbock, professor of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Steenbock’s fame included identifying Vitamin D deficiency as a cause of rickets.

“I always use that (scholarship) as a motivation for myself,” Tikalsky said. “How do I pay back the next generation?”

Tikalsky said part of the purpose of land grand institutions like UMass is the public sector work that results, such as his own research.

In fielding questions from professors and graduate students, Tikalsky offered support for interdisciplinary learning, pointing to his experience at Oklahoma State where a shared laboratory building was opened to replace the individual disciplinary labs. While it took time for faculty to buy into it, donors and entrepreneurs were immediately receptive. Known as Endeavor, the laboratory is expanding instruction beyond the classroom and has increased undergraduate laboratory and exploratory time for interdisciplinary, hands-on and industry-aligned learning.

On the topic of diversity, Tikalsky said he wants students to be frank with him about what will keep students of color at UMass, and that even though his career predates the diversity, equity and inclusion movement, he has made it a priority. “We started to become quite interested about how we retain students,” Tikalsky said.

In Oklahoma, the diversity lens is about getting to know the tribal leaders of the numerous American Indian tribes because Indigenous students had been the most underrepresented. “Now we lead the nation in graduating Native American engineers and architects,” Tikalsky said.

Other efforts have included giving more leadership opportunities to students irrespective of race, gender and sexuality. That has reduced microaggressions, through a focus on creating inclusionary learning. “It is challenging, but it takes time,” Tikalsky said.

At UMass, with a unionized faculty that has been part of a shared governance, Tikalsky anticipates that being a benefit. He said he had great conversations with students, including at the learning center at the W.E.B DuBois Library and the club area at the Student Union.

“It was a way for me to go and talk to students who don’t expect to talk to me,” Tikalsky said.

In those interactions he saw an interest, passion and intelligence from students. “That’s impressive,” he said.

On the topic of housing, Tikalsky was asked questions about ways to lower rents for graduate students, or to increase their pay.

“I have no way of addressing all of that,” Tikalsky said. “It’s the same in every college town.”

Tikalsky met with municipal leaders and learned a bit about the housing, observing that at the University of California-Berkeley, enrollment was reduced to cut the pressure on housing. But he doesn’t have great solutions, aside from engaging with private entities.

“Yes, you have to keep addressing that,” Tikalsky said. “It takes time and money.”

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.]]>