Lori Stewart Gonzalez, Ohio University’s 23rd president, held a roundtable discussion Wednesday to inform student media about her goals and priorities during her presidency.
She plans to focus on four pillars, or big ideas, which include discovery, community engagement, connectedness and ensuring OU’s campus is a good place for students, faculty and staff to work and flourish.
Gonzalez spoke of how she wants to boost enrollment and entice high school graduates to come to OU.
With fewer high school graduates attending college, she said that she wants to invest in different strategies that would bring new programs and, in turn, more students to OU.
“The number of those students choosing to go to college was down 4.2%,” Gonzalez said. “So our strategies and some of our investments have to be around enticing those students that can be brimming with passion and talent to go to college.”
One thing Gonzalez said she hopes to accomplish during her presidency is to make OU the first choice of college among Ohioans and improve OU’s overall national reputation.
“We have so many assets that are extraordinary that can be enhanced to make (OU’s) national reputation stronger,” •Gonzalez said. “One of the things I'm most impressed with is the notion of place … here there's something about this buzz, about this campus, about walking through the gateway that is more unique than other places.”
Gonzalez also plans on embracing students of all kinds and wants them to take pride in themselves and where they come from.
“My commitment to students is that every student that comes here, regardless of whatever identity – he, she or they – agree that an individual can be authentic,” she said. “It's really about connections and experiences and having a diversity of experiences.”
Gonzalez said she wants to know students on a personal level, and she is interested in each student’s individual story. She said she hopes that comes from her ability to be informal and her desire to be approachable to students.
“I'm a student-first president,” Gonzalez said. “I get my energy from being around students.”
