A U. divided

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec 30, 2003 | by Stephen Speckman Deseret Morning News

A divide exists on the University of Utah campus -- and it's something the school's next president will at least have to acknowledge, if not handle head-on.

Physically, it's Wasatch Drive that separates most of the upper and lower -- or "main" -- campuses at the University of Utah.

On the upper portion, you have the health sciences -- the University of Utah Hospital, Huntsman Cancer Institute, John A. Moran Eye Center, school of medicine and nursing building.

Below the drive, it's engineering and the humanities, with history, English, music, psychology and so on.

On one side, it's men and women in lab coats studying to become doctors and nurses, and there are high-profile researchers, like world-renowned geneticist Mario Capecchi.

On the lower campus, the doctoral students aren't as easily recognized and there are departments like theater and dance, which are both nationally recognized, notes Randy Dryer, who sits on the U. Board of Trustees.

"They probably feel a little underappreciated in the community in this state," Dryer says, "and yet they are a very important part of what makes the University of Utah a great institution."

And yet "clearly," Dryer adds, some professors at the U. may not feel like they have the same access to university resources as those in the "hard" or health sciences.

Dryer is also a member of the search committee looking for a replacement for current President Bernie Machen, who is headed to the University of Florida.

The divide is a subject that instantly triggers a sensitivity to semantics in some.

"I don't know if divide is the right word," says Dryer. He brought up the issue of a "divide" in a recent search committee meeting. He says the word has a pejorative context to it.

"Well, there is a golf course between us," chuckles Dr. Lorris Betz, senior vice president for health sciences and interim president starting Jan. 1.

Beyond that, he says, labeling it a divide is too strong a word. "I would prefer to call it some cultural differences," he said.

Betz notes that 92 percent of the funds that support the operations of health sciences come directly from the work of faculty. The pressure on the upper-campus faculty is to compete for research funds. On the lower section, Betz says, the pressures relate more to actual teaching time, which relies on state funds. And health sciences is like its own business, generating more than $800 million in revenues through the hospital and physician practices.

Search committee chairman James Jardine says the division has not been a "significant" issue in the 16 years he has been with either the U. Board of Trustees or the State Board of Regents.

Jardine calls the health sciences component of the U. a "very different thing to manage" compared to other universities. It's a difference, he says, that adds to the "complexity and richness" of the school.

Managing all these differences for the past six years has come under the charge of Machen, a dentist by trade.

But Machen's job at the U., Jardine points out, has been aided by delegating responsibility to David Pershing, senior vice president for academic affairs, and to Betz. Those two also preside over the divide.

Betz says he wants a new president with at least an "appreciation" for what a major medical center brings to a university, which means that person would probably come from a campus that also has a medical center.

As for someone who can manage the two distinct cultures, Dryer knows what he's looking for.

"We need a university president who not only understands the values of a liberal arts education and supports the humanities, but someone who has a familiarity with the health sciences," he said. "If the new president only cared about health sciences, that would not be in the overall best interest of the university."

E-MAIL: sspeckman@desnews.com