Lindsey Sobkowski

On Wednesday, Dec. 6, The Oakland Post sat down with President Ora Pescovitz to conduct her second annual “year in review” interview. Pescovitz discussed the positive and negative aspects of the academic year and touched on the state of the counseling center, faculty contract renegotiations, future initiatives and more. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

The Oakland Post: The state of the counseling center (OUCC) is a huge concern for students and faculty. How is the OU administration going to address the desperate situation at the OUCC? 

Pescovitz: “I understand that there’s a very short wait list right now and that it’s mostly been addressed. The information that I got is that demand is not overwhelming right now. Given the increase in staffing that we have just added, it has mostly been addressed. It could be that we’re in this transition between the problem that existed and adding the new staffing. What I’ve been told is that there still seems to be a perception around among the students that the wait is longer than it actually is, and it might be that we’re in this transition between the long wait that was and the new staffing and it hasn’t just completely caught up. We’ve made this effort to be responsive. Students should not wait to get the help that they need because we don’t want them to wait until their problems become insurmountable.”  

(Editor’s Note: After the interview was conducted, The Oakland Post received updated statistics from President Pescovitz regarding the OUCC.

“We have added 1 full-time and 2 part-time positions this year. Although the demand for counseling has increased over last year’s numbers, it is not as great as the demand was two years ago. Overall, there has been a decrease since the height of the pandemic. Currently, there are about 15 students on the waitlist who will not be seen until the winter semester. (these are not emergency cases, all students have been through the OUCC triage system indicating they can wait until winter term). [OUCC] did not have a waitlist until mid-November this year. The current demand has not been overwhelming largely due to the success of many different therapy groups, the added positions and an improved ability to refer students to outside care who are in need of more intensive and long-term assistance.” )

The Oakland Post: The Post recently sat down with OU-AAUP president Michael Latcha. He relayed that a survey of the faculty has revealed many are unhappy with the OU administration. What is your reaction to this, and do you anticipate a positive outcome for faculty contract renegotiations? 

Pescovitz: “I’m looking forward to a positive outcome. I wasn’t aware that they’re not happy. I actually look forward to a very productive negotiation with the AAUP. I feel like I have a very positive relationship with Professor Latcha. He’s been very good to work with, and we expect a very fair and productive relationship with them. So I was not aware that the faculty don’t feel that they have a good relationship with the administration. In general, I feel that we’ve had a productive relationship with the faculty.”  

The Oakland Post: How has enrollment improved in the last year? 

Pescovitz: “I am delighted with where we are right now. Our enrollment is at the highest it’s been since the pandemic. Our new enrollment [was] just under 16,000. It’s up nearly 6% from where we were, but it’s the largest incoming class since 2020. We’re doing everything we can to improve enrollment, and one of the things we’re doing is to make ourselves as accessible and affordable as possible and that is something I’m very very proud about.”  

The Oakland Post: Are there plans for additional construction projects on campus? 

Pescovitz: “[South Foundation Hall] was state-supported with capital outlay. The state-supported 3/4 of that funding, so that was a state appropriation called capital outlay. 3/4 of it –– $30 million of the $40 million project came from the state. We are hoping to get, it’s not final yet, but we’re hoping to get another state capital outlay project for the science complex. That would be the next project that we’re hoping for. We put that in a while ago, and these projects get ranked [in] the legislature and we were ranked the second highest ranking out of all the projects that come in from all the universities. We were ranked #2 out of all the projects, so there’s a very high likelihood that we will get that project.”  

The Oakland Post: Why was now the right time to establish the OU Center for Sustainability?

Pescovitz: “Ever since I came here I’ve been invested in thinking about the bigger world that we live in and sustainability has been important to me, but I also know that it’s very important to our students. Students really care about our planet and the world around us and it’s important to our faculty too, We always talk about our three or four big goals being student success, research, scholarly activity, community engagement and diversity, equity [and] inclusion, but when you expand what we mean by community engagement that means being part of our world. 

I’m in my seventh year, but I thought about really being invested in sustainability since the day I arrived, but with so many initiatives you can’t do everything at once. You have to prioritize. We did get a $1 million gift from the OU Credit Union and all of a sudden [it] moved from aspirational to something we could actually move on because when you think, ‘when is the right time for something?’ Well, there are lots of reasons why something would move from being something you just dream about wanting to do to something you could actualize. How does that move from just thinking about it, wishing for it and moving on it? One would be when you have a really great champion. The other is when somebody gives you the money to start moving on it. In this case, it was sort of both. We had this push from our constituents, students, faculty and staff helping me do what I wanted to do and money. It all kind of coalesced, [and] it was the right time.” 

The Oakland Post: Your tenure as president was recently extended for 8 more years. What do you hope to accomplish in this time? 

Pescovitz: “One of the reasons why it’s good to have people with some longevity [is] because if people in leadership turn over very often, you do end up with instability. You aren’t able to execute. You have people coming in, they have an idea, and then they leave. If you have good ideas and the institution has confidence in the leadership, you’re able to execute and get things done. You’re able to get, for example, support from donors because they have confidence in the leadership. So there’s something to be said for stability. I don’t make all the decisions at all. I am the kind of leader that really believes in getting ideas from the institution, and once they realized that I would be able to stay longer or that they wanted me to stay longer, one of the very first things I said [is] ‘what we must do now is reinvigorate our strategic plan.’ That is not something that I wanted to do by myself, so that’s the most important thing that is going to happen now. I initiated that as soon as it became apparent that the board and the institution wanted me to stay.”

The Oakland Post: Compared to other universities, OU has not seen divisive political activity which has been rampant on other campuses across the country due to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. How has OU been able to avoid this turmoil?

Pescovitz: “​​I think it has a little bit to do with our student profile. Not that we don’t have a large Arab and Muslim population that probably has views that may be similar to the views on many other campuses, but we do not have a very activist campus. I think one of the reasons why we don’t have a particularly activist campus is because, to a certain extent, our students are very busy with their school and their extracurricular activities. I think that’s one of the reasons. The other reason, and I don’t know if this is true but I think to a certain extent it does have to do with some of the leadership that we have displayed. I would say, and I hope this is true, that the three statements that I’ve put out –– they were very intentional.

There is no excuse for what happened. That was stated clearly without explanation or excuses or justification. I said that on October 7. Later that week, I came out with a second statement where I expressed empathy and compassion for lives lost, but in the second statement I expressed concern and compassion for all the lives that will be lost –– explicitly for lives that were being lost in Gaza. I also made it clear that people should access resources that we have on our campus, and I also warned against inappropriate activity on our campus. I’ve had three statements, the second and the third ones which were very compassionate for all lives being lost. Things [have been] very quiet here, and I think that it was a combination of our profile of students and faculty, but also the very clear and deliberate statements that I’ve made.” 

The Oakland Post: Overall, what are the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in the last year? 

Pescovitz: “I think first of all we’re clearly out of the pandemic which I think is fantastic. I thought it was really a great year. One of the things that I’m especially proud of [the] Wall Street Journal rankings. To me, that’s one of the best things that we’re ranked first for social mobility in the state. I’m really proud of that because that is a reflection of what we’re really aiming for. The other thing about affordability is really a big deal. The fact that you can come to Oakland if your family earns less than $70,000 a year, you can come and not pay tuition. I’m really really proud of that, and if you do have to pay tuition you can pay it back in a year and seven months. I’m so proud of all these things. We won the inaugural award from [the] American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) for the Stewards of Place award. That was something I’m really really proud of too because it’s a national award and it’s for the OU-Pontiac initiative. 

We got our international programs up and running. Our ethics bowl team is competing in the nationals. Five Horizon League championships –– that’s huge. We responded to the students on safety, and so the $655,000 that we spent, we didn’t just do it to respond to the students we were going to do it anyway, but we were responsive. I’m still not happy with our graduation rates. I would like to see those get better. While we’ve made improvements in the URM gap in graduation, I’d like to see that get better. I want to see enrollment get even better, and I want to see more research. While I think of us as the university of choice, all these things can get better. Everything we’re doing we can do even better. I always like to describe myself as being very happy but never content, so I’m always gonna push for more.”