By LaJoyce Brown
James. M. Smithis president of Eastern Michigan University (EMU). Before coming to EMU, Smith served as president of Northern State University (NSU) in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and vice president for economic development at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.
Smith has also served as an elementary and middle school teacher; an elementary school principal; a teaching fellow and assistant professor at Miami University; director of the Experiential Program for Preparing School Principals at Butler University; and director of the Educational Leadership Program and coordinator of doctoral studies at West Texas A&M University.
He earned a B.S. in Elementary Education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, a Master of Education in Educational Administration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership from Miami University.
In the following interview, James M. Smith, President of Eastern Michigan University (EMU) since 2016, discussed his leadership approach, focusing on financial challenges, racial unrest, and community engagement. He highlighted the university’s aggressive enrollment strategies, community-focused programs, and infrastructure improvements. Smith emphasized the importance of listening to students, faculty, and staff, as well as the impact of public-private partnerships. He reflected on his career journey, mentorship, and the significance of his initiatives, such as the Give Rise campaign, which raised $120 million. Smith also shared his post-retirement plans, including consulting and supporting educational development in developing countries.
Brown: Thank you for being here today. President Smith, when you began your presidency at Eastern Michigan University in 2016, what were the most pressing challenges and opportunities you encountered, and how did those early experiences shape your leadership approach at EMU?
Smith: Well, two things come to mind in 2016: one was that we were very financially starved. We knew we had to do some innovative things. Right before I came, we had agreed to the Chartwells contract to collaborate on food service. That was one of many attempts to solidify our finances, knowing the demographic cliff was coming but had not yet hit us. That was one piece. There was also a great deal of racial unrest in 2016. Many students felt they weren’t listened to. And I can’t say it was just the previous administration. I think it had built up over several years, and it came to a head when 300 young people in my front yard asked me to listen and to respond. And I did, and we had a series of listening sessions. After that, I did a college listening tour for every college. And we’ve tried to do a series of those over the past ten years, where I just sit and have conversations with folks and get a sense for where we’re going and how things are going as we try to get to that next step.
Brown: You kind of touched on my next question a little bit. Higher education has undergone significant shifts in enrollment, trends, funding, technology, and access. How did you approach leading through such change, and what strategies proved most effective in keeping EMU adaptable?
Smith: As you know, because of your role in enrollment management, there is a shrinking number of students in the Midwest. We’ve been very aggressive over the last two years to show who we are and how we fit. Not everyone is a great fit. At EMU, we’re very community-engaged. We hold the Carnegie classification as a community-engaged institution. If you don’t have an interest in being hip to hip with a community, you’re probably not going to love all the stuff we do here, such as the internships that are really community-focused. This includes small accounting firms with a community presence. We also have a large social work program at a very large hospital. We typically refer to Trinity Health and St. Joseph’s Hospital, which engage students in nursing and medical lab science practices, including the community aspect of hospital life. I think that’s where we’ve really taken our focus.
Michigan is still 42nd in the nation in higher education funding; it’s inadequate, and I’ve tussled with the legislature for nine years on the principle that some places need more funding than others. For example, our institution is the second oldest in the state. Our buildings are old. Our infrastructure is old. We’re like a legacy airline. You know, we’re not flying all new planes. The building we’re interviewing in was built in the late 1800s and has been remodeled several times, but the bones of the building are very old. So we will continue that discussion.
Brown: Okay, I want to talk about your journey to the presidency. You began your career as an elementary and middle school educator before moving into academic leadership and eventually the presidency. Could you share your professional journey and what ultimately led you to pursue the role of university president?
Smith: I’m happy to do that. I was a public school teacher, as you said. I taught fourth through eighth grade. I taught exclusively middle schoolers in the summers. These students had not performed well in the prior two semesters, so they enrolled in summer school with me. I had a social studies concentration. It was a perfect opportunity for me to teach a comprehensive classroom during the fall and spring, and then teach social studies coursework in the summer. I loved it. I became an assistant principal, then a principal. I completed my master’s along the way and then went back to do a Ph.D. full-time.
I was an undergraduate alum at Miami of Ohio. I completed my master’s at Xavier University, and then returned to Miami to pursue my doctorate, largely because I knew the faculty and fellowships were strong. My intention was to be a large-school superintendent. I thought I would get a Ph.D., and then work my way up to Houston ISD, Atlanta, San Antonio, or Memphis. I fell in love with undergraduate teaching. As part of my fellowship, I taught two courses each semester. It was the Social Foundations of Education course, and I remember, probably in the third semester of my doctoral study, I went to my advisor and said, “How do I get this gig? How do I do this? I think I’m going to make a move.” And he said, “Good luck. These are hard jobs to find.” He wasn’t negative; he was just a realist. I was lucky. I got my first job at Butler University in Indianapolis. I taught educational leadership and policy studies. I went on to work in the Texas A&M University System. By the time I was at Indiana University, I was a dean and knee deep in academic work. There, you’re doing academic leadership every day. I loved it and was then recruited to attend Bowling Green State University. I spent nine years there, first running a branch campus on Lake Erie, and then working as vice president for economic development. I had become quite close with the business community and President Sidney Ribeau. He asked me to serve as vice president for economic development, a role I held for about five years. I was at Bowling Green for nine years when Dr. Ribeau left for Howard, his dream job. He called me to his office and said, “Jim, let’s face it, you’re not going to be happy working for anybody else.” (He and I had a special relationship; he was my boss, but he was also my friend and my mentor). And he added, “Do you want to go get a presidency?” And I said, “Sidney, it’s not that easy. You don’t just say I want to be a president and then get to be one.” “Well,” he said, “You know, I know consultants, and I know how to fast-track things. And do you trust me?” I said, “I’ve always trusted you.” The next thing I know, I’m on a plane to South Dakota, interviewing at Northern State, where I ultimately served as president. I absolutely loved it; it was a smaller institution, far smaller than Bowling Green State University and Eastern Michigan University, but a place where I felt really comfortable. My wife, Connie, is also in academics. She had extensive administrative experience with international students and ran tutoring centers and a retention center. She took over the international enterprise and reported to our provost, and I was president for seven years, and then, literally, a headhunter said, “How about Eastern Michigan University?” It seemed like days later, I was interviewing, and then on the plane to accept the position.
Brown: Wow, that’s a remarkable journey to the presidency. Thank you for sharing that.
Smith: My pleasure. One thing I didn’t add, which might be interesting to readers, is that I was never a provost. And, you know, I think that can be a handicap but also advantageous. I’ve been blessed with two really good provosts—actually, three; I had two provosts in South Dakota. It’s not my skill set. It’s not my best forehand or backhand. I love curriculum. I love teaching it, but I’m not the person who wants to analyze how it aligns with HLC and with course equivalencies and Gen Ed. I viewed it as an advantage. I’m sure there are people who would say you just can’t ascend to the presidency without being a provost, and it’s not true. It may be harder, but it’s not impossible.
Brown: That’s very important to know. Having served as an educator, faculty member, and senior administrator before becoming president, how would you describe your leadership philosophy? What decision or moment during your presidency most tested that philosophy?
Smith: Well, I’m not sure it’s a philosophy; it’s more of a style for me. You must listen to everyone. I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but when I walk across campus, students will always want to tell me something. Let’s say I’m over at the library, and I’m walking to the Student Center. It’s not a very long walk, maybe four or five minutes. I say, “Walk with me and tell me what it is you want me to know, because setting up an appointment with me is fruitless, right? You know you’ll be scheduled in two or three weeks.” And I think students have appreciated that. I spoke with faculty yesterday. We toured one of our academic buildings, and I asked how things are going. I try to do the same thing with mid-level administrators, and then you can collect the big picture. Otherwise, you’re making idiosyncratic decisions based on the mindset of one person. And it doesn’t work.
What’s tested me most with respect to that, I think, is the pushback, the discontent by some that we’ve done public-private partnerships, for example, in housing. We have all new or remodeled housing on campus. It was a little more than $200 million; we didn’t have $200 million in the coffers to do that.
The one that we’re untangling right now is parking. Parking didn’t work, and we’ve reached an agreement with our parking vendor to reclaim the parking. But for them, I think it was painful, and for us, it was painful. I say that I’ve had bad lunches before, but I didn’t quit eating lunch. There are times when you say, look, that one didn’t work. But housing has worked very well.
Brown: My son lives on campus, and he loves it!
Smith: So, you know what I mean. Some of them are older buildings, but they’ve been upgraded with new flooring, new bathrooms, and the old gang showers have been removed. There’s, what I would call, a Jack and Jill bathroom configuration in all those residence halls. I hear from students that it makes a lot of sense. But there are people who just say, “I think this should all be public dollars.” If we had it, we probably would have done it. But we said, “When you’re down to a bimodal set of choices, it’s either A or B, and you’ve got to make the decision, right?”
Brown: Thank you for that. You established EMU’s first chief access and opportunity position reporting directly to you. How did this decision reflect your leadership values, and what impact do you believe it has had on the institution’s culture and priorities?
Smith: It is the holiday season during the time of this interview, so we have an event in the house every night. A man came up to me last night and said, you know, you really are a social justice guy. And I thought, I’ve never defined myself that way. I believe in social justice. I believe we are engaged with our community, and it is incredibly diverse. I believe Dwight Hamilton’s selection for the chief access and opportunity position was the right choice. We are the most diverse university in Michigan. We perform exceptionally well in the center of Detroit. We also perform very well in small, non-diverse towns. We bring people here who come from highly privileged backgrounds. Forty percent of our freshman class is Pell-eligible. I think you need an access officer. I called Dwight the great segue. He and his staff bring our students together. They have a place they call the Hub where students come to study or join a discussion group, and that’s the kind of environment we wanted to build, so we made it happen. Could we afford it at the time? Probably not. Could we afford not to do it? It was a question I kept asking myself.
How do you get excited about recruitment and retention when you’re not paying attention to the retention part? How comfortable do you feel here? I’ve heard you and others in the admissions world say this: students have to find their lane, and if they don’t, they’re going to be lonely in their residence hall. Part of an access officer’s role is to help people find their lane. Our LGBTQ Center offers a wide range of programming, and I’ve heard Dwight say, “You can just go if the topic interests you.” You may not want to attend anything else the LGBTQ Center does all year, but they have a speaker on this. The Women’s Resource Center repeatedly tells me we want more men in the audience. This is not an exclusive women’s group.
Brown: That makes sense. I learned that you are currently the longest-serving sitting college president in Michigan, an achievement that speaks to stability, trust, and adaptable leadership. What factors do you believe contributed to sustaining your presidency over time, and what lessons can future leaders draw about longevity, resilience, and institutional alignment?
Smith: I think the first thing any president will tell you is that you don’t get to serve for ten years (or, in my case, seventeen years on two campuses) without having good relations with your board. It is, in fact, a collective of the university cabinet. The boards I’ve worked with have been supportive of our vision. My vision is often shaped by Provost Longworth, CFO Valdez, or Vice President Condon saying, “Have you thought about this?” My relationship with the board includes explaining that what may have been cool when some of our regents were young is time gone. For example, I find it interesting that many of our students no longer drive. A young student was in the office the other day. She’s 19 and said, “I have no desire to drive. I’ve got Uber, I’ve got Lyft, and I have a bus pass.” We’re fortunate to have bus lines serving all areas of campus, but if I don’t tell the board that, they won’t understand it. Of course, they run into students, but they don’t have the time I do with students.
And I think that is part of the longevity factor. How do you relate to your board? How do you share with the board what is alive and well on campus and what is dead and dying? What is the next new phase? We’re all trying to figure out what the next phase of AI is, exactly. All of that is, I think, what has allowed me to do a combined seventeen years, ten years here. I think any president who has a long tenure has the skin of an elephant because people aren’t going to like everything you do. I think our campus has transformed over the past ten years. Some people find it heartbreaking that two of our former residence halls are no longer there. They were filled with black mold and built on asbestos. There was nothing that could be done to save them. But I have to be mindful that what I see is a beautiful new park. But a beautiful new green space that will be unveiled this spring is painful for someone who spent four years living in a residence hall on that site. And you know, you have to have the thickness of skin to say, I know they’re angry, but I know it was the right choice.
Brown: Your presidency has spanned significant shifts in higher education, including enrollment challenges, global uncertainty, and the COVID-19 pandemic. How did you approach leading Eastern Michigan University through periods of disruption while remaining focused on mission and long-term goals?
Smith: The pandemic was the most disruptive thing I’ve ever experienced. At the time, our cabinet met with some senior consultants. We had an epidemiologist on faculty here, and we had our senior nursing officer, among others who joined us. We met every day for hours to discuss: What is the newest thing? What do we know? What can we tell students? Do we have to close the residence halls? And you’ll remember, ultimately, the governor closed all residence halls. Then we had the issue of what to do with students who had no place to go, so we had to figure out how to keep a residence hall or two open for students facing housing challenges. We wrote to the university community every day at the outset, sharing what we knew. The health department here in Washtenaw County was very good to us. They gave us really cutting-edge information. I then worked with Walter Kraft, our vice president for communications, and sent it to our audience so they were aware of the latest developments.
Brown: That was a good strategy. I want to talk about mentorship. You mentioned the role your mentor played in your career journey. Throughout your career, from classroom teaching to the presidency, how has mentorship influenced your development as a leader, and how should future presidents intentionally prepare themselves for the realities of the role?
Smith: First, I have stayed in touch with students I taught at Texas A&M University System institutions in the early 1990s. These individuals have gone on to have incredible careers as superintendents and community educational leaders. I have one former student who runs the largest youth athletics organization in West Texas. I still get calls, emails, and questions. The same is true with faculty whom I brought on as employees, or had just been hired when I came on. At this point in my career, it’s often not me answering the question; it’s me saying, “I know the person who knows this answer. Write to her; use this email address; and tell her Jim Smith told you to ask her.” We’re all flattered when someone writes and says, “Look, someone told me you are the leading expert on this.” I’m proud of those connections.
I recently helped my provost, the second of the two I had at Northern State, as he prepared to become a small college president in North Dakota. Now he’s going back to Northern State, his alma mater, to be their next president. I do reference calls weekly for people with whom I’ve worked. I think the best way to do mentoring is to let people come to you. If I think I can help someone, I always want to do that, but some people aren’t mentor-wired, so I don’t want to be imposing. But if someone asks, I’m always willing. I try to be mindful that there’s often a significant gap between where they are and the experiences I’ve gained, given their age. They’re young to the profession, so you have to walk them through. If a person’s a director, I’ll say, “Look, you need to get to the next level. You’re not going to be a provost in fourteen months.” If you’re a program director, you probably need to be a department head. If you’re a department head, you probably need to be a dean. Then you can consider the provost role in student affairs. If you want to be the vice president for student affairs, you’re probably not going to go from that MAGIC director position right to the vice president. There are some steps in between, and I try to show people why that’s important.
Budget authority is also important. I understand how to manage budgets, how to get to the end of the year and say, “OK, we’ve got just enough money to buy this, and that’s something that we’ve been really desirous about getting for a number of years.” Those are the topics I like to discuss with people.
Brown: Thank you for sharing that insight. The presidency is a role without true peers on campus. How did you navigate that reality, and what strategies did you use to stay supported and connected while serving as president?
Smith: Sometimes you’re lucky to have a former president who stays on for a couple of years and teaches, or maybe stays on to finish a foundation project, but I’ve never had that. I’ve found the best way to address this is to make yourself part of the presidential fabric of other institutions. For example, Roy Wilson, at Wayne State University, was a friend I could always call. Bob (Robert Davies), president at Central Michigan, and I are also friends. I also included my community college colleagues in that circle. President Rose Bellanca, president of Washtenaw Community College, is literally three blocks from my house, and we meet every quarter. I also stay in touch with President Russ Kavalhuna, who previously served at Henry Ford Community College and is now at Western Michigan University. Pete Provenzano, a chancellor at Oakland Community College, is another friend. In our case, our biggest feeders are often community colleges, so it’s important for me to understand that and to have friends in positions at those colleges.
The one thing I regret is that I haven’t gotten to the Upper Peninsula as much as I might have liked. It’s hard to recruit there now. The high schools have gotten way smaller. Northern Michigan University, Lake Superior State University, and Michigan Tech University have become stronger and stronger, and students are saying, “Why would I go all the way to Southeast Michigan when I’ve got in my backyard one, two, or three options?” I wish I had done more of that, but I think building friendships off campus is the only way to have a peer group.
Brown: OK, that’s great insight into how presidents stay connected and support each other. As you prepare to retire, what do you hope people will remember most about your time as president?
Smith: I hope people will walk or drive around campus and see the intentionality behind modernization. For example, Strong Hall was an old, dilapidated geosciences building when I came. We secured state funding and have made it a beautiful, world-class geosciences building. We funded our own Sill Hall, which is the home of our engineering programs; those labs were previously not adequate for engineering. I hope the community sees the exteriors of buildings and recognizes the real intention to modernize, and also sees the interiors and what we’ve been able to do with lab spaces and creative opportunities.
I’m also proud of what we’ve done in our athletic spaces. We had a football complex that looked old and still had a track around it that was outdated. We didn’t have a student-athlete performance center. The George Gervin GameAbove Center is now remodeled and modern. We have also seen incredible academic success among our athletes. If you want to see our very best students, talk to our volleyball and soccer players. Our football program now has a 3.0 overall GPA. Our lacrosse, gymnastics, and swimming programs are all in good standing.
Brown: Those are remarkable initiatives and points of pride highlighting your time as president. Initiatives such as the Give Rise fundraising campaign, Welcome Home, and major academic program expansions significantly reshaped EMU. Which accomplishments stand out to you as the most transformative and why?
Smith: Well, we were able to break the $100 million mark with our Give Rise campaign. Bill Shepherd was our vice president for advancement at the time. We had never raised $100 million before that. Now, with my retirement, my segue to the next chapter of my life, we’ll run another campaign. I’m sure the new president will want his or her stamp on the next fundraising, but that one has been really powerful.
Our All Are Welcome Here campaign also stands out. There was a period, and I think it’s resurfacing, when international students felt that America was not the place for them. We want them to know Eastern Michigan University is the place for them. At one time, we had 84 different countries represented here. It’s now harder for students to obtain visas, but we still have a significant international student population.
The Welcome Home campaign focused on remodeling residence halls. Every space on this campus is air-conditioned. The two new buildings, Lakeview Apartments and Westview Apartments, are both at 94 percent occupancy.
All of these accomplishments are meaningful to me, and I think they have shaped us differently. I think people think of us differently, if for no other reason than that they have the type of housing they’re interested in.
Brown: Early in your presidency, you led a revision of the Eastern Michigan University strategic plan centered on student success, high-performing academic programs, research, and community engagement. How did you arrive at these priorities, and how did you ensure they guided decision-making throughout your tenure?
Smith: We hosted listening groups, and we broke into committees to discuss high-quality academic programs. One thing most people understand about a regional comprehensive institution is that we conduct research, and it’s not always groundbreaking. We have a couple of things that have materialized in the last five years that really are groundbreaking, but that’s not our claim to fame. Our claim to fame is applied research. How is it that we can do this to make this better? That’s really what regional comprehensives do, and we had discussions about that.
How does that play out in a strategic plan? We have the oldest undergraduate student symposium in the United States. Students working side by side with faculty as sophomores, juniors, and seniors is just unheard of at some places. Here, we have full professors who teach composition courses. You’ll see them in the first semester. We wanted that highlighted in this strategic plan. There was thought around all of that.
Brown: That is very intentional.
Smith: If there was a key to the whole strategic plan, it was about intentionality.
Brown: I would like to ask for some closing reflections. The first is what has been your favorite or most meaningful moment in the role of president?
Smith: I find commencement to be the most exhilarating thing we do. It’s held in the large George Gervin GameAbove Center. We transform it into a commencement venue that, I think, is second to none. Yes, we have lots of working-class people. We have young people whose grandmothers have been paying for seven years to help them earn a bachelor’s degree. We read every student’s name. Every student walks across the stage. Some of our students are on their second or third attempt to earn a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree. We have Ph.D. recipients who are in their late 50s. We need to celebrate, and we do it really well. It’s my favorite day. I do look like Kermit the Frog; I have an all-green outfit and a green hat, but I think it is my most memorable moment and brings me the most joy. I say it in my script. I’ve embellished the script in several ways, but I want students to know from the outset. After the national anthem, the board chair officially opens the commencement, and I go to the podium and say, “This is your day, folks. This is all about you.” No one cares that I’m on the Jumbotron. They care when their granddaughter or son is on the Jumbotron, and everyone, as they walk off the stage, is up there, and it’s a big deal.
Brown: As you transition from the presidency, what aspect of the role or the campus community will you miss the most?
Smith: I’ll miss the students the most. We recently introduced the cap-and-gown countdown, where students decorate their hats. We had all kinds of booths. They could take photos, get ready for graduation, and walk around, talking to other students. I love hearing their stories, their excitement, and their nervousness. One young lady told me, “I’m ready to be a nurse. I’ve gotten interviews, but I haven’t gotten a job yet.” I serve on the local hospital board, and I said, “Believe me, you will get a job. Nurses are in incredibly high demand.” That’s what I’ll miss the most.
I will also miss the goofiness of an event that I’ll go to and say, I’m here to do this or that, and then end up with the sack races. It’s totally out of the realm of what I thought it was, but it was fun, and the students were excited.
I love the symposium because you hear students’ heartfelt appreciation for a faculty member who took them under their wing and helped them learn the research. I love the poster session, where students will get up with their faculty mentors. That helps students prepare for what’s next in life. I hear from our employers regularly who say, “Give me a kid who can write and a person who can stand up in front of a crowd, and I can teach them to do my business.” We need to prepare them for those experiences to support their next step in life.
Brown: You mentioned the next step in life. What comes next for you, professionally or personally?
Smith: First of all, we will take a little time off. We have lived in university homes for seventeen years. I’ve got to go buy a house. We have a lot to move, but we’re going to open a small LLC and do some private consulting. I’ve been asked to do some teaching. I would enjoy teaching the history of American higher education and the university presidency.
Connie and I would fundamentally enjoy helping schools in developing countries improve, better serve young people, and get more kids to school. I don’t think that I can fix the infrastructure of Syria, but can I help a country, maybe a district in a country, get better as a result of our experiences. So that’s the kind of thing we want to do.
Brown: What message would you like to leave with future higher education leaders who are preparing to step into roles of influence and responsibility?
Smith: Well, I mentioned the thickness of skin. I think that is critical. Listen to those around you. Don’t rely only on hearing the opinions of people at the highest level. Take advantage of asking lots of questions. The deeper you dive, the more you’re going to really understand the superstructure of a university.
The last one, I would say, and this one’s been very hard for me, is to accept that things won’t get done as quickly as you want them to get done. For example, we’re moving a world-class radio station into our library. They’re in a very old building. It’s great the work they do, but the environment in which they do it is suboptimal. Yes, we have had a couple of supply chain delays, and they make me nuts because I want it sooner than they can get it to us. You just have to roll with the punches, and it’s hard if your mind is on a conveyor belt, and this is the next thing that’s supposed to drop. But if you get too wrapped up in that, then you lose your viability as an administrator. There are times you have to say, “I’ve done all I can do. We’ve done everything we can do as a team. This just isn’t going to come in on time for construction.”
Brown: President Smith, thank you for sharing your reflections and leadership insight today. Your tenure at Eastern Michigan University and your perspective on service, mentorship, and longevity offer valuable lessons for current and future higher education leaders. I appreciate your time and your thoughtful contributions to this conversation.
Smith: Thank you. Great questions, too. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.
About the Author
LaJoyce Brown, Ed.D., is Director of Admissions at Eastern Michigan University, providing strategic leadership for undergraduate, transfer, international, and graduate admissions. With more than 25 years in higher education administration, she is a recognized enrollment management leader focused on access, partnerships, data-informed decision-making, and student success.
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