If he is named president of Metro State, Stephen Jordan says his first action will be not to make any snap judgments. Then he'll send out a questionnaire to every faculty and staff member asking them four questions: 1)What's the best thing about Metro? 2)What's the worst thing about Metro? 3)What's the single biggest issue facing Metro? and 4) What should I know about you as an individual?

Jordan says that was his first action when he took over as president of Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Wash. "I received about 700 responses out of 1,200 employees, and I read every one of them," Jordan said Tuesday during the morning interview session with the Faculty Senate and Council of Chairs. "It gave me a sense of the EWU community and a sense of their commitment to the university."

In the 50 minutes allotted, Jordan was faced with questions that ranged from What would be your vision for Metro State? to Would you be willing to cap enrollment? to How do you feel about being the only finalist named?—and everything in between.

What emerged was a consistency of thought about Metro's mission ("My first responsibility as president would be to do everything in my power to achieve Metro's mission while maintaining the commitment to quality."), the ratio of tenure and tenure-track faculty versus adjunct ("This isn't a large tenure and tenure-track faculty for an institution of this size.") and shared governance ("Our long-term success is just that—our success.").

Jordan said that he believes that curriculum and tenure begin at the departmental level. "Faculty must have input into these processes. They also need an activity plan with a clear set of expectations for promotion and tenure."

While stating that he expects to find that the academic programs at Metro are fundamentally sound, Jordan said he perceives that some of the more serious issues facing Metro State are the aforementioned faculty distribution, morale, the unique set of challenges around AHEC and funding.

"We're not going to solve the funding problems through state funding alone," he said. "They're going to be solved on the private side and the grants and contracts side."

Stressing the importance of maximizing alumni and community support, Jordan said that he has had to rebuild the alumni and foundation offices at EWU.

"Metro has put out a lot of graduates," he said. "You have more than 50,000 in only 40 years. That's powerful. At Eastern, we have around 70,000 and we've been around since 1882."

As to the question of his solo candidacy Jordan said, "It's very difficult to make a decision to leave a campus and hard to go into a multiple-candidate situation because of the damage it does at your home institution.

"I have one presidency, one move, one commitment left in my career. In some ways I feel I owe my career to this campus—having come to Auraria as a working adult and earning my master's and doctor's degrees at UCD. I believe my philosophy is compatible with Metro's mission and my wife Ruthie and I have family and dear friends here."