Brady appointed interim dean

Though his appointment as dean is an interim one, former UT Trustee Tom Brady said he wants to help put the Judith Herb College of Education "on a path to world class" excellence during his tenure.

Shortly after Brady's selection was announced on June 19 in an e-mail to students, faculty, administrators and staff, he released an open letter to the faculty and staff of the JHCOE outlining how he plans to make this happen.

Brady's vision

Brady said he hopes to encourage the faculty and staff of the college to think creatively and develop "compelling action plans" consistent with the state's and UT's mission. He said as interim dean he would use his clout with state officials, UT Board of Trustees members, administrators and community members to implement the plans.

He said he plans to meet with the college's faculty and staff individually and in forums to get to know them and discuss where they want the college to go in the future.

"Faculty and staff are the ones who have been thinking about [these types of plans] all of the time," he said. "Part of what we probably don't do very well as an administration is we never ask them what they think."

He described these action plans as "themes that really speak to the paradigms of the future, probably where the college has pre-existing areas of strength."

The need for this improvement, however, is not to reflect poorly on the college's faculty and staff, he said.

"There's a lot of bright, able, well-trained, committed, dedicated people in the College of Education, but I don't think the college has achieved the stature that it can or deserves."

According to Brady, many of the same problems facing the college are systemic and replicated across the nation at all levels of education.

"The profession needs to reinvent itself," he said. "Our K-12 and the rules we have put on it on the state level and around itself, makes [effective education] pretty constrained."

Brady has been a strong advocate for charter schools and other alternative forms of education. He helped to found the Toledo Technology Academy and has been involved with the Toledo School for the Arts.

He said this need for reinvention is not restricted to K-12 education, however. A shift from a "teaching paradigm" to a "learning paradigm" is necessary, he said, adding that such a shift would place emphasis on students successfully acquiring concepts and would allow them to learn at their own pace.

Added technology might also characterize the shift, he said, including the use of both established mediums such as distance learning as well as cutting-edge forms. He noted this technology shouldn't make the role of professors obsolete and should only supplement it.

The exponential growth of technology, Brady said, is a large driving force behind this shift. Students need to be more tech-savvy and flexible with their skills.

"Part of what we have to train everybody to do is to reinvent themselves without knowing what they need to reinvent themselves to do ... to be innovative and flexible."

He said this emerging shift should be considered as the college's faculty and staff reevaluate their college's focus.

In his open letter, Brady noted early childhood, STEM and urban education as areas where UT could build.

Brady's candidacy

An "entrepreneurial" candidate with leadership qualities such as Brady is ideal for facilitating this shift in the college, said Main Campus Provost Rosemary Haggett. He is the founder of Plastic Technologies, Inc. and has had relationships with a number of other different businesses. Plastic Technologies, Inc. recently appointed a new president to oversee its operations.

"In an academic environment, one of the more difficult things is to make things happen," Brady said. "The environment in academia is about slow — that's not necessarily bad, but it is about being deliberate, being careful and doing research."

"The way our university system has evolved … it's about everybody doing their own thing," he said. "[Professors are] on a tenure-track where it's about building a resume [with research and publications]. That's different than a place like industry where you put a bright team together to make something happen that any one of us as individuals can't make happen."

This approach is especially necessary in light of a globalized world, he said.

"This isn't about competing with Bowling Green [State University] anymore. This is about competing with China, India and everyone else in the world."

The businessman

Brady's selection can also be viewed as a culmination of UT President Lloyd Jacobs' request to Haggett in a Jan. 27 letter about the college. Jacobs stressed the need for leadership of the college to come not only from "outside the educational establishment," but with a "business orientation."

This created a stir among some faculty. Lawrence Baines, former COE professor of curriculum and instruction who left UT after the spring semester, said a business orientation isn't healthy for the college.

"The goal of a business is to make money. The emphasis is on the self and on generating dollars for the self and the corporation," he said. "The goal of teaching is not to make a profit, but to help others."

Baines added that while he finds "the shift in philosophy from altruism to profitability deeply troubling," he hopes Brady will maintain the college's mission and not turn it into "a short-term, money-making, assembly line."

Haggett defended the choice of Brady in light of his business experience.

"Certainly it is in the job description of every dean to be the financial manager for their college and to look for alternate and new sources of revenue ... to figure out how to do things in different ways while being more cost-effective," she said.