Q&A with University President Kay Norton

This year marks University President Kay Norton's 10th as president of  the University of Northern Colorado. The Mirror sat down with President Norton Monday to reflect upon her time here, her plans for the future and her personality beyond her Carter Hall desk.

The Mirror: Can you walk me through a day in the life of president of UNC?

Norton: I sit on my backside a lot in meetings. Most of my time is spent communicating with people — with external people, anyone from legislators and the governor to outside groups who are interested in higher education. There is also a lot of time spent communicating with people inside the university in terms of how do we stay focused on continuing to provide a great and transformative education for you guys as students.

The Mirror: What would you say your day-to-day challenges are or the most frequent reoccurring challenges each day in your role?

Norton: It really is about leading an organization, not about giving orders and having people snap to attention and execute (the orders). It really is about fostering a culture that is really focused on student success. The greatest challenge is to keep pushing for that kind of culture change. Because the world has changed since we were founded in 1889… we really have to become a much more nimble organization and change how we work together and make decisions and we have to think harder about why we do things. And that kind of culture change is hard work. So every day there is a new set of challenges about how do we communicate where we're going and how we're going to get everybody moving in the same direction.

The Mirror: This is the 10th anniversary of your time here, which is something only five other UNC presidents have done. What would you attribute to your longevity here?

Norton: I don't know if I'm patient or just stubborn. One of the things that I have learned is that things do move very slowly in a university as opposed to a private corporation or a for-profit corporation. So there is a flurry of activity with every semester, but in terms of that culture change, it's like turning an aircraft carrier. I have found that that is in fact what's rewarding about it. You don't come in and with a few strokes of the pen you transform the place because you have so much power, authority and insight. It's more a matter of what really happens here that is so special is about people and ultimately about students and your experience. That's what keeps me coming to work every day, is that the work is so important. It's not about making a profit. It's about transforming lives and sustaining our society because you guys are building the years of the future. And that's really heady stuff.

The Mirror: Playing off that then, would you say that to be a successful university president, in any capacity, one should stay at that university for a certain amount of time, say five or 10 years, to be successful?

Norton: Well, I do think, and I said this from the beginning when I took a look at some of my predecessors and moved through the years, I think it takes a certain amount of time to move through a place and know an organization and to build trust within any organization. When there's a lot of turnover in leadership, that leads to uncertainty, and people get very uncomfortable, and that's bad for the whole enterprise. I think 10 years or so is an appropriate target to shoot for. You don't want to stay too long or too short a time, and figuring out what that is is a challenge, but we're all about lifelong learning.

The Mirror: Do you have a certain timeline for how long you want to say?

Norton: Not a specific one. There are things that I still want to see accomplished. We have our 125th anniversary coming up in 2014, and I think again we'll really be able to celebrate that culture change that I keep talking about, that we have changed to be ready to move into the future. The world really has changed; you've heard about the "new normal." As an organization, we really have to be and act quite differently, and I see that happening. So I'm going to stick around and make sure we still have that momentum. I don't think any place or any university should be dependent on who is at the head of it. I don't subscribe to the idea of the "hero leader" or cults of personality. What I hope to be able to do when I leave is to leave a legacy of the whole organization that's as good as it deserves to be.

The Mirror: To date, what do you think some of your biggest accomplishments are at UNC?

Norton: Beyond surviving? (laughs) Probably developing the wisdom and patience to identify and develop leadership beyond what happens in my office. I very much believe in the idea of having a leadership team, and building a true team approach to moving an enterprise forward is much harder than it sounds. You don't just pick people and give them a uniform with a number on it and expect them to know how to perform the task. At this point, I'm very proud of the leadership we have throughout the university and the progress we've made toward really being innovative and focused on what's great about UNC.

The Mirror: That being said, how have you seen the university evolve since you started?

Norton: We really have evolved from the idea that the state told us when to get up in the morning and when to brush our teeth. The whole state organization used to be a very structured, bureaucratic thing, which is really hard to work in…we had to wait for direction from authority instead of concentrating on what to do best because we know best. I think we've really made a lot of strides in that regard, and I think we've built some mutual understanding and trust over time.

The Mirror: What do you do in your free time when you're not here, if there is such a thing?

Norton: Oh sort of. In the summer, I really like to garden. I like to dig. When you pull a weed out, it doesn't talk back. There's something really satisfying about physical labor that I like about gardens. And I just grow flowers, I don't do anything useful like vegetables. But I really like that, and it's soothing and outside. I've been known to watch the occasional junk TV and I like to read. I read a lot of periodicals, newspapers and the occasional fiction.