ISU's Steven Leath Said He Will Make Great University Greater as 15th President

ISU President Steven Leath shared his vision for how to make a great even greater and help boost the economy of the state without losing sight of the land grant university's education mission during his installation ceremony Friday.

Much of what Leath said during his “Educate. Innovate. Achieve!” address were echoes of what he has already promised to the university community since taking the leadership role in January.

He did announce a goal to raise $150 million in private gifts for student financial aid over the next five years during his ceremonial installation as 15^th president at Stephens Auditorium.

“We as institutions have to do more to provide funding to help students pay for their education,” Leath said.

Leath said he would freeze undergraduate tuition at its current rate, which the Iowa Board of Regents urged this week, and would not increase student fees for the fall of 2013 and announced that the university would work on maintaining and creating partnerships outside the university.

"I have said often that my primary goal is to do what Greg (Geoffroy) and the 13 previous presidents did, and that is, when I leave Iowa State, I want to leave this university in better condition than when I came. I hereby acknowledge all that Greg and his team did to position Iowa State so that my team and I can move it from great to greater," Leath said.

Several dignitaries including Gov. Terry Branstad gave remarks during the ceremony.

An unscripted moment came just before Leath's official installation when Board of Regents Craig Lang forgot to ask Erskine Bowles, University of North Carolina president emeritus, to come to the podium for Leath's introduction and said it was an attempt to inject humor into the ceremony.

Bowles continued the comedy by telling some jokes before going on to read Leath's extensive educational and business biography which included the fact that he is a member of the American Phytopathological Society.

“I didn't come all the way to Iowa to bore you to death” he said adding that reading Leath's bio was a little boring and then said he hoped the Phytopathological Society wasn't a bad thing.

Bowles served as president of the University of North Carolina from 2006 to 2010 and named Leath as vice president for research and sponsored programs for the UNC system in 2007 --- Leath's last position before he came to Iowa State.

“In Dr. Steven Leath, I guarantee you that you have a leader,” Bowles said.

Bowles said Leath was a good man with good values, a strong work ethic, good judgment and a person who does what he say he will.

Leath said Bowles served as his mentor and was the reason that he was able to stand as the president today.

"Because of your friendship, your support, your confidence in me, and your mentoring, you are one of the main reasons I am here today," Leath said.

Leath stressed the importance of making education accessible and affordable during his address and also said he would expand the Iowa State Research Park and said as he has earlier this year that the university would add 200 faculty in key positions in order to lay the framework for a Capital Corridor project from Ames to Des Moines. He hopes to encourage a commerical area similar to the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. Friday he said that he expected ISU Research Park to serve as the north anchor for that corridor and that the research park would start to report to him directly.

He said the new faculty additions to support the corridor would not affect faculty positions in other areas.