A Joint Interview with Drs. Rick Duffett, Greg Paveza, Bill Schafer and Galen Hench

Left to Right: Dr. Greg Paveza (Interim Dean of the Library, July ’17 – June ’18), Dr. Rick Duffett (Interim VP of Operations, February – August ’18), Dr. Bill Schafer (January – December ’18).

“Institutions of higher education are political in many, many ways. We can be sort of apolitical and it’s refreshing for me to be able to speak candidly…I want to be candid and frank and honest about what I see and how things might change if they take a different track as they move forward in certain areas.” – Dr. Rick Duffett

Hench: Could you each describe your position at Central Washington University and what some of your primary responsibilities are?

Duffett: I’ll start as the newest person in town. I’m serving as the interim Vice President of Operations while the institution conducts a national search for the permanent position. Based on my conversations with the President, there is significant focus on capital projects. I am helping CWU to bring their Master Plan up to current standards and I have also assisted in a few reorganizations.  

Schafer: I started on January 8th and am serving as the interim Dean of Student Success. Student Success covers a lot of different areas. We have about 30 different departments and two hundred and twenty staff. I was asked to assess the staff in the division and offer some recommendations on the the organizational structure. I was also recently placed on the student retention committee as well.

Paveza: I came to Central Washington University at the beginning of July 2017 as the interim Dean of the Libraries. I probably had the most interesting transition into the University to some degree. For the first month that I was on campus, the retiring Dean was still here and was still in charge. Perhaps the most critical issue I was asked to address was to begin the work of modernizing the library on the Ellensburg campus, turning it into more of an educational hub for students.

Hench: Is there any overlap in your roles and expectations documents? Or are you in different areas of the university such that you don’t overlap?

Duffett: We are in different parts of the university, but we overlap each other in a number of ways. I overlap with Bill as it relates to student life and public safety. We interact on a number of issues associated with student conduct and student issues associated with student problems on the campus. Since the physical plant serves the entire university, together we need to respond to building issues that may be occurring within residence halls systems.

Schafer: There is this wonderful camaraderie associated with serving alongside other members from The Registry. I feel very comfortable calling both Greg and Rick if we need to talk about something. That may be different than if we were just colleagues on a campus. It’s part of the feeling that we’re in this together.

Hench: Is there an advantage to having other Registry interims on campus who can function as an unbiased sounding board for you?

Duffett: I think you can be candid. Institutions of higher education are political in many, many ways. We can be sort of apolitical and it’s refreshing for me to be able to speak candidly. I want to give the institution value while I’m here; I want to be candid and frank and honest about what I see and how things might change if they take a different track as a as they move forward in certain areas.

Paveza: It really is the opportunity to be transformative in a way that a permanent position often cannot be. I think we’ve all experienced that already. When you’re the permanent Dean, you get locked into the question of “what is my legacy going to be?” For me as the interim, the question is instead “how can I best accomplish those things that the university has asked me to do?”

“I was surprised how attached I was getting to people…I keep telling people that I feel like I’ve worked here at some other time in my life…I feel like I am becoming a part of the campus in some way. I couldn’t believe I’d only been here for such a short time. I feel connected, and that was a little bit of a surprise to me.” – Dr. Bill Schafer

Hench: Is there more that you can accomplish as an outside interim than if you were an inside interim who might be a candidate for the permanent role?

Paveza: Often, an internal interim is going to be very cautious because they are interested in pursuing the full time permanent position. The vast majority of internal interims that I have experienced tend to be very cautious. They don’t want to make any more enemies than they already have, because everybody in an institution makes enemies whether they mean to or not.

If there are any internal candidates that emerge, the institution can allow those candidates to simply be part of the pool without their being judged on what they’re already doing or not doing as the interim. Even if the internal candidate is ultimately chosen, that person doesn’t come in with baggage based on their interim experience. They can simply pick up where we left things and make changes without feeling bound by whatever we did.

Schafer: I think I’ve given the university some new ways to think about the organizational structure here. That’s something I discussed with the Provost within eight weeks of being here in consultation with my associate deans as we agreed to it.

Duffett: We’ve had a reorganization already in my department. Environmental health and safety used to report into my office and I made a recommendation for a new organizational style. The nice thing is that the President and the administration in general seem to be willing to listen and try new things.

Hench: Did the presence of Registry interims on this campus before you make it easier for you to transition into the university?

Duffett: I want to talk about that one because I’m the newest person at Central Washington. If it were not for these two gentlemen I wouldn’t be here, because they have done an outstanding job and they have set the standard for people coming in here. From my perspective, the quality that they provided gave me the entry into what I’m doing currently.

Paveza: I will share with you an anecdotal piece. I happened to be waiting to meet with the Provost one day when the Provost’s executive administrative assistant got a call from the President’s office and the Chief of Staff. They wanted to get a feel for how other people viewed what Bill and I were doing. It became very clear to me that the Provost’s relationships with us and what we brought to academic affairs was clearly a moving factor in the President deciding to go the direction of bringing in another external interim from The Registry.

Schafer: You know, I think that this university is gaining incredible value by using Registry interims. These two gentleman are very seasoned, experienced administrators. I think the institution is getting their money’s worth

Paveza: When you think about it that way, it’s hard for many institutions, particularly in the current economic environment, to pull in the levels of experience that Rick, Bill and I bring into these positions. We do it because of where we are in our careers and because we have some greater flexibility. I think both the President and the Provost would agree that they’ve gotten three very seasoned professionals who are helping them make transitions in a way that may not have been possible otherwise.

“Often, an internal interim is going to be very cautious because they are interested in pursuing the full time permanent position. The vast majority of internal interims that I have experienced tend to be very cautious. They don’t want to make any more enemies than they already have, because everybody in an institution makes enemies whether they mean to or not. ” – Dr. Greg Paveza

Hench: What is something that has surprised you that you weren’t expecting to get out of this interim role?

Schafer: I was surprised how attached I was getting to people. Coming to this brand-new place, I didn’t really know what to expect at all. There was the one interview trip and then I came across the country, to a brand new campus, far from my family. In just a short time working with my staff I really started to get attached. I keep telling people that I feel like I’ve worked here at some other time in my life. Obviously, I haven’t, so I feel like I am becoming a part of the campus in some way. I couldn’t believe I’d only been here for such a short time. I feel really connected to this campus, and that was a bit of a surprise to me.

Duffett: I think what Bill says is really, really the way I feel as well. I’ve done an interim role before in another institution and I felt—I felt okay. But here, it seems that people just embrace you. They see you sitting in that chair and they want to work with you. And I think that’s what’s been so genuinely joyful about my time here so far.

Paveza: Absolutely. I think that is one of the strengths of this campus. It’s one of the things, because I’ve been in the process of recruiting faculty, that I highlight with the visiting candidates. This is a very inclusive campus. It draws you in. I think it’s partially the reality of the environment and being a small town. That said, I’ve been in small towns before that can be very exclusionary; if you’re not from there you’d never be welcomed. This is a faculty and an administration that really wants to work with you and draw you into the community, and I was a little surprised by that as well.

Schafer: I’ve told colleagues around the country that even if we’ve been around for years doing this we only come to know certain universities and colleges. Central Washington wasn’t on my radar at all. Now it’s on my radar, and when I went to the NASPA annual meeting I was telling my colleagues about it. It is very good PR for the university to have interims who are well connected to their professional networks who can go and speak positively about the institution.