Q&A with new UNH president: Elizabeth Chilton says her first step is to 'listen'

DURHAM — Listening is the utmost priority for the University of New Hampshire’s incoming president as she transitions into the school’s top post this summer.

Elizabeth Chilton, chancellor for Washington State University, is returning to the Northeast to replace retiring University of New Hampshire President James W. Dean Jr. Chilton was appointed by the University System of New Hampshire to replace the outgoing president, who has been at the helm of the state’s flagship university since the summer of 2018.

Chilton’s appointment by the University System of New Hampshire’s Board of Trustees was revealed by the school on Tuesday. Her term will begin July 1.

The Washington State University administrator has numerous connections to the University of New Hampshire and the Granite State, as her nephew graduated from the school and her sister formerly resided in Pelham for decades. Prior to her venture out west, Chilton was employed at Binghamton University in New York and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“I was familiar with the university in part because I spent my entire life in New York and New England until I moved out here four years ago to the state of Washington,” she said in an interview Tuesday. “My research and teaching has focused on New England Native Americans and the archaeology and ecology of the region. I spent some time in the New York historic records and working with the state archaeologist in New Hampshire, as well as in Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts. So I’m really deeply committed to understanding the region's history and the region's culture.”

In Durham, tensions have run high this academic year with the university’s $14 million in budget cuts, which resulted in dozens of staff cuts and program reductions. Last week, 12 demonstrators — all but two of them current UNH students — were arrested during a pro-Palestinian rally on campus.

For four straight years, Washington State University has experienced budget cuts, while their university system’s six campuses have also seen similar protests against the deadly, months-long conflict in Gaza, according to Chilton.

Those events, in addition to declining enrollment levels, are being seen across the entire higher education spectrum, she added. Chilton’s first order of business is to arrive on campus ready to listen and learn from students, staff, faculty, stakeholders and the surrounding community about the university and how to initiate progress.

Here’s how the 21st president of the University of New Hampshire responded to the recent on-campus arrests in Durham, university-wide budget cuts and staff layoffs, declining enrollment and more, hours after she was appointed the school’s next leader.

The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q: What are you most looking forward to about coming to UNH? How familiar were you with the campus and the university before applying to this position?

Chilton: I was first of all really drawn to UNH because of its stellar reputation. Then I obviously had the opportunity to learn a lot more throughout the search process. I’m really impressed by its research trajectory. It's ranked by the Carnegie Foundation as a top research university, but it also balances that with a commitment to the transformative student experience and student success. I was familiar with the university in part because I spent my entire life in New York and New England until I moved out here four years ago to the state of Washington. My research and teaching has focused on New England Native Americans and the archaeology and ecology of the region.

I spent some time in the New York historic records and working with the state archaeologist in New Hampshire, as well as in Vermont, Maine, Massachusetts. So I’m really deeply committed to understanding the region's history and the region's culture. My nephew also graduated from UNH, and my sister lived in Pelham, New Hampshire for a couple of decades and raised four boys there.

I spent a lot of time hiking around the region and in the White Mountains, canoeing on the north part of New Hampshire at (Umbagog Lake State Park). It is one of my favorite camping experiences. I just love to be out (and) completely off the grid. It’s a beautiful, beautiful lake. It's like a homecoming for me to be back. My son lives in New Hampshire. I have three of my four siblings who live within drivable distance. I really feel like I'm coming back home.

Q: Do you foresee there being any further personnel cuts at UNH in the near future? What do you want current school employees to know about job security?

Chilton: First and foremost, I'll just say that the challenges that UNH has faced in recent years are ... UNH is not alone. The enrollment declines, the declining state support in general, nationally, is something that all public universities face.

More: Here are jobs and programs UNH is eliminating in $14M cuts:

There are a lot of state university systems across the nation (facing this challenge). Affordability, the value proposition for higher education, access and inclusion, (and) to make sure that every student who wants a college education finds a way and then, of course, social mobility. Issues of, how do we make sure we're communicating the value proposition of getting a college degree? We know that it affects one's financial mobility but it also has all sorts of carry-on benefits such as health and social well-being and being able to navigate all the twists and turns that life has to offer you beyond your career, or your first career. Those are the challenges that face higher education in general. UNH is not immune from those. We have had four years of budget cuts here at Washington State University because of declining enrollment, as well.

But I really need to get to understand what the specific context is at UNH. I can learn what I can throughout the search process and learn what I can from the web, but this is going to require a really deep dive to understand, what are all the sources of revenue at UNH’s disposal? What are all the different cost allocations? What are the opportunities for new partnerships and new sources of revenue? That's really why they hired me and it's going to take some time for me to understand UNH’s unique history, its culture, and its social and economic context. Those are the things I'm really looking forward to.

Q: How do you think UNH can increase enrollment and attract more students to the university?

Chilton: It really comes back to the value proposition of a public research university. I've spent my entire career and actually most of my adult life at public research universities. That commitment stems from my own experience at the University of Albany where as a first-generation college student, I was able to be involved in the creation of new knowledge through fieldwork, lab work and archaeology. I wasn’t just receiving information from my stellar, brilliant faculty, but (I) also (was) involved in the creation of new knowledge, and that is the superpower of research universities. It transformed my life and really is at the core of why I have committed myself to leadership in higher education.

UNH has that opportunity. It's ranked by the Carnegie Foundation as a top research university, last year totaling $210 million for one year in research expenditures. Really there's a broad range of research across the humanities, the arts, social science, natural science, engineering, etc. (There’s a) really broad range of applied research as well as basic research. But I think the unique value proposition of UNH is that while it has excelled and become what's often called an 'R1,' or a top research university, it still maintains that core commitment to that transformative student experience. It's not at the expense (of it), but in fact is tied directly to how students succeed and how they can get those basic experiences, those high impact experiences that will help them to succeed even beyond their graduation. I’m looking forward to exploring how to do that best.

Q: Twelve demonstrators protesting the war in Gaza were arrested on-campus last week. Has this happened at your campuses in Washington? If the situation repeats itself at UNH once you become president, how will you react?

Chilton: It sort of goes back to my point about this being a challenging time in higher education. This is certainly an unprecedented challenge, at least in recent decades, the sort of really tense environment on campuses. Looking nationally, obviously a lot of campuses are dealing with this. We have had some protests here as well at Washington State University. Across our system, I serve as the flagship chancellor, but I'm also the provost for our six-campus system. We have six campuses across the state and just had our commencement activities this past weekend. We've had protests across our system. I think what's really important though, is that I get on the ground, I get to know UNH, I understand what the local concerns are and how this is unfolding at UNH specifically, in the months and the years to come. I'll just go back to each university having its own policies, its own culture, its own context, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where we can go as a community as we address these challenges.

Q: What are your top three immediate priorities as the next president of UNH?

Chilton: I would say in my first weeks, my top three priorities in my first few weeks would be (to) listen, listen and listen. I'm an avid choral singer. I have this amazing colleague and friend who is an amazing conductor, and he says (that) to make a good chorus, each singer has to listen louder than they sing. I think listening is where it starts. You can only do that for so long because people are going to expect you to sing when you're president of the university. But never stop listening. I think many of us dedicate our lives to higher education because we always want to be learning, and I always want to be learning from day one, to day 1,000, to day 10,000. So really my top priorities are to understand what the local needs are, get to know our students, our faculty and staff, our community members and constituencies, and then best work with my colleagues to advance the university.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Q&A with new UNH President Elizabeth Chilton