Faculty and trustees at The University of Tulsa hope Stacy Leeds is their 10-year president — and one who rights the ship for the financially-troubled private university.
Leeds was announced Monday as TU’s fourth leader in five years. For the board members, students, faculty and community members gathered Wednesday for her introduction, Leeds’ appointment signals a more stable future for the university.
“We’ve been floundering as an institution in the last few years, with decisions being made not necessarily with the core of our mission always at heart,” said Lisa Cromer, who serves as president of the TU Faculty Senate. “We really wanted an academic who can actually see that diamond in our rough.”
Leeds, an alumna of TU’s College of Law, was selected through a months-long, confidential search. When she starts July 1, she’ll be challenged with winning back TU’s faculty after years of financial woes — and navigating a changing landscape for higher education nationally.
“The universities that will survive and thrive in this next wave will be those that are nimble and innovative,” Leeds said in her first public address Wednesday. “Smart growth is a part of that, but the partnerships and the private support from all our partners will be key to that success.”
Leeds brings more than 25 years of experience as a professor and administrator at major research institutions. A former Supreme Court justice for the Cherokee Nation, she is currently the dean of Arizona State University’s law college.
“In short, she is exactly the kind of leader we need at this moment,” board chair Marcia MacLeod said at Wednesday’s news conference.
Homecoming for sixth-generation Oklahoman
Leeds intended to stay at Arizona State University “much longer” than her six years as dean of the law school but said TU was the “only place that could have changed that trajectory.”
Her brother, Scott, achieved their family’s first college degree at TU — a school that drew her in “like a magnet” through its Indian Law and Natural Resources programs. Professors at TU had a “profound” impact, Leeds said, including Judith Royster, William “Bill” Rice and Vicki Limas.
“It is a supreme honor for me to be in a position where I can pay it forward,” Leeds said. “This is really an incredible full circle moment for me.”
She will be the first permanently appointed female president at TU. Leeds, a Cherokee citizen, grew up in Muskogee watching Principal Chief Wilma Mankiller lead the Cherokee Nation.
“I know what an impact she had on the little girls and little boys in Oklahoma,” Leeds said. “It really is a full circle moment for a lot of Indian Country to have someone in this role that has the experience that I have, so it’s an awesome responsibility that I embrace.”
As a former two-sport NCAA collegiate athlete, TU’s large student athlete population was another draw for Leeds.
“I have spent a lifetime maturing and training for this moment, and I’m prepared to be your clutch player,” she said.
‘Lead us together’
“It’s no secret that morale has been pretty low,” said Cromer, who helped represent faculty in the board’s presidential search. “I think we’ve all been holding our breath until today.”
Multimillion-dollar deficits in the TU budget have led to rounds of layoffs, cuts to contracts and a three-year hiring freeze.
“These 10 years of crisis and seven years of sustained struggle should give us the necessary room to do something really amazing here,” said Scott Carter, economics professor and member of the Faculty Senate. “We want somebody that’s going to lead the university, sure, but is going to lead us together.”
While recent cuts have focused on the humanities especially, Leeds emphasized Wednesday that “it will always continue to be an important piece of this university.”
Kadee Jo Ransom, TU’s student government president, was impressed with Leeds throughout the hiring process, particularly in her willingness to connect directly with students and her understanding of the university.
“She’s not trying to make us something we aren’t, she’s just really valuing everything we are and then trying to make that better instead of trying to reinvent the wheel,” Ransom said.
“She brings so much to the university, not only her connections but also her experience,” said TU board member Keith Colgan. “She brings an entrepreneurial mindset, creative ideas about how to grow enrollment and recognizes the importance of community.”
Leeds starts in July but says she’s already working to develop partnerships and new investments in the university.
“She’ll be the one that when I’m retired, I’ll be like ‘I was a part of that,’” Cromer said.
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