High Touch Leadership

President Mark B. Rosenberg uses athletics and a personal touch to build university pride during his first year

By Dan Grech

It was just after 8 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 6: Homecoming Day. Mark Rosenberg, FIU’s fifth president, wore a sharp blue suit, ready to begin what would be an 18-hour day of hand-shaking, photo-posing, school-rallying. He would give four “official” talks and dozens more informal ones. He would meet with alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff, donors, community leaders. His day would culminate, of course, with the big game.

Rosenberg called Homecoming the most important day of his year-and-a-half-old presidency. The day encapsulated everything Rosenberg had worked toward during his first year – building school spirit, activating alumni, engaging the community, inspiring faculty and staff, telling the FIU story of overachievement. “I’m pumped,” he said as he began his day. “I’ve been waiting for this.”

Under Rosenberg’s direction, university leaders had planned the grandest, most festive homecoming in school history. The tailgate featured a live concert by Lifehouse; the parade had more floats. The university hosted reunions for past student government presidents, former athletes, retired professors and parents. Some 17,000 people filled FIU stadium for the football game.

At 8:30 a.m., Rosenberg went to a breakfast for the Student Government Alumni Association Advisory Council. He struck up a conversation with Miami attorney Roberto Pardo ’81.

“Every time I come here I can’t believe it,” Pardo said, “From three little buildings in a field to this. I don’t even know where I am.”

“This is the house you built,” Rosenberg reminded him.

A few minutes later, Pardo introduced himself as student government president of 1980. Rosenberg interjected, “I thought you were 81?” Rosenberg pulled out the RSVP list – it was, indeed, 1981. Rosenberg studies these details – a spouse’s name, birthdays, grades – because he wants everyone he meets to know they matter to him. They matter to FIU.

“This guy is amazing,” Pardo said later. “I think he’s the right president for where we are going. He’s got ideas. He wants to integrate the community. It’s an awesome time. Finally you can have some pride to be an FIU graduate.”

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Rosenberg spent 29 years at FIU as a professor, dean and provost before moving to Tallahassee to become chancellor of the State University System for three years. He returned to Miami in August 2009 as president of FIU.

He’s made relationship building, on and off campus, a central focus of his presidency. The first meeting of his presidency was with the Alumni Association. Since then, FIU organized more than a dozen community receptions to introduce Rosenberg to more than 500 business owners, educators, ministers, elected officials and community leaders from Kendall to Hialeah to Key Biscayne. He’s hosted more than 40 meetings with groups of faculty at the president’s residence, the Reagan House.

Rosenberg convened these gatherings to hear what faculty and people in the community have to say about FIU.

The president’s role is to be approachable, says Rosenberg. “People want a president they can have a conversation with,” he said. “The president personifies the institution.”

Truth is, Rosenberg is more than approachable; he often does the approaching. When he spotted a group of parents taking a campus tour on Homecoming Day, he walked right over with a big smile.

“Hi! Is this a tour? I’m Mark Rosenberg. Welcome to FIU!” He spent a couple of minutes chatting with the group, ending with a question: “Are any of you going to be here for the football game?”

Rosenberg says his emphasis on Homecoming is not really about football. “I don’t view athletic events as athletic events, but as university events,” he said. “Where else can we bring 20,000 students together to cheer for the university? I bleed blue and gold, and I know a lot of faculty and administration and alumni do too. That’s a point of pride.

“The whole point of Homecoming is to inspire people about the institution.”

FIU nursing student Brooke Lowy was happily surprised when Rosenberg remembered her by name at Homecoming. She’d met him only once before. The former member of the Dazzlers, now a Miami Dolphins cheerleader, was at the Alumni Association tailgate signing posters. Rosenberg stopped by to say hello, pose for a photo and ask her how classes were going.

“He’s awesome,” Lowy said. “It’s really cool that he actually gets involved and talks with students.”

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For FIU’s home opener in September, the football team played one of the country’s oldest football schools, Rutgers. FIU’s news staff captured the spirit of the day on film. The rousing video showcases the excitement Rosenberg is cultivating at FIU. There are smiling Dazzlers, cheering students with blue and gold face paint and crowds chanting “FIU! FIU!” Out on the field with a pumped-up football team is FIU’s brand new marching band.

The band had been eliminated due to budget cuts that have rocked FIU in recent years, forcing it to shutter programs, lay off faculty and staff and raise tuition. One of Rosenberg’s first acts as president was to find the money to reinstate the band. He did that by bringing together the Student Government Association, the Division of Student Affairs, the Division of External Relations, the College of Architecture + The Arts and donors. The band made its comeback sporting new uniforms donated by Perry Ellis.

On Homecoming Day 2010, the band was featured on the front page of The Miami Herald.

“You can’t give a great experience to the students and fans without a band,” Rosenberg said. “Now, you see kids and alumni screaming their heads off, painting their bodies. That kind of enthusiasm can’t happen exclusively in a classroom. And it’s our obligation to provide it.”

Rosenberg’s philosophy of university leadership can be summarized in two words: high touch. “High touch is homecoming. It’s the relationship between students and faculty, between alumni and staff. It’s face-to-face contact.”

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Rosenberg says a high touch university is a spiritual place. “Universities are communities of memory and hope. That’s what homecoming is about,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to remind our graduates about the educations they got in and out of the classroom. And to challenge them to help us ensure that future and current students are able to get the same high-quality education that they got.”

At a time when students can log onto a computer and get a college degree, Rosenberg says FIU has to offer more than an education. “Homecoming is part of a survival strategy. Homecoming is what we can offer that online universities can’t: a sense of belonging, an identity.”

Rosenberg has taken to showing the video of the Rutgers game to alumni. He recalls with pride the response of one alumnus, class of 1981. “Mark,” the man told Rosenberg, “I’ve never seen anyone cheer for FIU before.”

In September, the FIU Board of Trustees unanimously gave Rosenberg a mark of “superior” during his annual evaluation, the highest possible rating. Among the accomplishments he highlighted for the board: strengthening and expanding partnerships with the Miami-Dade Public Schools, increasing financial aid to students and obtaining $4.6 million for the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.

Trustee Cesar Alvarez, chair of the committee that evaluated the president, praised Rosenberg’s leadership style. “He’s a man who listens, engages, encourages, motivates and rewards,” Alvarez said.

Rosenberg has laid out an ambitious growth plan called “FIU 2020.” Over the coming decade, Rosenberg plans to grow the university by 20,000 students and spend $10 billion dollars on instruction and research and $500 million in additional construction.

“To grow like that is a response to demand,” he says. “We’re not going to turn our backs on eligible students in this community. And as our brand value grows, we’re going to draw in more people from outside of this community and around the world.”

Rosenberg relies on a sports metaphor – a “four-front funding offensive” – to explain how he plans to raise money to support that growth: from federal, state, local and private sources. Alumni giving is a key pillar of growth.

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It was the late afternoon of Homecoming day. The parade had ended, and kickoff between FIU and the University of Louisiana Monroe was still a few minutes away.

Rosenberg had a small gap in his schedule, so he spent it walking around the tailgate area outside the stadium. He was repeatedly stopped by parents, alumni and students. They wanted to pose with the president of FIU.

“In the old days before football, that would never have happened,” Rosenberg said. “Emotionally, I wasn’t planning for that. It was humbling and gratifying. I found it inspirational. It was a marker that I was on the right course.”

The game went into double overtime. It was a Cinderella finish. FIU won. The game ended at close to midnight, and Rosenberg had earned a rest. But he had one more appointment to keep.

He hosted a group of former FIU athletes and their loved ones in his presidential suite in the stadium. It was the first time the founders of the FIU football team had been formally invited back. Rosenberg toasted them with bottles of champagne. Then he began a more serious conversation. He told them he wanted to talk about Homecoming for next year.

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Dan Grech is radio news director of WLRN Miami Herald News and co-hosts Under the Sun on WLRN. He last profiled Mark Rosenberg after he was selected as FIU’s new president in Fall 2009.