Today marks the beginning of Mike Middleton's second week as Lincoln University's interim president - and the first time he'll meet with the Board of Curators about policy issues.
"It's hard to make projections on what my goals are going to be when I haven't even met with the board yet," Middleton told the News Tribune. "I'll attend the board meeting, see what they're talking about - and then see if I get more direction from them."
The curators' agenda includes approving an operating budget for the business year that begins July 1 - a budget the Rome administration said 2 weeks ago likely would include eliminating 48 employee positions including 15.5 teachers and 32.5 staff.
Curators hired Middleton last month to serve while the board searches for a new, permanent president after current LU President Kevin Rome moves to Nashville as Fisk University's new president, beginning July 1.
When Middleton was introduced as Lincoln's interim president, he promised to spend time meeting with many groups that have an interest in LU's operations and its future - and he's hit the ground running.
"I've visited with a lot of alums - I was in Atlanta (last) Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday - and Monday I was at a Jeff City alumni event," he said. "I'm really impressed with the support from Lincoln alums. They all love their institution. They are interested in what's happening to it and are eager to be supportive."
Middleton said Rome also traveled to the Atlanta meeting, so the two men had some time to talk about the transition.
Middleton also met Monday with some LU staff, "between 20 and 30 people, and we went over issues they've been dealing with, other than the budget situation," he said.
He said he hasn't gotten "a sense of real significant challenges," other than the ones he expected.
"People are worried about this budget situation, but I think that the staff has that pretty much under control - at least for this year," Middleton said. "Clearly, we've got to make some long-term changes in how we operate if we're going to survive the anticipated cuts in the future. Nobody believes state revenues are going to improve, so I suspect we're going to be suffering from limited support from the state for the foreseeable future."
Middleton - whose most recent job before taking the Lincoln post was serving as the University of Missouri system's interim president for 15 months - noted, "As I've always said, universities are notoriously slow at changing, but we are at the point where we've really got to come up with efficiencies to streamline some things and cut some things."
However, he added, he hasn't been at Lincoln long enough to know where those cuts and streamlining efforts need to be made, "but I suspect there will be some issues like that that I will have to deal with. I would rather try to stabilize things and reassure folks - keep things moving and maybe make some minor adjustments where there are obvious adjustments that can be made.
"And then leave the major issues for the next guy or gal."
That plan works better if the presidential search takes only a few months, allowing him to "do some ground work for the new person, put some documents together and get some analysis together, and make some suggestions as to where savings and efficiencies can be achieved," Middleton said.
But, if the search takes longer, he said, "I may have to make some decisions and try to achieve some change."
Curators President Marvin Teer said two weeks ago the board is in no hurry to complete its search, expecting patience will lead to a good choice.
Middleton was hired as the MU system's interim president in 2015, after turmoil erupted over complaints of ongoing racism on the Columbia campus, the university administration ignoring that situation and a graduate student's hunger strike.
"My interim role at the system was to pretty much bring people back together and calm the institution down after the November 2015 international exposure to the problem," he explained. "Lincoln doesn't have that problem. I think it should be just a matter of trying to find ways to survive this budget situation."