UALR finalist Rudin sets fast pace

BOISE, Idaho -- Mark Rudin is a double punctuator. Sometimes triple, depending on the subject.

He doesn't just text in plain sentences. The words are filled with energy, with excitement and with questions -- marked with double question marks, of course.

"Welcome to Boise!!"

"How about we meet at the small Starbucks at the corner of Vista and Cassia at 10 a.m.??"

"Ok??"

In person, Rudin's enthusiasm matches his texting persona.

At 6 feet 5 inches tall, Rudin's stride is long, but add his trademark fast pace and people get left in the dust behind him.

His greetings are hearty, warm and exuberant. He responds to an outstretched hand with a one-armed hug, uses first names and puts personal well-being before business conversation.

Rudin's energy and personality will come in handy Monday in Little Rock on his first day of back-to-back interviews, meetings and public forums as he competes to become the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's next chancellor.

He is facing two other finalists -- Cheryl Lovell, special adviser to the chancellor and to the chief academic officer of the Colorado State University System; and Andrew Rogerson, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Sonoma State University in California.

The University of Arkansas System is searching nationally to find someone to replace Joel Anderson, 74, who is retiring from his $219,406-a-year job in June after 13 years as chancellor of the university. He rose from political science professor to administrator.

The field was narrowed down to three finalists from 18 applicants after a 17-member search committee and a hired executive search firm, Greenwood/Asher & Associates, met with the top 12 candidates in Dallas in April.

University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt said each of the three finalists has the experience and qualities needed to manage UALR's complex issues and unique role as a major metropolitan university.

"The fact that 'Little Rock' is in its name makes it different than many institutions," Bobbitt said. "The leader that we are looking for has to see that as one of the main advantages of this opportunity."

The new chancellor will take the helm of the 12,000-student campus at a time of flux -- when industry partnerships and private fundraising are vitally on par with student retention and graduation rates.

"The candidates will have to understand the students that they are getting and be able to see them through to commencement," Bobbitt said. "But the chances are that the chancellor is always going to have to be a very active participant and supporter of the entire city, whether it be the arts scene, sports or economic development. None of us have every box checked for such a large and encompassing job, but each candidate brings a broad range of experience to the table."

Chickens and skyscrapers

Rudin, 53, is the vice president for research and economic development at Boise State University. He has the ear of the governor of Idaho, holds a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from Purdue University, testifies in front of the state Legislature and has helped pave the way for major corporations to call Boise home.

He also drives a 12-year-old Ford truck that has more than 75,000 miles on it. In the truck bed, there is a mix of chicken litter and yard debris.

"When I bought it in 2010, it only had 16,000 miles on it," Rudin said with a laugh. "It was literally one of those stories of the little old man who kept it in his garage and barely drove it."

He raises chickens in his backyard and keeps up with continual yardwork -- both of which require a truck.

Rudin drives like he walks -- fast.

He offered no apologies about the truck -- or the hard-to-reach passenger seat belt -- as he provided a tour of the 214,237-population capital of Idaho. Towering cranes and temporary chain-link fences with signs that warn passers-by of the dangers of construction work dotted nearly every corner of the city.

Rudin ticked off the names of companies taking up residence in the future office buildings and detailed how the university helped to attract them through ongoing partnerships.

At one point, he got out of the truck and navigated through a maze of construction barricades and across plywood bridges into the lobby of a downtown bank building, where he handed visitors hard hats, safety glasses and neon vests.

At the unfinished high-rise next-door, Rudin bounded up barely-there stairs as he pointed to classrooms, faculty offices, tutoring centers and a shower room for future bicycling students.

In August, the first few floors of the skyscraper will be home to Boise State University's computer science program. The floors above will be used by a high-tech industry leader who has promised hand-in-hand learning for those students and the opportunity of future jobs.

Rudin is quick to give a nod to his boss and mentor, Robert Kustra, president of Boise State University. When Kustra hired Rudin in 2007, he gave Rudin the job of increasing the university's research presence and funding, and expanding its economic development reach -- then gave him the freedom and support to accomplish it.

His colleagues say Rudin has the same leadership style.

"Oh, he's very hateful. Really, the absolute worst boss ever," joked Robyn Williams, Rudin's administrative assistant and one of his most trusted confidants.

Williams laughed, then leaned forward with a frown.

"I don't want him to leave. I wish I could tell the hiring committee terrible things about him, but he's the best boss I've ever had," she said. "He doesn't micromanage. He lets us do our jobs. He gives us as much guidance as we need, is always available if we need him, but he just lets us do our job."

Idaho District 30 state Rep. Wendy Horman, who has worked extensively with Rudin through the state's budget committee, said Rudin is an enthusiastic advocate for Boise State University and of economic development for the state as a whole.

Rudin is personable and extremely intelligent but grounded and not given to hyperbole, Horman said.

"I'm always looking for evidence when I'm considering a budget request. A good idea is not good enough for me," Horman said. "He's got evidence. He's very good at what he does, and he's good for the state. We will be very sad if we lose him to Arkansas."

The evidence of his impact at Boise State University is multifaceted. Total research funding more than doubled between fiscal 2007, when Rudin was hired at Boise State, and fiscal 2014, including more than $7.4 million in grant funding alone.

Rudin established a center called "Casita Nepantla" or "Little House in the Middle of It All" to serve the Hispanic community of southwest Idaho, while advancing research opportunities for Hispanic students at Boise State.

He launched the Venture College in 2013, a skills-based program to help students start their own small businesses.

He negotiated a formal educational and research agreement between the university and the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique in Africa, and established an Office of Technology Transfer to commercialize intellectual property developed at the university.

Rudin was assigned by Idaho Gov. Butch Otter to numerous commissions, including the Idaho Global Entrepreneurial Mission Council and the Leadership in Nuclear Energy Commission. Rudin also serves on the federal Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee, the Idaho Technology Council and the Center for Advanced Energy Studies Steering Committee. He is chairman the Idaho Higher Education Research Council.

Rudin said he's excited about the prospect of heading UALR. He points to the experience he attained at Boise State University, as well as from his previous posts at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, the U.S. Department of Energy headquarters and as a health physics department chairman at Idaho State University.

"Boise State is such a dynamic, progressive university, and I see a lot of similarities with UALR," Rudin said. "UALR seems to strike me as a university that has a lot of momentum. The possibilities seem endless to be able to advance the university and move forward much in the same way that Boise State has been moved forward. It just seems like a nice fit."

Family top priority

As he sat on a bar stool at a local restaurant, Rudin's forehead crinkled and his perpetual smile pursed in consternation.

His wife, Libby Rudin, 50, with shoulder-length blond hair and a makeup-free fresh face, sat at his right; and his son, Noah, 19, sat across from him.

"My top priority in all of this is my family," he said.

The UALR chancellor gig is enticing because of Mark Rudin's innate love of a challenge, but more important to him is the community where his family would live, and the middle school and high school options available for his two daughters: Mia, 14, and Izzy, 12.

"If it's not a right fit ... If my wife and family are not onboard ..." he trailed off. "They mean everything to me."

Libby Rudin -- who will be in Little Rock on Monday and Tuesday visiting local schools -- gave her husband a playful slap on the arm and laughed.

"We'll be fine," she said. "The girls are so excited."

It's important, she said, that the children have an expansive view of the world and its differences. And it's important, her husband interjected, that the children have an active, engaged father who makes time for them no matter how important and time-consuming his station in life may be.

"He always puts everybody ahead of himself. He does that at work and at home, too," she said.

Every single morning without fail Rudin lets his wife sleep in while he gets the girls up and out the door. They go to breakfast -- usually at McDonald's -- and then he drops them off at school before heading into the office.

On Saturdays, he has already cleaned out the family's chicken coops before anyone else in the family has seen the light of day.

Before they married, the Rudins were friends in college at Purdue but never dated. Libby -- a nuclear chemist -- moved to Chicago for a job and lost touch with him. Years later, she ran into Mark Rudin by accident when she was on vacation in Idaho visiting a favorite chemistry professor.

When he popped the question, she said, she was convinced that he was making the wrong decision because the relationship was long-distance and she didn't feel like they had gotten to know each other well enough.

"I made him wait a year," she laughed. "But it turned out to be a good choice. Almost 23 years later, I know all his jokes and how he's going to respond. Sometimes he surprises me, though."

Out of his shell

As a boy, growing up in New Lenox, Ill., the now-outgoing, exuberant Rudin was painfully shy.

"Almost unhealthily shy," he said. "I had a very happy childhood. I played basketball, baseball, everything."

His mother, Terry Rudin, now 80, was a homemaker.

His father Tom Rudin, now deceased, was an electrical engineer and a natural-born talker.

"My father was such a central figure in my life," he said. "He worked so hard and did everything for the family."

Rudin remembers distinctly the exact moment he overcame his shyness.

He was a senior in high school, and he was standing in line at a coffee shop with his father, who always initiated conversations with strangers around him.

"He started talking to this guy in front of him, and the guy was awful rude to him," Rudin said. "When we got outside, I asked him 'Dad, why do you do that when someone's going to treat you like that?'"

Mark Rudin stops, takes a deep breath and his eyes fill with tears. "I'll never forget this," he said. "He told me, 'Mark. I reached out to that man and he didn't accept it. Now, is it my loss or is it his?' He told me that no matter what, be nice to people. Just be nice. I came out of my shell at that moment."

Regarding football

A young, dark-haired man looks up from behind the counter inside Albertsons Stadium, the home field of the Boise State Broncos, in the Mountain West Conference.

The man's eyes register recognition of Mark Rudin, and he deadpans: "You want to show off the blue field, don't you?"

Rudin laughs and nods, then heads through the double doors.

What follows is a 15-minute monologue about how the blue turf, installed in 1986, was the first non-green playing field in football history. And, of course, how the Boise State Broncos won three Fiesta Bowls. The team finished the 2006-07 season with not only a Fiesta Bowl victory in overtime but as the only undefeated major college football team.

Rudin then turns to the subject of UALR sports. He has heard all about the Trojan basketball and baseball teams, and the women's volleyball stars.

His eyes twinkle as he talks about football in Little Rock.

Could it be possible?

Funding would be an issue, he said. But getting a community, especially one as centrally located as Little Rock, behind a football team would be an enticing challenge, and one that would pay great dividends to the university, he added.

"Our [Boise State University] Fiesta Bowl wins resulted in a marked increase in student applications," he said. "Sports are often the window to the rest of the university. We could show the nation our great programs."

The UA System's Bobbitt said a university football team is "an institutional question," and "you cannot rule anything out."

"But on the other hand," Bobbitt said. "You have to balance the cost of it. It's very expensive to compete. It's advantageous to the institution with increased visibility. But very few football teams are self-supported. My advice would be, if ever the institution entertained the idea, they must do a very careful proforma so that the business won't take resources from the university."

But if anyone can create future opportunity for a university, it's Mark Rudin, said Bill Connors, his longtime friend and head of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce.

"Some universities can be their own little fiefdom," Connors said. "Mark breaks that mold. He is constantly engaged with you. He is the main connection between the university and the community. He genuinely wants to know how the university can engage in all levels with the world outside its walls."

Connors laughed, then continued.

"I'm really tempted to say a lot of bad things about him so we don't lose him to Arkansas. But he's ready for that next higher step. He has left a big legacy here. The community leaders in Arkansas will love him."

Metro on 05/08/2016