My Soapbox: Santa Ono, University of Cincinnati Provost

The University of Cincinnati’s Provost isn’t like most. He uses Twitter to connect with the community and organizes softball games to humor his inner child, all while working to improve quality at UC. Building on the innovative spirit of Cincinnati, Ono uses his busy days to learn from as many people as he can.

As Provost, what are your day-to-day obligations?
It’s very varied. I speak with all of the deans, there are 13, and all of the different student groups. I meet with the enrollment management team to talk about how we can recruit the best students to the university. I meet with different department chairs and the vice president of research to think about how can build new Centers of Excellence and attract new faculty. It’s quite a menu of activities. I also travel to Columbus to meet with the Board of Regents and the Chancellor of the Ohio University Systems to talk about our interaction with the state university system. My overall job is to oversee all of the educational and research activities at UC.

Since you have been in Cincinnati, what has surprised you most about the city?
I absolutely love Cincinnati. It has a reasonable cost of living, major sports teams and a vibrant arts culture. It’s a terrific place to raise a family, and we are very settled here.

Compared to other cities you have lived in, what is better here and what needs improvement?
I think that the thing that really bothered me about big cities such as Atlanta and Chicago was that it is very hard to get around. I lived in Atlanta and had to travel 45 minutes to work. I think Cincinnati is the perfect size. It takes me 15 minutes to get anywhere, but it’s still big enough to justify having sports teams, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and incredible art galleries.

What are this region’s biggest strengths?
There are so many Fortune 500 and Fortune 600 companies. If you look at the state of Ohio, you can make a strong argument that Cincinnati has the strongest economic base. In addition to those companies, UC is an economic powerhouse as the biggest employer in the city. We bring in close to half of a billion dollars for funding and research, which is a big engine in the region. One of the biggest strengths of this region is the innovative sprit. It has a tradition of looking at problems from many angles and as a region has a strong sense of entrepreneurship. It is also one of the strongest design centers in the world. There is a reservoir of talent that is willing to think outside the box and we, as a university and a city, need to capitalize on that.

What is the most innovative thing you have seen in Cincinnati?
How the university goes about thinking about the curriculum. Harvard just got a $40 million grant to rethink undergraduate education. I’ve been paying attention to what they are doing and a lot of things they are thinking about, like co-ops, are things we have been doing at UC for over a decade. We are a pioneering university and I think that has helped the community become innovative because many UC students stay here.

UC was just named the home of the Ohio Center of Excellence in Design and Innovation. How many other Centers of Excellence does UC have and what does that mean?
First of all, it’s a point of pride. We have as many [6] Centers of Excellence as any other institution in the state of Ohio. They span the entire spectrum of fields of activities that we have on this campus. From music and theatre arts to sustainability to healthcare to aerospace engineering, there are very few institutions that are that strong in such a wide breadth of fields.
Why do you use Twitter so much at your upper-level academic management position?

One of the things I promised when I was being considered for this job was that I was going to stay connected to the university and city communities. Almost every minute of my day is scheduled. When you have a university community, which is actually a little city, it’s physically impossible to spend one-on-one time with people. In an ideal world, I would know all 60,000 people in this community and listen to them about what would make the university better for them. Social media is an opportunity to connect with thousands of people. The people I connect with like knowing what the university is thinking. I do it because people value it, it helps me understand what the community is thinking and helps make a very large community feel a lot smaller.

This year, you initiated a softball game pitting students against faculty. Can you tell me why and how it went?
It’s something I’ve done in the past. At Emory, we actually beat the students. Here, we got trounced, 18-3. We’re thinking about kickball next time. People have a lot of fun. There is a Youtube video of the game at UC. Everyone was having fun and it, again, helped make the community feel a little smaller. It creates a different kind of connection, and the other reason is probably because I’m still a kid at heart.

What’s next for you and the university?
The university is remarkably strong right now. We’ve been thrown quite a few curveballs and had to sustain quite a few cuts from state funding. UC has been very resilient. This year, our cuts will be smaller and we will be able to shift from defensive to strategic. We are trying to think about how we can allocate resources that we have to protect and enhance the nationally competitive programs that we do have. This is a great time for UC, and I am going to do my best to make UC the best it can be.