Executive Profile for September 2004   People  Person Western Carolina Chancellor  John Bardo started early  learning to help individuals  rise about their limitations By Phil Kirk

John Bardo has worked with the people of the Appalachian Region throughout his career, beginning as a student at Ohio State University and later at Ohio University and the University of Cincinnati. While seeking advanced degrees in sociology in the 1970s, he worked as a psychiatric social worker in a mental hospital in Athens, Ohio. “Most of my patients were older men,” he recalls. “They couldn’t handle stress. They had lost their jobs, their homes, and in many cases their families.”

That experience shaped his life. “My year working in the welfare hospital really colored how I feel about the world,” he says. “I got to see life in a very different way.”

Born in Cincinnati 56 years ago, Bardo grew up in a family that valued hard work and education. His dad, John Thomas Bardo, was the first college graduate in his family and held a series of federal government jobs. His mother, Grace Roberta Bardo, worked with his father for the Environmental Protection Agency in their later years. Bardo’s mother still lives outside Cincinnati and so does his only brother, Richard.

“My dad traveled in his job, primarily in Indiana, West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio,” Bardo says. “He would drive home for night classes and it took him 10 years to get his college degree. He thought so much of education he almost killed himself with his schedule.”

Growing up, Bardo worked a number of jobs, including delivering medication in a welfare hospital and for a drugstore, working in construction, and as a mail carrier. Another key factor in shaping Bardo’s way of looking at the world involved the campaign to end segregation in the 1960s. “I have vivid memories of the desegregation issues in Little Rock,” he remembers. “Listening to the car radio, I couldn’t understand why anyone would oppose all children going to school together.

“I was also blessed with a terrific grandmother, Elizabeth Jane Day. She was a woman with no education whose parents — both teachers — died from yellow fever. She lived to be 103 and was a very strong person who held our family together. She never doubted what people could do if they worked hard.”

His undergraduate degree in economics came from the University of Cincinnati. His master’s in sociology was earned at Ohio University, and he received a PhD in sociology from Ohio State University in 1973.

Bardo taught at Wichita State University, College of Swansen in Wales, and Monarch University in Australia. From 1983-86 he was the dean of the school of liberal arts at Southwest Texas State University. Then it was off to the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, first as assistant to the president for planning and evaluation and then as provost and vice president for academic affairs. He held similar positions at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts.

At Wichita State, blind luck led him to meet Deborah Davis, a business education student who one summer worked in the same department as Bardo. “One day

The Bardos were not interested in leaving New England — Deborah is from Lowell, Mass. — but a colleague, Bill Smith, who was a native of Lenoir and a graduate of Appalachian State University, read about the Western Carolina opening in the Chronicle.

Because Bardo’s father insisted on visiting at least one college campus on every family vacation — ostensibly because he was a personnel recruiter for the federal government — the Bardo family had once visited the Cullowhee campus on the way to Miami. He was intrigued by the opportunity and the “marching orders” put in front of him by then-UNC President Dick Spangler. “(He) told me to make (Western Carolina) bigger and better and to do something great for our region of the state.”

Bardo arrived on the WCU campus in July 1995. He spent about eight months listening to alumni, parents, students, faculty and staff, and community leaders. He also studied hordes of data as well as the history of the area. “We are not located in the center of the state, so I wanted to explain why students came to Cullowhee,” he says. “I wanted to see what was needed and what was possible.

“Raising standards was clearly the first thing we had to do. The world was clearly changing. Our enrollment had been stable for 30 years and in our system of budgeting, we could not thrive and expand without additional enrollment.”

Consider that wheel in motion. Enrollment for the fall semester is nearly 8,000, and the target enrollment assigned by the UNC Board of Governors and President Molly Broad is 10,200 by 2012. “Western Carolina is one of seven UNC campuses targeted for dramatic growth, and under Chancellor Bardo’s leadership, the campus is experiencing encouraging gains in enrollment and student preparations,” Broad says.

The improvements haven’t always come easy. “There was this notion that since we were located in a poor area and had an underprepared population, we should admit nearly everyone who applied for admission,” he says. “That fit with a lot of images of Appalachia, and this is where my past experience helped. In fact, there was little to differentiate our student population and mission from that of a community college.

“The best aspect of the ‘raise the bar’ strategy was that it was effective. Across campus, standards and expectations were raised. We can see the results now in our academic policies, in improved curricula, and in the quality of students who are choosing to come to Western.”

Proof of Bardo’s effectiveness is that in his 10 years at the university, SAT scores have risen from 965 to 1,023. Still, raising the bar is an ongoing process. In a speech to the Rural Economic Development Conference at WCU in 2000, Bardo said, “I like to tie the two concepts — economic and community development — together so that we keep in mind that our real purpose for economic development is to improve the quality of life for the people of the region.”

He decries the number of young people who are leaving Western North Carolina to move to the economic centers of Atlanta, the Triad, the Triangle, or Charlotte. He consistently emphasizes the efficient and effective use of technology and economic development. Again, this emphasis and knowledge goes back to his roots. One of his doctoral advisors, Ray Sletto, told him in 1972 that computers would be the future and he would not graduate unless he learned to use them. “I told him I was not a computer guy, but I had to do what he said or change advisers,” Bardo says. “How did he even know in 1972 how computers would influence the world as they do today? He was just a brilliant guy.”

Words to the same effect have been used to describe Bardo. “Under his visionary leadership, Western Carolina is experiencing a remarkable transformation that will contribute to economic prosperity and improve quality of life in North Carolina,” says professor Mark Glaser, a former colleague at Wichita State and a longtime friend. “While most universities recognize the need for change, few have insightful and determined leadership necessary to drive change.

Within a three-hour drive of Cullowhee are nine million people and 12,000 high tech firms. “Because we now have excellent Internet connection, thanks to Congressman Charles Taylor, many of those businesses can locate here,” Bardo says. He believes the entrepreneurial community can thrive in the area, and he is encouraging the wealthy who live part-time nearby to become permanent residents.

The threat of terrorism in urban areas may cause data and digital technology businesses to seek alternative places to do at least some of their business. WCU is taking the steps to become such a place. “Dr. Bardo has been a driving force in the university’s growing status across North Carolina and the nation as a leader in the application of the tools of technology to teaching and learning,” says Phil Walker, the university’s board chair and a BB&T executive.

Major changes at Western during the Bardo era have been in the spending on new buildings, expansions and renovations. The higher education bonds campaign in 2000, led by NCCBI; federal appropriations secured by Taylor (R-11th); and state and local funding have brought nearly $200 million to the campus in recent years.

“We are basically remaking the university academically and in new and renovated facilities,” Bardo says. “I would hypothesize that the bonds meant more at WCU than on any other campus although they meant a lot everywhere.”

The two highest profile buildings are the $8 million Center for Applied Technology and the $30 million Fine and Performing Arts Center. Other capital improvements include a renovated A.K. Hinds University Center, the first new residence hall in 30 years, a new Greek Village, and renovations or conversions for the McKee, Bird, Graham, Forsyth, Stewell Science, and Killian facilities.

Bardo, a strong supporter of athletics, is equally enthusiastic in showing off upgrades in those facilities — an expanded Whitmire Stadium with new stands on the west side; a renovated Jordan-Phillips Field House; a new soccer, track and tennis complex; a renovated Childress Field/Hennon Stadium; and Breese Gymnasium.

“Athletics has an important and specific role on campus,” Bardo stresses. “Focusing on winning the right way means all coaches are working toward every student graduating.”

Bardo, who played football for one season in high school, knows that 80 percent of all the publicity a university receives is related to its athletic program. He is also proud of the 330-member marching band and the fact that all music majors receive multiple job offers.

Nearly 400 students come to Western because of their love of athletics. “Our goals for each athlete include receiving a degree, developing a sense of responsibility, leaving at least as healthy as they arrived, and having a wonderful experience as an athlete,” Bardo says.

The chancellor has strong views on the role of public higher education. “Its fundamental role is to implement the policies of the state to benefit the people, especially those in Western North Carolina,” he says.

Further, he has strong feelings on the key role Western plays in producing public school teachers and wishes they would all stay in the area. “No region can develop economically if the public schools do not put out educated students,” he says. “The teacher shortage makes that more difficult.”

Indicators of change and progress are seen in the academic life of the university. The residential Honors College was started in 1996 with 77 students and now it has more than 800. “While great strides have obviously been made, some very important developments within this college remain to be implemented,” Bardo says. “As elsewhere, opportunities for growth are significant.”

When he became chancellor in 1995, there were no fully-funded endowed professorships. Now there are nine with more anticipated. The endowment was at a paltry $5.2 million. Now it exceeds $26.2 million. Active research grants have risen from $2.5 million in value to almost $13 million.

Several examples of innovative thinking lead to even higher expectations for success. The Millennial Campus plan is in the early stages of implementation across the highway from the main campus where the exciting and innovative North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching is already bringing national attention to the university. The 400-acre campus will allow WCU to expand its role as a driver of economic development and community development. Private businesses and higher education will co-exist and work together on this unique campus. Partnerships, collaboration and incubators are expected to flourish.

Another exciting partnership exists among A-B Tech, UNC Asheville, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and the business community. The former BASF property at Enka has been developed into a center involving biotechnology, genomics, a business incubator, and aneducation center under the direction of A-B Tech President Ray Bailey.

Then there’s the new initiative approved this year by legislators — a new building for WCU’s School of Health and Gerontological Sciences that would allow expansion of the existing program to include research on adaptive device development and human movement science laboratories. “We want to take this forward to a full applied health sciences program,” Bardo says. “We will encourage health-related businesses to co-locate with us and faculty will interact with business people direct.”

Without question, Bardo has put an indellible mark on WCU. Among those who have noticed is Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, despite his living 500 miles away on the Outer Banks.

 “Thanks to Chancellor Bardo, the people served by Western Carolina University — not just the students, but the community as a whole — are better prepared and better able to convince industry and businesses to come to and stay in the western part of our state,” Basnight says. “He also keeps people such as myself better focused with a true understanding of the different kind of mission that the university presents.

“There is a great sense of regional cooperation in the west, and John is the key to that. He’s a great communicator and he connects very easily with people. He represents the people of the mountains as well as anyone ever could,” Sen. Basnight adds.

Past WCU trustee chair Joe Crocker, a Wachovia executive, says, “John has been the blessing that Western Carolina University and Western North Carolina have needed for so long. He has boundless energy and is the most visionary person that I have ever experienced. He has the uncanny knack of being able to see the possibilities and potential in people and institutions and to go about making these possibilities become realities.”

Adelaide Key, former board chair and current member of the UNC Board of Governors, is effusive in praise as well. “John’s energy and passion are infectious,” she says. “He is so enthusiastic about his job, and he has vision for the best university he can create.”