The Post sat down with Sherman to discuss how he will continue to fulfill his role as president in his last contractual year in the role, which ends no later than June 30, 2023.
The Post: When you accepted the job, what was the first goal you wanted to achieve as president?
Sherman: I think it was to make sure that everybody understood that the institution was in really good shape financially. I think we had to remind everybody that this (university) is really an outstanding place, and we’re really accomplishing things for students every day. Yes, we’ve had some financial issues in the past, but that we were getting through them and that we could move forward together in a positive way.
TP: What are your plans for your second year?
Sherman: We’re making choices of where we can make investments so we can improve the student experience. Number one, we’ve hired an outside firm that is looking at all the residence halls and is determining a master plan for how we can upgrade the residence halls and which ones are the most important to tackle first. We have significant reserves that we’ve put aside to improve those residence halls. That plan is going to be done by June, and we can start to work on that plan immediately this summer … with construction and so forth it’ll take a couple of years to get that done. Number two, we know that we are behind in developing a digital one-stop service center for students so that you (OU students) can easily pay your bills, you can register more easily, you can request advising assistance. … We had to put a plan together, so we put a plan together in October 2021 that we presented to the Board (for) investing in developing this one-stop service center for students.
TP: As for diversity and inclusion, what are some programs that you’re looking to implement on campus?
Sherman: I really believe that the program that was developed two years ago before COVID —Make Respect Visible — is a powerful campaign. Because of COVID, we didn’t really implement it. Last year, when we came back on campus, there was programming that was being done that worked with students in Bobcat Orientation as well as the learning communities. Basically, that was the only thing that we really got done. I think we can do a lot more programming of activities and education for students, not just the freshmen. … We need to do that across the university. We can do some more training for ourselves, the staff and faculty as well. We can make sure things like the Bobcat Orientation (are) presenting the values that we think are important for the campus.
TP: How has being president helped you reshape the world of higher education in general?
Sherman: I certainly have concerns about some of the issues that are happening in our society. It, the job, does give you a platform to talk about important values that you think are important. Things like, it’s dear to my heart, diversity and inclusion. We can talk about those things. We can implement new programs to make sure every student on our campus feels welcomed and feels supported. … We have a platform to talk to state legislatures, right? Because they do come and talk to us and talk to me, and I also make trips to Columbus to talk to them. We can talk to them about things that we think are important issues and give a point of view of what we think would be advantageous to encourage more students to be able to go to higher education.
TP: After this first year, are you glad you took the job?
Sherman: Yeah, I am. I am really pleased with the way things worked out this first year. I think that there was a lot that we all accomplished in stabilizing the situation and improving enrollments. Getting back to being able to identify those areas that are important for us to invest in the future and making those decisions — I think that’s important for the university.