ARIZONA DAILY WILDCAT THE PRESIDENT’S INAUGURATION ISSUE
FRIDAY, NOV. 30, 2012 • VOL. 106 • ISSUE 71
Arizona Daily Wildcat file photo
UA PRESIDENT ANN WEAVER HART will be inaugurated as the UA’s 21st president today.
GREATEXPECTATIONS UA’s first female president balances family life, work in education Though it’s difficult to get the whole family together, Baker said they usually get together in Salt Lake City, Hart’s hometown, for the holidays. When they see each imberly Hart Baker remembers getting a other, Hart and her daughters often cook, go camping glimpse of her parents’ bedroom as her mother and spend a lot of time outdoors. Hart also helps her eight prepared to defend her dissertation. A sign on grandchildren with homework and reads with them. the door read, “You have a father, ask him.” “When I get the energy, I knit very complex projects Baker made sure that her youngest sister, a for grandchildren,” Hart said. “That way, you can never toddler at the time, did not go into that bedroom. think about your problems. Because if you have to keep “In order to study for it, she had — I mean what seemed track of four colors and lots of different patterns, there’s to me at the time, to my young eyes — hundreds of index no way to get distracted successfully.” cards … and they were strewn about her bedroom in Baker’s two daughters are very proud of “Gran” and this intricate and organized way,” said Baker, the oldest her love of education, which Baker says has always been daughter of UA President Ann Weaver Hart. “And I just Hart’s passion. Hart’s work inspires her grandchildren remember … understanding that there was a whole to take pride in their own intellectual accomplishments, other world of important things happening behind that Baker added. bedroom door.” Growing up, Hart’s family expected her to attend Hart, who will be inaugurated today as the UA’s first college, which was an unusual expectation for women female president, was a mother of four by the time at the time, Hart said. Although she began her career she got her doctorate by teaching history, she in higher education discovered her interest in leadership. Her family has working in administration been very supportive of while she was dean of her education and career, the graduate school for she said. the University of Utah. “The kind of career There she helped design a I have been fortunate graduate stipend support to have requires a lot of system for graduate attention and focus that is students. very, very difficult without “It was a difficult and the support of one’s complex experience but family,” Hart said. we succeeded when no — President Ann Weaver Hart When she accepted one thought we could, and the job as the UA’s 21st it was so exciting to realize president, her family was that we had been able to thrilled. Having spent a contribute to the future success of others,” Hart said. “I lot of their young adulthood backpacking, bicycling and think that’s when I really began to feel a commitment to hiking, Hart and her husband, Randy Hart, were ready to a broader engagement across the university.” move back to the West, Hart said. Prior to becoming UA president, Hart served as the Randy Hart, a retired attorney, is the “lowest-paid fullpresident of Temple University for six years. Hart has time employee of the University of Arizona because he also been president of the University of New Hampshire loves this place,” Hart joked. But he also keeps the family and provost and vice president for academic affairs at grounded and maintains communication between the Claremont Graduate University. The most rewarding couple and their four daughters, she said. part of having a career in higher education leadership is Hart and her husband met in high school. helping others succeed, Hart said. “He was the first chair clarinet. I was the first chair “She has strong leadership skills,” said Leslie Tolbert, cello. And we bumped into each other walking out the senior vice president for research at the UA. “She’s door one day and just started to talk,” Hart said. “We hit it very engaging. People listen when she speaks. She can off immediately. We’ve been together since then.” generate an energy around the topic she’s speaking They were married 44 years ago, after her about.” undergraduate freshman year, providing her with a Constructing a new vision of the 21st land grant different experience than most undergraduate students, she said. HART, 2
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STEPHANIE CASANOVA
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The kind of career I have been fortunate to have requires a lot of attention and focus that is very, very difficult without the support of one’s family.
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INSIDE:
The event
p. 2
What’s on the agenda for today
The chatter
p.3 What people on campus are saying
The semester
p.4 What President Hart has done so far