Q&A: Thomas LeBlanc The president of George Washington University on building a campus community Interviewed By Marjorie Malpiede
Newly inaugurated college presidents, particularly those new to the school, have a window in time before the impact of their decisions eclipse that of their predecessors. This affords them the objectivity of an outsider while still being the person in charge. Tom LeBlanc, the new president of George Washington University, is making the most of that objectivity, asking questions and listening carefully to the university community, particularly the students, about how to make GW an even better place to go to college.
ents itself to its students, down to food options and community spaces.
The undergraduate experience tops LeBlanc’s list and it is clear he has carefully considered how that experience unfolds here in the nation’s capital. For a computer scientist and a serious academic, LeBlanc has an uncanny understanding of the social and environmental dynamics that impact a person’s college years. He says it is the interplay of these dynamics that result in how a university pres-
LeBlanc has so many aspirations for GW, it will be interesting to see if, after his inaugural year comes to an end in August, he continues to question and innovate or he settles into the job of running things. From our brief and poignant conversation, it is likely to be a combination of both.
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LeBlanc talked of great lessons learned during his tenures at the University of Miami and the University of Rochester; about how to make campuses more equitable; and how to make diversity something students know how to achieve, not just talk about. He applies these lessons to his new job with an acknowledgment of the difference between urban campuses and those “inside the hedges” of leafy suburbs.
Mary Christie Quarterly: As a new president, what are some of the areas you are focusing on, in terms
of change and/or improvement? Thomas LeBlanc: Let’s start with the undergraduate student experience. One of my colleagues had a great line. He said, “You may get married multiple times but you only go to college once.” It really is a defining period in your life and the question is, “Is it a positive experience or not?” The challenge for university administrators and faculty is that the vast majority of us don’t share the undergraduate student experience with our students. We don’t live in the dorms. We’re teaching classes but we’re not taking them. We don’t experience the registrar and student accounts and all these offices in the same way that our students do. And so we always need to make sure we’re on the lookout. I have been spending a lot of time talking to students and you can learn so much just by asking them.
