CEOs You Should Know- Towson University

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
iHeartMedia presents CEOs you should know.Hi. I'm John Dinkle, former president
publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal andnow founder and CEO of Dnkle Business Development.
This is iHeartRadio CEOs you should Know, sponsored by a Strategic Factory,
and I'm here today with doctor Markinsburg, President of Talson University. So welcome
Mark, and thank you for beinghere. Thank you very much. John.

(00:23):
Great to be with you. Yeah, looking forward to our conversation.
So I probably get started by learninga little bit more about you and Towson
for those who may not be familiar, and I'm not sure who those might
be, but could you tell usa little bit about Towson University? Sure
at tass University is part of theuniversity system of Maryland, and it's the

(00:44):
second largest public university in the stateof Maryland. So we have about twenty
thousand students. University was founded inthe eighteen sixties, so it's been around
for a long time. It's ahistoric university that's had an enormous impact on
the state of Maryland and the Baltimoreregion over time. Historically, the university
began as a place where educators weretrained and nurses. But today Cowsen is

(01:07):
comprehensive research university, training our studentsacross a broad range of fields, and
has grown fast, both in termsof the number of students we serve,
the number of academic programs we have, and the research and scholarship that is
engaged on campus that is working tosolve some of the biggest and grandest challenges
of our time. So very proudof the university, proud of our students,

(01:29):
and proud of our faculty and staffall doing great things in service of
our community. Fantastic thank you.Yeah, and you mentioned, you know,
Talson used to be known for ascollege for educators, and what would
you say it's known for now?Well, I think the spires of excellence
that are historic to the university remaineducation and nursing pivotal of that early on.

(01:51):
But today the university has large programsin cybersecurity, large programs in business,
large programs in the STEM fieldence technology, and the mathematics areas, and
so today Towsand is a full service, comprehensive university. One of the largest
growth areas is in the domain ofhealth professionals. We actually trained more health

(02:14):
professionals than any of the university inMaryland, both at the undergraduate, at
the master's end, at the doctorallevels. Wow, the university is a
very broad ranging place. That's great. I didn't realize that how many students
does Towson University I guess typically havein a semester. Yeah, great question.
About twenty thousand students are on campusand this fall fall twenty twenty three,

(02:38):
we welcome the largest entering class theuniversity has had in its long long
history. We have actually a largernumber of students who have applied for admission
for fall twenty twenty four. Sothe metrics on student population, unlike many
universities in this country, continue togrow and people see the value of a

(02:59):
Towson education, They see the qualityof a touisand education, and they see
the impact of a Touision education.So we're very proud of the university.
Yeah, that's great to hear,because, like you said, I was
going to ask you about enrollment andand what's what you know, what's that
trending? But it sounds like it'sit's trending up, which is a great

(03:19):
sign. And you know, II look back one although I didn't go
to Towson. My brother did,my wife did, and my youngest did.
So Yeah, you've seen university personalJohn, I know, right,
and I did. I did uhsit on the presidents of Divisory Council for
the Business School with uh tory phenomena. Yeah. Yeah, but that's fantastic.

(03:43):
That is growing and I think thatyou're right. I think it because
of the diversity there, and youknow, the level of education that you're
getting is you know, it's it'sa it's a it's a great I don't
want to use the word kind ofa great deal, but it's you know,
it's a it's a it's a greatplace to get an education. Yeah,
it's a great value. So Iwould just have it in today.
Tawson. You mentioned this, it'sa minority majority university, so about fifty

(04:06):
four percent of our undergraduate students comefrom minority groups, which we're very proud
of. And I always say thatTowson is a university that provides access,
access to opportunity, that access toopportunity has a very pervasively positive effect on
our community. Yeah, that's great. I'm curious to note too, since

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the pandemic, have the career pathshave you seen for students changed or not
really or it has to really kindof been the same over the past,
you know, three four years,or have you seen any particular the areas
that students are now kind of leaningtowards because of the pandemic. Yeah,
it's a great question. You know, we've seen surges enrollment in the health

(04:54):
areas, in particular public health areasas students have recognized the importance through the
pandemic period, too have health professionals, and so we're very pleased that our
nursing school continues to grow, thatother programs and the health sciences continue to
grow, and there seems to bea spiraling positive trajectory for some of those

(05:15):
programs. We're very pleased too thatthere is a lot of talk in the
country about the shortage of educators,the shortage of teachers and thousand, like
probably every university in the country sawa dip enrollment in our education programs,
but this year, for the firsttime in several we've seen growth in those
programs and potentially significant growth for thefall because we've seen a surge of interest

(05:38):
in our teacher education programs, whichis great for the States, great for
our region and hopefully a sign ofgood things to come across the country.
Yeah, that's great. Great appreciatesharing that. Yeah, and I think
you mentioned this before too, thatTowson obviously has a very diverse student population.
That's right. What are some thingsthat you plan on doing or what

(06:00):
continue to do to maintain that culture. Well, that's another great question.
You know. One of the greatmetrics that I speak about with House in
university, unlike almost any university inthe country, our highest rate of graduation,
our highest rate of graduation or AfricanAmerican women, that's the highest rate
of graduation at our university, whichis highly highly unusual, and African American

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men are close behind. And sothere's something special going on here, and
I think it has to do withthe support we provide for students. The
center of the work at the universityis a value that students come first,
and so even though we're a veryhighly productive research university, we haven't compromised
our teaching mission and our approach toservices for students, be that helping them

(06:45):
to learn both in the classroom,but also creating a great sense of community
in the university outside of the classroom. And I think it's that connectiveness,
the connectiveness of students with each other, the connectiveness of faculty with students and
staff with students, and the senseof community engagement connection that I think is

(07:05):
part of the secret sauce of success. So it really pleased about that.
Of course. The other important factoris finances. That is a public university.
We've managed to keep tuition at amodest level, but one of the
challenges we face is working with ourcolleagues in the state of Maryland and our

(07:25):
donors and friends and allies at theuniversity to be sure that we have financial
aid opportunities for students beyond loans financiallythat provides scholarship assistance to students, so
that the cost of attendance for studentsparsicually from families who may not be able
to afford the cost of a collegeeducation have the opportunity to access and participate

(07:46):
in the college education. Very veryimportant future point for us. Yeah,
that's great. Yeah, and youmentioned community. You know, Towson University
obviously is a big impact on thelocal community there. Could you talk about
that a little bit and what thatimpact looks like. Yeah, sure,
sure. One of the programs thatwe're very proud of. We have a

(08:09):
program we called the Startup which islocated in an old National Guard armory just
a few blocks from our campus.Yeah, I toured that, Actually I
toured that on Wednesday. Also,Yeah, fabulous place. And what the
Startup Program in our armory does isit creates an entrepreneurial spirit in the community.
It brings people to the university whohave great ideas to work with each

(08:33):
other, to work with our facultyin our School of Business, our College
of Business and Economics, to workwith other faculty and staff, and the
university and the entrepreneurial space help themto have their dreams come true. Great
ideas are born, but great ideasoftentimes don't hatch. And so we're trying
to work with the next generation ofentrepreneurs, both young and old. Folks

(08:56):
in that program whore in their fiftiesand sixties and people there twenties and thirties,
and that engagement with the community.So that program is just one example
of many of how we work withthe community. Of course, our arts
program is another area that bridges inthe community and our Division one athletic program
as well as part of the frontporch. We like to say of Towns

(09:18):
and University to the Baltimore region.Yeah, that's fantastic. Yeah, and
the startup facility, it's a greatspace. Actually, we're looking at doing
an event there and I didn't realizethat you guys allow the space for free
and ask for donation, but there'sYeah, it was very lively. Lots
of you know companies in there,you know, working with their teams,

(09:41):
and it was really kind of vibrantcommunity there. That's pretty cool. Yeah,
it's kind of like an in it'skind of like an incubator and state
almost you know, but doing thingsthat a lot of other incubators don't and
very very proud of that program andthink that it's one of the ways that
our commitment to the community. Letme say this to that I've had the
privilege to serve at is the fourthuniversity I've been at over the course of

(10:03):
my career, and my experience hasbeen that every great university, every great
university in this country, has adirect and intimate connection to the community in
which it resides, and partly iswhat makes a university great. But just
as importantly, I think every greatcommunity I know it has a connection to
a great university and so that commitmentto the community and the community's commitment to

(10:26):
the university is so important to thesuccess not just of Towson University in the
city of Towson, to the Countyof Baltimore, the Baltimore region, but
to the success of the community.So really really proud of that. Yeah,
I love that, love that.Yeah, And I know you just
also announced some new developments our developmentplans for thousand University. Could you talk

(10:50):
about that a little bit. Yeah, We'll be renovating a large complex of
a building on campus to house programsand communications, which is going to be
I think a transformative experience for ourcampus. Construction of that project beginning this
summer, but even more in thenot so distant future because they'll take several
years to complete. We're opening upa beautiful new complex for the health professions

(11:13):
for our college and health Professions thatopens later this spring, which is an
incredible facility that will transform and continueto grow and enhance our ability to train
the next generation of health professionals.Another program that's new to the campus this
year, which I'll highlight, isthe first doctoral program in the field of

(11:33):
autism in the state and really inthe region, and as we know,
children and adults who are diagnosed withand have the challenges of being on the
autism spectrum have many different challenges andtousands on the cutting edge of training professionals
to work with that very special andimportant population. Excellent, excellent, Well,

(11:54):
I appreciate you sharing all of that. That's great. Yes, So
looking back on your past a littlebit, So you spent many years with
George Mason, Yeah, yeah,as so in your new role, you
know, what, what are somelessons you say you've learned there that you
you know, feel like you wouldbring over to Talson if any Well,

(12:16):
you know, one of the mostimportant lessons I've learned is that great leaders,
I think are great listeners, andgreat great listeners are individuals who try
to listen to what people are saying, but more importantly, can can really
genuinely hear what people say, andperhaps even importantly more important in hearing what
they say, understand what they say. And so we've embarked on this very

(12:39):
engaged a tour of listening, hearingand understanding, with more than fifty sessions
already scheduled both on campus and inthe community to meet with groups and for
me to listen to what they say, to hear their perspective, and to
understand what their hopes and dreams arefor themselves, for their organizations, for

(13:00):
their families, for their community,and ultimately for our university. And so
what we're hoping to do is toframe through this listening as leadership approach,
a vision for the next Aero Tabsand University that will even better serve the
university community, the students of thefuture, the greater Baltimore region. And
my job, as I tell peopleall the time, is my job is

(13:22):
to make a great university even greater. And that's exactly what we intend to
do. That's great. Yeah,and you mentioned leadership. I love talking
about that on the show. Howwould you describe your leadership style other than
kind of what you already mentioned aboutobviously being a good listener. Yeah,

(13:43):
I would describe my listener style.I call it relational leadership. And what
I mean by that is that relationshipsreally matter and the culture of every organization
really matters, and both are important, I think, in a predictive way
to high performance and organizational success.You know my own trainings. I'm a
psychologist by training and have always workedon relationships with people and have tried to

(14:07):
model that in the work that Ido as a leader, to engage with
people, to be an active participantin the community. I'll give you a
good example of that. When mywife and I came to Tousan, we
were looking for a place to livein the community, and what we decided
to do in a very courageous way, we decided to live in one of
our residence halls, to live ina dormitory on campus because we wanted to

(14:30):
be full participating members of the community. So we don't live and we have
an apartment in a residence hall becausewe do have We're blessed to have great
facilities and have some apartments and residencehalls, but there are about three hundred
students who live in our building.And when I first started doing that,
people would look at us like,who are these old folks coming to the
building and whose parents are here?And why are they here? And now

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we've been accepted as members of thatresidence facility. For for us, it's
been a great way to participate inthe life of the university. And that's
really my style of leadership, isto be the life of the organization.
Yeah, I love that. Ilove that a lot. And that is
such a huge, huge point,the relationships with your team and your staff

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and your constituents. And you know, I worked with a much smaller organization
and felt the same way that Iwanted to have a relationship with everybody at
that organization and know what their goalswere and how I can help them reach
them and all those things I met. It must be a challenge having so
many you know, uh, employees, staff constituents, Like, yeah,

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is it kind of one relationship outa time. Is that how you're approaching
it or what kind of advice wouldyou give there? Well, it's it's
both one relation at a time,but also meeting with groups and and and
being seen as approachableth You know,I always tell people when they they call
me president, I said, no, my name's Mark. Uh, We're
find to call me Mark. Andbecause I think it's part of being being

(16:03):
personal with people and getting to knowpeople. You know, not only we
live in a residence hall, butwe have many of our meals in the
dining halls of the university. Mywife and I go in and we just
sit with a group of students orgo into one of the places faculty are
eating, and we think that's thetime. I just think that's the time
when people are able to be morepersonal, is when they're sharing, you're

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sharing a meal with them, andso so we've tried to do a lot
of things to engage to show up. I learned a long time ago that
someone said the first step is toshow up, and the second step is
to show up again, and thethird step is to continue to show up.
So you'll see us at arts events, you'll see us at athletic events,
You'll see us in the student union, You'll see us all over the

(16:47):
place. And that's that's really bydesign, but it's who who my wife
Elane and I are. We wejust like to be with people and are
really thrilled to be part of aterrific community. Yeah, that's great,
I love it. I love it. Thank you for that. So,
with the general threat of the pandemicover and obviously we're going to prove with

(17:08):
the rest of our lives. Butwhat if you were to look back,
like, what did you learn aboutkind of managing and communication and leadership through
that through that time? Yeah,well, one of the most important lessons
I think is to communicate, andthat to even overly communicate, because information
was a commodity that people needed andthey very much wanted and and so that

(17:33):
was part of it. But oneof the other lessons I think is that
one of the responsibilities of leadership isto keep people safe, to maintain an
environment that's healthy, and to notcompromise people's safety, their security of their
health. And those are lessons,particularly in today's zero where health safety and
security or predominant thoughts and themes thatuniversity presidents or leaders of other organizations just

(18:00):
to have to have, I thinkas their primary responsibility. I actually call
it a covenant, a covenant ofresponsibility to protect the health, safety and
welfare of their constituency, their organization. And I think COVID accelerated that taught
us a lot of lessons on theeducational side at universities. It's also taught
us that learning doesn't happen in oneway. Learning can happen in many ways,

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and so we've tried to amplify andaccelerate our opportunities for students to learn
both on the campus and the classroom, but also virtually and adapting and using
technologies that frankly hadn't been well developedbefore three years ago, four years ago
that are now ubiquitous and being ableto access learning through technology not as the

(18:47):
only way of learning, but asa strategy and at tactic to help to
augment the learning and the accessibility tolearning experiences for our students. So lots
of lessons through COVID. More happening, you know, I say it will
be too long winded, but oneof my favorite authors is Derek Thompson of
Atlantic Magazine said that the first stepand the pandemic was things were disrupted.

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The second step is the things heevolved, and the third step, which
we're in now, that things thathave evolved and developed are accelerating. And
that's part of our approach now isthinking about how we can accelerate some of
the lessons learned through COVID, andto know that we can continue to not
do things in the way we alwaysdid them, but to blend what we've

(19:32):
always done with things that we nowcan do as well. Yeah, I
love that. I appreciate the feedbackthere. Yeah, it was interesting.
I read an article the other dayabout employee job satisfaction is plummeting. People
aren't happy in their roles. AndI'm wondering what COVID the impact there was,
because a lot of companies are askingthey're folks to come back in the

(19:53):
office more days than the week asopposed to working remotely. I imagine that
has something to do with it.And and or to your point, not
communicating and and uh and communicating communicatingwhat their culture now is as it may
have changed during COVID. How doyou how do you how do you keep
a good positive culture there with somany people and so many you know,

(20:17):
there's you have a lot of factsthat's at at the university, like how
do you make do the good culturethere? We do it well. It's
it's no secret that that's a challengeof maintaining culture and there's really I think
everybody in the organization, I'm surewill will tell you that culture may be
the most important factor in the performanceof an organization and keeping people inspired and

(20:40):
motivated and doing great things. Andso you know, we we we work
at that every day. You know, it's a little hard when you're teaching
classes in a classroom to to nothave people on campus or just serve students,
and we have fausts of students livingin our residence halls. But we've
tried to blend that so that peoplehave greater flexibility and how they work at

(21:04):
times, not always, but attimes where they work, and how we
can adapt and use some of thethings we learned in the last couple of
years that can strengthen our workplaces andenhance our ability to connect and to maintain
connection even when we may be distant. So I think all workplaces have needed

(21:26):
to adopt some flexibility, and universitiesthere are certainly part of that. Yeah,
great, I appreciate you sharing that. So we'll get excited about the
future of Talson University. Well,it gets me excited is our students.
What gets me excited about is asI see our young people as well as
we have many students who are notin the eighteen to twenty two category who

(21:48):
are over that. You know,there are about forty million Americans who've started
college but haven't completed it, andthere are about a million America a million
of Marylanders who've started college but haven'tcompleted it. And reaching out and being
a university that not only serves studentsin the traditional age range, although we
certainly serve those students well and arevery committed to that group of students,

(22:11):
but also to serve a wider groupof students who can benefit from a tous
In education, both at the undergraduatelevel and at the gradual level. So
what excites me is to see thegrowth and development of our students, whether
they're eighteen and coming to the collegefresh out of university, fresh out of
high school, or whether they're fiftyreturning to the university after many years.
I met recently with a gentleman whoactually works on campus in one of the

(22:36):
trades, who finished about three yearsof a tous In education thirty years ago,
whose daughter was graduating with a tousIn education this year. He and
she walked across the stage together becausethis year, and you know, when
you hear stories like that and youmeet people like that, how can you

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not be inspired. I love thefact that we provide that kind of access
to opportunity, and it really reallyinspires me every day. Yeah, that's
a great story. So conversely,what keeps up at night, Well,
a couple of things. I mean, obviously, there are challenges in the

(23:17):
world today that have permeated college campusesaround the country. Those are challenges that
we want to maintain an environment onour campus where we're free speech is respected
and we can lean into difficult topics, but we don't a degree with each
other. We do so in arespectful way. That is the way that
promotes both the exchange of ideas butalso promotes respect. Those are topics that

(23:44):
have kept college presidents not one night, but probably most nights. We're also
concerned about, you know, asI mentioned earlier, one of the covenantive
responsibilities to keep people safe and healthy. And safety obviously is an important factor
when we see some of the eventshave taken place around the country. And
I guess the other thing that keepsme up at night is to be sure

(24:06):
that we maintain financial base to theuniversity. And many states have reduced their
support for education, have reduced theirsport for higher education. We're very fortunate
to live in a state with agreat support for higher education, with a
governor and a legislature that supports publiceducation, with a chancellor, and a
great university system of Maryland that's oneof the most respected in the country.

(24:30):
And so what keeps me up atnight is being sure that we can continue
to, as I say, makea great university greater, to make a
great system of education in our greatstate of Maryland greater in the years ahead,
and I see that part of myresponsibility as well. Well. Very
pleased to do that, all right, Yeah, thank you, Mark,
and I guess to w op thingsup. You know, is there anything

(24:52):
else you'd like our listeners to knowabout you and Towson University. Well,
probably the most important thing we knowabout Towson is our and our commitment to
our students, our commitment to ourfaculty and staff, our commitment to the
community, our commitment to Towson Universitybeing a place where people come and they
grow and develop. That we're aengine of opportunity but also an engine of

(25:15):
economic activity for our region. AsI mentioned, every great university is connected
in intimate ways to its community,and every great community is connected in intimate
ways to a great university. Andso I think trying to strengthen those areas
as we strengthen the academic programs ofTowson University, because it's a continual work

(25:38):
in progress, that we also continueto strengthen the relationships that we share with
each other internally and externally and work, as I said, to make a
great place for the greatest place itcan be. And so I look forward
to that and thank you very muchfor the opportunity to chat. Look forward
to continuing our dialogue and yeah withother community. Yeah, I really appreciate

(26:00):
it. Margaret. What's the what'sthe best way for our listeners to find
out more information about Towson University?Yeah, probably the best ways through our
website. Uh, towsand T OW, S O, N, DOT
E d U. Great information onour website, Follow us on all the
social media channels. Lots of stuffout there on Facebook and uh what is

(26:21):
it called now x? It usedto be called something else. All those
all those social media, all thosesocial media follow us, link to us,
and hopefully we look forward to yoursupporting Towson University as we grow into
our next grade era of great news. Yeah. Absolutely, and yeah,
thanks so much again for taking thetime. Do you talk with us today?
Really the conversation, looking forward toappreciate it. Thanks so much lot,

(26:45):
Have we go away. This hasbeen iHeartMedia CEOs. You should know