President Gregory Geoffroy spoke to the Faculty Senate Executive Board about faculty issues Tuesday.

This was his first meeting with the board since his arrival on campus.

“It was nice to hear him articulate as a new president his order of business and his vision of some of the things he wants to accomplish at Iowa State,” said Tony Hendrickson, the chair of the Academic Affairs Council for the upcoming academic year.

David Hopper, former president, said one important topic discussed at the meeting was the university’s budget.

“[Geoffroy] said he is going to work very hard to make sure the funding at the university is increased through all our resources – fund raising, grants, tuition and our state appropriations,” Hopper said. “[Geoffroy] wants to improve all these.”

Hendrickson, chair of logistics, operations and management information services, said Geoffroy spoke to the board about his intended management style.

“He seems very decisive, yet very inclusive in his process of coming to a decision,” Hendrickson said. “[Geoffroy] said that in his typical management style he’d like to work through the chain of command and organizational structure.”

Hopper, professor of veterinary diagnostics and production of animal medicines, said Geoffroy’s management style is, in one word, inclusive.

“He is people-oriented,” he said. “He wants input from all constituents in the university. He’ll consider that input and then make decisions.”

Hendrickson said even though Geoffroy is playing a different role at Iowa State, the amount of experience he had as a provost at the University of Maryland was obvious.

“Those experiences I think came out in his presentation and his discussion that he’s already dealt with a lot of issues,” he said.

Hendrickson said Geoffroy wants to focus on more big impact projects at Iowa State. He said Geoffroy pointed to the Plants Sciences Institute as a future source of income for Iowa State because of the work researchers are doing regarding the genetic alteration of plants.

“He initially made what I heard were three major thrusts, which were; to increase the number of academic programs that are top rated in their field, to invest in people . and to strengthen our connections with Iowans to enhance the quality of life,” he said.

Hendrickson said Geoffroy sees the Faculty Senate as an important part of university governments.

“Most people were encouraged that he tried to schedule himself to be at as many [Faculty Senate] meetings as possible,” he said.

Other topics discussed at the meeting included the structure of the university, the decline in tenure faculty and faculty salaries and how the faculty senate and the administration will interact.

Brad Thacker, veterinary medicine caucus chair for the Executive Board and associate professor of veterinary diagnostics and production of animal medicines, said the meeting went very well and he was very impressed with Geoffroy.

“He seems like a person that is very interested in the faculty and the students,” he said.