On the Saturday game day right after Wendy Wintersteen was selected to be Iowa State’s next president, many people came up to hug and congratulate her. 

Some of these people were old friends. Others were women, young and old, happy to see Iowa State had appointed its first female president.

“They were saying to me how proud they were that we were going to have the first woman president at Iowa State University,” Wintersteen said, “and they were just so pleased to see that, that I could be a role model for their children and I could be a role model for our students.”

Wintersteen plans to make them proud through hard work when she starts as president and by filling that role model position for the students and women in Iowa. 

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) dean will start as president in the next few weeks. Iowa State first hired her when she was a recent graduate with a degree in entomology 38 years ago. 

She almost left Iowa State in 1999 when she was offered a dean position at Purdue. Once an offer was made, then-Iowa State President Martin Jischke called Wintersteen to convince her to stay. 

He told her what a wonderful future she had at Iowa State and all the things she could accomplish if she stayed and by the end of the conversation, he succeeded. 

Wintersteen turned down Purdue and, six months later, Jischke took the presidential position at Purdue. 

“Well, I’ve been a Cyclone almost my entire life. It means that I’m a part of a great land-grant university, one that cares deeply about those original missions,” Wintersteen said. 

Wintersteen sat down with the Iowa State Daily staff. Here are some of the campus issues that were discussed. 

Transitioning from dean to president

Wintersteeen has served as dean of CALS for the last 15 years. 

Now as she moves from overseeing a single college to the entire university, Wintersteen said the partnerships she has made across the different colleges and the senior vice presidents will help her through the transition saying, “We have a strong foundation.”

“So it’s really an increase in magnitude and complexity,” Wintersteen said. “But the work that I’ve done in a very complex college — that has many facilities across Iowa, that has many external stakeholders with many different issues, strong undergraduate program — is really a matter of scaling that up and going across the many different disciplines.”

Once interim-President Benjamin Allen heads back to retirement, Wintersteen said the first thing she will do as president is “go out and listen.”

“I think it’s just so important to begin a process of working with the various official groups on campus and hear what they have to say, what would they like to say about their challenges and what they see as the opportunities,” Wintersteen said. 

Improving the campus climate

During Wintersteen’s open forum and acceptance address, she emphasized creating a welcoming and inclusive campus climate.

After posters depicting white supremacist values were found on campus last fall, a debate emerged over free speech versus hate speech. 

Wintersteen commended interim-President Allen’s response when similar stickers were found both on campus and around the city of Ames in September. 

She said she wants to follow on the foundation he had laid that “free speech is just part of the university, that is the free exchange of ideas, the opportunity to discuss issues” 

“But, what we can’t allow is situations where an environment exists where a student may be harmed because of how that situation is developing,” Wintersteen said. “I think that’s where interim-president Ben Allen drew the line.”

Another issue Iowa State, as well as institutions across the country, faces is sexual assault. Wintersteen said she was pleased with the launch of the Green Dot program this fall. 

“I think that is helpful on very many different levels. So, we’ll be able to see if that is successful, if it can make a difference,” Wintersteen said. “At the same time, we have to all be talking about how that simply is something that can’t be allowed.”

As dean, Wintersteen said she sat down with a student who had been sexually assaulted and listened to her story. She listened to the process the student had to go through following the assault. 

She said all faculty must be prepared to help students who have been sexually assaulted. 

“So again, it’s about being transparent in what’s happening, it’s about having training, it’s about having standards for all students that should be upheld,” Wintersteen said. 

Following the past presidents

With 15 presidents before her, Wintersteen spoke to which issues she will follow her predecessors on and which ones she will have her own to take on. 

Now-Auburn President Steven Leath, who left Iowa State in May, received criticism on lacking transparency after it was revealed he had a hard landing and ended up damaging a university plane, and failed to disclose it to the public. 

It was also later revealed that he mixed business and personal travel when using the plane. A recent audit report questioned the purchase of the university plane which was largely used by Leath to obtain his pilot license. 

Wintersteen said transparency will be a priority when she takes office. 

“And I think very strong communications early, about everything that we’re involved in, that really builds trust and it creates transparency,” Wintersteen said. “If you’re not involved in an excellent effort to communicate, then I don’t think you can have transparency and trust.”

Leath was also known as the president to end VEISHEA, a spring tradition which many alumni returned to Iowa State for, ended when the 2015 celebration turned into a weekend of riots. 

When asked if she had plans for a new spring celebration, Wintersteen brought up the traditions that have already formed or made a comeback since VEISHEA ended, including the homecoming parade on Main Street. 

“You know, when I think about the loss of VEISHEA, I think about what the leaders of the university have done to set up a whole new set of new traditions already,” Wintersteen said. “Jeff Johnson in our alumni association, has done a great job of that.” 

Wintersteen has no current plans for a VEISHEA replacement, but said it needs to come from a community conversation to figure out what was lost when they stopped having VEISHEA.

Past Iowa State presidents traditionally let many decisions be made by the college deans, creating a decentralized campus.

As a current college dean, Wintersteen said she plans to continue this tradition calling it a great system.

“So it’s out of the colleges that are teaching research and extension programs are developed, and then we have a great set of senior vice presidents that oversee the work that supports those core missions that are just squarely, squarely in the colleges,” Wintersteen said. “So I’m going to believe in that decentralized model and support it, and again I think it’s made Iowa State strong because we stay close to the people that really know what needs to be done, and that’s just how we should continue.” 

Wintersteen also plans to continue the work of Leath when it comes to fundraising for the Forever True, For ISU campaign. 

“When I see the wonderful gift that came to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, I think it came in around $145 million, this is going to change the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences,” Wintersteen said. “And as I listen to Dean Beate Schmittmann talk about that gift, she talks about the importance of scholarships that will be able to be provided as a result of that gift.”