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With only a few months under his belt as the University's new provost, Charles Cnudde, newly arrived from Florida, first needed to find his way around Boston. But once he was on campus, he was ready for business. Cnudde says he was drawn here because UMass Boston is engaged in fighting the tide that typically sweeps a maturing university away from its original mission. He observes that, as they grow older, most institutions of higher education experience "mission drift," bogging down in a competition that drives them to become more alike. "This campus," he says, "is not characterized by drift. [Faculty and staff have] expressed their concern about the urban mission of UMass Boston, and [about] taking a leadership role among national universities [in] urban centers." He says he hopes to maintain that focus. Cnudde joins UMass Boston after most recently serving as dean of the College of Social Sciences, professor of political science, and professor of public administration and policy at Florida State University. He has been on the faculty at the University of North Carolina, the University of California Irvine, the University of Wisconsin, Michigan State University, and the University of Texas at Austin. He has been a visiting senior lecturer at the University of Essex in Colchester, England, and a visiting professor at the University of Arizona. Cnudde's appreciation of public higher education was earned through experience. He is the first in his family to graduate from college, thanks to the opportunities he found at state universities&emdash;he received his bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina. "The public university experience made a big difference in my life, so I understand what it can do for people," he said. One of his important commitments, he says, stems partly from this background. That is the commitment to opening and maintaining educational opportunities for women, minorities, and lower income groups, through fostering the academic excellence of the University's teaching, research, and service. "These opportunities must provide quality experiences," he asserts. "Otherwise they would be mere window-dressing." Cnudde aims to put that commitment into action as he begins work on the University's strategic plan. He plans to focus on two areas. One is public policy, especially as it relates to urban needs in general and public schools in particular, in and around Boston. The other is international affairs, a topic he hopes to target in accordance with faculty strengths. He also hopes to address trends he has noticed at the national level - like inadequate funding. Cnudde says universities around the country need to find both new ways of saving money and new sources of funding, whether from grants or fundraising activities. "Every public university is fundraising," he observes. "That's something they hadn't done before." In recent years Cnudde has spent a great deal of his time building up university endowments; he plans to share this expertise by helping to build up UMass Boston's endowment, which he labels, "the single most important thing we can do for the students of the future." There is a lot of work ahead, but Cnudde says what keeps his interest strong is his love for universities. "They allow people to think," he asserts, "to create, to research, to live in a world of ideas. "I think we owe it to future generations to make sure universities are strong and continue doing what they do."
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