Don’t let his age fool you: University of Wisconsin System President-Delegate Raymond Cross is still willing and able to challenge college students to a pick-up game of basketball. Though, you may need to take it a little easy on him.
“I used to play basketball with students all the time and develop relationships,” Cross said in a one-on-one interview with The Daily Cardinal Tuesday. “I hope I am able to do more of that.”
Student outreach is a key area of focus for Cross once he takes office Feb. 15. Identifying the individual needs of students at each of the UW System’s 26 universities, as well as at the 13 UW Colleges, is a task Cross said he plans on tackling through what he considers the most achievable way possible: listening.
“Understanding those needs comes through listening and spending time with [the different campuses] and trying to understand how to help them address those needs in a collaborative way, in a partnership, whether it be the needs of a community or a campus, or in general, the people of the state,” Cross said.
Understanding the public includes the continuing concern, most notably from students, regarding the increasing cost of higher education. Cross said he wants to hold listening sessions across the state in order to grasp the unique, individual concerns of the different factions of the universities.
“Sometimes we work at creating policies that homogenize us and make us look too much alike,” Cross said. “The strength of this system is in its diversity and in its inherent differences; let’s magnify that.”
When originally asked about the opportunity of becoming a candidate for the UW System President position, Cross said he thought it was a joke. Even when approached by the Board of Regents Search and Screen Committee, who notified him on his nomination and the committee’s interest in his candidacy, Cross still was not sold on the prospect.
It was not until he realized he had the experience and know-how to do the job well that Cross reconsidered. Cross served as chancellor of UW Colleges and UW-Extension since 2011 and was a major player in the establishment of the UW Flexible Option program, which gives higher education opportunities to non-traditional students.
Cross emphasized his goal of straying away from the UW System focusing solely on its educational needs, but rather encompassing the state of Wisconsin as a whole.
“We are the University of Wisconsin, which that phrase speaks about more than location,” Cross said. “We are the university working with Wisconsin. We’re the University for Wisconsin.”
Cross will look to embark on his new journey with the UW System in a few weeks. In the meantime, maybe you can catch him at the SERF, looking to shoot the ball around.
