“Drop by my office to shake my hand,” President Dan Mote told the new freshmen at the University of Maryland the day before classes started, and by early afternoon two young women in shorts and flip-flops had shown up at his office door. “We're here to shake hands with Professor Mote,” they told his assistant, who advised them to return at a time when he wasn't tied up in a meeting.

“We'll be getting a steady stream of freshmen from now on,” she said with a sigh, clearly accustomed to Mote's random invitations.

The book-lined president's office is not an ivory tower for Mote, who says he enjoys his position not for its status or power, but because it allows him to see the effect a University of Maryland education has on students. It's the place from which he has launched plans to change the University's physical plant and student culture.

Mote, 70, was recruited nine years ago to help put the 35,000-student College Park campus on the map. Although part of an 11-school group known as the System of the University of Maryland, only the College Park and Baltimore campuses have the legal title of “University of Maryland.”

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At the time of his hiring, U.S. News and World Report ranked Maryland 30th among public research universities. By 2005 it had moved up to 18th, with the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Virginia holding down the top two spots. Among national universities, Maryland now ranks 54th out of the 262 institutions rated by U.S. News.

Although Mote has clearly accomplished the task of increasing Maryland's visibility, he does not take the rankings too literally. “It's nice to be ranked well,” he said, “but it is logically impossible to avoid bias if there is more than one variable in the ranking system.”

Mote takes more pride in “changing the way we see ourselves. We look at ourselves in a more positive way. I worked hard to get people to stretch their talents and to encourage the thought that we are a world class institution.”

Part of changing the way the university sees itself is improving the infrastructure. Within a year of taking the reins, ground was broken on a series of projects ranging from classrooms and laboratories to a performing arts center and a sports complex -- the biggest building boom in the university’s history.

Mote was also interested in changing the student culture. He actively seeks out the advice of students as he works to improve the university, offering to take them out to lunch if they call ahead and make an appointment. According to student newspaper reporter Sara Murray, this has only had limited success. “Students want to talk about tuition, and Dr. Mote has a lot of different interests he has to juggle. It's the nature of his job to be stuck in the middle.” But his lunch invitations meet with student approval. “Everyone likes free food,” Murray said.

Mote's vision was initially met with some skepticism. He replaced a popular president who previously had been a longtime faculty member at College Park. Not everyone was happy to see an “outsider” brought in, even one with three decades experience as a scientist and academic. But Jackson Bryer, professor emeritus of English literature, said Mote has “more than overcome this difficult beginning.”

“He seems to have established very good rapport both with the state legislature and with individual donors,” Bryer said. “I have also found him, on a personal basis, a warm and engaging man who is unreservedly an enthusiast about the University of Maryland…He has won over pretty much the entire University community.”

Mote just returned from the People's Republic of China, a partner with the university in financing and supporting the Research Park adjacent to the campus. He thinks it's critical to prepare students “to live in the globalized world. They may live here but do business abroad, or live abroad and do business here.”

Mote's next goal is a redesign of Maryland's program to help students fit into this globalized world. “Everything is on the table, including the core curriculum,” he said. “How this plan turns out will reflect who we are.” Mote predicted that the core experience of an undergraduate will include more international study, increased numbers of interdisciplinary subjects, and more technology. He said it will also include a redesign of the graduate school, something Mote views as a turning point for the university.

This is heady stuff, but Mote said what continues to inspire him most are the young people in his charge. “I never cease to marvel at the transformation that happens when a student gets a higher education. The changes are all-encompassing and include establishing an identity, values, and responsibilities.”

Students often aren't aware of how their choice of school will change their lives, he said. “Seventy percent of university graduates live in the state of their alma mater for at least 10 years, and 80 percent of students who go out of state for higher education never return to their state, so students really need to think about where they want to live in the future.”

Additionally, students are often unprepared for “the richness of opportunity” awaiting them. Never again will they have the chance to experience similar “personal growth, opportunity for research with faculty members, opportunity for international study, and potential to build personal relationships.”

Mote compared the college experience to a football game. A team can't play lackadaisically for the first three quarters, get serious in the fourth, and still expect to win the game. Freshman year, he said, is the moment when “the game has started.” But that doeasn’t mean students need to find a major field their first year. “Having a bit of uncertainty is a good thing,” he said.

To expose future students to what lies ahead, the university hosts its annual open house, Maryland Day, the last Saturday of each April. More than 80,000 people attended last year -- incoming freshmen, their families, area high school students, members of the College Park community -- to gather information on more than 400 programs. “It's very welcoming,” Mote said, “and includes 8,000 faculty and student volunteers.”

Mote sees himself not as a figurehead, but as someone who helps instill “a sense of value and purpose” in the university community he oversees -- a community now global in scope. “There is a partnership among industry, government, and the university today that there wasn't fifty years ago,” he said, “so a university president's responsibilities have broadened considerably.”

However broad the scope of his job description, his thoughts always return to his love of the academic world and this period of time in a student's life. So students would be well advised to drop by and shoot the breeze. In the office of the university’s president, every day is Maryland Day.

ejacob1@gmu.edu

DAN MOTE'S TIPS FOR SUCCESS

1. Highest values and integrity are your most important assets. You can never succeed without them.

2. Education is a journey, not a destination. If you stop along the way, prepare to be run over.

3. Follow your passions, and you will never work a day in your life.

4. Be a citizen of the world--travel and learn--and you'll be enriched.

5. Embrace differences--racial, ethnic, political. You'll learn through them.