Learn English with Kent McDonald, President of Northwood University, in Midland, Michigan. In this episode, Kent talks about what it's like to be a senior academic administrator at a major U.S. university, his love for the Red Wings, and the importance of free enterprise.
00:00:00.000With great excitement, I introduce you to Northwood University, a truly exceptional institution in
00:00:06.420American higher education. Since 1959, this private, accredited university has been a vibrant
00:00:13.680bastion of free thought and enterprise, standing out among the thousands of other schools in the
00:00:20.800U.S. Known as America's free enterprise university, Northwood is dedicated to nurturing the next
00:00:27.800generation of leaders who drive global social and economic progress. At the heart of Northwood
00:00:35.340lies the Northwood idea, a philosophy that celebrates individual freedom, responsibility,
00:00:42.080and the importance of moral law and free enterprise. This entrepreneurial spirit is evident in that
00:00:49.060one-third of Northwood alumni own businesses. Northwood is more than an institution. It's a
00:00:55.540movement that empowers students to think critically and champion liberty. It is a rare gem in today's
00:01:03.080academic world. If you're passionate about supporting a university that values intellectual growth and
00:01:09.360free enterprise, or to learn more about its academic programs, visit northwood.edu.
00:01:15.460Hey, everybody, this is Gats out for the sad truth. Today, I've got several firsts. This is the first time that I record the sad truth from an American university, Northwood University. Second, first is that I have, I've talked a lot about academia and about universities, but I've never had a senior academic administrator on my show, let alone a president of a major university.
00:01:44.480So today, I'd like to introduce and say hello to President Kent McDonald, President of Northwood University. How are you doing, sir?
00:01:53.000Great, good. It's great to be with you, and welcome to Northwood. Welcome to Midland. I feel special to be the first one.
00:02:01.180I got to tell you, you know, you find out about a place, and I think we mentioned this off air yesterday, that there are all these beautiful places in the world that you, short of the serendipity of life, you would have never heard of.
00:02:14.320So here we are, downtown Midland. I would have never thought that a small town in, you know, Michigan could have such a gorgeous downtown.
00:02:22.720How many other places do we not know of that are as gorgeous as Midland?
00:02:26.440Yeah, well, you know, I've traveled the world like you, and we're blessed with wonderful places, wonderful people all around the world.
00:02:34.540I guess, I mean, you and I are both the same age, so as we get out.
00:02:38.440That's right, we are. I'm from Nova Scotia, eh?
00:02:41.940So the world is great places, but I can tell you, look, growing up in Canada, we hear about Michigan, and I was a big Red Wings fan, and you hear about Detroit, maybe a little bit about Ann Arbor.
00:02:53.080But this is an incredible state. You know, their advertising tagline that says Pure Michigan, it's real.
00:03:00.120And we're right in the middle of it, in an incredible little city, Midland, safe, wonderful people, and lucky to be here, and really good to have you here.
00:03:08.080Oh, I'm so happy to be here. This was my inaugural visit of many future visits to Midland and to Northwood University.
00:03:15.780I mean, the way it started between us, I always tell people that, you know, going into my emails is like a slot machine.
00:03:22.000Sometimes it will hit black, and you're happy, or vice versa, or red.
00:03:25.960And so two months ago, I'm in Southern California, doing a bit of work, doing some shows, but also taking a family vacation.
00:03:31.680And here comes an email from a president of a university that I'm ashamed to say I had not heard of, but now I'm glad that I've heard of it.
00:03:40.320And here we are two months later. Unbelievable how life takes us in new trajectories.
00:03:45.220Yeah, and again, as the older we get, we're blessed when we get to meet new people.
00:03:51.220So, number one, I'm so glad that you opened that email, because if you remember, in your email, you said, I'm not answering anybody.
00:03:59.300Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you failed on that one account, and so I'm really glad you did.
00:04:04.580So, thanks for opening it. And number two is, you know, I've been a fan.
00:04:09.480I was actually introduced to your work by our son, Matthew.
00:04:50.500And so, then I started to read some of the, to be quite honest, some of the same reasons I decided, Mariana and I decided it was time to leave Canada.
00:05:00.460I love Canada. I'm, you know, proud Canadian, proud to be from Nova Scotia.
00:05:04.020But it was time. And I just picked that up in, in what you were writing.
00:05:09.760And I said, you know, he can ignore me, or he can say no, or he could say yes.
00:05:15.700What is that old expression from, I think, Michael Jordan, you, you never make all of the shots that you didn't try, or you miss all the shots, whatever that expression is.
00:05:23.360So, that's what, that's the adage that you went by.
00:05:25.300That's right. And, and look, I'm maybe a non-traditional president. I'm unequivocal, though, in our pursuit of what we're doing here at Northwood. And that can only be achieved if we have great faculty. I mean, when you think back to your time at McGill or Cornell, you don't think of the president, right?
00:05:49.960Yeah. And, and so one of my goals here at Northwood is how do we attract great faculty to be in front of our outstanding students? You know, and then you blend in what we stand for as an institution, which is different. Then magical things happen. And already your time here at Northwood, I can feel it. I mean, I'm getting, my phone, I've never had so many texts last night from, from our time together.
00:06:14.420And so, yeah, life is funny and it's a joy to meet you and your wife and to have you here at Northwood.
00:06:22.400Likewise. It has been truly amazing experience and not to just throw nice compliments at each other, but really it's wonderful to walk around in a place that's so positive where our values exactly align so that it's been really refreshing for me.
00:06:35.220And so I'm, I'm delighted to be here as a visiting professor and global ambassador at, of the Northwood idea.
00:06:41.060Maybe we could talk a bit about what, you know, many people don't have a clue what a president of a university typically does.
00:06:48.380So walk us on a daily routine. What is it that keeps you up, but also just generally, what, what, what are the things that you love about your job?
00:06:57.820Some of the things that you maybe like a bit less about your job, walk us through what it is to be a president.
00:07:02.340Yeah. So of course it's contextual, you know, are you in a private, public or a private?
00:07:07.400In Canada, I was in a public, relied heavily on taxpayer funding here at Northwood.
00:07:11.900We're private. And so we rely, we have revenues in only two ways.
00:07:16.320And that is through tuition and through generosity.
00:07:20.640And, and so my job here, I mean, in, in America, 1636 was the first school, starts with an H over in Massachusetts.
00:07:27.880Uh, so at, at, at Harvard, um, Humboldt college, Humboldt. Yeah, that's, that's right.
00:07:33.500Uh, they, uh, very good. Uh, they, um, uh, started this whole fundraising thing and in Canada, the UK, others, we really, we do it, but not to the degree that's expected here.
00:07:45.000It's, it's happening more and more as funding goes down and we don't have to get into the, the, the, those issues perhaps.
00:07:49.760But, um, so fundraising is an important part here. Um, but also the things that really keep me up at night is we've got a great academic vice president, uh, Dr. Stay Hauer.
00:08:02.300Yeah, she's really good. And, and, uh, and she knows that I get my fingers in the academic things because I have, I have a certain philosophies that, that as president, I want to make sure we're on the same page and we are.
00:08:12.600Uh, but she takes care of the academics on the finance admin. Great VP takes care of that thing. Um, the thing that keeps me up at night is in 2024, I ask, are we doing the right things as an institution?
00:08:26.800Uh, I think we are. Um, but then it's as a small private in the middle of rural Michigan, how do we compete? And, and it's difficult, you know, with the funding and in, in this particular state, a desire to make, you know, tuition free,
00:08:42.280which I fundamentally disagree with. And, um, and so those competitive things actually make the job really fun.
00:08:49.700On top of that, I have this, my own Hippocratic oath and that is do no harm. And what I mean by that at Northwood, this is a special place.
00:08:57.740You know, we very publicly and proudly talk about being America's free enterprise university and, and you as our global ambassador, the Northwood idea,
00:09:07.100we're also unapologetic about our commitment to what has made this, the greatest democratic Republic ever to exist.
00:09:14.620And remember it evolved out of a revolution, right? So from that history and the founders and their vision of what they wanted America to be,
00:09:24.480I think Northwood represents that free enterprise, limited government, not no government, limited government in our life, rule of law.
00:09:34.540Yeah. Imagine rule of law. And the one that I think,
00:09:38.540So you mean I can't steal less than $950 and get away with it?
00:09:41.900That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Now you're going to get me going.
00:09:45.900Go for it. We have all the time in the world.
00:09:47.400Yeah. And then, um, the one that's most important to me as a dad of four children, as someone who has been in higher ed,
00:09:55.460you know, just about the same length of view is I think we have a real responsibility to prepare these people for success in life and life is not trigger warnings and safe spaces.
00:10:08.660It's about grit and resilience and life is tough. And in my view, meritocrity and earned success.
00:10:15.340And so those things all wrapped up in what we call personal responsibility that you show up, you work hard.
00:10:23.280That's why I love our students. And when people said, Oh, Kent, you can't talk about that. You love our students.
00:10:27.640I love our students because we attract a young person who's not going to be relying on government.
00:10:34.020The fact that we have one third of our graduates own or co-own their own company.
00:10:43.660It's an unbelievable statistic. So we're not the biggest, we're not the richest, but I think we're exactly what the country needs right now.
00:10:50.580They need more Northwood. We need more Northwood students and just students who are ready to take on the world
00:10:57.040and have the confidence to do it. So when I talk about, are we doing the right things?
00:11:02.360Those are the things that it's wrapped up. The technical stuff, we're about to launch a new school.
00:11:07.520We're establishing the Center for Automotive and Mobility Studies. Those things are all exciting.
00:11:12.220How do we grow online? What countries do we want to do work in or not do work in?
00:11:16.980But those are more of the technical things. The deeper things that keep me up are just this
00:11:21.820Hippocratic oath of do no harm to this incredible university. And quite frankly, I think we're all
00:11:29.200rowing in the right direction. I feel good.
00:11:31.300Now, let me ask you this. I often receive the following question, usually in reference to Jordan
00:11:36.840Peterson and myself in terms of what's in the water of Canada that you're producing such freedom
00:11:43.520defenders. Now we can add a third horseman of freedom called Kent McDonald.
00:11:49.700Is there something uniquely in Canada that you need Canadians to be supporting all of the foundational
00:11:56.160values that the U.S. was built on? What's going on there?
00:11:59.260Sometimes that's the case, isn't it? I mean, you look at some who are the most innovative
00:12:03.800entrepreneurial people. A lot of those people who legally come to this country. If you look at
00:12:10.740some of the most important CEOs in this country, they have something in common. Why are they all
00:12:18.380Indian descent? And so sometimes you can't be a prophet in your own land? And you know that,
00:12:25.660the story about a fish and the old fish is swimming around the stone, runs into a couple of younger
00:12:33.060fish and the old fish says to them, how's the water, boys? He swims off and they look at each other and
00:12:40.320say, what's water? So sometimes you just don't know what you have. And it would be tragic for this
00:12:49.100country, for the world to lose what has made this such a great country. And that is some of the
00:12:55.480fundamental things that we believe in. So where does it come from me and you and Dr. Peterson? I'm not
00:13:02.660sure. But there's more of us. And I think, you know, as you talk about a lot, Gad, we just have to
00:13:09.860elevate our voice in a strong and respectful way and not be shy about it. And so that's why I love
00:13:17.960being at Northwood. We're proud of what we stand for. And the good news is this, that if you don't
00:13:23.960like free enterprise and limited government and these other things, there's 4,500 other colleges
00:13:29.260you can go to, right? And there's a few of us here, our friends down at Hillsdale, you know,
00:13:34.840and there's others, but there's not many. And so we think we have a really important role to play
00:13:41.200right now. So just staying on the theme of Canada versus US, you've been a president at a Canadian
00:13:46.100university, you've been a president at an American university here at Northwood. I'm sure there are
00:13:51.440many similarities, but are there any distinct differences in your role as president that you've
00:13:57.160seen across the two countries? So there is more of a reliance on fundraising here, you know, as
00:14:04.500opposed to lobbying for more taxpayer money, not government money, taxpayer money. So that would be
00:14:10.260one. I think we have similarities philosophically of what we exist for, but I do see similarities from
00:14:19.640the work that I did in Nova Scotia and in Ottawa previous to that. And then what I see happening on
00:14:25.800many, let's not deny it, many other campuses in the country, particularly big publics. And I think
00:14:35.180in my view, some have lost their way that, you know, we forget what we're supposed to exist for.
00:14:43.660And there's arguments of internal biases in classrooms and faculty and I personally believe them to be
00:14:51.180true. And so those are similarities. I think in Canada, UK, Australia, places like that, there's
00:14:58.240going to be more of a desire to fundraise. So I expect more Canadian university presidents will need
00:15:05.720to do that as funding goes down and they're loading up the, I mean, the counter offensive to that as a
00:15:11.340university is, as funding per student goes down, we'll just fill the classes with 300 students and
00:15:17.080pretend great learning is going to take place there. And look, I happen to be serving as a president
00:15:23.280now, but I'm fundamentally an educator, have been all my life and we can't ignore what we know about
00:15:29.240learning. And so when you put that many students in a class to help underwrite the lower funding
00:15:36.100and help, I mean, we're going to go in a deep rabbit hole here, but to maintain faculty and
00:15:42.560departments that are no longer in high demand, but you, you know, tenured faculty, it's hard to get
00:15:46.900rid of those. So all that backfilling, those things exist. And, um, so those, those are some of the
00:15:52.880similarities. Um, uh, but there's, there's, there's, uh, in Canada, it's supposed to be decentralized
00:15:59.700as it is to the province here in the States, same thing, right? Uh, America has a secretary of
00:16:05.280education, but doesn't have a lot of oversight in terms of what happens at a state level. So there are
00:16:10.840similarities and, um, America has a headstart on us, of course, just because of the age, but I would
00:16:17.180say this, that Canada has outstanding, fantastic universities. Absolutely. Although I would, I,
00:16:26.160I was actually, I can't remember who I was talking about this with, but the variance and the quality
00:16:32.780of universities is lesser in Canada. I agree. Right. So you have 4,500 universities here, so you can have
00:16:40.580the absolute world leaders and you can have really schools that you would never want to
00:16:44.820even drive by in the United States. Whereas in Canada, perhaps because of the fact that
00:16:50.180most universities are public, there isn't that great variance. So any school that you go to,
00:16:55.800yeah, I mean, of course, University of Toronto and McGill might be better than other schools,
00:16:59.360but there isn't this gigantic drop in quality. Yeah. I absolutely agree with that. And for all the
00:17:06.480reasons that you've just said, if you look, if you look at Canada, uh, from coast to coast,
00:17:10.980there's some great universities, they draw, I mean, they, they, they took you out of Cornell. Right.
00:17:15.920I'm a Penn grad. Um, and, um, but essentially they're pulling from the U15, you know, good school.
00:17:22.600So they're, they're getting a good quality professor. First of all, um, if you look at the,
00:17:28.620the differences in funding on a per pupil, there, there's variance between, you know, Alberta and others.
00:17:33.940Um, but, um, they're well-funded in my view. So you have that quality control. Um, and whereas in
00:17:42.320America, it's, uh, there is a wider variety. And, um, so it's, but who's, you know, a student to ask
00:17:48.340carefully, what do I want out of my experience? And from the perspective of the students in, in,
00:17:55.020in the United States, there's kind of a baptism by fire where you leave your home to go away
00:18:03.860from the parents, from the parents, you know, oversight to go to school. Whereas I think
00:18:09.720many Canadian students will end up going to school that's closest to their home. Right. So
00:18:15.660most do. Right. So, I mean, I went to, I did my undergrad and my MBA at McGill. Yes,
00:18:20.080it's McGill, Harvard and North. Yeah. But it also so happened that I lived in Montreal. Right. So you
00:18:25.440don't have this, uh, idea put in your head that once you graduate high school, you're off somewhere.
00:18:34.120You just go to, so if you were in Waterloo, you'll go to University of Waterloo. If you're
00:18:38.540in Toronto, you go to York or University of Toronto and so on. Uh, do you agree with that general
00:18:44.840difference in how American students versus Canadian students view the undergraduate experience?
00:18:50.900Yeah. If, so, uh, on the Canadian side, absolutely. And there's data there. It's,
00:18:55.280you know, uh, very, very high percent, it's a hundred kilometers. Exactly. And, and, uh, for
00:18:59.800lots of good reasons, including that there's lots of good schools around. Um, here, I, it sends,
00:19:06.300it seems to me, it's more of a, a process. We'll, we'll start to get, uh, families coming when their
00:19:13.980child are sophomores or juniors for sure in high school. And, uh, and they'll do this tour
00:19:20.160all across, all across the country or the state. So I see a lot more, more of that, uh, a lot more
00:19:26.840choice, uh, uh, perhaps, uh, contributes to it, but there's a sense, I mean, there's still a lot
00:19:32.800of students for fiscal reasons and other reasons they stay close to home, but there, there appears
00:19:37.960to be more mobility and desire to, I'm going to go down to North Carolina or I'm going to come up
00:19:43.800here to Michigan. Right. And, and we benefit from, from that at Northwood. We get, we get students
00:19:48.360from across the country, including Canada as well. Nice. A couple of slightly more personal
00:19:53.120sort of life questions. Yeah. Yeah. Question one, had you not gone into academia, where would
00:20:00.080Kent McDonald be today? Would he be a famous chef? Would he be a retired baseball player?
00:20:05.060Where would Kent McDonald be if you weren't the president of North Carolina?
00:20:08.040I'm a Canadian. Look, I'm, I'm this very starting to be tight. No, yeah, that's right. Uh, I was
00:20:13.240really, uh, my dad was an optometrist. Uh, I was really interested in, uh, no, actually
00:20:18.940medicine. Yeah. I was, um, sports medicine was, uh, of interest. I was orthopedic stuff.
00:20:25.360Yeah. More of the orthopedic through my own personal experiences and, uh, and, and experiences
00:20:30.660at university. That was, uh, of interest to me. Uh, love the outdoors. So, I mean, I am, uh, uh,
00:20:36.720I would call myself complex because I find myself complex. There are times, you know, I'll stand
00:20:42.380in front of a thousand students and absolutely enjoy that or, or talk about what's happening,
00:20:47.880what's the future of higher ed. Absolutely enjoy it. I also like going for a long walk,
00:20:53.140you know, in the woods, spending time. Uh, so that's probably, uh, you know, being a fisherman
00:20:58.820off the coast. So you'd be like a forest ranger. Yeah. Something like that. Something in the mountain.
00:21:03.340We love the mountains. We love the ocean, something outdoors. I think there's a spiritual side of
00:21:08.300that, that appeals to me and, uh, just the peacefulness, um, is, is important as well.
00:21:13.640And I mean, like you, we have to find those moments of respite to kind of recharge. And,
00:21:20.980uh, and like, you know, your wife and my wife, uh, we married up. Boy, did we ever. And,
00:21:28.100and we like, I pulled my, my, my trick. Say bye. Yeah. Uh, with Mary Ellen, uh, love spending
00:21:34.520time with her and, and our children like you, we like spending time. So, um, more. You're a huge
00:21:41.000book collector as I am. I know, I know. Yeah. And what are we going to, I mean, Mary Ellen has made
00:21:46.460this rule a book in book out. So here's our little secret. Cause nobody's watching this. I know. I know
00:21:51.740nobody, but, uh, I have actually had books. Uh, I'm a big eBay book, uh, collector. Yeah. Collector
00:21:57.420go and use bookstores. And, um, so I have, um, sorry, Mary Ellen, some of them sent to the office.
00:22:02.500Yeah. You've met Ann. She goes, Oh gosh, another book. So book collecting and reading. Um, I think
00:22:09.380it's part of age. Yeah. That the older you get, the more you're humbled to realize how little,
00:22:14.860how little you know. I, that's exactly what I tell people. The more I know, the more I realize
00:22:19.100that I know nothing. Yeah. And, and, uh, I'm not sure about you got on shopping. I don't like to shop.
00:22:24.240So me too. Yeah. And I teach consumer psychology. Yeah. It's so very Ellen. Well, just, if she has to
00:22:30.180get something, she, the first point of entry is the bookstore. Right. Drop me off there and she
00:22:35.420can have the whole day shopping, you know, so I'll be reading the philosophy section, um, world
00:22:40.300religion sections, uh, politics, and I can just be absorbed in, in, uh, yeah, it is fantastic. Okay.
00:22:48.100One other personal question, and then we wrap it up with anything that you'd like to promote
00:22:52.120new projects coming down the pipeline. One last question about personal issues. Yeah. So in one of
00:22:58.960the, uh, last chapters of my latest book on happiness, I talk about, you know, try to live
00:23:05.400a life where, when you look back at your life, you have as few regrets as possible. Yeah. And so the,
00:23:11.420like, the way I like to set that question up is I refer to the work of one of my former doctoral
00:23:16.680professors, uh, in psychology, his name is Thomas Gilovich, who pioneered the empirical study of
00:23:22.620psychology of regret. But specifically he argued, although he was certainly not the first to have
00:23:28.900that insight, that regret comes in two forms. There is regret due to actions and regrets due to
00:23:35.380inactions. Regret due to actions. I, I regret that I cheated on my wife and now my, I'm divorced.
00:23:41.840Right. So I did something and I regret it. Regret due to inaction. You know, I went into
00:23:46.660orthopedics, uh, surgery because my dad is, and my grandfather was, but in reality, I hate medicine.
00:23:52.640I always wanted to be an architect. And so therefore I regret the road that I didn't take.
00:23:57.520Now, if you ask people over the longterm, what is their biggest, most haunting, looming regret?
00:24:03.960It's usually regret due to inaction. Right. So having set all that up and I, if I were to ask you and put
00:24:09.800you on the spot right now, you're still a youngish man. So you still have much life to live. But if I ask
00:24:15.760you right now to tell me what is your current biggest looming regret, what would it be?
00:24:21.640Well, that's tough. Um, I would, we have two grandchildren and it's an absolute blessing.
00:24:31.600It's, uh, it's different than having, you know, our four children. Right.
00:24:35.700And it's caused me to reflect on, uh, fatherhood and, uh, my mom and dad both passed away in the
00:24:44.340last couple of years. Sorry about that. Yeah. Thank you. And the, I remember God, the last
00:24:49.240time I saw my dad, uh, I was, I left him, uh, in the hospital and I heard him say, I gave him a hug
00:24:58.320because every time I left, I was in Michigan. He was back in Nova Scotia. I wasn't sure if I'd see him
00:25:03.300and I heard him say something that I thought I understood. So I turned around and this was after
00:25:09.800I hugged him and said, look, I'll see you soon. Cause we never say goodbye. And we always say see
00:25:13.640you soon. And I said, what was that dad? And he said, was I a good father? Wow. I mean, that makes
00:25:19.980me emotional. Just thinking about that, that experience now having grandchildren, having children
00:25:26.960in Alberta and Ontario and Michigan, and they're spread out. And, uh, I don't know the exact
00:25:33.500statistic, but it's something along the lines that we spend 85% of our time. That's that. I hate it
00:25:39.260too. But by the time they're 18. Yeah. Yeah. And so that would be the one. And Mary Ellen always warned
00:25:45.080me, you know, as we get on the treadmill of life and I'm working hard cause you think you want to do
00:25:50.420something great. You want to contribute to your family. And, um, so the one, the inaction and I
00:25:57.360do lose sleep is, did I do enough? And I was their coach. Right. And so you were present that I was
00:26:04.000present. And when Adam was 12 and the youngest was maybe four or five, Mary Ellen and I made a
00:26:08.840decision at that point, look, they still got Christmas gifts, but we said, we're going to start
00:26:13.520to give these kids experiences more than things, you know? So we've climbed Kilimanjaro and we've
00:26:19.400rafted rivers in Costa Rica. Like we've had a blessed life. So even with all of those things, I,
00:26:25.180I think, I think that when I say goodbye to our children, I will be thinking like my father,
00:26:34.220you know, was I a good father? So, um, and, and, um, I hope I was, but that, that's a regret
00:26:40.600just time that if 85% was with them, did I spend enough time? What a lovely sentence. Yeah.
00:26:47.580That's beautiful. Yeah. Thanks. Uh, it'd be great to end it here, but I want to end it on some
00:26:52.520sort of promotional note in terms of some of the things that are coming down the pipeline.
00:26:58.280Again, to remind people, you are the president of Northwood university. What are some projects
00:27:03.240that maybe you haven't yet had the opportunity to publicize that you could use this forum to
00:27:08.760promote? Take it away. Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. So Northwood is, um, it's a unique
00:27:17.140place and, uh, our commitment to free enterprise makes its way through everything that we're doing.
00:27:22.780So we're going to be announcing a new school. Uh, it's going to be technology related, but it's
00:27:29.040going to be technology and enterprise related. How do you harness the amazing tools that we have
00:27:34.620available to advance industry, to advance entrepreneurship, to make our work more
00:27:39.900efficient? So that, that will be coming, uh, forward in the next several months. Dr. Stayhower
00:27:45.440is leading that with a group of faculty and they're doing great work. Um, another one is for over six
00:27:51.600decades now, Northwood has been known as, as preparing individuals to lead in the automotive industry.
00:27:58.540So we say automotive mobility, the aftermarket. And so in just a few weeks at our international
00:28:04.300auto show, which is the largest outdoor auto show in the country, all run by students. Uh,
00:28:09.180and right. I mean, just my belief in experiential learning, let them do it. Um, and they're a wonderful
00:28:15.420success. So at our auto show, we're going to go deeper. We've done a soft launch, but on something
00:28:20.220called CAMS, the center for automotive, uh, automotive and mobility studies. And we are doing an
00:28:26.940even, uh, deeper commitment to make sure that this incredibly dynamic, multi, multi, multi billion
00:28:33.980dollar automotive and mobility space is going to have leaders of the future. And so those are,
00:28:38.940are two really, uh, big ones for us that we're, uh, very proud of. And, and, um, I'd like to tell moms
00:28:46.620and dads, you know, wherever their child goes, and I like to tell future students, wherever you choose,
00:28:52.460it's the right choice. You know, it's the experience that you want. Sure. Um, but if a student believes
00:28:59.100in free enterprise, if they believe in that, they have the ability to lead and launch a new company,
00:29:06.860um, this is just a remarkable place and, and everybody's welcome at Northwood. You know, um,
00:29:13.180I'm extremely proud of that, that, that we speak freely. We can actually have a discussion. We talk
00:29:19.100about civility in higher education, but we're not very civil a lot of times. And, uh, so how do we
00:29:25.020create that environment where you can have these uncomfortable discussions and then say,
00:29:29.260Hey friend, let's go have lunch now. So, um, that that's another theme that, uh, continuing to focus
00:29:37.020on not just the biggest school. We don't want that. We want to find just the right students at Northwood.
00:29:42.540And, uh, it's a special place and having you part of it, Gad is, is really a blessing for us.
00:29:47.740So thank you so much. Yeah, you're welcome. So two, two quick, uh, thank you. Uh, first, thank you.
00:29:53.020Thank you for being the first president of university to grace the sad truth. Number two,
00:29:58.540thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to your wonderful institution. Uh,
00:30:03.180so I really appreciate it. It's such a pleasure having you on the show.
00:30:06.620Come back anytime you'd like. Thank you so much, president. Thank you. Thank you.