The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - Dr. Kent MacDonald, President of Northwood University-On the State of Academia (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_721)

00:00:00.000 With great excitement, I introduce you to Northwood University, a truly exceptional institution in

00:00:06.420 American higher education. Since 1959, this private, accredited university has been a vibrant

00:00:13.680 bastion of free thought and enterprise, standing out among the thousands of other schools in the

00:00:20.800 U.S. Known as America's free enterprise university, Northwood is dedicated to nurturing the next

00:00:27.800 generation of leaders who drive global social and economic progress. At the heart of Northwood

00:00:35.340 lies the Northwood idea, a philosophy that celebrates individual freedom, responsibility,

00:00:42.080 and the importance of moral law and free enterprise. This entrepreneurial spirit is evident in that

00:00:49.060 one-third of Northwood alumni own businesses. Northwood is more than an institution. It's a

00:00:55.540 movement that empowers students to think critically and champion liberty. It is a rare gem in today's

00:01:03.080 academic world. If you're passionate about supporting a university that values intellectual growth and

00:01:09.360 free enterprise, or to learn more about its academic programs, visit northwood.edu.

00:01:15.460 Hey, 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.

00:01:44.480 So today, I'd like to introduce and say hello to President Kent McDonald, President of Northwood University. How are you doing, sir?

00:01:53.000 Great, good. It's great to be with you, and welcome to Northwood. Welcome to Midland. I feel special to be the first one.

00:02:01.180 I 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.

00:02:14.320 So here we are, downtown Midland. I would have never thought that a small town in, you know, Michigan could have such a gorgeous downtown.

00:02:22.720 How many other places do we not know of that are as gorgeous as Midland?

00:02:26.440 Yeah, well, you know, I've traveled the world like you, and we're blessed with wonderful places, wonderful people all around the world.

00:02:34.540 I guess, I mean, you and I are both the same age, so as we get out.

00:02:37.480 And we're both Canadian.

00:02:38.440 That's right, we are. I'm from Nova Scotia, eh?

00:02:41.940 So 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.

00:02:53.080 But this is an incredible state. You know, their advertising tagline that says Pure Michigan, it's real.

00:03:00.120 And 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.

00:03:08.080 Oh, I'm so happy to be here. This was my inaugural visit of many future visits to Midland and to Northwood University.

00:03:15.780 I mean, the way it started between us, I always tell people that, you know, going into my emails is like a slot machine.

00:03:22.000 Sometimes it will hit black, and you're happy, or vice versa, or red.

00:03:25.960 And so two months ago, I'm in Southern California, doing a bit of work, doing some shows, but also taking a family vacation.

00:03:31.680 And 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.

00:03:40.320 And here we are two months later. Unbelievable how life takes us in new trajectories.

00:03:45.220 Yeah, and again, as the older we get, we're blessed when we get to meet new people.

00:03:51.220 So, 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.

00:03:59.300 Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, you failed on that one account, and so I'm really glad you did.

00:04:04.580 So, thanks for opening it. And number two is, you know, I've been a fan.

00:04:09.480 I was actually introduced to your work by our son, Matthew.

00:04:11.900 Amazing.

00:04:12.520 Yeah, and he loved The Parasitic Mind. He just loved that book.

00:04:15.640 And he talked about it with some of the elements that you raised.

00:04:20.820 And he's a bright kid. He's back in Ontario now, but he's a graduate of Northwood, did his MBA here.

00:04:26.360 And that's where I first started reading.

00:04:29.140 And so, when I was watching some of your posts and learning, first of all, I connected with you in terms of philosophical.

00:04:37.620 Sure.

00:04:37.740 And just the fact, as a university professor, are we not to exist for the pursuit of truth?

00:04:45.000 Right.

00:04:45.460 Right? Fundamentally, that's why we exist.

00:04:47.920 And so, that was attractive to me.

00:04:50.500 And 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.

00:05:00.460 I love Canada. I'm, you know, proud Canadian, proud to be from Nova Scotia.

00:05:04.020 But it was time. And I just picked that up in, in what you were writing.

00:05:09.760 And I said, you know, he can ignore me, or he can say no, or he could say yes.

00:05:15.700 What 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.

00:05:23.080 That's right.

00:05:23.360 So, that's what, that's the adage that you went by.

00:05:25.300 That'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?

00:05:44.220 That's true.

00:05:44.540 You don't. You think of that professor who is in front of you, who touched you in a special way.

00:05:49.600 So true.

00:05:49.960 Yeah. 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.

00:06:14.420 And so, yeah, life is funny and it's a joy to meet you and your wife and to have you here at Northwood.

00:06:22.400 Likewise. 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.

00:06:35.220 And so I'm, I'm delighted to be here as a visiting professor and global ambassador at, of the Northwood idea.

00:06:41.060 Maybe we could talk a bit about what, you know, many people don't have a clue what a president of a university typically does.

00:06:48.380 So 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?

00:06:57.820 Some of the things that you maybe like a bit less about your job, walk us through what it is to be a president.

00:07:02.340 Yeah. So of course it's contextual, you know, are you in a private, public or a private?

00:07:07.400 In Canada, I was in a public, relied heavily on taxpayer funding here at Northwood.

00:07:11.900 We're private. And so we rely, we have revenues in only two ways.

00:07:16.320 And that is through tuition and through generosity.

00:07:20.640 And, and so my job here, I mean, in, in America, 1636 was the first school, starts with an H over in Massachusetts.

00:07:27.880 Uh, so at, at, at Harvard, um, Humboldt college, Humboldt. Yeah, that's, that's right.

00:07:33.500 Uh, 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.

00:07:45.000 It'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.

00:07:49.760 But, 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.

00:08:01.560 She's fantastic.

00:08:02.300 Yeah, 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.

00:08:12.600 Uh, 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?

00:08:26.800 Uh, 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,

00:08:42.280 which I fundamentally disagree with. And, um, and so those competitive things actually make the job really fun.

00:08:49.700 On 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.

00:08:57.740 You know, we very publicly and proudly talk about being America's free enterprise university and, and you as our global ambassador, the Northwood idea,

00:09:07.100 we're also unapologetic about our commitment to what has made this, the greatest democratic Republic ever to exist.

00:09:14.620 And 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,

00:09:24.480 I think Northwood represents that free enterprise, limited government, not no government, limited government in our life, rule of law.

00:09:34.540 Yeah. Imagine rule of law. And the one that I think,

00:09:38.540 So you mean I can't steal less than $950 and get away with it?

00:09:41.900 That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Now you're going to get me going.

00:09:45.900 Go for it. We have all the time in the world.

00:09:47.400 Yeah. 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,

00:09:55.460 you 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.

00:10:08.660 It's about grit and resilience and life is tough. And in my view, meritocrity and earned success.

00:10:15.340 And so those things all wrapped up in what we call personal responsibility that you show up, you work hard.

00:10:23.280 That's why I love our students. And when people said, Oh, Kent, you can't talk about that. You love our students.

00:10:27.640 I love our students because we attract a young person who's not going to be relying on government.

00:10:34.020 The fact that we have one third of our graduates own or co-own their own company.

00:10:43.660 It'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.

00:10:50.580 They need more Northwood. We need more Northwood students and just students who are ready to take on the world

00:10:57.040 and have the confidence to do it. So when I talk about, are we doing the right things?

00:11:02.360 Those are the things that it's wrapped up. The technical stuff, we're about to launch a new school.

00:11:07.520 We're establishing the Center for Automotive and Mobility Studies. Those things are all exciting.

00:11:12.220 How do we grow online? What countries do we want to do work in or not do work in?

00:11:16.980 But those are more of the technical things. The deeper things that keep me up are just this

00:11:21.820 Hippocratic oath of do no harm to this incredible university. And quite frankly, I think we're all

00:11:29.200 rowing in the right direction. I feel good.

00:11:31.300 Now, let me ask you this. I often receive the following question, usually in reference to Jordan

00:11:36.840 Peterson and myself in terms of what's in the water of Canada that you're producing such freedom

00:11:43.520 defenders. Now we can add a third horseman of freedom called Kent McDonald.

00:11:49.700 Is there something uniquely in Canada that you need Canadians to be supporting all of the foundational

00:11:56.160 values that the U.S. was built on? What's going on there?

00:11:59.260 Sometimes that's the case, isn't it? I mean, you look at some who are the most innovative

00:12:03.800 entrepreneurial people. A lot of those people who legally come to this country. If you look at

00:12:10.740 some of the most important CEOs in this country, they have something in common. Why are they all

00:12:18.380 Indian descent? And so sometimes you can't be a prophet in your own land? And you know that,

00:12:25.660 the story about a fish and the old fish is swimming around the stone, runs into a couple of younger

00:12:33.060 fish and the old fish says to them, how's the water, boys? He swims off and they look at each other and

00:12:40.320 say, what's water? So sometimes you just don't know what you have. And it would be tragic for this

00:12:49.100 country, for the world to lose what has made this such a great country. And that is some of the

00:12:55.480 fundamental things that we believe in. So where does it come from me and you and Dr. Peterson? I'm not

00:13:02.660 sure. But there's more of us. And I think, you know, as you talk about a lot, Gad, we just have to

00:13:09.860 elevate our voice in a strong and respectful way and not be shy about it. And so that's why I love

00:13:17.960 being at Northwood. We're proud of what we stand for. And the good news is this, that if you don't

00:13:23.960 like free enterprise and limited government and these other things, there's 4,500 other colleges

00:13:29.260 you can go to, right? And there's a few of us here, our friends down at Hillsdale, you know,

00:13:34.840 and there's others, but there's not many. And so we think we have a really important role to play

00:13:41.200 right now. So just staying on the theme of Canada versus US, you've been a president at a Canadian

00:13:46.100 university, you've been a president at an American university here at Northwood. I'm sure there are

00:13:51.440 many similarities, but are there any distinct differences in your role as president that you've

00:13:57.160 seen across the two countries? So there is more of a reliance on fundraising here, you know, as

00:14:04.500 opposed to lobbying for more taxpayer money, not government money, taxpayer money. So that would be

00:14:10.260 one. I think we have similarities philosophically of what we exist for, but I do see similarities from

00:14:19.640 the work that I did in Nova Scotia and in Ottawa previous to that. And then what I see happening on

00:14:25.800 many, let's not deny it, many other campuses in the country, particularly big publics. And I think

00:14:35.180 in my view, some have lost their way that, you know, we forget what we're supposed to exist for.

00:14:43.660 And there's arguments of internal biases in classrooms and faculty and I personally believe them to be

00:14:51.180 true. And so those are similarities. I think in Canada, UK, Australia, places like that, there's

00:14:58.240 going to be more of a desire to fundraise. So I expect more Canadian university presidents will need

00:15:05.720 to do that as funding goes down and they're loading up the, I mean, the counter offensive to that as a

00:15:11.340 university is, as funding per student goes down, we'll just fill the classes with 300 students and

00:15:17.080 pretend great learning is going to take place there. And look, I happen to be serving as a president

00:15:23.280 now, but I'm fundamentally an educator, have been all my life and we can't ignore what we know about

00:15:29.240 learning. And so when you put that many students in a class to help underwrite the lower funding

00:15:36.100 and help, I mean, we're going to go in a deep rabbit hole here, but to maintain faculty and

00:15:42.560 departments that are no longer in high demand, but you, you know, tenured faculty, it's hard to get

00:15:46.900 rid of those. So all that backfilling, those things exist. And, um, so those, those are some of the

00:15:52.880 similarities. Um, uh, but there's, there's, there's, uh, in Canada, it's supposed to be decentralized

00:15:59.700 as it is to the province here in the States, same thing, right? Uh, America has a secretary of

00:16:05.280 education, but doesn't have a lot of oversight in terms of what happens at a state level. So there are

00:16:10.840 similarities and, um, America has a headstart on us, of course, just because of the age, but I would

00:16:17.180 say this, that Canada has outstanding, fantastic universities. Absolutely. Although I would, I,

00:16:26.160 I was actually, I can't remember who I was talking about this with, but the variance and the quality

00:16:32.780 of universities is lesser in Canada. I agree. Right. So you have 4,500 universities here, so you can have

00:16:40.580 the absolute world leaders and you can have really schools that you would never want to

00:16:44.820 even drive by in the United States. Whereas in Canada, perhaps because of the fact that

00:16:50.180 most universities are public, there isn't that great variance. So any school that you go to,

00:16:55.800 yeah, I mean, of course, University of Toronto and McGill might be better than other schools,

00:16:59.360 but there isn't this gigantic drop in quality. Yeah. I absolutely agree with that. And for all the

00:17:06.480 reasons that you've just said, if you look, if you look at Canada, uh, from coast to coast,

00:17:10.980 there's some great universities, they draw, I mean, they, they, they took you out of Cornell. Right.

00:17:15.920 I'm a Penn grad. Um, and, um, but essentially they're pulling from the U15, you know, good school.

00:17:22.600 So they're, they're getting a good quality professor. First of all, um, if you look at the,

00:17:28.620 the differences in funding on a per pupil, there, there's variance between, you know, Alberta and others.

00:17:33.940 Um, but, um, they're well-funded in my view. So you have that quality control. Um, and whereas in

00:17:42.320 America, it's, uh, there is a wider variety. And, um, so it's, but who's, you know, a student to ask

00:17:48.340 carefully, what do I want out of my experience? And from the perspective of the students in, in,

00:17:55.020 in the United States, there's kind of a baptism by fire where you leave your home to go away

00:18:03.860 from the parents, from the parents, you know, oversight to go to school. Whereas I think

00:18:09.720 many Canadian students will end up going to school that's closest to their home. Right. So

00:18:15.660 most do. Right. So, I mean, I went to, I did my undergrad and my MBA at McGill. Yes,

00:18:20.080 it's McGill, Harvard and North. Yeah. But it also so happened that I lived in Montreal. Right. So you

00:18:25.440 don't have this, uh, idea put in your head that once you graduate high school, you're off somewhere.

00:18:34.120 You just go to, so if you were in Waterloo, you'll go to University of Waterloo. If you're

00:18:38.540 in Toronto, you go to York or University of Toronto and so on. Uh, do you agree with that general

00:18:44.840 difference in how American students versus Canadian students view the undergraduate experience?

00:18:50.900 Yeah. If, so, uh, on the Canadian side, absolutely. And there's data there. It's,

00:18:55.280 you know, uh, very, very high percent, it's a hundred kilometers. Exactly. And, and, uh, for

00:18:59.800 lots of good reasons, including that there's lots of good schools around. Um, here, I, it sends,

00:19:06.300 it seems to me, it's more of a, a process. We'll, we'll start to get, uh, families coming when their

00:19:13.980 child are sophomores or juniors for sure in high school. And, uh, and they'll do this tour

00:19:20.160 all across, all across the country or the state. So I see a lot more, more of that, uh, a lot more

00:19:26.840 choice, uh, uh, perhaps, uh, contributes to it, but there's a sense, I mean, there's still a lot

00:19:32.800 of students for fiscal reasons and other reasons they stay close to home, but there, there appears

00:19:37.960 to be more mobility and desire to, I'm going to go down to North Carolina or I'm going to come up

00:19:43.800 here to Michigan. Right. And, and we benefit from, from that at Northwood. We get, we get students

00:19:48.360 from across the country, including Canada as well. Nice. A couple of slightly more personal

00:19:53.120 sort of life questions. Yeah. Yeah. Question one, had you not gone into academia, where would

00:20:00.080 Kent McDonald be today? Would he be a famous chef? Would he be a retired baseball player?

00:20:05.060 Where would Kent McDonald be if you weren't the president of North Carolina?

00:20:08.040 I'm a Canadian. Look, I'm, I'm this very starting to be tight. No, yeah, that's right. Uh, I was

00:20:13.240 really, uh, my dad was an optometrist. Uh, I was really interested in, uh, no, actually

00:20:18.940 medicine. Yeah. I was, um, sports medicine was, uh, of interest. I was orthopedic stuff.

00:20:25.360 Yeah. More of the orthopedic through my own personal experiences and, uh, and, and experiences

00:20:30.660 at university. That was, uh, of interest to me. Uh, love the outdoors. So, I mean, I am, uh, uh,

00:20:36.720 I would call myself complex because I find myself complex. There are times, you know, I'll stand

00:20:42.380 in front of a thousand students and absolutely enjoy that or, or talk about what's happening,

00:20:47.880 what's the future of higher ed. Absolutely enjoy it. I also like going for a long walk,

00:20:53.140 you know, in the woods, spending time. Uh, so that's probably, uh, you know, being a fisherman

00:20:58.820 off the coast. So you'd be like a forest ranger. Yeah. Something like that. Something in the mountain.

00:21:03.340 We love the mountains. We love the ocean, something outdoors. I think there's a spiritual side of

00:21:08.300 that, that appeals to me and, uh, just the peacefulness, um, is, is important as well.

00:21:13.640 And I mean, like you, we have to find those moments of respite to kind of recharge. And,

00:21:20.980 uh, and like, you know, your wife and my wife, uh, we married up. Boy, did we ever. And,

00:21:28.100 and we like, I pulled my, my, my trick. Say bye. Yeah. Uh, with Mary Ellen, uh, love spending

00:21:34.520 time with her and, and our children like you, we like spending time. So, um, more. You're a huge

00:21:41.000 book collector as I am. I know, I know. Yeah. And what are we going to, I mean, Mary Ellen has made

00:21:46.460 this rule a book in book out. So here's our little secret. Cause nobody's watching this. I know. I know

00:21:51.740 nobody, but, uh, I have actually had books. Uh, I'm a big eBay book, uh, collector. Yeah. Collector

00:21:57.420 go and use bookstores. And, um, so I have, um, sorry, Mary Ellen, some of them sent to the office.

00:22:02.500 Yeah. You've met Ann. She goes, Oh gosh, another book. So book collecting and reading. Um, I think

00:22:09.380 it's part of age. Yeah. That the older you get, the more you're humbled to realize how little,

00:22:14.860 how little you know. I, that's exactly what I tell people. The more I know, the more I realize

00:22:19.100 that I know nothing. Yeah. And, and, uh, I'm not sure about you got on shopping. I don't like to shop.

00:22:24.240 So me too. Yeah. And I teach consumer psychology. Yeah. It's so very Ellen. Well, just, if she has to

00:22:30.180 get something, she, the first point of entry is the bookstore. Right. Drop me off there and she 0.96

00:22:35.420 can have the whole day shopping, you know, so I'll be reading the philosophy section, um, world

00:22:40.300 religion sections, uh, politics, and I can just be absorbed in, in, uh, yeah, it is fantastic. Okay.

00:22:48.100 One other personal question, and then we wrap it up with anything that you'd like to promote

00:22:52.120 new projects coming down the pipeline. One last question about personal issues. Yeah. So in one of

00:22:58.960 the, uh, last chapters of my latest book on happiness, I talk about, you know, try to live

00:23:05.400 a life where, when you look back at your life, you have as few regrets as possible. Yeah. And so the,

00:23:11.420 like, the way I like to set that question up is I refer to the work of one of my former doctoral

00:23:16.680 professors, uh, in psychology, his name is Thomas Gilovich, who pioneered the empirical study of

00:23:22.620 psychology of regret. But specifically he argued, although he was certainly not the first to have

00:23:28.900 that insight, that regret comes in two forms. There is regret due to actions and regrets due to

00:23:35.380 inactions. Regret due to actions. I, I regret that I cheated on my wife and now my, I'm divorced.

00:23:41.840 Right. So I did something and I regret it. Regret due to inaction. You know, I went into

00:23:46.660 orthopedics, uh, surgery because my dad is, and my grandfather was, but in reality, I hate medicine.

00:23:52.640 I always wanted to be an architect. And so therefore I regret the road that I didn't take.

00:23:57.520 Now, if you ask people over the longterm, what is their biggest, most haunting, looming regret?

00:24:03.960 It's usually regret due to inaction. Right. So having set all that up and I, if I were to ask you and put

00:24:09.800 you on the spot right now, you're still a youngish man. So you still have much life to live. But if I ask 0.99

00:24:15.760 you right now to tell me what is your current biggest looming regret, what would it be?

00:24:21.640 Well, that's tough. Um, I would, we have two grandchildren and it's an absolute blessing.

00:24:31.600 It's, uh, it's different than having, you know, our four children. Right.

00:24:35.700 And it's caused me to reflect on, uh, fatherhood and, uh, my mom and dad both passed away in the

00:24:44.340 last couple of years. Sorry about that. Yeah. Thank you. And the, I remember God, the last

00:24:49.240 time I saw my dad, uh, I was, I left him, uh, in the hospital and I heard him say, I gave him a hug

00:24:58.320 because every time I left, I was in Michigan. He was back in Nova Scotia. I wasn't sure if I'd see him

00:25:03.300 and I heard him say something that I thought I understood. So I turned around and this was after

00:25:09.800 I hugged him and said, look, I'll see you soon. Cause we never say goodbye. And we always say see

00:25:13.640 you soon. And I said, what was that dad? And he said, was I a good father? Wow. I mean, that makes

00:25:19.980 me emotional. Just thinking about that, that experience now having grandchildren, having children

00:25:26.960 in Alberta and Ontario and Michigan, and they're spread out. And, uh, I don't know the exact

00:25:33.500 statistic, but it's something along the lines that we spend 85% of our time. That's that. I hate it

00:25:39.260 too. But by the time they're 18. Yeah. Yeah. And so that would be the one. And Mary Ellen always warned

00:25:45.080 me, you know, as we get on the treadmill of life and I'm working hard cause you think you want to do

00:25:50.420 something great. You want to contribute to your family. And, um, so the one, the inaction and I

00:25:57.360 do lose sleep is, did I do enough? And I was their coach. Right. And so you were present that I was

00:26:04.000 present. And when Adam was 12 and the youngest was maybe four or five, Mary Ellen and I made a

00:26:08.840 decision at that point, look, they still got Christmas gifts, but we said, we're going to start

00:26:13.520 to give these kids experiences more than things, you know? So we've climbed Kilimanjaro and we've

00:26:19.400 rafted rivers in Costa Rica. Like we've had a blessed life. So even with all of those things, I,

00:26:25.180 I think, I think that when I say goodbye to our children, I will be thinking like my father,

00:26:34.220 you know, was I a good father? So, um, and, and, um, I hope I was, but that, that's a regret

00:26:40.600 just time that if 85% was with them, did I spend enough time? What a lovely sentence. Yeah.

00:26:47.580 That's beautiful. Yeah. Thanks. Uh, it'd be great to end it here, but I want to end it on some

00:26:52.520 sort of promotional note in terms of some of the things that are coming down the pipeline.

00:26:58.280 Again, to remind people, you are the president of Northwood university. What are some projects

00:27:03.240 that maybe you haven't yet had the opportunity to publicize that you could use this forum to

00:27:08.760 promote? Take it away. Yeah. Thanks for the opportunity. So Northwood is, um, it's a unique

00:27:17.140 place and, uh, our commitment to free enterprise makes its way through everything that we're doing.

00:27:22.780 So we're going to be announcing a new school. Uh, it's going to be technology related, but it's

00:27:29.040 going to be technology and enterprise related. How do you harness the amazing tools that we have

00:27:34.620 available to advance industry, to advance entrepreneurship, to make our work more

00:27:39.900 efficient? So that, that will be coming, uh, forward in the next several months. Dr. Stayhower

00:27:45.440 is leading that with a group of faculty and they're doing great work. Um, another one is for over six

00:27:51.600 decades now, Northwood has been known as, as preparing individuals to lead in the automotive industry.

00:27:58.540 So we say automotive mobility, the aftermarket. And so in just a few weeks at our international

00:28:04.300 auto show, which is the largest outdoor auto show in the country, all run by students. Uh,

00:28:09.180 and right. I mean, just my belief in experiential learning, let them do it. Um, and they're a wonderful

00:28:15.420 success. So at our auto show, we're going to go deeper. We've done a soft launch, but on something

00:28:20.220 called CAMS, the center for automotive, uh, automotive and mobility studies. And we are doing an

00:28:26.940 even, uh, deeper commitment to make sure that this incredibly dynamic, multi, multi, multi billion

00:28:33.980 dollar automotive and mobility space is going to have leaders of the future. And so those are,

00:28:38.940 are two really, uh, big ones for us that we're, uh, very proud of. And, and, um, I'd like to tell moms

00:28:46.620 and dads, you know, wherever their child goes, and I like to tell future students, wherever you choose,

00:28:52.460 it's the right choice. You know, it's the experience that you want. Sure. Um, but if a student believes

00:28:59.100 in free enterprise, if they believe in that, they have the ability to lead and launch a new company,

00:29:06.860 um, this is just a remarkable place and, and everybody's welcome at Northwood. You know, um,

00:29:13.180 I'm extremely proud of that, that, that we speak freely. We can actually have a discussion. We talk

00:29:19.100 about civility in higher education, but we're not very civil a lot of times. And, uh, so how do we

00:29:25.020 create that environment where you can have these uncomfortable discussions and then say,

00:29:29.260 Hey friend, let's go have lunch now. So, um, that that's another theme that, uh, continuing to focus

00:29:37.020 on not just the biggest school. We don't want that. We want to find just the right students at Northwood.

00:29:42.540 And, uh, it's a special place and having you part of it, Gad is, is really a blessing for us.

00:29:47.740 So thank you so much. Yeah, you're welcome. So two, two quick, uh, thank you. Uh, first, thank you.

00:29:53.020 Thank you for being the first president of university to grace the sad truth. Number two,

00:29:58.540 thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to your wonderful institution. Uh,

00:30:03.180 so I really appreciate it. It's such a pleasure having you on the show.

00:30:06.620 Come back anytime you'd like. Thank you so much, president. Thank you. Thank you.

00:30:09.820 Cheers, cheers.

The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad - October 08, 2024

Dr. Kent MacDonald, President of Northwood University-On the State of Academia (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_721)

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript