Daily Egyptian Politics Editor

SIUC chancellor candidate Scott McNall brought his can-do administrative philosophy to campus in an open forum for students in the University Museum auditorium Wednesday.

McNall, provost and vice president for academic affairs at California State University-Chico, said his experience in improving the quality of undergraduate education at other universities will be applied to SIUC if he is named chancellor.

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A key part of improving undergraduate education is better technology, he said. CSU-Chico is the leading campus in the California state school system, partly because of advances McNall has made, he said.

Beginning in 1994, he said, his university planned ways to provide more computers for students and faculty and classes to explain how the computers worked.

CSU-Chico’s active student body balked at the idea of a student fee to pay for the improvements, so McNall developed a budget proposal, which brought a $600,000 grant from the chancellor’s office that paid for the project.

McNall said one problem with technology improvements is that no end exists.

I think technology’s important, but there is no limit to the amount of money you can spend on it, he said.

McNall also has experience with union negotiations. He was president of a faculty union at Arizona State University and negotiated with a faculty union at The University of Toledo. He said a chancellor should play an active part in union dealings at the University.

A chancellor should have a leadership role in helping implement and helping negotiate a contract, he said.

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McNall also sees athletics as an important part of an institution’s image.

He told a story about honoring high grade-point average students at CSU-Chico with a banquet. When he asked the students why they came to the university, many said it was the school’s athletic program.

These students would not have come to Chico if they would have been without the opportunity to play sports, he said. They were not planning on becoming professional athletes. Playing sports simply was a part of their lives.

McNall said all improvements he has made at previous schools and all problems he would tackle at SIUC reflect his attitude toward problem-solving.

My motto is, we can do it, he said.