Mike Thompson: Congratulations, what are your plans for the next few months as interim president?

Joe Alutto: My main objective during this period is to keep the university momentum going. There's a lot of focus on making sure that we implement the Academic Plan as completely as possible, to continue to provide access to excellence, which is really the main theme. We talk about doing great things, but the reality is what we're trying to do is provide access to really bright students, to excellent environments where they learn and prosper and at the same time create those opportunities for faculty and staff so that they can fulfill their own personal and professional goals and ambitions, because that's the way this institution will continue to develop over time.

Thompson: Any changes at all to what President Holbrook has implemented, any changes in policies or anything like that?

Alutto: Well I think it's going to be mostly continuing to build. And one of the great things about a university is that we're really--we have an incredibly novel purpose: we create new knowledge and then we transfer it from generation to generation. And you don't do that by discrete, abrupt shifts, you really do that by continuity and building on what's occurred in the past, so what we'll be doing heavily is building on what happened in the time Karen was here, but also in the time that Brit Kirwan was here. The one change might be something that I think Karen started at the end of her time here, which is to try to get the university to think more systematically about how to integrate this incredibly advantage it has with international students and international programs in a way that allows us to stand out and make one of the differentiating characteristics of Ohio State this impact it has on the world education scene.

Thompson: How do you do that, how do you make the university more internationally focused or recognized internationally?

Alutto: Well, for us we have a tremendous advantage because it's not so much starting from scratch. We already have over 4,000 graduate students, students a year that come from overseas, which gives us a great base. We have an international faculty that's really drawn from the very best scholars around the world. They provide a base for it and an alumni base, we've done this for years and years, and that base is out there. The question is how do we build on that in a systemic fashion. We have, in for example, in agriculture we have tremendous contacts and equity that's been built up in countries like India, throughout Asia. We have the medical school that's quite literally all over the world, the business school. A number of the professional colleges already have operations elsewhere. But what we haven't done is seen the way in which we can strategically bring all of that together so that there is a recognized differentiator for Ohio State and that's really I think going to be the focus.

Thompson: Can you balance that with what the tradition is of Ohio State as a land grant university devoted to Ohio and to the Midwest?

Alutto: Oh, absolutely, because, think of that notion of access to excellence. Access means providing an opportunity for bright student to really learn and be able to then compete with the very best of the world. So for us, providing that access is not just providing financial aid, but it's doing things like the Metro School where we reach in and we really say, we'll help prepare the next generation of students who could come to Ohio State, who could learn about all of the STEM disciplines and all of the advantages and opportunities that are there and then raise the question of getting them onto this campus where they can see and be exposed to all the excellence we have, in programming, faculty and staff, that allows them to really nurture those skills. And so there's no inconsistency there. The other point to make is that nobody's isolated any longer. We're all part of this global culture. And if the citizens of Ohio are going to complete effectively for lifestyle and for economic benefit they're going to have to understand what's going on in the world and that's our obligation as a university.

Thompson: You're the first generation in your family, in the first generation to attend college, you talk about access. You must like this, what the legislature as far as increasing aid to helps students go to college. But it requires you to have a tuition freeze. You have to deal with that as interim president.

Alutto: Well, we have to deal with that--I have to deal with that as interim president, but I don't see those as any way as being inconsistent. It's a natural tension. It's, and it goes back to, again--I want to go back to this notion of access to excellence. We want to provide as much access as possible but we also want to provide that excellence piece. Access to mediocrity helps no one, so the tension is a very helpful one, and it's, how do we provide as much exposure as possible to students who have the ability to perform well in this environment and how do we create an environment that allows them ultimately to reach their full potential.

Thompson: Do you want this job permanently?

Alutto: (laugh) That's not my issue. The trustees have to deal with that issue.

Thompson: I know you can't get into specifics about names and things like that, but you're on the search committee for the new president. It's been described as--

Alutto: I was on the search committee, I'm no longer.

Thompson: You're not anymore. That was my next question. It's been described as stalled and sluggish. Would you characterize it that way?

Alutto: Oh, not at all. I think, I fact, I've been on a number of search committee and it's just a very thoughtful process in which they focus very heavily on the characteristics that they believe the next president must have to successfully lead Ohio State University. And they're in the process of making sure that any action taken is consistent with those characteristics. There's a lot of interest in this position, it's a, it really is a major opportunity for someone to have a national and an international platform for helping to shape educational philosophy and that makes it very attractive for individuals. Plus, you take the franchise: The Ohio State University has a franchise value that provides a platform for an individual. There's a great deal of interest in the position but I think the search committee is being very deliberative and very systematic in the way they're going about it.

Thompson: But you've removed yourself after you've taken on this new role:

Alutto: I'm not on the search committee any longer.

Thompson: How long do you expect to serve in this role?

Alutto: (laughs) I have no idea. The answer is, I'll serve as long as it's helpful to the institution for me to be in this position.

Thompson: OK, thanks very much, Joe Alutto.