UT Tyler President Kirk A. Calhoun, M.D., recently announced his decision to step down. At the March Faculty Senate meeting, he told professors he was pleased about the UT System Board of Regents’ decision to consider Julie Philley, M.D., for the presidential role. Dr. Calhoun said Philley, currently executive vice president for Health Affairs and vice provost, worked on the University’s Strategic Plan and is a proven leader.
The transition comes at a time of unprecedented growth for the university.
Calhoun’s leadership has left indelible marks: merging two campuses, launching a medical school, expanding mental health services in rural communities. In this conversation, hear the accomplishment he’s most proud of achieving.
TRANSCRIPT
LANDESS:
A lot of folks in East Texas were caught off guard when the president of UT Tyler announced he would be retiring at the end of May 2024. I’m UT Tyler Radio News Director Mike Landess. The most common question is, “Why now?” UT Tyler Radio Connects with Dr. Kirk Calhoun to find out. And the answer?
CALHOUN:
Well, it wouldn’t surprise anyone if they took into account that in January, I had my 71st birthday. And when you reach that stage in life you do begin to think about retirement, when the perfect time would come. And for many of us, there is no perfect time. And I say that because when you feel very committed to an organization like UT Tyler, it’s never easy to leave. But there are things that occur in your life that indicate to you that this is the right time. And so, after a lot of discussion with Jeanette and I, with the chairman (Kevin) Eltife for the UT System Board of Regents, with Chancellor (J.B.) Milliken, I decided that this would be the most appropriate time. UT Tyler’s in great shape right now. There’s lots of construction, there are new programs, the enrollment is way up. It’s good to leave when things are going exceedingly well, and that’s how I feel about this institution.
LANDESS:
Leave while you’re on top, if that makes sense, and the 71 makes a lot of sense, too. I mean, Social Security’s been right there for you and you’ve developed so many great relationships in this community. The first time we interviewed you on UT Tyler Radio, you served about 100 days as president of UT Tyler, including what is now the UT Tyler Health Science Center. You outlined an ambitious agenda back there, including the first school of medicine in East Texas. Would you call that the crowning achievement of your tenure as president?
CALHOUN:
Well, the medical school is going to be just a very important entity in terms of serving the greater East Texas community and meeting the needs of communities who lack physicians. This new medical school is very dedicated to making that happen. It’s also, and you can see it now, too, is going to be a huge economic engine for Tyler and the communities around Tyler. I’ve thought about this a lot, and as great an achievement as the medical school was, I’m actually even more proud of what we’ve achieved in expanding mental health services across the region.
CALHOUN:
The UT Tyler Health Science Center now, is the largest mental health provider across the region. We have the largest faculty practice plan of psychiatrists across the region. And we’re looking at expanding those services even more, and I hope to have some announcements about that expansion before I leave the presidency at the end of May. So that was a tremendous need. When I started at the UT Health Science Center, we provided absolutely zero in the way of any behavioral health services, and now we have a behavioral health hospital that serves 45, 50 patients. We have outpatient clinics to deliver behavioral health services across the region. There’s still a tremendous need. But if I had to really think back about looking at a problem that a community had, lack of behavioral health care and being able to do something about it, that makes me feel pretty good.
LANDESS:
Yeah, I can understand that and certainly the need, arguably with the number of veterans that are coming back, PTSD, police officers taking their own life, it’s just–And people with such great anger and angst that was certainly inflamed by the COVID years.
CALHOUN:
Yes, and people don’t realize that rural communities actually have higher rates of suicide. They have to deal with mental health problems in isolation, more so than people who live in more urban communities, and so figuring out how we can best deliver those services is very important. And it’s not just the medical school, but our Nursing school has specialty training of nurses in behavioral health, as well as the Psychology department here, you know, here on the academic campus, and all three: nursing, medicine, psychology — we’ve been able to, through the merger of the two campuses. We’ve been able to combine those efforts to create something that is much stronger. And again, not to mention, you know, dementia, Alzheimer’s, that sort of thing, where we’re really expanding our activities and in neurology. So it’s in a big, important area that people don’t think about as much as the glitzy medical school. Medical school is really great, it’s important, it has a focus on behavioral health also, but making sure that we’ve made strides in meeting the behavioral health needs of the region is, I would probably say, the most important thing.
LANDESS:
University of Texas Regents Chairman Kevin Eltife is leading the proverbial nationwide search for your replacement now beginning. Will you be part of that vetting process?
CALHOUN:
That’s not traditional. Chairman Eltife and I have been tremendous partners here. Nothing that I have accomplished would not have been achieved without his political influence when he was in the legislature or his help and influence and advice as chairman of the UT System Board of Regents when he took that position. And whether it’s the medical school or the behavioral health expansion or community and rural health, which was an idea that we had, that he was very supportive of, the merger that created UT Health East Texas. He was part and parcel of all of that. We talk. He knows my opinions about the type of individual and what skill set they should have to do this job. But it is the UT System Board of Regents that has the responsibility and the obligation to hire UT presidents, and they take that responsibility very seriously, and a sitting president does not sit on the committee that chooses their successor, and that’s not just in my case, that’s pretty much history and policy.
LANDESS:
Well, I mean, you have this relationship with Kevin Eltife. I mean, certainly at some point he’s going to say, “So, what do you think?”
CALHOUN:
Well, not about a particular individual, but he has asked what do I think.
LANDESS:
And certainly that’s something that the two of you would share. I was thinking about outgoing presidents of the United States. It is traditional for the successor for the sitting president who’s about to leave, to leave a note for his successor in the Oval Office Resolute Desk. And it’s been fun to read some of those Bill Clinton, from George W. Bush and back to Ronald Reagan. Even if you don’t leave such a note for the next president of UT Tyler, what advice might you have for him or her?
CALHOUN:
I heard very often that those notes often say that when you come in as a new president and things go wrong, blame your predecessors. So I’ll give them the blessing to blame me if things go awry early on in their tenure. Later on, they won’t be able to use that, but early on, they can.
CALHOUN:
What I hope that my successor does is that we are on a tremendous growth trajectory. The theme of this year has been change. UT Tyler has undergone a tremendous amount of change over the last 5 years. It’s tolerated that rate of change well. I want it to continue to advance and advance at a fairly aggressive pace. That’s just part of my nature to push as much as I can. I hope my successor and I’ve shared has that same kind of zeal to move the university forward as rapidly but as carefully as possible.
LANDESS:
It is interesting that in the response that I’ve seen publicly on social media and that sort of thing to your announcement about leaving, there are certainly any number of accolades for you and the efforts that you’ve made in this community and the efforts that you’ve made and the successes that you’ve had as president. But the one thing that struck me out of all of this is that there is a great deal of affection that goes with that, too. It’s personal. People talk about, “Love that guy — you know, I’m really going to miss him.” He’s going to, because you’ve done the job. You’ve done the job well, and people like you — I mean they care about you and your future and what you’re going to do and that sort of thing. Is that something that surprises you, pleases you, what?
CALHOUN:
One of the most important insights I’ve had since making the decision to move forward with a change in my life —
LANDESS:
You’re not talking about extreme skiing or rock climbing.
CALHOUN:
No. But what I wanted to say is that in my letter to the campus, I mentioned that leaders — and I’ve known fantastic leaders across the state: political leaders, business leaders, leaders in higher education and in health care. When popular, successful leaders leave, they always express two regrets. The first is that you always wish you had accomplished even more. And then, secondly, you will miss terribly the people who you’ve worked with, who have helped you and your organization be successful, who have become your friends, who have become your donors, who have become your supporters. You’re going to miss those folks terribly, and I guess it speaks to the fact that relationships are important to me.
CALHOUN:
I try, as much as the Lord will let me, to have a fairly high emotional IQ, so I can feel what people are thinking when they feel good about something, when they feel sad about something, how to share in those feelings and how to find win-win scenarios. A professor needs something. Well, I need something, too. There has to be a middle ground. I really believe that there are middle ground. There’s middle ground that we can find. I wish our political environment worked more that way these days. You can find a middle ground and move forward, and if there’s anything that I think has allowed me to have some degree of positive relationships with co-workers and others in the community, it’s that willingness to sit down and find a solution that works well for everybody.
LANDESS:
So you’ll leave in May and the medical school, the School of Medicine, won’t be open just yet. The expansion for the Nursing school won’t be quite done yet. Gonna come back for the ribbon cutting, of course, right?
CALHOUN:
Well, clearly, if invited.
LANDESS: Of course you’ll be invited.
CALHOUN: And a number of people around, a number of people around here have said, “Oh yeah, absolutely you’re gonna be back, and you’ll get to play a role.” So that’ll be satisfactory. You know I toyed with that. That was one of the more difficult things that I want to stick around go through another legislative session, which is physically demanding, you know, running down to Austin and spending time in the hallways there, the capital and so forth. But that’s clearly an important job of a president. Years ago, when the merger of the two campuses took place, I actually told Chairman Eltife that, you know, I’ll be around for the legislative session in ’21. I’ll be around for the legislative session in ’23. But seriously, ’25? Now that was like back in 2019 I said that. But that was my feeling, and I wanted to stick to that and so, along with all the other things that go into making a decision like this, that was also an important element in it all.
LANDESS:
Sure. Any final thoughts you’d like to share before you leave today?
CALHOUN:
Well, you know, I just want to say, you know it’s been great having this relationship with KVUT, and this — Tyler has something very special in UT Tyler. And the strategic plan that I’m going to leave behind, and that my successor will and should modify for the new day, but it does call for us to continue to grow. And the target is 15,000 enrolled students. Many of them will be online, as we grow our online programs, and we’re growing those very rapidly.
CALHOUN:
But a campus of 15,000 students, and that’s going to need more housing; we’re going to need more parking. We’re going to need more faculty. We’re going to need more buildings, and in fact, you know, sticking around for a ribbon cutting, there’s always going to be another ribbon cutting coming. At UT institutions, there are always new buildings going up. I walked away from Austin. We have $100 million to build a new Science building on this campus. Well, am I going to hang around for that one, too? So there’s always construction going on, and construction should not be a target for a leader to say, “I’m going to stick around for that.” You stick around as long as you can add value and energy to the job, and you feel that it is appropriate for you.
LANDESS:
Thanks for listening to UT Tyler Radio Connects with Dr. Kirk Calhoun, UT Tyler president. For UT Tyler Radio News, I’m Mike Landess.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
