President John Dunn reflects on his 10 years at WMU

By Madison Bennett | MLive

KALAMAZOO, MI -  If retiring Western Michigan University President John Dunn had any advice for his successor, it would be this: "Whatever you do, please get to know your students and do so early."

Dunn stressed the importance of building relationships and trust with the student body in the university president's success, during an interview Thursday, Oct. 20 with WMUK 102.1 FM and the Kalamazoo Gazette.

Dunn will retire in June 2017 after 10 years as WMU president. He will serve as president emeritus in the year following, taking on special assignments from his successor.

Before he was chosen as the university's eighth president, Dunn was subject to the same selection and vetting process that WMU's ninth president will go through. He said the search is about more than what's in the university's best interests.

"It's all about fit, and while the university obviously wants to make the right choice, the candidate wants to make the right choice," said Dunn. "I've been involved in other interviews, where I really enjoyed the interview but at the end of the day I didn't really think I was the best fit."

Although retirement is in sight, there are a few things on Dunn's "to-do" list yet. He said a few of those include WMU's Create Your Signature program- an effort by WMU to engage students in their out-of-classroom experiences, working with the new Director of Enrollment Management Terrence Curran on ways to boost enrollment and moving forward in the final stages of the school of medicine's accreditation process. 

Of things the university was not able to accomplish during his tenure, Dunn cited growth in enrollment and research expenditures.

WMU's enrollment this fall dipped for the fifth straight year, decreasing 1.3 percent from last fall. Enrollment has dropped between 1.2 percent and 1.9 percent annually since 2012.

As for research expenditures, Dunn said he'd like to be more competitive on the federal funding level. "There's so much more that we could and should do and we'd just not been able to get really the full lift," said Dunn on research funding.

As he reflects on his on his time as president on the whole, Dunn comes back to the students.

"There are many things I feel very good about, first and foremost maybe the interaction with our students," he said. "I've really grown to love the students at our university." 

This post originally appeared Oct. 20, 2016 on MLive.com.