Women Leaders at Work by Elizabeth Ghaffari

Author:Elizabeth Ghaffari
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Apress®
Published: 2011-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

I loved administration. I started out as associate dean of the law school, then I went out as chief academic officer of the University of Kansas at a pretty young age.

Ghaffari: What would you say would be some principal accomplishments that come to mind when you remember those days?

Tacha: The most direct accomplishment would be establishing a program called University Scholars. It was at a time when honors programs were falling out of favor—anything that sounded elitist was discouraged. I decided that I was not buying into that at all. I actually patterned the program largely on the White House Fellows' program, but within the university. I took very promising sophomores, assigned them faculty mentors, and then put together an education program on top of the regular academic program in which they would meet some of our best scholars, administrators, just a mixture of leaders. If I remember right, we took about twenty sophomores each year.

The program just celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary two or three years ago. There was a big reunion, and I got to speak to them. Some of the people who were university scholars went on to just amazing careers. For me, one of the great rewards has been watching the people you help to find their way. You don't make it happen. You can only help people who want to become leaders.

Another memorable accomplishment is one that was not so happy, but still I'm proud of what we did. We had to cut the budgets at the university quite significantly during the time that I was vice chancellor. Sound familiar? I made the decision that we weren't going to do it across the board. Instead, we were going to make the hard choices, and I believe that that served the university well.

Ghaffari: How did President Reagan come to name you to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals?

Tacha: As you probably know, the president usually receives recommendations from somebody like the [Senate] Majority Leader at the time, Bob Dole, who's a Kansan, and his sidekick and mine, [former Senator] Nancy Kassebaum, who also was from Kansas. I give full credit to my mother on this. She had been friends and supporters of these politicians for a long time.

I'd like to say it was all on merit, but it also was “the mother's network.” They had created a new position in Kansas—there had been only one.

Initially I resisted the offer—feeling it was just too soon in my career. I was very happy at the university, my last child had just been born, and I really didn't want to go onto the bench, yet.

Bob Dole gave me what turned out to be very smart advice. He said, “If you're ever going to do it, you better do it now.”

Ghaffari: How did your family feel about the court?

Tacha: They were all very supportive. For my mother, of course, it was great because it kind of thrust me back into government. For my own family, my husband and my children, it was really good even though I traveled a lot.

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