By Zachery Todd
September 2004

It was an early Friday morning at the airport, not even a full day since Michael K. Young was told he'd be the new president of the University of Utah. While waiting for his flight, Young took an urgent phone call from the school's interim president, Lorris Betz.
"He said 'Mike you've got a real problem,'" Young recalls. Even for a man with plenty of experience in negotiation, the trouble had come uncomfortably soon. "I don't have a problem, I'm not president yet. You may have a problem, but I don't," Young replied.
But Betz persisted nonetheless. He told Young that the school was about to lose its athletic director. Though Young had met Chris Hill before, and had liked him, this was the first collision between what was known and unknown about the task ahead. "I said 'well, OK, what does an athletic director do; what kind of problem does this create for us?'"
Young hadn't had much experience in athletics coming from his post as Dean of the George Washington University Law School. It seemed the only exertion for law students there had been the treks from class to class.
"All of the sudden I realized there were so many more pieces to this university than even I had vaguely understood," Young said. Here was a man who had been around the academic block, who knew of the inherent complexities at any institution. Yet for him, the situation became a revelation.
"And it then hit me between the eyes that Chris knew everything there was to know about athletics, and if I lost him we were going to be starting all over," Young said. "It was a very illuminating moment."
Hill stayed, of course, and Young has since taken full charge of Utah's oldest university, filling the shoes of 13 presidents whose portraits line the walkway to his office.
Young is from California, though he said his wife Suzan comes from an old Utah family. Young did, however, go to high school in Utah, and he received his bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University of all places. Though he's been kidded about this contradiction, he said it could be worse.
"I don't think I've gotten it quite as bad as President Samuelson has gotten it down at BYU. He, of course, worked up here for most of his career."
After his tour of Provo, Young went on to graduate from Harvard Law School in 1976.
In addition to serving at George Washington, he has a long list of associations and accomplishments, including having served as Director of the Center for Japanese Legal Studies at Columbia University's Law School, Deputy Legal Advisor to the U.S. Department of State, Deputy Under Secretary for Economic and Agricultural Affairs.
Despite his impressive resume, Young said as a college student he didn't wholly see the path his life would take.
"I never imagined I would be an academic, much less a university president," he said. "I knew early on I wanted to be a lawyer. For a lot of different reasons, as I began to explore that option, academics became something that fit."
Young said he and his wife had always had wonderful attachments with academic institutions. And over time, Young began to feel that he could also make a contribution on the administrative side as well as on the academic side. He loved working at George Washington University and he wasn't particularly interested in doing anything else. Still, he and his wife had special feelings about the University of Utah and about the community surrounding it.
At last, when the chance came, the Young's were willing. "It just seemed like an extraordinary opportunity we couldn't pass up."
Now that the search is over, and the reality of the task has settled in, Young says he's grateful to Lorris Betz and the interim administration for handing over a well-running program. He said there wasn't any lapse of energy during the transition.
Young said Betz and other administrators not only stayed in place after President Bernie Machen left, but they made important decisions for the university. He said they didn't miss a beat, and the condition of the university actually improved while they were in control. It wasn't until after Young was appointed that he saw what his predecessors had done.
"President Machen was terrific, but the leadership after him was every bit as good and engaged and committed," Young said. "And they kept the momentum going; they started programs and they made tough decisions that you have to do to not let problems get out of hand. They were just terrific, and I can't say enough good about them."
These and other people are Young's favorite attribute of the University of Utah.
"It's a beautiful campus," Young said, "extraordinary facility, lots of great things about it, but the people are dedicated and committed to the institution in a way that suggests this isn't just a job for them."
Young's office sits just inside the Park Building on President's Circle. The building itself is a tribute to the rich history the school has to offer. As one of the oldest institutions for higher learning in the West, the University of Utah has become a symbol of the challenge to maintain a foothold in a fast-paced global economy, all while trying to keep some viable connection to the wisdom of the past.
Despite a keen desire to see his school at the forefront, Young said he doesn't intend to lose focus.
"I think there's always a danger in this day and age for institutions to lose sight of their core mission," he said. "This university, more than most, has not. It has kept the focus on its core mission of research and teaching."
Over the years, Young explained, research has become a valuable part of the plan -- not only for the development of the university and for attracting first-rate students, but also for contributing economically and otherwise to the local community. Young said if an institution is wise, it will go back to this other core mission.
Part of the university's goal is to produce doctors, and lawyers, and nurses and better people, Young said. But the knowledge these students carry into the community has far-reaching effects.
"That knowledge often translates into very observable benefits for the community," Young said. The evidence of these benefits is high on the president's mind. He cites the approximately 6,000 people employed at Research Park, and revenues of $500 million dollars generated each year by companies there. Young said last year, the university brought in over 300 million research dollars, 97 percent of which came from out of state.
"So we really are an important part of the community and the state...there's just so much mutual benefit," Young said.
Although a great deal of work is being done, there are still challenges, particularly in cultivating a positive relationship with the Legislature. Even Young believes there are improvements to be made.
"We probably have a better educational job we need to do," he said. But when it comes to the Legislature, Young feels that a little more understanding will go a long way.
"We need to understand here at the university and throughout the state that there are a lot of competing demands being placed on those legislators for health care, and education...roads and so on," Young said. "We need to be sympathetic and work together."
In doing so, Young believes the university will find chances to demonstrate how it can help with problems facing the state.
"We need to continue to work on seeing where our areas of mutual interest are."
Other challenges involve balancing religious, ethnic and ideological differences with the quest to provide an atmosphere of learning. Fostering religious tolerance has been an especially important and long-standing part of Young's career. He still serves as a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. And he has run programs at Columbia and at George Washington on religious liberties and human rights.
"I am passionate about this notion that people are going to treat each other with dignity and respect," Young said. Yet he believes an important part of an academic institution is the responsibility to challenge people.
"This is going to be a place of tolerance of all different ideas," he said, "which means people are going to feel challenged, I hope. We would fail utterly if we don't do that. But at the same time, not destroy. The faculty is going to be as challenged as the students are in that fundamental thinking."
Young said the whole endeavor will be done in a way that ensures dignity and respect for everyone who walks on campus.
Essentially, the mold for this tolerance has already been set by Young's own experience at being new to school. "Sue and I just couldn't have had a warmer welcome. And in the process we understand it's not personal. What we represent is the institution that these people love, for which they have a very deep reservoir of affection."