Dr. Jaimie Hebert, the last of five contenders who have visited Georgia Southern University in their quest to be its next president, exhibited a sense of humor but also made serious statements about issues ranging from education's importance in his own life to legislation allowing guns to be carried on campus.
        Hebert, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas, spoke at a public forum Thursday afternoon on Georgia Southern's campus in Statesboro. Academics working at universities share certain responsibilities to society, he said.
        "An educated citizenry with skills to perpetuate the advancement of our society, the keepers of humanity and civility, socially responsible, these are the promises we give back to society as products of our institutions," Hebert said.
        Incidentally, his last name is of French origin and is pronounced like "A-Bear." It's a fairly common family name in southern Louisiana, where he grew up.
        His father, one of 14 brothers and sisters, was raised by an older brother after their father died, and became the first person on either side of Hebert's family to graduate from high school, he said.
        His father went on to what is now the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, became a math teacher and then helped younger siblings go to Lafayette for their college educations.
        When Hebert received his bachelor's, master's and doctorate there, all in statistics, he brought to 11 the total number of degrees his family had received from Louisiana-Lafayette.
        "I want you to understand that I understand, on a very personal level, just how transformative a public, comprehensive institution can be, not only to individuals but to entire families in our society," Hebert said.
        After arriving at Sam Houston State as an associate professor of statistics in 1995, Hebert rose through the ranks to full professor, department chair, and college dean. He has been the university provost, ranking just below president, since 2011.

‘A sense of humor'
        As for his leadership style, Hebert said he believes in trust and deep communication, getting to know not just what people say, but why they say it.
        "I believe that everyone I work with should have a sense of humor, and I believe I should always have a sense of humor," he added.
        So audience members laughed when he said he could recap his leadership style as "I believe that everyone I work with should get everything they want" but that this would result in someone marking a big "X" beside his name.
        Hebert said he didn't mean this materially, which would be impossible, but that everyone should get everything they want in terms of respect, self-worth, trust, and freedom to express themselves.
        In the question and answer session, he got many of the same questions, submitted on cards, as the other four candidates.
There were questions about support for the library, the arts, wellness, environmental sustainability, research, doctoral programs and athletics.

Guns on campus
        Also, there was the ever-present question about legislation to allow guns on campus, and how a new GSU president will deal with it. Even this week, the Georgia General Assembly was moving the proposal forward and it ultimately was passed Friday. But Texas, where two of the GSU applicants work, and Kansas, home of another of the candidates, have recently enacted legislation allowing guns on college campuses.
        All five candidates ended up saying that the university will have to deal with measure thoughtfully if it becomes law, but Hebert was the most outspoken on having opposed it.
        "You're kidding. This is why I wanted to leave Texas," he said. Hearing his tone, the crowd understood this as a joke, and while laughter was subsiding, he added, "I've been waiting for that question all day."
        Then Hebert said, "It's been one of the toughest semesters of my life, of my career, going through the concealed carry legislation."
        After the Texas state government enacted the measure last year, the universities had to make plans to implement it this year.
        "I opposed it. I opposed it publicly," Hebert said. "Every provost in the state of Texas opposed it, and every president in the state of Texas opposed it, publicly," Hebert said. "But it passed, and it's the law."
        Having grown up in rural Louisiana, he has been around guns his whole life, and wasn't fearful of guns as such but of the impact they would have on university culture, he said.
        "If I had a piece of legislation that causes one faculty member or one student to say, ‘Oh, I may not want to talk about that difficult topic because I'm afraid with concealed handguns on my campus,' then it has changed our culture, and it did," Hebert said. "I don't think the magnitude of the change is going to be that significant over time, but by gosh, we didn't have to change anything."
        Sam Houston State held a series of town hall meetings to let people air their views and opinions on implementing the law.
        "When you have something as emotional as concealed carry, you have got to talk, you've just got to get it out there on the table," Hebert said.
        The discussions were meant to arrive at a position that "foremost, takes into consideration the safety of your students, your staff and your faculty ...," he said, "but number two, you want to implement it in a way that has as little impact on the integrity of your educational mission as possible."

           Herald reporter Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.