Q&A with new University of Southern Indiana President Steve Bridges
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On May 9-10, a new president will lead the University of Southern Indiana’s spring commencement in Evansville. Steve Bridges, a two-time USI alumnus, was appointed to the role in April after serving as interim president for several months after Ronald Rochon’s departure.
Bridges spoke with Inside INdiana Business about his different positions at the university over the years, the challenges facing higher education and his goals as the institution’s fifth president.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me about your roles at USI before becoming president.
I finished my 36th year [at USI on] April 17. That was a milestone for me. I graduated; it’s listed as 1989. That’s for official purposes for my undergraduate degree. I started as a staff accountant, and my roles were managing accounts payable and student loan collections and accounting back in 1989.
I’ve had a variety of roles. Apparently, I can’t keep a job, so I’ve been in a bunch of the accounting roles: chief accountant, controller, assistant controller, business office director, and at one point I was bursar, which was important for me because I dealt with students a lot and helped them pay their bills and work through some challenges. That was a pivotal part in my career.
I also served as assistant vice president, associate vice president. Most recently before this position, when I was interim [president], I was the vice president for finance and administration, which is the CFO type role for us, and served in that for nearly 10 years. I started as interim [president] on July 20, 2024, went through the search process and was named permanent to the position on April 2.
What successes have you had at USI?
I have an undergraduate degree in accounting, and I have an MBA [1995]. Those are my degrees, both from USI. But I’ve had the opportunity to do some things that you wouldn’t typically do in the accounting world.
We had a massive administrative software upgrade, and I spent three years of my life being the project manager on campus for that. That was on time, on budget and I would rate that as highly successful. It helped me because I worked with all areas of campus, because that system was every administrative function we had. It gave me a preview of what happened all over campus. In hindsight, that was probably formative for where I’m at today.
I had a chance to do some campus card system installations in my career. I didn’t know anything about a campus card. From public safety to human resources to food service, I’ve had a chance to do so many things. This has been a land of opportunity. I’ve done well in those by learning, listening and counting on people and moving the institution forward as much as possible.
Why did you want to be president?
When I started in the CFO role, our president at the time, Dr. [Linda] Bennett, said, “Have you thought about going to the course at Harvard in the summer for presidents? Because I think you have the skill set to do this.” And I said, “Dr. Bennett, I don’t have a PhD. I’m a traditionalist, and I’m happy where I am.”
When President [Ronald] Rochon, who was our president before I became interim, was interviewing at Cal State Fullerton, I knew there was a great chance he’d get the job. I’m like, “Okay, what do we need to do here? We need to keep our momentum.” I was the senior member on the team. And I thought, “I need to step up here.”
I talked to [Rochon], and he said, “I have a plan if I happen to get this position.” I said, “I have a plan, too. It’ll be interesting to see if it’ll be the same.” Later, he walked into my office and said, “I got the job.” I said, “I expected you would.” He said, “You should be the interim.” I said, “That’s my plan as well.”
My goal on July 20, 2024, was to keep the momentum going and push us forward while we waited for the fifth president of USI. About 30 days into that, I started looking around and thinking, times have changed. The business mindset is critical right now in higher education. I have strong academic folks to help support that part of the operation. Maybe I should consider applying for this job, because as an alum, that’s important to me that we move forward.
I told the search committee I’d interviewed myself for six months before they ever interviewed me, because if it wasn’t right, and it wasn’t going to move us forward, then I’m not applying. Somewhere in there, I determined that this is something that I could help the university with. I care. That’s how I became the president.
You’re the first USI alumnus to serve as president. How does that feel?
It’s an honor for me. I’ve got a picture of Dr. [David] Rice handing me my diploma when I walked across the stage, our first president. I look at it. It’s on my desk every day. It’s important for me to remember why we were founded in our values. To be that first person, for the 54,000+ alumni who exist, validates the importance and the value of a USI degree. We can ascend the ranks.
What are some of your goals in this role?
One of my key values from a history-driven, forward-looking perspective is I want to strengthen our business and industry connections. We were formed by business leaders. I’ve been on a listening tour talking to them about what their needs are. I’m interested in doing something I refer to as scaling ahead the workforce, not scaling up, because it sounds like we’re behind when we talk about scaling up the workforce.
Strategically speaking, if we know we have areas that they need assistance, we want to be the answer to that. That’s in our culture. That’s in our DNA. We were formed that way. The talent pipeline, figuring out what they need. If we’re going to bring in new industry, what might that new industry we’re recruiting need and start scaling ahead. So that day one, we’re ready to make a contribution.
I also want to expand our regional reach and reputation. I’m spending time in Indianapolis with the Indiana Chamber, spending time in the statehouse. Our former president had more of a national view, and I’m more into the regional and state view. And then expanding and improving recruitment and retention efforts.
What challenges do you expect to face as president?
The value of higher education gets discussed a lot. I’m a first-generation college student. I’m the type of student this campus was founded to serve, which makes it even sweeter. I have three children who all have college degrees. Being able to express that message of generational change with higher education. It’s always been worth it. It’s still worth it.
The demographic changes in the number of students who are available is certainly a challenge. Recruiting is more competitive than it’s ever been. That’s where the business mindset becomes so important. I love my academic friends, but for me, I’m about process, improvement. I’m about goals, results-driven. And that’s the business side of me.
How is the transition to Division I athletics going?
It’s going well. I’ve been involved in that since the beginning. In the CFO role, I developed a financial plan for us, and I’ve been in there since day one. Moving into that was easy for me.
We just had a site visit because the NCAA has been changing. Four years was our original goal. We had four years to be in this transition period, and we never expected they would shorten that. They shortened it to three years if we chose to try to do that. And we have. In the fall of 2025, if we’re able to finish up this process, we’ll be able to compete right away as a full member of Division I.
That’s part of raising our visibility and reputation across the region and even into Tennessee. We’re part of the Ohio Valley Conference, so we’re in places that we haven’t been before, which can become markets for us now that our name is a little more known in terms of recruiting.
Sometime in June or July, we will know the final outcome as to whether we’re ready to roll as an official member. I feel positive about that. We’ve done well. Student athletes are top of the conference in terms of academics. That’s important. And we’ve competed well in different sports throughout our first three years, and it’ll only get easier once we’re full-fledged.
What else is ahead for USI in 2025?
We’re going to be in our first year of a new budget session, so there’s a lot happening with that. I’m going to be working to build the team, replacing myself because I ran double duty on that. I decided it would not be smart to hire my successor if I didn’t know where I was going to end up.
Then we have our governmental affairs person to hire. Building the team is going to be very much a focus for us in this next year. We got the beginnings of accreditation looming, so we’re putting teams together for that. I feel confident about where we are, but there’s a process with that similar to the analysis by the NCAA that we’ll have.
We have a couple of construction projects. We’re renovating the building I’m in. That’ll be an $83 million project. Along with finishing up the health professions building, which is fantastic because our nurses have a 100% pass rate. We have strong nursing and health professions areas. Renovating that building is going to make us even more relevant equipment-wise, people-wise.
Considering looking at housing options as well. I’m going to be moving into the university home. Our presidents haven’t lived there for about half the previous presidents’ time. The most recent one, he didn’t live there at all.
I’m going to move into that home because it’s part of our culture. We brought people into that home, and it made that family feeling we had back in Dr. Rice’s era. I’m interested in doing that and bringing people back in, whether it’s legislators, business leaders, making them feel part of our family.