He did not want to be president. He was an academic. Why would an academic want to be president of a university?

When Dr. M. David Rudd, provost at the time, saw the deficit the University of Memphis was facing in 2014, he wanted to help his colleagues stop the financial bleeding, so he took the job.

“We fixed the deficit in 18 months,” says Rudd. “We are now doing very well for ourselves.”

The Elkin, North Carolina native spent most of his time growing up in Arlington, Texas. Rudd went to college at Princeton and received his Masters and Doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. An Army veteran, Rudd served in the Gulf War as a clinician. He worked as a clinician at Texas A&M until his wife decided to get her doctorate at Baylor University.

“Loretta (Rudd’s wife) wanted to get her doctorate, so I took an academic job at Baylor,” Rudd recalls. “That’s how I got into academia.”

Rudd went from Baylor to Texas Tech before becoming dean at the University of Utah. He eventually took the job as provost at the University of Memphis. In 2013, then President Dr. Shirley Raines retired from the university. R. Brad Martin, former chairman and CEO of Saks Incorporated, became interim president, but made it clear he did not want the position permanently. Rudd saw the decline in the university finances and agreed to become the 12^thpresident of the University of Memphis in May 2014.

Rudd enjoys being president because of the opportunities he has interacting with the students and the community.

“I was a first-generation college student,” says Rudd. “Being president is a way for me to show my humility and gratitude to others by helping them achieve their goals and dreams.”

Rudd likes to interact with the students and community through Twitter. Rudd tweets from the handle @UofMemphisPres and discusses everything; from the achievements about the university to admitting he is not current with the Memphis rap scene and had to look up BlocBoy JB after Chicago Bears wide receiver and former Memphis Tiger Anthony Miller recreated his dance after scoring his first NFL touchdown. One would think he is the most active university president on the social media platform.

Had a long list of things to do today. Finally at “find out who BlocBoy JB is”.

— Dr. M. David Rudd (@UofMemphisPres) September 18, 2018

“You obviously don’t follow that many university presidents,” Rudd laughs.

University and Academic Investments

Under Rudd, the University of Memphis got out of their deficit and put the university in a position to succeed. Rudd did not increase tuition for the 2018-2019 school year; the second time in five years tuition did not increase. He is currently restructuring tuition for a flat, three-tiered rate for students; the first tier is in-state tuition, the second tier is out-of-state tuition (which will be a 29 percent deduction from the current rate) and the third tier is international tuition. Rudd rolled out a similar flat-rate tiered tuition plan four years ago for the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.

“Most people don’t know about it because we didn’t talk about it, but it has been a huge success,” says Rudd. “Before we rolled out this new tuition rate, there were only two students from out-of-state in our law school. This year we have 19 states represented.”

Rudd notes that in the next two years, the university will grow its student population, but you will not see those students walking around campus.

“We are going to keep our physical population at 22,000 students, but our UofM Global online program will double in size,” says Rudd.

Rudd recently announced FedEx Hub employees in Memphis and Indianapolis will have the opportunity to earn a bachelors degree from the University of Memphis though UofM Global at no cost to the employees. The cost of their tuition will be billed to FedEx as long as they are in good academic standing and a FedEx employee.

The university had its most successful academic fundraising period under Rudd, increasing donations by 50 percent. These donations are used for various programs and projects including the new amphitheatre and suspension bridge over Walker Street, the train tracks and Southern Avenue. A new parking garage is currently being built on Southern Avenue by the exit of the bridge. As soon as the garage is completed, the new university recreational center will start going up on the other side of the garage.

“For every dollar we raise athletically, we raise three dollars academically,” says Rudd. “We are really proud of that.”

Athletic Investments

“Put something into it, or do away with it!” were former University of Memphis Tigers football coach Tommy West’s last words as he left his press conference announcing he would be relieved of his coaching duties at the end of the 2009 season. Rudd and his team took those words to heart and started investing in the football program.
“I wrote Tommy a note thanking him,” recalls Rudd. “He was right. We were not good because we were not investing in our program. We have now invested millions in our program, in our facilities and in our coaches. Investing in this program has made the football job go from one no one would touch to getting Justin Fuente and now Mike Norvell. It is now seen as a good job.”

The university recently broke ground on a new indoor football practice facility. The City of Memphis, which owns the the Liberty Bowl where the tigers play, spent $2.5 million renovating the stadium before this season, including a new home locker room.

Rudd is also helping in the process of negotiating a new television contract with ESPN and the American Athletic Conference, the Tigers’ conference affiliation. Rudd says that gone will be the days of the Tigers playing on a digital channel like ESPN3 or behind a paywall like ESPN’s new digital service, ESPN+. The American will predominantly play on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and occasionally on CBS and the CBS Sports Network.

“You will see an upswing of exposure,” says Rudd. “We hope to get $8-12 million out of the deal which will be substantial for us. The American Athletic Conference is the predominant non-Power Five conference and this new contract will show that.”

The new television contract is coming at a time of higher expectations for football, but it could not come at a better time for men’s basketball.

“When I’m traveling and people see me in a Memphis shirt, they don’t know who I am, but they want to talk about Penny,” laughs Rudd.

Rudd is referring to the new University of Memphis men’s basketball head coach, former Tiger and NBA All-Star Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway. Rudd and Memphis athletic director Tom Bowen made the switch from Tubby Smith to Hardaway after two seasons that saw a decline in attendance and donations. The basketball program, normally the university’s bread and butter, saw a $4.7 million dollar deficit. Rudd had to make a change and decided Hardaway was the only person that could help him out of the situation. Currently, Hardaway is meeting the president’s expectations.

“We pay these coaches millions of dollars to not just coach, but to be the face of the program, whether they like it or not,” says Rudd. “Coach Hardaway is out in the community drumming up support for the program and it’s paying off.”

In six months since Hardaway was hired, the basketball program has already resolved its financial deficit. It has also hit the mark for the program’s operating budget (which Rudd says was a generous mark).

Hardaway is not holding back his expectations for the men’s basketball program. Rudd says it does not bother him or make him nervous Hardaway is saying they should win the American Athletic Conference Title this year and a National Championship in two to three years.

“It doesn’t bother me because those are our expectations,” says Rudd. “We are spending the money to operate a top 20 basketball program, so we should always be a top 20 basketball program.”

Rudd has not forgotten about the women’s basketball program. Competing in a conference with the most accomplished women’s basketball team at the University of Connecticut, Rudd knows that some investment will have to be made there as well.

“The women wanted to go back to the field house, so we are going to start a renovation on that,” says Rudd. “They are also practicing in the Finch Center.”

Despite all of these athletic accomplishments and investments, Rudd does not get to sit back, take it all in and be a fan.

“I’m working during games, trying to raise the money for these projects,” says Rudd. “But the students and the community get to enjoy the successes and that makes me happy.”

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Photo Credits: University of Memphis