By MARTY LEVINE
When David DeJong made the switch from economics professor to the administrative side of Pitt, he said, “my academic friends were like, sorry man, what did you do” to deserve such punishment? But his friends among staff members saw how the move fit him, he added.
“It was an opportunity for impact,” he told attendees at the latest Coffee and Conversation on Oct. 19, sponsored monthly by Staff Council. He realized that his two decades as a faculty member, beginning in 1989, could only help him be a better administrator.
“When you live an experience and you are embedded in an area, you get a much deeper idea of how that area works,” he said of his teaching years. Now he knew “where the challenges are, where the opportunities are. It just builds a deeper understanding, gives you a better opportunity for impact.
“I also felt like my skill set in economics could really help me in my role as administrator,” he said, beginning with eight years in the provost’s office, helping to guide resource allocation.
DeJong served as stint as vice chancellor for human resources before being named senior vice chancellor for business and operations in 2020.
He grew up in Michigan and Iowa and was glad to find Pittsburgh, upon arrival, “very Midwestern but with a lot of amenities that come with a big city.”
He earned his undergraduate degree from Central College in Pella, Iowa, which he describes as Dutch country, and thus very familiar, since his own heritage is Dutch.
Why economics? “I had an amazing econ class in high school,” he said. “I could relate to the concepts — they seemed very intuitive to me.” He was considering other majors in college, but then he had another inspiring economics teacher in freshman year who set him on his course.
He also was glad to find the econ department at Pitt “very close knit and collegial.”
“I’ve been blessed with a lot of great mentors through the years,” he added. “One thing they did is to give me passion for what I was trying to do. ... You’ve got to love what you’re doing and, if you don’t, you’ve got to search for it.” The best mentors, he said, were those who are not providing an answer to a problem, but instead teaching how to think through an issue, “its parameters and benefits, the essence of the matter.”
Building the future of the institution, he opined, comes from asking yourself: “What is going to change if we are successful; that’s one of the mantras of our shop.”
He also believes strongly in “having clear communication and being accessible. You’ve got to collaborate across the units... knowing there’s a bigger picture and it’s not about the unit” alone.
“You can have the greatest idea in the world,” he said, and “that’s not the way to rally folks, even if you explain the brilliance of your idea.” Instead, he said, “you come to folks to work collaboratively on that idea ... how we’re going to roll up our sleeves together. That collaboration doesn’t take place without that shared governance piece.”
He marveled at the changes he has seen here: “Our reality stays ahead of our reputation. People will say they have heard of Pitt, but then they come to campus and they are just blown away.”
He recalled that in 1989, when he arrived, 75 percent of Pitt students came from Allegheny County and, of those, half were first-generation college students. “To think of where we are now ... the fact that we’re a real choice for places I really would not have thought of attending (Pitt) 30 years ago, it is amazing.”
As for his own future: “I see myself at Pitt. I love this place.”
Moderator Sam Young, of Staff Council’s Staff Life committee, ended the session by asking DeJong for one of his well-known creations: haikus. He pulled up a recent one on his phone, about the transition from fall to winter, and read:
"Change is in the air
flying leaves yield to snowflakes
time for hot cocoa"
Marty Levine is a staff writer for the University Times. Reach him at martyl@pitt.edu or 412-758-4859.
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