Pacific Island Times Pacific Island Times Vo. 3 No. 9 | Page 5

Brief Chat
Dr. Thomas Krise
Meet the new
UOG president
By Johanna Salinas
A
mild-mannered, all-American with no per-
sonal or political connections to Guam has
taken on the role of president of the Univer-
sity of Guam. Dr. Thomas Krise’s selection for the
post was initially greeted with protests from those
who frowned on the hiring of an “outsider.” The
selection process was marred with controversy that
was settled eventually.
Krise attests to his familiarity with Guam and
the region. Krise credits much of his progress in
understanding Micronesia to his predecessor, Rob-
ert Underwood. “Underwood and I have seen each
other every day,” said Krise. “He’s been telling me
stories, bringing me up to speed on lots of differ-
ent aspects on UOG, Guam and the region. He has
many partnerships and influence all over. He has an
association with other universities, such as Jeju and
Okinawa. These connections help us think about
the uniqueness of being a university in a relatively
small island community. Underwood is an amaz-
ing teacher and it’s been a great honor for me to
succeed him. He’s been a great teacher for me. He
promises to continue.”
Krise said his teenage years in the Virgin Islands
helped shaped his awareness of U.S. territories.
“I’ve always paid attention to Guam, because I
went to high school in the Virgin Islands and I paid
attention to the other territories. I’m interested in
status issues,” Krise asserts. “My academic interest
is in the Caribbean Islands, so small island cultures
are something that interests me. I’ve always been
aware of Guam or Micronesia generally and so I
was interested when the opening occurred. I was
thinking I can bring something helpful to that envi-
ronment and I’m very thankful to be here now.” I’ve always taught all the time that I’ve been an
administrator, once a year has been my habit. I look
forward to teaching at UOG, too.”
Krise, who beat 59 other candidates for the posi-
tion, will serve as UOG’s chief executive officer for
five years with an annual base salary of $210,000. Despite being new to Micronesia, Krise is aware
of the significance of UOG to the betterment and
development of the region. “UOG has very good
relationship with key institutions in Guam, partic-
ularly the government. It’s important to remem-
ber that for every dollar the government supplies
to UOG, we bring back $1.75 in value, through
partnerships of all kinds. There’s not only the
educational value that UOG brings, there’s actually
seriously positive economic impact we make. We
also have this influence throughout Micronesia.
UOG is connected in all those islands in serving
healthcare needs and educational needs. It’s an
amazing array that UOG touches and serves as a
leadership institution for the whole region and that
is a special, distinctive thing about UOG that’s
worth appreciating.”
Krise is a retired Air Force officer who served as
president of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma,
Washington. Although Krise is proud to call him-
self an educator, this hasn’t always been his path.
“My father always said to me that he thought I’d
make a good teacher and of course that made me
think, ‘I don’t want to be a teacher since my father
wants me to be a teacher,’” said Krise.
Growing up in a military family, Krise joined
the Air Force where he worked with m issiles. “I
attended the Air Force academy as a cadet and
I noticed that most of the faculty there were Air
Force officers that came to teach and I knew that
was an opportunity that I could pursue. So, after
being in the missile assignment in North Dakota for
four years, I thought I’d love to be able to be an in-
structor at the academy. I applied and was sent for
a master’s degree and was able to teach there. My
first taste for teaching was doing freshman com-
position. I immediately liked it; I didn’t want to
admit my father was right but I carried on and did a
Ph.D and taught at the National Defense Universi-
ty. Much of my military career was spent teaching
so it was a nice overlap to do both things at once. I
just carried on from there. I taught at the University
of Central Florida where I was chair of English.
Though he has yet to establish political ties on
Guam, Krise promises to lobby for more backing
for the institution. “Dr. Underwood has done a very
good advocacy for the University for resources, for
insuring that we have steady support from the gov-
ernment of Guam. We’ll do everything we can to
bring in resources from research grants and fund-
raising, but we need steadiness, steady investment
in education to achieve excellence.” As an outsider
with no personal ties, some hope Krise’s fresh eyes
can seek alternative ways to support Micronesia’s
most important institution.
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