The Time is Now

Taylor Randall was used to speaking in front of an audience. He’d defended his dissertation as a student, given hundreds of lectures as a professor, and delivered inspiring words at a dozen graduations as dean of the David Eccles School of Business. He often encouraged his listeners to set their sights high and dream big.

“ ‘If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough,’ ” he told the graduating class of 2020, quoting Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman president of an African nation. “Isn’t it true that there is something both inspiring and scary about a big dream? It becomes our North Star, reorienting us when diversions take us off course.”

But on the evening of Aug. 5, 2021, as Randall was about to utter those same words again to a room full of people who had come to find out who would be the next leader of the state’s flagship university—it was different. As the newly announced 17th president of the University of Utah took the podium, this time, the dream at the center of the story was his.

“Well, I’m scared,” he said with a smile. “Let’s hope we’ve got a big enough dream.”

Those who know Randall know there is no limit to his ability to aim high—it is his wherewithal to knit people together, problem-solve, and build resources around a bedrock of research that sets him apart. As an alum (HBA’90), a parent, a professor, and a dean with a vested interest in the success of the U for more than 20 years, Randall is primed to draw upon his decades of experience, vision, and community connection to propel the U to even greater heights.

At the beating heart of Randall’s dream is a focus on student well-being and a desire for the U to have a lasting impact on people’s lives. He thought of the community for whom he was now responsible as he chose those first important words.

“At the end of the day, we will be measured by our humanity and who we cared for and who we brought in, not those who we left behind,” he said.

He barely waited the weekend to get started. First thing Monday morning, he walked into his new office, ready to go.

Day

It’s 11:03 a.m. on a Monday, and Randall sits down at a half-empty conference table for a weekly COVID-19 briefing. The rest of the group is beaming in virtually, their faces filling a giant screen. Randall wastes no time starting—he says hello, then jumps right into the data. Someone shares an idea about how to expedite testing after exposures as a way to limit transmission.

“That seems reasonable,” Randall says. “Let’s debate that here for a minute, though. Follow my logic and question it—I want to see what we would gain from this.”

The scene was not unlike many Randall experienced as economic lead of the governor’s Unified Command for the COVID-19 recovery. He often found that the group’s goals were in conflict but worked to find a way to keep the economy alive while limiting transmission of the virus.

“He always stayed true to the facts at hand and didn’t get swayed by public discourse,” says Dr. Angela Dunn, former state epidemiologist and now Salt Lake County Health Department executive director. “He was calm and straightforward, asking questions that helped us think creatively about how to move forward.”

During his first week as president, Randall formed a transition team and named it Operation Bold—a signal of his desire for the U to be bold in its aspirations. He asked the team to map out a plan for his first year in office. Foremost on their list of recommendations was a listen and learn tour with groups from across campus.

In each session, Randall asks the participants about their challenges and opportunities, and what “hairy and audacious” goals they’d want to accomplish if they had unlimited means. Through those discussions, Randall has developed the seeds of his own sky-is-the-limit objectives.

As a student-centric president, Randall envisions revolutionizing the student experience with cohorts and programming to anchor them in a purpose from day one. He sees a world where more students live on campus, with enrollment numbers—now at 34,424—rising to 40,000. He also imagines research funding reaching $1 billion, compared to $641 million in 2021. As a final prong to his three-part goal, Randall pictures the U having the influence of a top 10 public university, with additional resources and research that impact the state and country for the better.

“At the end of my term as president, I would like the people in this state to feel that we served them,” Randall says. “We want to be a university for Utah. We bring serious research to bear on issues such as clean air and obesity, and we train people to take those skills and solve societal problems.”

The U’s president is also a leader of one of the largest hospital systems in the West, a sort of mayor over a large part of the greater Salt Lake area, a representative of faculty, and responsible for campus safety, as well as diplomacy with the state Legislature. With bold aspirations applicable to so many people, Randall had no time to lose as he organized meetings, and listened, and learned.

"I hope the university is ready for him, because he’s a mover and a shaker,” says Rich Kaufusi, Opportunity Scholars program director at the business school. “We didn’t bring someone in who we had to wait on to get started. We brought someone in who has already proven what he can do.”

Repeat

From dawn to dusk, the day of a university president travels the span of hope and empathy, opportunity and obstacle. But with a dream at his core, Randall is prepared to not only persist, but to thrive. To him, the U is home, and leading the university is a privilege. At the end of the day, after phone calls and thank-you notes, and plans for tomorrow, he is ready to begin again—the next time it is dawn.

“This is the kind of job you go to bed and wake up thinking about,” he says. “It’s energizing, and for me—being able to invest in working for others—it’s meaningful.”

About the author: Amy Choate-Nielsen is associate editor of Utah Magazine.