Chris Howard graduated from the United States Air Force Academy in 1991 with a 3.78 GPA as a three-year football letterman and starting running back on the Falcons squad that upset Ohio State in the 1991 Liberty Bowl. He received a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, earning his doctorate in politics. He served as a helicopter pilot early in his military career and an intelligence officer in Afghanistan, claiming a Bronze Star for his service in a combat zone. He also received his MBA from Harvard University. From 2009-16, Howard led Hampden-Sydney College (VA) as its president before taking on his current role as president at Robert Morris University in February 2016. Howard's passion for football and his blue-chip reputation also resulted in him serving as a member of the prestigious College Football Playoff (CFP) Selection Committee. We caught up with President Howard, asking him about the challenges he currently faces.
 
 
What does it mean to be a Campbell Winner during this period? Is it relevant?
It legitimizes you because it speaks to excellence in many different areas, but even though it was a long time ago, people will see the Campbell [as part of my bio] and ask me about it, which creates an easy point of conversation and information. I will tell you whether it's COVID-19 or just my daily operations as president or as a leader in the community or society, the Campbell Trophy is one of the greatest door openers you'll ever have in your life.

 
What are the challenges of being a university president during the COVID-19 pandemic?
We are institutions that operate on consensus and over extended periods. It takes a long time and a great deal of deliberation for universities to move from point A to point B. Until now that has been a strength, but we don't have that kind of time now. We have had to react very quickly, while creating a plan for contingencies on the fly in a way that we have never really done before.
 
We have no choice.  We have to get it done to keep our staff, our faculty, our students, and our community safe. We have to make sure that we are achieving our mission, which is ensuring that our students have a great educational experience. There is a lot of uncomfortableness because operating at a high ops tempo, as we would say in the military, is not something that university leadership and its members are accustomed to doing.
 
 
What are your plans? When will people be back on campus?
Governors and state government officials will dictate our return. They have become the de-facto leaders on when people can come back for face-to-face instruction. We have not been permitted to do so just yet, but we are close to some version of that, very much a trickle at this point, but we plan on coming back in the fall.
 
We meet virtually every day for an hour via a teleconference, and [our leadership team] has been doing this for three months now. I cannot be prouder of our leadership team.  We put together, a 50- page white paper called "Reopening RMU," and not only was it well received by the university and our board, but the entire higher education community has responded very favorably.
 
So, that was the military guy in me.  You do contingency planning, and you don't have to use that plan, but what happens when you start planning, you figure out the holes in your plan. So, we have kept planning. We plan on coming back in a modified fashion in the fall. It will be a different but vibrant community with some remote and online learning. We'll have all kinds of social distancing and safety protocols in place.    
 
 
How have you led during this period? How has football guided you during this period?
It's not about the leader. It's about empowering the team, which is one of the great lessons from football.  It does not matter how good of a running back you are, if the guard can't get off the ball on time, or is offsides, or holds every other play, the whole team is going to suffer. My mindset is: 'we are about us' and we are trying to create a collective vision of excellence and performance. Those are lessons that I learned on the gridiron and in the military. I typically start with: 'How are we going to do this?' as opposed to telling people what to do. One cannot effectively and purposely lead an organization without having the servant-leader model without thinking about the other before yourself or about empathy.
 
 
What are your plans to bring student-athletes back to campus?
There are a lot of layers of coordination, and only one or two key deciders. I talked to Brian Hainline, the chief medical officer of the NCAA, and they're developing the key protocols and best practices in terms of student-athletes coming back on campus. The NCAA is making the decision, and for FBS in particular, it will be guided by the College Football Playoffs. We're in the Northeast Conference (FCS), and that's going to dictate how we're going to play within the conference. In terms of who is going to come on our campus and where we are going to send our student-athletes, that's the president's decision, and that is dictated by the government and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf who says what I can do. Likewise, what New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says influences what Long Island University President Kimberly Cline can do. So, there are a lot of moving pieces and in some ways it's even more complex than your student-body.
 
At the FCS level, we don't have student-athletes coming back until the beginning of August and 29 days before the first game. So, we have some time to learn about the virus and the best practices while also finding the funding necessary to enact the protocols and do the right thing at the right time.
 
 
Where are we today?
Right now, our focus is getting our students back on campus because the best thing for the student-athletes is to come up with a system and a plan, even in a modified fashion, to bring students back to campus. If you get that wrong, you are probably not going to get the sports part right. So, we think the best balance is centered around our student body at large because our student-athletes are students first. Whether they're playing football or soccer, we want to make sure they're getting a good education period.
 
In terms of playing going forward, it gets pretty technical, pretty quickly. If you read what the NCAA is saying, the National Athletics Trainers Association and other sports medicine organizations are saying, it's like reading the check-list manifesto for heart surgery or going on the Space Shuttle. Our athletics director Chris King has done a really fine job being on top of it all. He's a very experienced AD, and I trust him and the coaches with all the details.
 
 
What's the financial piece?
You're in education, but it's still a business. You have to make sure what you're spending equals what you're bringing in. The business of education is also the housing business and the university rendering housing services, which is a big chunk. I don't care if you have a $40 billion endowment or less, the housing part is a big deal. Higher education is about a $600 billion industry in America. It's huge. So, we have to figure out a way to bring back our students safely because if we go completely online and we're not able to receive housing payments -- it's about safety first and achieving our mission of education -- but the housing revenue part is significant. And if you don't do that, it could have a disastrous impact on all of higher education, and therefore, the entire U.S. economy.
 
 
What makes Chris Howard unique during this crisis?
 It's like the movie "Taken:" 'I have a particular set of skills.' I have experience in sports, corporate, non-profit, then government and the military, I am somebody who brings value to the conversation where our society is going as it addresses COVID-19. I feel like the Hamilton song, 'It's great to be in the room where it happens,' but I like to now say: you need to be in the Zoom where it happens, which is my joke… I have had multiple experiences that allow me to bring a unique perspective, whether it's contact tracing, surveillance or how we are going to bring back football.
 
 
What are your thoughts on everything going on in the country right now in the wake of the death of George Floyd? 
President Howard responded by asking us to share his statement to the RMU community and to share a link to register for a "Zoom" town hall, 'Taking Action in Times of Critical Change," in which he'll be participating this Friday, June 12 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET. The town hall will cover societal change and racial equality with leaders from the college athletics community providing their insights. Click here to read President Howard's statement and click here to register for the town hall.   
 
 
Background
Click here for background on The William V. Campbell Trophy® Presented by Mazda, which has been presented every year since 1990 to the nation's top scholar-athlete from the college gridiron. In 2019, Mazda became the sponsor of the Trophy, launching their Power of Potential Platform with ESPN.