Iognaid O Muircheartaigh may be NUI Galway's new president, but to most people on campus he's simply Iggy. Medical students, on the statistics course he continues to teach, asked on his appointment what they should call him. "President, or Iggy, if you prefer," he told them.
"They call me Iggy and I like it," he says. "I'm more comfortable that way." He reckons he's probably the only head of an Irish university to continue teaching. "I just take one course - with first-year meds. It keeps me in touch. As president you could work extremely hard, but never see a student." Students are a priority for the new president. "I believe it's important to remember that we are neither a production unit nor an assembly plant. It may sound paternalistic, but I do believe it's important that we don't view our students as customers but rather as charges committed to our care at a critical and crucial stage of their development." A major aim of the new presidency is a significant improvement in student facilities. In particular, more sporting facilities, including extra gym space and a swimming pool, are vital, he says. "We need to provide healthy opportunities for students to counteract the overweening influence of alcohol on student life." Currently, the student union and the university authorities are co-operating to develop a policy on drinks' company sponsorship of student activities. They are also considering limiting the opening hours the student bar. "Drink," notes O Muircheartaigh, " has a negative impact on the welfare of some students. It's also a major factor in depression." Yes, the problem is national one, but that mustn't be used as an excuse by the universities to do nothing. "We need to develop policy and be much more proactive in providing alternative activities which are not centred on alcohol," he stresses. "I would like to see 90 per cent of our students using our sports facilities."
O Muircheartaigh may have spent most of his formative years in Dublin, and more than 30 years in Galway, but he remains at heart a Kerryman. Kerry is where he spent all of his childhood holidays and it's where his parents come from. The family were Irish-speaking and the young O Muircheartaigh attended Colaiste Mhuire, in Dublin's Parnell Square. After UCD and a stint at the Central Statistics Office, he took himself off first to the University of Manchester and then to the University of Glasgow, where his PhD topic was computer-aided medical diagnosis. Ground-breaking stuff then, what took him three years to develop could be done, today, in just one-and-a-half seconds on a laptop, he says. A major regret for Galway's new president is that he missed qualifying for the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 by just point-four of a second. He ran his 400-metre race in 47.8 seconds. During his undergraduate and postgraduate years, however, he managed to represent Irish, English, Welsh, Scottish and even British universities at international athletic events. Unsurprisingly, he's a bit of a sports fanatic, but these days confines his participation to golf, tennis and daily gym workouts.
It was during his time in Scotland that he met Rosaleen, his wife. They came to Galway in 1970, simply because he'd got a job lecturing in statistics there. It was, he says, one of the best moves he ever made. Galway proved a great place to live, the university was small, with only 3,000 students (there are now 11,000), had a long tradition of scholarship and excellence and, according to O Muirearchtaigh, he particularly appreciated the Irish language's special place in the UCG ethos. In 1972, O Muireachtaigh helped to established the UCG teachers' section of the Workers' Union of Ireland (now SIPTU) in the college. By 1980, he was an elected staff representative on the UCG governing body, "working for change in the structures of the university but making little progress", he says. It was his years on the governing body that encouraged him to stand for election as registrar in 1998. His platform? "Changing structures to give people greater involvement in decision-making and supporting the primacy of the academic mission." It proved a good move. Being registrar "taught me about the academic operation of the college. The two years I spent as registrar were a tremendous preparation for becoming president," O Muircheartaigh says.
The Galway president has worked abroad on two occasions. In the early 1970s, he won a Fulbright Scholarship to Stanford University and, a decade later, an Academy of Sciences research associateship to the US Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California. The O Muircheartaighs nearly didn't come back from the last assignment. "If I'd been younger, I would have stayed. Everything was brilliant. The research was exceptional, the people were friendly, the climate was outstanding and the place was beautiful." As president, O Muircheartaigh says, his aim is to enhance the university's standing in research and scholarship, which in turn will benefit the quality of teaching. "What distinguishes universities from other colleges is their commitment to research and scholarship," he says. That's what makes working in a university special. It's not just about teaching and passing on knowledge - although that's important. It's also about searching for boundaries and going beyond them."
When he steps down after his eight years term, O Muircheartaigh hopes that NUI Galway will rate among the leading universities in terms of research, scholarship, teaching and student support. A more flexible management structure will mean devolved decision-making down to faculty and even department level. More courses delivered through the medium of Irish are on the cards. For the future, competition between the universities to attract the best students will hot up, O Muircheartaigh predicts. NUI Galway, however, is well placed to continue to attract high-points students. Currently it boasts the lowest dropout rate (12.9 per cent). "Galway is a cool city," O Muircheartaigh says. "I think as Dublin gets bigger, Galway will be enhanced. There is still scope for growth here."
