(soft upbeat music) (soft upbeat music continues) - Bradley University has a new president, and, for the first time ever, we think, well, we know it's someone from Peoria.

James Shadid is just the 13th president in the school's 128 year history.

First of all, congratulations on the new position.

- Thank you, Mark.

- In doing some research, we're looking back at all the past presidents, and we don't think anyone from Peoria has been president of the university, which is pretty surprising.

How does that feel?

- It it is pretty surprising.

I didn't really think of it.

Somebody brought it to my attention during the process.

It feels great.

I'm very excited.

- Now, you're brand new on the job, but you're certainly not a stranger to Bradley.

You're a graduate.

You've taught there, you've done a lot for the university.

What does it mean to you to be, not only an alumn, but now the president?

- Well, I think this is one of the most impactful moments in my life, really, to be President of Bradley University.

I'm honored, I'm very grateful.

I'm thankful to the board of trustees for their confidence in me.

I'm well aware of the expectations this community and our students and donors and alumns have, and I have those expectations for myself.

So it's an honor to do this, and I'm ready to get to work.

- Now, when you were hired and you were unanimously approved by the board, did they give you specific marching orders, so to speak?

Or since you know so much about the university, do you know already what is expected and what needs to change, or what needs to be sustained?

- Well, I think I know what's expected.

There will be specific marching orders, I assume here in the very near future, but I think that the marching orders and the university needs will center around enrollment and around fundraising, around repairing relationships, and building upon relationships.

- In the past, we've seen issues with, of course, budgets like every university has, but also, you know, faculty has been cut, some programs have been cut.

Is there anything off the top of your head that you think that needs to be done right away to try and mend some of those problems?

- I do, and I think the culture on campus, and let me start with this.

We have something that I think every university in the country would love to have.

We have a relationship between our faculty, our students, and our staff that's just a bond, and it is so strong, and historically, it's been strong.

It is still strong today.

And I think that's something we clearly need to build upon, that we need to showcase, that we need to tell people about, because I think it's one of our strengths.

Now, having said that, I do realize that there have been some tensions on campus over the last number of years.

They didn't just start in the last year or two, they've been going on for some time, and I intend to make a real effort to be visible, be engaged, get around, try to bring people together, get people on the same page, going in the same direction.

- And I think that's one thing that has a lot of people excited, is that you are an alumn.

You're from Peoria, you live in Peoria, you're probably not going anywhere.

- [James] Not going anywhere.

- So people are excited that, you know, the president's gonna have a real extra-vested interest in this.

- Well, I appreciate that, and I think they're right.

I am invested in this.

This is a moment, and I believe that the stars are actually aligned for the city, for the community, for Bradley to come together and do some of the great things and be everything that we want this community and the university to be.

- People are constantly talking about how to make Peoria great, or great again, whatever you wanna call it.

They talk about economics, jobs, things like that.

What is the university, what part does the university play in making Peoria a successful town and a place that people wanna come to, and work, and live?

- Well, I think the university has a large role, and can have a larger role.

And I'm hopeful that maybe we can attach our students or introduce our students to the business community in Peoria immediately upon their arrival to campus, to get the students engaged in the community as early as we can, and then, hopefully, they'll stay here, but at the very least, they'll enjoy their experience here.

I'm hopeful that we can actually increase the footprint of the campus, and work with City Hall and the state and federal officials to not only grow the campus, but to grow the area around the campus and help it become more vibrant for the city so that our students have a good experience while they're here.

- People probably know you from, you know, your days when you're still a judge.

I'm curious how this came about.

Did you throw your hat in the ring, or did somebody approach you and throw the hat in for you?

- Well, I think both occurred when the position opened.

I was on the board of trustees, and actually, a friend of mine who was a former federal judge, his name is John Jones from Dickinson College, he's the president of Dickinson College now in Pennsylvania, and he and I served on a national committee together that Justice Roberts put us on.

We became friends.

His alma mater was looking for a president.

He was given the job, and he's been on the job three years, so he reached out and encouraged me to consider this, talked about how our skills as a judge to listen and digest facts and give people level playing fields, how these skills would transfer, and that and some encouragement from others, and then I put my name in, and I was hopeful, and it turned out.

- I was gonna ask you next about how being a judge would translate into being president of the university.

- You know, I think it translates well.

I really do.

I realize that, you know, I'll have some learning curves in the world of academia, but I think one of the strengths that I'm known for in the judiciary, and have, and the skills that good judges use are to listen, to educate themselves or to gather facts that matter, relevant facts and not be distracted by facts that don't matter, and after everybody's had an opportunity to be heard, to make decisions and move matters towards resolution.

I think the other thing that is lost upon people when they think of judges, judges decide be because they have to, but judges spend a lot of time trying to bring parties together to resolve the issue amongst themselves.

And if they can't, then we decide.

So I think those skills will be helpful.

- When you were considering this job and, you know, you've been a judge and a lawyer for a long time, and getting close to what some would call retirement age, I guess.

- Right?

- Are you the kind of person that doesn't wanna retire?

You want something to do?

- I think that's in my genes from my father.

He worked until his middle, late seventies and could have kept going, I think.

I think it's more about wanting to be impactful, wanting to do things that make the lives of others better, and I've been blessed and fortunate in this community to have had opportunities to do that.

And I learned that from my parents, and I can't think of, now, anything at this time in my life, more impactful than to continue the legacy that Lydia Moss Bradley gave us, this inheritance to develop and create opportunities for young people to succeed in life.

- Speaking of your dad, he did a lot for the community.

If you remember, (clears throat) excuse me, George Shadid was a former Peoria County Sheriff, an Illinois State Senator.

What kind of impact, and we'll talk about your mom too, if you'd like.

What kind of impact did they have on you growing up and what kind of things did you learn from them that you think you can translate into this position?

- Well, I think, from them, I learned to give back and to be a community servant, and to treat people, you know, I mean, it seems like a simple concept, to treat people like you wanna be treated.

Also to tell people the truth, and also to be a man or a person of your word, and so, I think start with those principles.

And Dad impressed upon my brother and I at a very early age to never shame our family name, so it's been a huge influence on me.

- Yeah.

When it comes to the university, you were a student there a while ago.

- A while ago.

- What's changed on campus since you were a student, significantly?

- I'll tell you what hasn't changed, which I think was part of making the case for this job, dorm residential living, student center.

We need to update that.

Those have not changed.

What has changed?

The campus, I think, is actually an attractive campus on its interior.

We have two quads, one now in front of Bradley.

We had always in front of Bradley Hall, the other one now in front of the Alumni Center.

What hasn't changed is the strength of the faculty and the good programs that we offer young people, but I think that, going forward, we need to make the campus and its perimeter a little more attractive to attract young people, and I think we need to build upon the strength of the faculty and our students.

- Yeah.

In terms of the campus, I mean, there are some buildings there that were there when you were there.

- Right?

And before me.

- Some are newer.

And before you!

Is the campus kind of landlocked in terms of if they wanna expand, do they have to go up instead of out?

- You know, yes and no.

I'd say landlocked, you know.

In my vision, we're not landlocked because I believe that we can go down Main Street, and I wanna have conversations with the city and the business community, and the movers and shakers in this community to have a discussion about, you know, the hospitals are just half a mile away, right?

That whole corridor on Main Street seems to me to be ripe for development, and ripe for Bradley to be part of that development, part of that growth.

Now, what that looks like, how far for Bradley, I don't know, but it seems to me that's an area that we should clearly explore.

- Speaking of movers and shakers, you know one or two of those people, I think, around here.

you're just on the phone with one of them before we started.

How much of an impact and a positive thing is that, that you already know a lot of the big players in town, and being in the position of being a judge, I mean, you know, folks in D.C., too.

- I think that was a factor.

It was part of what I was trying to sell about myself, that I could hit the ground running, that I understood the issues and I know a lot of the people that can help us move the university forward, and, at the same time, help grow the city.

I wanna go back to one thing I said about Main Street, though.

I'm totally aware of the neighborhoods and the relationships.

And one of the things that I wanna do is create solid relationships between the Bradley campus and the surrounding neighborhoods.

I think they can work hand-in-hand with each other and be good partners with each other, and Bradley needs to be that, too.

- Sure.

A lot of people in your family have gone to Bradley besides yourself.

- Yeah.

- 12 other cousins?

- I counted 12, but since I got the job, I've had cousins reach out, and so, there's more than I thought there were.

- Yeah.

Well, besides, you know, (clears throat) excuse me, the cousins of the kids, have any of them given you feedback in terms of what they wanna see for Bradley University?

- Yeah, them and a lot of other people, too.

Advice, there's been no shortage of advice over the last couple weeks.

- Yeah.

Growing up, why did you decide to go to Bradley?

- I don't think there was anywhere else that I was ever gonna go.

My brother, the same, since we were five years old.

My dad was a Peoria police officer when we were growing up, and he took us to the football games when they played football at Peoria Stadium.

He took us to baseball games when they played baseball on campus.

Took us, of course, to basketball games at the field house, so Bradley has been in my blood since I was a little boy.

And so, I don't think there was any other place that I was going to go.

And I wanted to go to Bradley, and I wanted to play baseball at Bradley.

And then, my senior year at Peoria High School, Chuck Bicher, who was the baseball coach, called and offered me an opportunity to play baseball at Bradley, and I jumped at it, and was very grateful for it, and Coach Bicher took me to Hunt's Drive-in, which no longer exists.

It was down on Farmington Road, and I was recruited over a tenderloin and a root beer, so I was a pretty easy grab, I think, but I'm happy.

I was happy for it.

- And you had a brief stint in the majors.

- Minors.

In the minor leagues, in the Giants.

In the San Francisco Giants organization.

- What happened there?

You weren't feeling it?

- Well, I don't know if I wasn't feeling it or they weren't feeling me.

Either way, it didn't work.

I went to law school, but that's the whole point of this.

And I said last night, I was on at halftime with Dave Snell, and I said, "None of this was supposed to happen.

I was supposed to be a major league baseball player, and then I would have, you know, a life in broadcasting or something," but I'm not complaining.

Everything's worked out very well, but one year in the minor leagues, and maybe they weren't feeling me as much as I was feeling them, and so, I went on to law school.

- After law school, you came back to Peoria.

Was that always your plan?

You wanted to come back?

- Yes.

Mm-hm.

I thought, you know, I wanted to be an agent, a sports agent and represent athletes, but I couldn't.

I didn't know anybody.

I didn't know how to get in, fit in, or get find my way into that world, so I came back here, and Harry Sonnemaker and Joe Vespa gave me an opportunity in their firm.

It was just the two of them with Harry's son, Mike, the three of them, and so, I started with them, and they gave me a good start.

- And, before you were a judge, obviously, you were an assistant public defender, private practice attorney, state judge before you were a federal judge.

- Mm-hm.

- Which of those positions was the most gratifying for you?

- They all were.

I've enjoyed every aspect of what I've done.

I enjoyed lawyering, I loved being in courtrooms, I loved trying to make a case to juries and cross-examining witnesses, and I think there's a theater aspect in a courtroom, and I enjoyed that.

And I liked being a state court judge, and I really have enjoyed the federal judiciary.

I think the federal judiciary is a wonderful institution, and it has such high integrity, and it saddens me that the institution is under such attack right now, but I believe it will prevail because these are men and women of high integrity and trying to do the right thing.

- What kind of words of wisdom would you give your replacement on the job?

- Just to conduct yourself in a manner that represents the judiciary, remain a person of high integrity, write your decisions in a way that you communicate with all how you got to where you are and why you're deciding.

I've always believed that people, whether they agree with you or not, can accept your decisions, even if they don't agree as long as you effectively communicate how you got here, why you're doing this, why you're making this ruling, how you come to this conclusion.

- I've always been curious with being a judge.

We know lawyers obviously work a lot more than eight hours a day.

What about a judge?

What kind of workload do you have as a judge, and do you bring a lot of that home?

- Yes.

The workload can be heavy, and, depending on whether you're in a trial or two, can be heavier during those moments, but there's a lot of reading, a lot of research, a lot of reviewing briefs that lawyers have presented.

So yes, you can bring a lot of it home to work.

I think trying to find the balance, like all of us in our work and life relationships, is important so that we stay mentally healthy and can do our jobs adequately.

- How stressful of a job is it?

- Very stressful at times, and less stressful at other times.

Handled a couple of high profile cases.

One of the Brendt Christensen was the University of Illinois graduate student that kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and dismembered a visiting Chinese scholar that got international attention.

That case took a lot of management time, as well as judicial and judging time, and that was a stressful time.

You wanna make sure that we're doing everything correctly and moving the case to resolution.

- A lot of eyes on the judge in a case like that.

- A lot of eyes on the judge.

Yeah, I think documentaries were done.

This was covered in Chinese media every day, so a lot of eyes.

- Well, with this job you may be able to have a little bit more fun, you're gonna be expected to be at all the big events, and doing a lot of schmoozing, so to speak.

Do you enjoy doing that kind of thing?

- I do, I do.

I enjoy people.

I enjoy being around people, and I'm looking forward to that aspect of the job.

I'm actually also looking forward to the aspect where I think I have a greater learning curve, and that's on campus and the academic world.

I'm fascinated by it.

I have learned as a board member, and I can't emphasize this enough, how strong the relationship is between our faculty and our student.

It was like that when I was in school.

It's still like that today.

I just believe that is something that other universities would love to have.

And the other thing that we have that I think other universities and communities would love to have is the relationship between the university and the greater Peoria community.

It is like no other, and we need to build upon that, and to the extent that there's been a little disconnect, we need to repair that, and I'm looking forward to both those challenges, on campus and off.

- Yeah, I was gonna say, it's always good to see the Braves doing well in basketball.

That kind of rallies the community around the university.

And well, you know, we'll hope for another good season next year.

- Another good season next year.

Had a lot of energy in the arena last night, and fell short.

- Yeah.

So I'm curious, too, since you graduated 1979, is that correct?

- [James] Mm-hm.

- A lot has changed in terms of technology and things like that.

I just personally took my first online class, and that was kind of mind-blowing to me.

- How was it?

- It was interesting, except for the fact that, you know, I couldn't just raise my hand and ask the teacher a question.

- Right.

- So that was a little frustrating.

- Yeah.

- But are you trying to get up to date on all the new technology that's been invented or being used since you graduated?

- Well, I am, I will be, and I'm sure that there'll be plenty of people to help me, and plenty of people to count on to be able to take care of the technological issues.

- When you walk around campus, what do you see that makes you say, "Man, I wish I had that when I was at school here"?

- Well, it seems like the same.

I've been walking around campus more in the last week or two, getting to know people and moving around a little bit to say hello to people, and just to see the students, and their energy, and their enthusiasm.

And sometimes lack of enthusiasm if it's an early morning class.

But just to see their energy and to see the thought of being impactful in their lives and trying to develop and create an experience for them that they remember the rest of their lives so that they have the good memories of the university like I do and others, and those are the things that excite me.

- Does it make you feel young again?

- I've had a bounce in my step.

- [Mark] That's great!

- It's not like I didn't think I did, but I, these last couple of months, have had a real bounce, and I'm ready to go.

And the other thing, Mark, if I may, Bradley has a great story to tell.

We mentioned our founder.

She was so far ahead of her time.

You know, when women didn't have many rights, she was founding a school for young people, and, in the third year, I think there were 350 students, and half of them were female.

Other stories we have to tell, across the board, there are only eight African American CEOs of Fortune 500 companies in the United States currently, and two of them currently are Bradley graduates.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

Calvin Butler and Dave Bozeman.

We have stories to tell.

We don't have to make up hypotheticals to tell our story about the successes of our students and our alumns.

We give out real life stories to tell.

I intend to tell them.

- How do you compete with other universities in the area, public schools, even community colleges?

A lot of kids these days going to trade schools instead of college.

- Well, yes, and clearly, I mean, we're a private university so we don't have the backstop of state funding, so we have to take care of it mostly ourselves, but I think that, in terms of competing, I truly believe that, if we develop and stay focused on the roadmap that's right for Bradley University, things will take care of themselves.

We have to be aware, in my mind, of what the challenges in higher education and what our peer institutions are doing, but I still believe that, if we stay focused on the roadmap and develop the roadmap that's right for Bradley University, we'll be in good shape.

- Well, a lot of people excited about you taking the reins here, and with all of your experience, the fact that you're a hometown guy, we'll all be watching to see how you do, and good luck on the job.

- Well, I appreciate that very much.

Thank you.

- Now, do people call you president now instead of judge, or judge-president?

- It can be Jim.

My friends call me Jimmy.

Some, it will be judge.

Whatever makes people comfortable.

- Alright.

- It's fine with me.

- Sounds good, and we appreciate your time here.

- Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

- And thank you for watching, and we hope you enjoyed this.

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