Fresh off a Florida vacation, University of Cincinnati President Neville Pinto says his days off feel like forever ago. He’s one week back in the office of his dream job.
He came to the university as a professor of engineering in 1985. It was a great university then, he says, but no one knew it. Now, the world knows.
UC will welcome its largest incoming class this fall. A lot of people will credit that to the Bearcats' trip to the Cotton Bowl in December or even the Bengals' Super Bowl run, both of which put the city in the spotlight. Not Pinto.
Sure, that helped, he says. But this wasn’t an accident. University leadership worked for years to build UC out and make it an appealing destination for students internationally. The university added and renovated buildings, promoted its widely acclaimed cooperative education program, invested in faculty and research and strengthened its athletics to make everyone on campus feel part of something. Part of a team. Part of the Cincinnati community.
So much so, actually, that returning students want to live on campus more than ever before. It’s created a housing shortage that Pinto says administrators are aware of and problem-solving this summer.
“It’s a good problem to have,” Ryan Hays says. He’s the president’s chief of staff and executive vice president of the university.
Neville Pinto: Student experience at center of UC president's concerns
Pinto is typically averse to media attention and rarely participates in interviews. Most of his public-facing comments come from his sporadically active Twitter account. He isn't shy so much as humble. When asked about his favorite accomplishments as president, he waves his hand and backtracks immediately.
"First of all, I wouldn't call them my accomplishments. This is very much a team-driven institution," Pinto says. "I guess I am the designated figurehead leader, but we have a tremendous team around us."
About UC, however, Pinto is anything but humble. He says his goal as the university's leader has been to reenergize and refocus on student life and to incite a cultural shift on campus that instills confidence in students, faculty and the university as a whole.
"In my mind, it's about each of us on the leadership team waking up every day recognizing that the next generation of leaders, citizens, creators, inventors, artists is right here on our campus today," he says.
Always a Bearcat
Celebrating those students at commencement is of Pinto's most beloved traditions, he says. He loves watching as graduates find and wave to their loved ones in the crowd. This spring marked the first "back to normal" ceremony since the pandemic began.
Before giving his first of three ceremony addresses in April, Pinto told The Enquirer he was nervous. He always gets nervous, he says, but "that's a good thing" because it keeps his adrenaline up and makes him stay focused and alert. Otherwise, graduation could be boring, he says.
He walked the back halls of the arena congratulating students before they filed into the main concourse, while grads whispered among themselves: "It's the president!"
The following week, Pinto was "on the other side" of commencement at Georgia Institute of Technology cheering on his son, who followed in his father's footsteps by graduating with a degree in engineering.
In his office this summer, talking to an Enquirer reporter with Hays and executive director of communications John Bach at his side, Pinto smiles a lot. He wears a suit and a tie with tiny polka-dots and he uses his hands when he speaks. He answers questions directly and cracks jokes occasionally. When asked if his plan is to retire from UC, if he sees himself staying here, he laughs and quips back: “Are you trying to be the next president of University of Cincinnati?”
He’s not leaving, he says, or at least he's not trying to. As long as the university will have him, and as long as he feels that he is pushing the institution forward, he plans to stay.
“You can take that to the bank,” says Pinto, who is 64. His contract with UC runs through June 2027.
University of Cincinnati investing in innovation, inclusion
A large part of Pinto's plan to push UC forward is embedded in the Next Lives Here initiative, a vision including strong partnerships with the city of Cincinnati and surrounding businesses to jumpstart innovation and make positive impacts on society.
The 1819 Hub and Cincinnati's Innovation District were borne of this vision and a $100 million investment from JobsOhio. Another $530 million has gone into research and the Digital Futures complex, which the university intends to be a home for breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, robotics and other technologies. The complex in Avondale will open this fall.
More: 'A step in the right direction.' How UC's 1819 Hub generated 'Roomba' for coastal waterways
A few years ago, when the university embarked on the Next Lives Here mission, Pinto says he wasn’t sure Cincinnati was ready for it. He had hoped it was and had reason to believe the university's urban connections would bolster his vision but admits the plan required a leap of faith. Pinto says he's been overwhelming pleased with the city's response that proved yes, Cincinnati is a place where investment in innovation will thrive.
But having the right facilities and research funding isn't enough. Pinto says his next task is to break higher education away from its "ivory tower" reputation of isolation.
"We've got to permeate into our communities," he says.
Part of that is bringing in more Cincinnati students. Pinto says he recently met with new Cincinnati Public Schools superintendent Iranetta Wright to discuss city students' access to higher education.
More: Decision day: Future University of Cincinnati Bearcats get surprised at school and at home
And once they get to campus, Pinto says, he's working to ensure they feel safe. Because historically and recently, not all students have.
In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a UC professor gained national attention for calling the virus "the Chinese virus." He was not asked to return to the university.
Still, some Asian and Asian American students on campus lamented that more should be done to prevent them from harassment and harm. Pinto told The Enquirer he understands their pain, being of Asian descent himself, although he recognizes South Asian minorities like him were not facing the brunt of COVID-19 racial attacks.
Pinto says the university follows up with any student who reports an incident of discrimination or makes known to UC officials that they've been harassed.
"The reality is, we are not always aware," Pinto says. Sometimes people don't speak up because they are scared, or because that's not how they were raised. Self-advocacy is not admired among some cultures, he says, but he's hoping that those constructs melt away in time. He wants students to report problems, he says, so he and his teammates can fix them.
Last month Pinto recommended, and the board of trustees approved, cutting ties with university founder Charles McMicken. McMicken was a slave owner who fathered children with at least one enslaved woman.
Pinto says he knows there is still a long way to go, but he's committed to making sure students feel welcome on UC's campus. Because every day, he looks forward to returning to the Fifth Third Arena and watching them each walk across the stage at commencement.
"I had three kids," of his own, Pinto says. "Now, I have 47,000. That's exactly how I feel about them."
