On this episode of the RAISE podcast, Brent chats with Jasmine Farrier, Vice President for Advancement at the University of Louisville.
They discuss her journey from Brooklyn to Wisconsin to Austin to Louisville; how she is setting out to bridge the advancement-academic culture gap; and how conflict is inevitable and we shouldn’t avoid it in our personal and professional lives.
Catch the full episode here or read on for the highlights.
Highlights from the episode…
Jasmine is from Brooklyn, NY and the first time she set foot in the midwest was to arrange her freshman year housing at the University of Wisconsin. At that time, dorms were largely reserved for in-state students, so she lived off-campus and most of her friends were fellow out-of-state students. Her daughter is now a junior at Wisconsin and has a much more integrated experience.
Jasmine studied political science at Wisconsin. Why? In her words, “It’s very simple. I had an extraordinary and legendary professor named Booth Fowler. He was life-changing. He’s why I have decided to live my whole life on college campuses.”
Reflecting on her experience at the Wisconsin, Jasmine says, “The truth is, I belonged. I mattered. I was an intellectual in training.” This is how we should aim to have all students feel about their experience on campus.
Jasmine shares a Political Science Truth with our audience: Conflict is inevitable. And it can also be very positive. There’s a fear of conflict in our lives personally and professionally and it can hamper honesty and empathy. Even in the best possible world of freedom, liberty, diversity, people are going to disagree. Being more comfortable with conflict allows you to ask the right questions that draw out the root cause of conflict.
Jasmine eventually became the Political Science department chair at the University of Louisville. In her chair position, she thoughtfully engaged alums. (Example: she collected a business card from every single alum she met and hung them on a wall in her office. When she met with students and their families, she would point to the wall as a representation of the unlimited potential future of a U of L graduate.) Her creativity caught the eye of University leadership, and she was asked to step into the VP of Advancement role.
Reflecting on her time at U of L, Jasmine says, “I was grateful to get [my first U of L] position, and I said I would show this gratitude every day of my career. And I’ve been here for 20 years. I’ve never looked at a job posting, and I’ve never said ‘no’ to any opportunity to help U of L. And that kind of gratitude gets noticed.”
Why choose a professor for a VP of Advancement role? Jasmine answers, “Well, if you find the right person who loves an institution, feels loyal, and grateful every day and leads by example, well – then I can learn the rest.” (Her team teaches her daily about the many acronyms of advancement.)
Jasmine shares the amazing story of cultivating and stewarding a $2.4M gift from the James Graham Brown Foundation to increase student success in early STEM+H courses. This grant helps increase early student success in five early STEM+H courses that traditionally have high rates of failure and withdrawal.
Why should you want to work at U of L? In Jasmine’s words, “We’re a lean shop every person makes a huge difference. We also have lots of creativity and cross-team collaboration. Every day is filled with opportunities, not constraints.”
More about Jasmine
Jasmine Farrier is Vice President for University Advancement at the University of Louisville. Before stepping into this role in August, 2020, she was Professor and Chair of Political Science. Jasmine grew up in Brooklyn, New York and earned her degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (BA) and University of Texas at Austin (PhD). She joined the faculty at UofL in 2002. Her courses and research span all three branches of the US government. Her third book was published in December 2019 by Cornell University Press and focuses on inter-branch lawsuits, separation of powers, and constitutional law: “Constitutional Dysfunction on Trial: Congressional Lawsuits and the Separation of Powers.”
Want to work with Jasmine? The University of Louisville is hiring! She can be reached on LinkedIn, or by email at j.farrier@louisville.edu.