In celebration of President’s Day Nathan Brooks, Social Media Coordinator for the Office of Marketing and Communications, sat down with UNA President Dr. Kenneth Kitts to discuss the holiday, the leaders it honors, and the millions of people who serve in the US Executive Branch of Government.

Nathan: “The first question that we had was something oriented towards your personal interest in the American presidency because I was told that you specialized your doctorate in the American Presidency?”

President Kitts: “Correct.”

Nathan: “What initially sparked your interest in that aspect of US Government?”

President Kitts: “Well, I guess I’ve had a lifelong interest in the study of government, in politics, and so when I landed in college over in North Carolina, for me that manifested as a major in political science.

Political science is a big field. I mean its everything from international relations to, you know, county government, and any ten points in between. And it was while studying political science that I acquired this more, kind of, specialized interest in the American presidency because even when you take US Government, I mean you talk about three branches of government, right? And you could look at the voting, you could look at policy, I mean there’s a hundred different ways that you could slice and dice it.

But it was probably a class that I took in the American presidency, I think, that really caught my attention and I knew at that point that I not only enjoyed the study of politics and government generally, as a political science major, but I had a specific interest in this part of US Government and of the presidency and I think it was the focus on this individual and it put a very human face on government instead of just this nameless, faceless, bureaucratic entity. These are people. And they’ve got a story and they’ve got, you know, personality and character and all the wonder and flaws of human nature. You really see that coming through because it’s so specifically tied to the individual, who is the president.” 

Nathan: “How would you define the presidency as not initially a concept, but as an institution?”

President Kitts: “Well, it’s a good question. I mean you obviously have the President himself, the individual office holder, but then you have the presidency which is a larger institution of government that surrounds that individual and you really can’t separate them.

I mean it’s still the individual and it’s the absolute importance of that individual that you have all these, literally millions of people that are swirling around this person and when I teach presidency you kind of talk about these rings of advisors and policy makers around the president and it can be as simple as those who are literally in the West Wing of the White House, you know, the president’s immediate staff. He’s got a chief of staff, he’s got a national security advisor, but then you begin to say but that’s not all, right, and then pretty soon you’re talking about the entire executive branch of the United States government and the president’s the boss. I mean he is the chief executive officer of the executive branch of United States government which is about three million people, give or take, on federal payroll and that’s huge. I mean that’s the single largest employer in the United States is United States and the president is, in a technical since, the boss of that apparatus as the nation’s chief executive.

So, I think that’s when you start talking about the presidency as an institution, right, that it’s not just the president it’s all those around him and the many offices and agencies and departments that make up the executive branch, but they are all working with him.”

Nathan: “And that’s very important because people don’t realize that you have to pull back the veil, so-to-speak, to be able to see all the innerworkings behind that.”

President Kitts: “You do.”

Nathan: “He doesn’t just do it. It requires an entire team of hundreds of people.”

President Kitts: “Yes. It’s a huge organization and trying to turn that organization, you know, whether the question is healthcare, or immigration reform, which has been a hot topic lately, it’s like a huge ship. I mean, it doesn’t turn quickly because of the size of the government. And no organization that size would turn very quickly and you’re trying to bring people around to your understanding and your way of thinking. So, it’s just a really fascinating endeavor.”

Nathan: “Do you believe that its role, so the presidency and the role of the president, has changed over time?”

President Kitts: “Yeah, no question. I think that the presidency as an institution of government is probably far more visible and influential and powerful today than it was through, maybe, the first half of our history and it’s really the era of Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression when you see the federal government beginning to expand and there was a reason that it expanded, right, because the country was hurting and people wanted help and they were desperate and scared and the charitable organizations that were supposed to take care of people were just overwhelmed because of the Great Depression.

So, people began to turn to the federal government. I want, you know, some guarantee of food, I want some guarantee of security in my old age, I want power, if you live in the Tennessee Valley, right, and so it’s no accident that it’s during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt that you get hundreds of federal agencies, including TVA as a very notable example, that spring into existence but they’re trying to meet a need, a demand, but what happens is the federal government is doing this [gestures] it’s expanding and for most people before that they might have thought about the government, you know, especially during wartime and that was kind of okay and some obvious examples, you know, Lincoln, obviously a powerful president of the 19th century, or Andrew Jackson but it just wasn’t something that people probably paid as much attention to as we do today.

But again there’s a reason it expanded but really from the time of Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression and World War II all the way up through the present era the government itself has become big business and then again when you talk about who’s actually working in it and most of the people who work in government are working in the Executive Branch. So, that’s the presidency’s influence expanding.”

Nathan: “What does President’s Day mean to you, being a holiday, and do you believe that it is important that we as a nation and as individuals continue to recognize it?”

President Kitts: “Well, obviously I think that the presidency is a fascinating office and I think that any opportunity to celebrate the office and get people to pay attention to it is welcome.

If I’m not mistaken, I believe that President’s Day had its origins as the celebration of Washington’s birthday. And so, you’ve had two of our more famous presidents, Washington and Lincoln, who were both born in February and then overtime that just kind of became President’s Day and they went with it but again of all the men who have, and you know it’s been all men to this point, but of all the individuals who have held the office, Washington and Lincoln would be in most people’s top five and with good reason, I mean in terms of their impact and the eras in which they governed and the contributions that they made to who we are today. I mean I wouldn’t quarrel with that. Lincoln would be in my top five and Washington himself, I think sometimes we do him a bit of a disservice where there’s this notion that George Washington was important simply because he was the first and I would strongly disagree with that. I mean he was a very strong and effective leader. Keep in mind that when we came into the new constitution that we’re under today, that provides for the three branches, the old government we had under the Articles of Confederation had no presidency and so we were really making it up.

I mean this was a new branch. There had been a congress but there had not been a presidency and so  Washington’s kind of having to figure all this out in an era where people are skeptical about one man having too much power because they remembered the British king, right, and you’ve got to have someone strong enough to make the system work and so he’s the guy that very adroitly and effectively threaded that needle and I think did so in a very helpful, democratic, and I say that in the little ‘d’ sense, manner that was instrumental in getting the country off on the right foot.

So, yeah, I mean those two guys we’re celebrating their birthdays, this became President’s Day. It’s a welcome opportunity to reflect on American history and in this very powerful office that sits atop the government.”

Nathan: “Do you believe that your own personal research into the American presidency has influenced your role, as a leader, so as a campus leader? If so, could you give an example?”

President Kitts: “Yeah, and I don’t pretend to have nearly the headaches that an American president has.” [laughs]

Nathan: [laughs]

President Kitts: “However, I have spent most of my professional life studying American presidents and leaders and leadership strategies and it has absolutely helped me think more clearly about my role and the issues that come before us that are important for UNA.

And to maybe give you one example because of my study of presidents it becomes very clear that you’ve got one individual, this huge executive branch apparatus, and literally countless departments and offices that you’re trying to manage and it’s just overwhelming.

And so, the absolute importance then is that you have to surround yourself with good people. You’re not going to do this by yourself, that’s a given. You hope that the president is someone of high intelligence and good character, they better be right? If that’s missing, there’s no prosthetic for that but at the same time you have to surround yourself with highly capable people who share your values. That’s your only chance to really make any system work well.

And so, I’ve internalized that lesson and in my first few years on the job it was very, very important to me to make sure that I had the right team in place because even at UNA I know that as one individual my ability to make the best decisions and then execute those decisions it’s fairly limited. I’m one person, right? This is a campus of 7,600 students with thousands of alumni. I need help, right? Presidents need help and there’s nothing wrong with that, but you better have the right systems and the right people around you to make the organization work.” 

Nathan: “And then for a final question. If you were given the opportunity to have a conversation with one president, any president from any point in history, who would it be and why would you choose them?”

President Kitts: “Well, I’ve often told my students…I get that question sometimes ‘who are your favorites’ and I really have two favorite presidents and, in order, they’d be Franklin Roosevelt and then Dwight Eisenhower. And, as I tell people ‘if your keeping score that’s one Democrat and one Republican’ so I am going right down the middle with that one.” [laughs]

Nathan: [laughs]

President Kitts: “And they were more or less in the same era, you know they were in office within 20-25 years of one another, and I admire them for different reasons, but I felt like both made a lasting contribution to the presidency and really to American history and helped see us through some very difficult times.

Obviously, with Roosevelt he’s in office for 12 years and takes office during the worst of the Great Depression and people are literally not even sure that the country’s going to make it. I mean it’s that bad. And then no sooner do we begin to emerge from that then we go into our most intense foreign conflict ever that’s going to be horrible and he sees us through that.

And so, was he perfect? No, but if you preside during a period of the Great Depression and World War II and see both of those through to a successful conclusion, you’re going to get a star in my book.” [laughs]

Nathan: [laughs]

President Kitts: “So that tells me he had more hits than misses and I admire his perseverance and kind of his spirit through very, very tough times.

With Eisenhower, two-term president and you just look at the guy’s resume. I mean he’s not only going to be a successful two-term president, he’s supreme allied commander in World War II. So, it’s what he does before he goes to the White House as well as then coming to the White House and presiding during a period of peace and prosperity and I thought did a pretty capable job of moving the country ahead.

Again, during a dangerous and difficult time, it wasn’t WWII but this was the nuclear arms race, and just being able to navigate that and build an interstate highway system that we all take advantage of today and taking care of the public lands and parks. I really admire that about Eisenhower and he was an underrated president, I think a lot of people would say that obviously Franklin Roosevelt belongs in the top five or top ten but maybe fewer people would point to Eisenhower but I think he was a very smart man and I think he was a very decent man who, maybe because he was modest, did not and has not gotten quite the attention historically that a Roosevelt, for example, might have gotten.

If I could sit down and talk to Ike [laughs] I’d probably ask him about his farewell speech which I think is one of the great speeches in American history. He’s been president for eight years and he’s getting ready to leave and a very young John Kennedy is poised to take over the country in 1961 and it’s a famous farewell speech. It had a specific topic about war and peace and the role of the military and here’s a guy that came out of the military, you know, being a general, very high-ranking general, and so I’d like to sit down and find out more about what was going through his mind when he chose to focus on that topic for his farewell speech and why he did that.”