"I'm an Idahoan as of today," Elisabeth Zinser said Friday after arriving in Moscow, this time to stay.
Zinser is the new president of the University of Idaho and the first woman to lead an Idaho college."I can't believe I'm here, but I love it," said the new president of the University of Idaho.
Zinser officially succeeds UI President Richard Gibb on July 21 but first plans a busy "vacation" week.
"I have two full days of budget briefings Tuesday and Wednesday," she said. She also hopes to meet with university staff members throughout the campus.
The Idaho Board of Education hired the former vice chancellor for academics at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro last spring after lengthy negotiations over salary and working conditions. She wound up with a salary package totaling $115,000 per year, up from less than $82,000 Gibb has received.
But another of the conditions she set in accepting the job remains at the top of Zinser's list. She said asking for priority funding for the Moscow school "is still very much on my agenda."
Zinser said UI needs additional money to help it fulfill the role-and-mission statement given it by the board.
"When and how that topic should be introduced, I still have to figure out,"' she said. "But in my discussion with the board members, I think we reached an understanding in principle that the institution needs some mission catch-up funds."
Zinser said initially she will "listen to and trust the staff" developing the school's budget request for fiscal 1991. But she said she is somewhat concerned about the high expectations faculty, staff, students and alumni have about her and her administration.
"I don't want to dampen anyone's enthusiasm . . . but I think we all have to be mindful to keep our expectations under control," she said. "I'm as excited as anyone, but it's sort of investing in the stock market. You can really end up with something quite good, but because your expectations are so high, you're still disappointed."