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PASSION & VISION
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Chancellors, Presidents
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Dreams
for Region’s Evolution
By Bill Beggs Jr.
If you want something done, give it to a busy person. “Busy” is a
relative term, of course. Many of us are plenty busy 40-odd hours a week, hanging on until age 65.
University chancellors and college presidents are not a retiring breed. Whether in their 50s or 70s, the 10 institution-toppers with whom Commerce visited hadn’t given formal retirement a moment’s thought. They’re too involved, their work of vital importance. Besides, they say they’re having the time of their lives.
Individual speeds vary. Imagine the average businessperson handling tasks as a record player, comfortably functioning at 331/3 RPM. A chancellor or president moves forward at 45 rpm. In some cases, 78. A few asked whether they needed to speak more slowly. This wasn’t condescending;
the ideas come fast and furious. Concerns range from managing personnel in numerous departments, to issues on multiple campuses.
Chancellors eat, sleep, breathe higher
education. Most rise well before dawn, some eschew breakfast or routinely work through lunch, all retire around 10—unless a
meeting, fund-raiser or special event has kept them going. Exercise, prayer, meditation or reflection, consuming multiple newspapers, serving on numerous boards and
committees, perhaps performing music, sharing time with spouses, children and grandchildren, traveling overseas to test the international business or political climate, or to present research.
All the while, getting to know students, learning how to work side-by-side for the greater good.
And meetings. Quite often, the first is for breakfast at 7:30. Then, throughout any given day, the leader’s presence is required or requested from one end of campus to the other, as well as with business leaders in downtown St. Louis, legislators in Springfield, Ill., or Jefferson City, Mo., if all goes according to schedule. But a schedule is a moving target, even more so at the beginning of a new school year, when reporters may ask for a 30-minute interview that usually winds up taking
45 minutes, an hour or longer.
No one seemed rushed, or distracted. Each gave a visitor his complete attention and focused completely on the conversation and topics on the table—meanwhile, entertaining digressions from motor-cycling and jazz, to the role and responsibilities of the media, and lightning-fast metamorphosis of technology in general, and IT in particular. All waxed eloquently on the role their institution plays in the region’s economic well-being and in the growth of a quality that’s difficult to measure, yet equally important: Intellectual capital.
In higher education, an enterprise as fiercely competitive as any business,
colleges and universities must work harder than ever to lure students and professors their way. Thus, the preponderance of billboards, TV and radio ads and direct mailers for the institutions whose leaders are
profiled in these pages.
Cooperation is just as critical, whether
formal collaboration between universities; e.g., the joint engineering program of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Missouri-St. Louis; ad hoc
meetings among the leadership over
coffee, danish and a range of issues; or one leader just picking up the phone to
discuss a mutual challenge with another.
With higher education, as with business, commerce, government and any number of other entities critical to the forward movement of the region, differences both great and small must be set aside for the benefit of all. Whether at a branch of a community college or a university’s world headquarters, educators embrace this adage: “All ships rise with the tide.”
SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY
Lawrence Biondi, S.J., President
Saint Louis University’s renaissance is a microcosm of the breathtaking growth that has taken place throughout the city, and for nearly 20 years Father Biondi has been at SLU’s helm to oversee the
university’s metamorphosis, and with it a once-stagnant area of midtown.
“One of my biggest goals was to transform a school that was not terribly attractive in an urban setting,” Biondi says. “We needed to be conducive for students to work, play and take advantage of the city.”
Incorporating or creating green space where possible, renovations and new
construction have expanded SLU from 64 buildings to more than 130—and the best may be yet to come. Ground has been broken for the Health Sciences Research Building, part of an $80.5 million investment in new and renovated research space. An anonymous donor also is matching, dollar for dollar, gifts earmarked for the $70 million, 13,000-seat SLU Arena project.
The Big “E”—endowment—is critical for a private institution to thrive, and Biondi is grateful for the growth in private gifts during his tenure. The economy doesn’t spare a Catholic university: despite the difficult 2001-2004 downturn, SLU’s endowment is only behind those of Notre Dame and Boston College. Donations from alumni (and others) not only ensure continued growth for an alma mater, but also provide millions of dollars in direct and indirect economic benefits.
This, in turn, attracts and retains better professors and researchers.
“By and large, they don’t flee the city, or the area,” Biondi notes. “We don’t have a brain drain.”
One needs only look to CORTEX and the Center for Emerging Technologies, just two of the research facilities that have sprung up in the midtown area, with strong university involvement, that do and will offer untold opportunities for great minds to do brilliant things.
Biondi credits government and business leaders for serving strongly as two legs of a three-legged stool, whose third leg is education.
“A business community cannot exist without a major university,” Biondi insists. And a major university’s well-being is, well, better with civic support.
“If I were president of Loyola Chicago,
I would not get the same amount of civic attention,” Biondi points out. Chicago, in this case, has many more balls in the air than does St. Louis. “It’s a philosophy of cooperation—St. Louis is a big-town city.”
MCKENDREE COLLEGE
James M. Dennis, Ph.D.,
President
Aliberal arts school founded in
1828, McKendree is about as close to downtown as is Lambert-St. Louis Airport.
“We definitely see ourselves as part of the St. Louis region,” says Dr. Dennis, who assumed McKendree’s top slot in 1994 after 12 years as vice president for student affairs at the University of Southern California. “It’s an idyllic location.”
Looking back: Several of the 28 buildings on 100 wooded acres in Lebanon, Ill., are
on the National Register of Historic Places. Looking ahead: A new performing arts center will soon be built, taking its place on the
venerable campus with the recently-built Marion K. Piper Academic Center.
But there’s no ivory tower here. Dr. Dennis is approachable. It’s natural for him to be among his students, and to be there for them. He’s just as likely to be in conversation with students as taking care of business at his desk. If ever there was a day when chancellors or presidents were figureheads, it was a long time before Dr. Dennis and his peers came on the scene.
“I don’t sit with my pipe, in my tweed coat with leather patches on the sleeves, and
pontificate,” Dr. Dennis says, with a chuckle. “This is pretty much a 24/7 kind of role.”
With an enrollment of 1,500 students at Lebanon, most of whom live on campus, McKendree also has two campuses, one in Kentucky and a center at Scott Air Force Base.
If concrete tasks like managing issues and personnel and fundraising are important in this president’s day-to-day life, instilling the value of service is vital. “Students are learning how to learn. As you become a good scholar, you also learn you have gifts you can share with others.”
McKendree, affiliated with the United Methodist Church, aims to help students find “an expression of faith, whatever that might be,” Dr. Dennis says. “We’re stating a value.”
That becomes clear during the first week of school, when administrators, educators and students go “Into the Streets” to work side by side on public service projects.
“It’s unique, and special,” Dr. Dennis says. “It breaks down the hierarchy.”
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS
Thomas George, Ph.D., Chancellor
Life at UM-St. Louis is becoming even more exciting, as much for what’s
happening off campus as on: The Center for Emerging Technologies in a
burgeoning biotech district near Barnes-Jewish Hospital. A $60 million initiative with St. Louis Community College to increase
high school graduation and college enrollment rates in eight St. Louis-area school
districts. An engineering partnership with Washington University in St. Louis and a cooperative effort in education with Harris-Stowe State University.
On campus, ground has been broken for a residence hall, and the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center continues to draw world-class entertainment.
All this and more means Dr. Tom George can’t stay in one place for long. If he’s not on the road between St. Louis and Jefferson City, he may be in Chicago, Washington or Nanjing, China on university business. Perhaps presenting a research lecture on the west coast, or in Europe. Or heading from North St. Louis to SLU for a visit with Father Biondi on
his bicycle.
Dr. George, who was recruited to UM-St. Louis in 2003 from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, is also a professor of chemistry and physics. Not to mention a jazz pianist who’s played with Maynard Ferguson. As is the case with most of his peers, his resume is long as both of your arms and one of your legs, his publications numerous, his involvement on boards significant.
One with even a rudimentary knowledge of physics would think there is insufficient time or space to squeeze it all in. But since
Dr. George is a numbers man, he knows how to get it done. Thus his confidence—nay, expectation—that the five broad goals and priorities stated in UMSL’s present five-year plan will have come to fruition by the target year, 2008.
“We have very specific numerical goals,” says Dr. George, “and we’re holding our feet to the fire.”
But no one’s heels, soles and toes will
overheat if progress continues apace, both on campus and off. Dr. George credited a
$3.2 million increase in student scholarships since last September for much of a three
percent increase in enrollment this fall.
In another exciting off-campus development, UMSL in September announced that Express Scripts Inc., the second-largest
company in Missouri, would build its headquarters on a business, technology and research park the university is developing along Interstate 70.
HARRIS-STOWE STATE UNIVERSITY
Henry Givens Jr., Ph.D., President
What’s in a name? For Harris-Stowe, plenty, since the
institution began operating in 1979 on its present campus in one building (the ca.-1927 former Vashon High School), offering one degree (elementary education). Founded in 1857 as one of the few schools where African-Americans could seek a post-secondary education, it’s been Harris College, Harris-Stowe State Teachers College, Harris-Stowe State College—and since August, Harris-Stowe State University.
The original building, which once housed everything from maintenance to classrooms to administrative offices, is now among a half-dozen new and renovated facilities. Others are leased for an early childhood
center, academic departments, a vast library of jazz—construction will begin soon on a 250-bed dormitory.
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Corporations including Anheuser-Busch, Bank of America, Emerson and SBC have
provided strong financial backing for much of the development, most of which wouldn’t have been possible without the charismatic man for whom the first building has been named: Dr. Henry Givens Jr.
“You have to have a vision, and you have to be aggressive,” Dr. Givens says.
“If you stick something out,” people notice. The naysayers gradually came on board. Once locked into the single degree, Harris-Stowe grew to offer 12, with more to come and
masters programs on the horizon. In 1993,
Dr. Givens was asked to take on a similar “turnaround” role at Lincoln College in Jefferson City. He spent three days a week in Jeff City, three in St. Louis, and “on Sundays, I didn’t know where I was.”
When the federal government razed Laclede Town, acreage—and unlimited
possibilities—opened up. Corporations set up shop in the formerly bleak surroundings, among them Edward Jones and Sigma-Aldrich. Dr. Givens says he couldn’t be
happier with his neighbors. And he grins broadly when asked about his relationship with SLU, whose campus now stops on the other side of the street from the gates of Harris-Stowe:
“Compton is my line in the sand!” he exclaims, with all due respect to Father Biondi. Dr. Givens often rubs shoulders with his peers, and feels blessed that his
colleagues have helped build an environment that strikes a balance between competition and collaboration.
“You can get your arms around
St. Louis,” Dr. Givens says. “In Chicago and Los Angeles, it’ll be 10 years before they see your name in the phone book.”
FONTBONNE UNIVERSITY
Dennis C. Golden, Ph.D., President
If faith without works is dead, faith is alive and well at Fontbonne. Under the guidance of Dr. Golden, who in 1995 became the school’s first male president, a master plan has charged faculty, staff and trustees to examine how to use the precious space on campus—little more than 16 acres—most effectively. To wit: Dedicated in September 2004, the 13,000-square-foot, $3.375 million Center for Teacher and Therapist Education is a combination of new and renovated space.
A college before the millennium, established in 1907 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, and opened to nine women in 1923, Fontbonne did not accept male
students into degree programs until 1974. Today, a co-ed Catholic university with 2,300
students, Fontbonne is no longer land-locked—in 1997, a location for OPTIONS, a degree program for working adults, opened in South County.
But true faith requires as much looking inward as outward, if not more.
“Every decision you make is a living sermon,” says Dr. Golden. “We’ll teach you how to earn a living, but also how to live a life.”
Dr. Golden points out that Fontbonne aims to be a Catholic university in the fullest
sense of the word: universal. He clarifies Fontbonne’s two-sentence, four-word motto: Learn more. Be more.:
“It doesn’t say ‘Earn more. Get more’.”
Many of the messages students will hear from their first day as freshmen are this
elegantly simple, and designed to increase in value over a lifetime. For example, they’re encouraged to think globally and act locally. They’re warned about PGA (Pride, Greed and Arrogance), and EGO (Edging God Out). And, GPA notwithstanding, receiving a diploma from Fontbonne means a graduate has
promised to: think logically, write clearly, speak truthfully, function effectively, decide ethically and exercise a keenly sensitive social conscience.
As the university has not been blessed with a huge endowment, Dr. Golden spends much of his time “friend-raising and fundraising.” He continually stresses among the “Fontbonne Family” the importance of remaining focused on the university’s strategic goals—and to be ever mindful of sustainability.
Quite simply, Dr. Golden says: “No money, no mission.”
JEFFERSON COLLEGE
William P. McKenna, President
One might expect a chancellor or president’s career to consist of experience within higher education. When he received his B.S. in Education from Southeast Missouri, Bill McKenna couldn’t have imagined what his resume would look like today.
After graduating in 1968, teaching
positions were few and far between, so McKenna worked in retail and construction. In 1982, he ran for state rep in a Jefferson County district that had grown big enough to elect one—and, much to his surprise, won.
McKenna served 11 years in the Missouri House of Representatives and five in the Senate, the last two as president pro tem, the leader of the Senate. The very day after leaving the legislature, McKenna earned his masters degree in education, for which he’d been attending college at night. Today, McKenna teaches a course at Jefferson, for which he draws on his experience as a lawmaker: “American Government and Politics Today.”
Not only does McKenna’s experience demonstrate the essence and value of an accessible community college education, it also illustrates how anyone, anytime, can make a career change.
Forged in Jefferson City, McKenna’s leadership skills were tempered by his involvement with MODOT. He continues to serve as one of the state’s six highway commissioners, including several years as chairman. Indeed, to get there from here you need a good education—but it isn’t easy to get anywhere on substandard highways.
Understandably, commuters throughout the region fume as they crawl through road construction zones from O’Fallon (Mo.) to
St. Charles, Florissant to Normandy, O’Fallon (Ill.) to East St. Louis. But instead of grumbling during the journey, a driver might do well to visualize the ultimate destination: a better-connected region, a stronger bi-state economy. Of course, blinking lights and orange cones also slow traffic from the fourth point of the compass: two out of three Jefferson Countians, as McKenna points out, head north from Arnold, Festus, Hillsboro (location of Jefferson College’s main campus) and other so-called “bedroom communities” to jobs in the big city.
“Nothing moves the economy more than a good transportation system,” he says, although frustrating personnel and funding challenges had slowed things down until recently. Today, fewer roadblocks impede progress, so projects on the drawing board awhile, such as a new Mississippi River Bridge, should be getting the attention they deserve. Under McKenna’s leadership, a dynamic new MODOT Director—Pete Rahn—was recruited to Missouri.
Much as Illinois and Missouri will each have a role in building the river bridge, the region’s public and private schools, regardless of whether east or west of the river, will benefit from collaboration.
To that end McKenna looks forward to
continuing the dialogue, formally or informally, with his peers in higher education.
“I talk to those folks all the time,” McKenna says. “I consider them good friends.”
WEBSTER UNIVERSITY
Richard S. Meyers, Ph.D., President
From the United States to Europe and Asia, Webster means business. Of the university’s 22,000 students, 15,000 are enrolled in business programs. That figure, roughly 70 percent, also indicates the percentage of graduate students to undergrads: Seven out of 10 students are working toward an MBA, at any one of 100-plus campuses—from St. Louis (Webster’s Global Headquar-ters) to Albuquerque and England to Thailand.
Although business fortunes may rise
and fall, the MBA isn’t going to go away, says Dr. Meyers. But emphases will constantly shift. As degree requirements change to
fit the evolving needs of business, they also are designed with enough flexibility to meet the needs of different cultures. Simply put, graduates must be prepared, expect the
unexpected—to not only handle change, but welcome it.
“Nothing is static anymore,” Dr. Meyers says. “Ambiguity is something to embrace, not to run away from.”
Competitors must also face up to the idea of collaboration, whether it’s schools in the region trying to draw from a limited pool of qualified prospects or nations intent on
getting what they perceive to be their fair share of the international widget business. Lamenting the status quo rather than dealing with reality may only force more American companies to offer such unheard-of deals as “employee pricing plus”.
Dr. Meyers cited an area CEO’s response to a recent question about how an American company should gear up for competition with China: “It’s over. They won.”
“We have to figure out how we’re going to cooperate,” advises Dr. Meyers, “or we’re just going to be left at the station.”
Whenever he is in Japan, his “second country,” Dr. Meyers experiences first-hand the rapidity of change, particularly in technology. The kids in Osaka are equipped with entertainment and communications gadgetry a year or two before it hits our shores. Videophones were all the rage on his last trip.
“The minute it comes out, it’s obsolete,” he says. “It’s enlightening, and it’s frightening.”
As forward-thinking as Webster may be, the university holds true to the Sisters of Loretto’s mission when they established Webster College in 1915: To serve the underserved. Ninety years ago, it was Catholic women—today the university’s concerns range from minorities in this country to women in Asia and the politically disenfranchised in Eastern Europe. Not to mention anyone who has lost sight of the American dream.
“We’re looking for working adults,” says
Dr. Meyers, “people who are dead-ended, or think they’re dead-ended.”
ST. LOUIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Henry D. Shannon, Ph.D., Chancellor
A way station or a destination:
St. Louis Community College (SLCC) can serve as an end in itself or an essential stop along the way, whether a student is learning a trade or preparing to attend Mizzou—or Harvard. Regardless of how much education beyond high school a student needs or wants, the
college’s three campuses—Forest Park, Florissant Valley and Meramec—are equipped to provide it.
“Practical Solutions for Practically Everyone” is a motto that may mean preparation for a career in automotive repair or medicine, CAD (computer-aided design) or robotics.
Meanwhile, a recent economic impact study shows that every dollar invested in the system returns $7—not too shabby, and the only detail from a prospectus that even the most cynical speculator would require.
Whatever the individual goals of each
person who attends SLCC, Dr. Shannon is in nearly constant motion making sure that the needs of students are met, and the questions and concerns of myriad stakeholders are addressed. SLCC has 75 educational sites, and on any given day Dr. Shannon may be huddled with legislators in Jefferson City in the morning and student government leaders in the evening. Collaboration across the board is key, whether with local and state government or other institutions of higher learning, and not only in Missouri.
“We’ve taken a regional approach,” says Dr. Shannon, noting that input from schools including McKendree College and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville is critical to decisions concerning higher education in
St. Louis at large. “We’re all in the same game. We have more in common than we have that’s different. There’s good articulation between two- and four-year schools.”
The astonishing progress in sharing and acting on information has made this
essential—and so much easier, he says. It makes no difference whether a term paper or vital research needs to cross the hall, or an ocean. Each will arrive in a heartbeat, thus any institution with world-class aspirations must be equipped to respond in kind. Otherwise, the post-secondary workforce it produces will be ill-prepared for a knowledge-based economy.
Lifelong learning is a matter of survival, whether a student comes to the college for the tools needed to change careers, or needs additional training for continued success in his or her chosen field. Business startups need help, too.
“They may start with us to put together a management plan,” says Dr. Shannon, pointing out that flexibility may be as important as affordability. “They may need five weeks, or five hours.”
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY AT EDWARDSVILLE
Vaughn Vandegrift, Ph.D., Chancellor
Much of the work done at SIUE isn’t preparation for the real thing—it is the real thing.
For instance, progress being made at the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center in University Park couldn’t be more timely, or critical. Recent legislation mandates that gasoline contain twice as much ethanol as it had previously, stepping up efforts of a facility designed to increase national energy
independence, improve the environment, and promote rural development.
While the potential impact of the
Center’s work is significant on a national scale, SIUE is becoming an ever more important player regionally, as well.
“We play a catalytic role in the economic development of the region,” says Dr. Vandegrift, who was installed in April as the university’s seventh chancellor. SIUE is among several other institutions within view of the Gateway Arch that have moved up in the rankings published annually by U.S. News & World Report.
High-profile projects and positive attention from a major national magazine get “more people to think about who we are,” says
Dr. Vandegrift. Such developments are in line with a university vision statement, which reads, in part: “As a premier metropolitan
university, SIUE is the first choice of a diverse pool of applicants. It is an integral part of Illinois and the St. Louis metropolitan area and uses its suburban location to capitalize upon urban resources.”
Not too long ago, many would have pooh-poohed such audacity. It was only 20 years ago that a local columnist poked fun at the prevailing attitude of St. Louisans, essentially that southwestern Illinois is far away, undeveloped—a wilderness. Truth be told, that parochial view applied not only to Madison and St. Clair counties in the “metro east,” but also to St. Charles and Jefferson counties on the Missouri side of the river.
At one time, the powers that be both regionally and nationally “used to think of the Mississippi River as 1,000 miles wide,” Vandegrift points out. But he and his
colleagues in higher education have worked hard to eradicate that misconception, forming a regional steering committee of the national Council on Competitiveness to examine ways to strengthen relationships between business and higher education. Two other critical issues the committee identified are: Fostering an entrepreneurial culture, and promoting the regional image.
The economic impact of higher education can be measured by increased salaries and infusions of capital, but there’s no yardstick for another benefit: Intellectual capital.
“It has a direct impact, but it’s harder to quantify,” says Dr. Vandegrift.
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS
Mark S. Wrighton, Ph.D., Chancellor
Consider this a non-scientific measure of Washington University’s ever-rising status worldwide: Educators and researchers from Wash U. are in demand across the country and around the world—not only to lecture or present research, but also to switch their allegiance.
“We’re being raided—and we’re raiding,” says Dr. Wrighton, with a wry smile. “Imagine owning the Cardinals, and every one of
your players is up for free agency every
single year.”
Fortunately, he adds, the momentum is in favor of the home team. Construction cranes continue to raise the university’s profile, literally, both on campus and at the university medical center: Research projects both under way and flowering have spurred the explosive growth of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and rapid evolution of the region’s biomedical industry.
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In the 10 years since Dr. Wrighton’s appointment, undergrad admissions have more than doubled, 126 new endowed professorships have been created and 26 new buildings have been erected, with seven more under construction or projected for completion within five years.
Wash U. is also sound financially. The endowment of this venerable institution, established in 1853, has grown dramatically: In 2004 it stood at $4.08 billion—an increase of approximately $500 million from 2003.
The direct and indirect regional economic benefits of growing investments, construction projects, research breakthroughs and medical advances continue to attract national attention: U.S. News & World Report ranks Wash U. 11th among 248 national universities in its annual survey.
Meanwhile, Dr. Wrighton has accepted the challenge of leading the Council on Competitiveness steering committee’s efforts to support entrepreneurship, facilitate industry-university partnership, and promote the region. Dr. Wrighton, who earned his doctorate at the California Institute of Technology, is soft-spoken, not the type of person one might expect to be leading the cheering section.
“There is a very large research opportunity—much larger than we realized,” he notes. “This encourages not only positive thinking, but real action—to invest in ourselves.”
Success breeds success, attracting venture capital firms to set up shop in ‘The Lou’ instead of just wiring in the funds. Boeing is increasing employment here; Scott Air Force is playing an increasingly critical role both regionally and nationally. Out-of-towners are flabbergasted at the influx of high-tech companies, the cost of living—and quality of life.
“There’s a buzz about St. Louis that didn’t exist,” Dr. Wrighton says. “We need to celebrate this; that St. Louis remains on the move as a destination city.” |
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