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Although UW President Mark Emmert is the
first Arts & Sciences alumnus to return as president in nearly
50 years, several other A&S alumni have served as presidents
of other colleges and universities. Here seven alumni share their
thoughts on serving in that leadership role:
Jerilyn
McIntyre, President, Central Washington University, 2000-present
Elaine
Tuttle Hansen, President, Bates College, 2002-present
Robert
Skotheim, President, Whitman College, 1975-1988
Virginia
Smith, President, Vassar College, 1977-1986
Yehuda
Hayuth, President, University of Haifa, 1994-2004
James
E. Brooks, President, Central Washington University, 1961-1978
Elizabeth
Kennan, President, Mount Holyoke College, 1978-1995
Jerilyn
McIntyre (‘73)
President, Central Washington University, 2000-present
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Jerilyn
McIntyre. Photo by Richard Villacres. |
After earning a Ph.D.
in communications and history from the UW, Jerilyn McIntyre began
an academic career that took her to the University of Iowa, and
then the University of Utah, where she served twice as interim president
and seven years as vice president for academic affairs.
McIntyre became president of Central
Washington University in 2000. She continues to teach one course
biannually. “It keeps me in touch with students,” she
says, “and sends a message to faculty that I still see myself
as a teacher and value that aspect of academic life.”
You had experience
as an interim president of the University of Utah. Were there still
surprises during your first year at CWU?
Many of the responsibilities were similar. It’s just a different
environment. Ellensburg is a small town; I came from a large city.
And I was coming into a situation where there had been discord on
campus and there needed to be some healing, so my immediate focus
was on campus and community relations.
What has been the most satisfying aspect of your presidency?
That first fall after I arrived, our enrollment dropped substantially.
We took a budget cut from the state as a result. We pledged we would
regrow our enrollment, and we have. The campus community has really
worked together as a team, coming together to deal with a difficult
problem. We have not only recovered our enrollment but also have
done so without sacrificing the quality of the institution. Each
of the last four entering classes has been more prepared than the
previous one.
What has been the most challenging issue you have had to address?
Rebuilding our enrollment without adequate resources. For all of
us in higher education, the absence of state funding and the morale
issues that result when we are not able to reward our best people,
present a challenge. Economic hard times affect what the legislature
can provide. Ultimately, those hard times affect us all.
Did your UW education help prepare you for leadership?
My Ph.D. was in communications and history. Both fields are helpful
in leadership in any organization, and certainly in higher education.
As a university president, much of what I do involves understanding
how communication works in organizations. And history gives a sense
of context, an understanding of how situations can develop and solutions
can emerge.
Elaine
Tuttle Hansen (‘75)
President, Bates College, 2002-present
After earning her Ph.D. in English from the UW in 1975, Elaine Tuttle
Hansen began an academic career with an emphasis on Middle English
literature, contemporary women’s writing, and feminist theory.
She taught at Hamilton College, then Haverford College, where she
later served as provost for seven years.
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Elaine
Tuttle Hansen. Photo byPhyllis Graber Jensen.. |
“She proved that
someone can work at a very difficult job for seven years, and at
the end of those seven years, people think more highly of her than
when she started,” Haverford President Tom Tritton told Bates
Magazine in 2002. “Because usually it goes the other way.”
Hansen became president of Bates
College in 2002.
What surprised you
most during the first year of your presidency?
I wasn’t prepared for how loudly your silence speaks when
you are in this position. In many of the most difficult situations
you confront as president, what you can say publicly is strictly
limited by the need to protect the confidence of the individuals
involved and by the legal constraints on how much information can
be shared. I would love nothing more than to tell my side of the
story, but I can’t. I’ve tried to establish a very transparent
process, so those required silences have been very frustrating.
What has been the most satisfying aspect of your presidency?
There are many satisfactions. I don’t know if I can pick one.
I guess it would be either how satisfying it is to watch students
blossom—feeling that you are part of an incredible time in
their young lives—or the variety of skills and roles needed
to be a college president. I enjoy multitasking, and I do not get
bored in this job. There is never a dull moment.
What has been the most challenging issue you have had to address?
On a personal level, it would be the downside of being pulled in
so many directions with a lack of time to craft and polish your
work. And coupled with that is the visibility of the position. Many
people feel they can do your job well and they are happy to share
those opinions.
Professionally, one challenge for a new president coming into an
excellent institution is defining what needs to change. Any change
you suggest is going to sound like criticism, so you have to do
a lot of consensus building. Everyone at the institution wants you
to “take it to the next level,” but defining what that
level would be is challenging in a strong institution. It’s
much like a scholarly problem, where the challenge is defining the
question.
Did your UW education help prepare you for leadership?
In every way, I loved my time at the UW. I think I came into my
own there. I had great teachers and classmates; there was something
about the atmosphere that led to very natural intellectual enthusiasm.
I gained a tremendous amount of confidence. I’m very grateful
for the experience.
Also, I can truly say that having been in English literature has
been a terrific advantage for me as a college president. Textual
analysis and scholarly problem solving require the same skills I
use in so much of my work today.
Robert Skotheim (‘55, ‘58,
‘62)
President, Whitman College, 1975-1988
After earning his B.A.,
M.A., and Ph.D. in history from the UW, Robert Skotheim taught at
Wayne State University and the University of Colorado, then served
as provost and dean of faculty at Hobart and William Smith Colleges
before becoming president of Whitman
College. After his presidency, Skotheim went on to serve as
president of the prestigious Huntington
Library, Art Collections,
and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. He retired
in 2001.
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| Robert
Skotheim, shown here during his years as president of Whitman
College. Photo byWallace Ackerman. |
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What surprised you
most during the first year of your presidency?
What was most memorable about that period—the mid 1970s—was
the pervasive prediction that private liberal arts colleges would
be phased out because of public institutions. There was much talk
that students would not continue to choose small private colleges
when they could choose to attend big urban universities. It was
a particularly threatening time to be the president of a private
college.
What was the most
satisfying aspect of your presidency?
It was the response we managed to muster to that initial challenge.
The very satisfaction came from confronting that threat. The survival
and revival of the best liberal arts colleges is the happy ending
to that time. In every respect, small private colleges are superior
today to what they have ever been.
Have there been other
developments in academia that have surprised you?
I’ve noticed a professionalization of management in academic
and cultural institutions that has led to amazing success for these
institutions. But there is an irony in this professionalization.
As president of Whitman, I was able to strengthen the institution
through professional management, but I was no longer able to teach.
Like many professors who came to head academic institutions, I went
into this field because I wanted to improve the quality of education
as a professor, but my career became a management career.
Did your UW education
help prepare you for leadership?
I got married and transferred to the UW as a sophomore, coming from
Princeton University. I found the same high quality faculty at the
UW as I had found at Princeton. The faculty provided such good examples
of scholarship, teaching, and citizenship. The History Department
faculty in particular was very well-rounded and community-oriented.
Their example really inspired me.
Virginia Smith (‘44, ‘46,
‘50)
President, Vassar College, 1977-1986
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Virginia
Smith, during her presidency of Vassar College.
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After earning a B.A.
in general studies, a law degree, and a master’s degree in
labor economics from the UW (in that order), Virginia Smith held
a series of academic and administrative posts, culminating in the
presidency of Vassar College.
She retired in 1986, but agreed to step out of retirement in 1990,
for one year, to lead Mills College
through a turbulent period following its much-publicized decision—later
reversed—to begin admitting men.
What surprised you
most during the first year of your Vassar presidency?
Vassar had gone co-educational six years before I arrived. I was
surprised at how the alumni, and some faculty, had not yet become
comfortable with the idea of co-education. I spent a lot of time
talking with alumni about that during the first year.
Also, I had always thought about college as being all about students,
but I soon found that I had to devise techniques and special occasions
to have contact with students. Without such planning, even in a
small residential college, a president can spend all one’s
time with trustees, donors, faculty, other officers, and higher
education organizations. One might as well be working in a business
corporation.
What was the most satisfying aspect of your presidency?
I enjoyed being in a position to help others. For example, Vassar
developed a joint program with La Guardia Community College in New
York, called “Exploring Transfer.” It is a five-week
summer residential program at Vassar College for community college
students, giving them a residential liberal arts college experience
in the hope that more of these students would continue college after
their first two years. We were delighted with the results. The program
is still going and has been replicated in a number of places. It
is satisfying to be instrumental in adding an important dimension
to Vassar and at the same time making a contribution to higher education
more broadly.
What was the most
challenging issue you had to address?
Finances are always a challenge. One of the problems was that a
certain rhythm had been set up in the college that suggested that
there was no way for a win-win situation—no way to get the
finances in shape without huge program cuts or salary stagnation.
There was a lot of distrust, and it was a challenge to get to the
point where I could work with the faculty committee with two-way
trust. We eventually got there, but it took a lot of work over several
years.
Did your UW education
help prepare you for leadership?
My education at the UW was excellent. I had several great professors
both in undergraduate college and also in law school. Many of the
classes were small and often rich in bringing about intellectual
excitement.
Yehuda
Hayuth (‘77)
President, University of Haifa, Israel 1994-2004
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| Yehuda
Hayuth. Photo byArik Baltinester. |
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Jerusalem-born Yehuda
Hayuth is a world authority on shipping and ports. After earning
his Ph.D. in geography at the UW, he taught at the University of
Rhode Island before returning to Israel to teach at the University
of Haifa, where he later became president—the first at
that university to win re-election for a second term. Throughout
his presidency, Hayuth returned to the UW each summer to teach a
course in maritime transportation as a visiting professor. He stepped
down from the University of Haifa presidency in September 2004.
What surprised you
most during the first year of your presidency?
The first year was not a great surprise to me, as I came to the
job of president from the same university, and I dealt with many
familiar issues, although from a somewhat different point of view.
What was the most
satisfying aspect of your presidency?
Seeing the University growing fast, in the direction that I had
planned. I was particularly pleased to see the rapid growth of the
Graduate School; the development of new programs, mainly interdisciplinary
in orientation; a doubling of the built-up space; and getting IBM
to build the largest research lab outside the U.S. on our campus.
What was the most
challenging issue you had to address?
It was a challenge to maintain the development plan, academically
and physically, despite severe government budget cuts—probably
not a unique challenge among university presidents.
Did your UW education
help prepare you for leadership?
There was a strong emphasis in my Ph.D. studies on concentrating
on a clear definition of goals and objectives, and then striving
to meet them, despite all the constraints.
James E. Brooks (‘52, ’57)
President, Central Washington University, 1961-1978
After earning his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in geography
at the UW, James Brooks taught at Central Washington University,
Eastern Washington University, and Portland State University—where
he was assistant to the president—before becoming president
of Central Washington University,
where he had earned his B.A. After stepping down as president, he
continued on the faculty until 1994, except for two years as interim
president at Yakima Valley College. Last year, Central honored Brooks
by naming its library—built during his presidency—the
James E. Brooks Library.
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James
Brooks at the dedication of the university library named
in his honor. Photo byGreg Kummer. |
What surprised you
most during the first year of your presidency?
I knew most of the circumstances at Central. But I was a bit surprised
at how much my focus on the academic aspects, such as strengthening
the arts and sciences, could be diverted to other pressing issues.
An example: our campus consisted of 100 acres in a scattered, disjointed
pattern located in a mostly residential area. It took years to consolidate
and increase the campus to 350 acres.
What was the most satisfying aspect of your presidency?
I believe the greatest pleasure for any president is having her/his
institution accomplish a great deal over time. When you have had
continued support of trustees, faculty, students and the general
public, and good planning has showed results as excel-lent projects
and programs are in place, is there any better satisfaction for
a president?
What was the most challenging issue you had to address?
Without a doubt, it was developing an excellent faculty, one that
truly cared for students, and improving our academic offerings as
we grew rapidly in enrollment.
Did your UW education help prepare you for leadership?
Leadership requires confidence in yourself. The members of the Geography
Department helped me develop that. I was given encouragement, guidance,
and positive reinforcement on many occasions. Yes, I benefited from
taking classes across campus, my professors were good teachers,
and I enjoyed my fellow graduate students, but the help I was given
personally was very important in my life and career.
Elizabeth
Kennan (‘66)
President, Mount Holyoke College, 1978-1995
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| Elizabeth
Kennan |
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Elizabeth Kennan, who
earned her Ph.D. in medieval history from the UW, served on the
faculty of Catholic University for 12 years before becoming president
of her alma mater, Mount Holyoke
College, where she graduated in 1960. A strong proponent of
single-sex education, Kennan held steadfast to Mount Holyoke’s
mission as a women’s college during a period when many women’s
colleges became co-educational.
In 2000, Kennan and another
former college president, Smith College’s Jill Ker Conway,
penned a mystery novel, Overnight Float. The setting? A
women’s college in New England, of course.
What surprised you most during the first year of your presidency?
I knew I would be busy and dealing with things that are new, but
the sheer physical adjustment surprised me. The schedule is so intense
and it occurs without a break for the entire year, seven days a
week from early morning to late at night. It requires a whole metabolic
shift.
What was the most satisfying aspect of your presidency?
Seeing students flourish and being part of their lives—that’s
the best thing in the world. As president, I saw them in many aspects
of their lives over a long period of time, first as undergraduates
and then as alumnae.
What was the most challenging issue you had to address?
In my first five or six years, it was bringing the institution from
one level of financial competence to one whole step above that,
which was very necessary for the institution at that time. This
took place during a period of stagflation, so it was a challenge.
The other challenge was to help the college community truly become
multicultural and to live out an ethic of respect for the dignity
of each member. That was ongoing work and involved a great expansion
of minority participation on the faculty and staff and a radical
expansion of the recruitment of minority and international students.
It was an area in which you could really see improvements and measure
them and relish them.
Did your UW education
help prepare you for leadership?
The University gave me my most important mentor, Dr. Solomon Katz.
[Autumn 2004 - Table of Contents]
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