The closing plenary session of the 2003 Institute for Chief Academic Officers featured two CIC presidents: Susan Resneck Pierce, president emerita of the University of Puget Sound (WA) and Esther Barazzone, president of Chatham College (PA). They discussed how they led institutional “turnarounds” based primarily on strengthening academic quality.

In the face of competing budgeting claims on campus, it is essential that officials keep academic goals in the forefront, said Susan Resneck Pierce, president emerita of the University of Puget Sound (WA), during the closing session of the Institute for Chief Academic Officers. She and Chatham College (PA) President Esther L. Barazzone described how they led institutional “turnarounds” based primarily on strengthening academic quality.
     Pierce and Barazzone, both of whom served previously as chief academic officers, described their experiences and offered suggestions for CAOs about their role in institutional transformation.
     After becoming president of the University of Puget Sound in 1992, Pierce said it was clear that the institution needed to clarify its identity, reconfigure its business major which lacked academic rigor, deal with significant deferred maintenance, and establish better communication across campus, among other issues. She spent a great deal of time listening to campus and community constituents and conducting analyses, then setting out several institutional goals and priorities, communicating them widely, and seeking cooperation among all groups. The CAO, who was appointed chair of the budget task force, made recommendations on the operating budget and was key in the planning and implementation process, she said.
     In their efforts to strengthen academic quality, Pierce urged CAOs to:

• Focus on teaching, learning, and the quality of campus life, and ignore fads and gimmicks.
• Gain a clear sense of institutional direction and use the operating budget and long-range budget as key planning documents.
• Conduct a careful cost-benefit analysis before making decisions about adding programs, and keep in mind that across-the-board cuts are always more damaging than strategic ones.

     Barazzone also described the massive changes that Chatham underwent over ten years from 1992 to 2002, increasing enrollment from 470 to 1,250; the endowment from $9 million to $60 million; the operating budget from $12 million (with a $3 million deficit and three years until it was clear Chatham would have to close) to $24 million; and fundraising from less than $2 million annually to $8 to $10 million annually. In addition, the college had undertaken no construction or renovation for 30 years; today they are spending $50 million on construction projects. Among the most important steps campus officials took to turn around Chatham—which ten years ago had low enrollment, a small endowment, an operating deficit, and a lot of deferred maintenance—was to “reinterpret the mission of the college,” Barazzone said. This led to a “back to the future” plan, whereby future changes were anchored in past experiences, she added. “We combined the liberal arts with applied programs such as communications and human services administration; brought in high-quality graduate programs; created a stronger curricular emphasis on women and a greater focus on athletics; formed a stronger link to the community with the creation of a center for women in public policy to engage Pennsylvanian women in civic engagement; and focused on improving the quality of Chatham’s programs,” among other steps, she said.
     But the key to success in such turnarounds, Barazzone maintained, is a good relationship between the CAO and the president. “It is essential for the CAO to understand the pressures on presidents. The CAO’s guiding concerns should be fiscal solvency, mission, and quality. The president should not have to teach deans that finances are important.”

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Last updated: December 2003
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