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8
FEATURE
As the search for the 14th president begins, faculty and staff reflect on the century-long history of Whitman’s presidency.
APR
10 2014
ALEXANDER J. ANDERSON
RUDOLF A. CLEMEN
First President
Fourth President
1882-1891
1934-1936
Photos from Whitman College and Northwest Archives
Faculty recall past presidents by LANE BARTON and DREW EDMONDS Staff Reporters
I
n 2015, Whitman College will say farewell to President George Bridges and welcome the 14th member of a long line of college presidents. When looking at the legacies of past presidents, it’s clear that Bridges’s successor will arrive on campus to a scene much changed since Alexander Anderson became Whitman’s first president in 1882. One of the most noticeable changes is the greater funding now at the president’s disposal. Between 1882 and 1885, Anderson constructed the first college building and a ladies’ hall with a total of $21,400. In 1998, Thomas Cronin completed the all-time best fundraising year to date, raising over $12.2 million in a fiscal year. Now, George Bridges expects to complete his $150 million dollar Now is the Time campaign at the end of his term next year, the largest fundraising campaign in the school’s history. As Whitman has evolved into a fiscally stronger and more nationally recognized institution, the expectations of the college president have also expanded, making the search process for the ideal president more difficult. “Some people just say [searching for a president is] an impossible job ... that the number of attributes you’re looking for is just so large. I would say the person has to inspire confidence,” said Professor of Mathematics Patrick Keef, who first came to Whitman in 1980 and served as dean of the faculty from 1996-2006 under president Thomas Cronin. Longtime Whitman professors agree that the president’s primary role is to represent the college and establish financial security, but often presidents are remembered most by how they respond to the unique challenges of the time and how they choose to relate to students and faculty. “In a lot of ways, the primary responsibility of the president is to present us to external constituencies,” says Keith Farrington, who has been a sociology professor since 1977. “On campus, the president also serves as a representative of the school and can have a huge impact on relations with students, faculty and staff.” This is especially true for small college communities like Whitman, where the president is a visible personality thanks to the campus and enrollment size. “It’s a small campus, so most of the faculty members are going to get to know the president pretty well just by being here,” says Keef. The president serves as the symbol of the college. He or she is selected
for his or her ability to affirm the value of the college experience and provide a vision that strengthens the college’s reputation while maintaining the unique character that binds the Whitman community together, according to Professor of Geology Patrick Spencer, who has been a faculty member since 1984 and who will become the next provost and dean of faculty in 2015. “I think one thing [the last four presidents] shared is a real commitment to liberal arts ... a recognition of both the uniqueness of what we do here and of its value,” said Professor of Religion Walter Wyman, who first arrived on campus in 1982. While there is some agreement among faculty about the qualities and responsibilities of the president, each president is unique both in personality and in what he or she chooses to focus time on when he or she is in office. This is something that a handful of faculty members, who have been on campus during the last four presidencies, have noted through first-hand experience. “Each of them has brought a distinctive style to the presidency, very distinctive priorities, and their presidencies have been quite different,” said Wyman. The first of these presidents was Robert Skotheim, who completed the second-longest presidency in the college’s history from 19751988. Well respected by those on campus, he was also excellent at raising funds and traveling around the country to elevate the profile of Whitman on the national level. “[Skotheim] was a silver-tongue guy, a thinking man’s president. Everybody thought he was just ideal in many respects,” said Keef. According to faculty who experienced Skotheim’s presidency, he was successful at both bringing professors closer together and also inspiring them to become more involved in broader scholarly discussions off campus. Now, Whitman students take for granted the close relationships professors often have with each other and their involvement in the publication of their own research. “There was a feeling of family during Bob’s term. The faculty did a lot of socializing,” said Spencer. While Skotheim had a talent for external affairs and relations with faculty, his successor, David Maxwell, turned his focus more to internal affairs. In particular, he made substantial changes to the curriculum during his term from 1989 to 1993. “Maxwell was really concerned about the curriculum at Whitman College ... and one of his first acts was to convene what he called the curriculum review committee, which he actually chaired, which was very
rare for a president,” said Wyman. This committee spearheaded many changes to the college’s course offerings, including the idea of a common course for all first-year students, which has since evolved into Encounters. When Thomas Cronin stepped into office in 1993 for a term that would last until 2005, the economy was booming, and campus was primed for positive change. According to some faculty members, it was this historical advantage combined with his naturally energetic disposition that defined Cronin’s legacy and directed Whitman down its current path. “[Cronin] was here at a time when the college was amazingly healthy. There was lots of money in higher education, he had a vision [and] he had a very cooperative board of trustees. Huge amounts of things got done here ... he was a whirlwind, things were happening all over campus,” said Farrington. Cronin was famous for his energy and rumored knowledge of the names and hometowns of the entire student body, whom he would often greet and interact with on campus. “I mean, [Cronin] would hand deliver cookies to students in the library during finals or he would go to read bedtime stories to a residence hall section,” says Farrington. The ability and willingness to interact freely with everyone in the Whitman community has carried over to the current president, George Bridges, who took over in 2005. “George wants to understand faculty, wants to maintain close relationships by looking at Whitman as a family of people who are in it for the same overall goals,” says Spencer. Soon, however, Bridges will be stepping down and a new president will begin the next chapter in the college’s history. It is a new leader that faculty hope will expand upon the work of his or her predecessors in taking Whitman from a regional to national level of attention. “The new president will need to look to strengthen the college’s national reputation at the same time as maintaining our character as a top flight regional college,” said Spencer. The person who takes over the presidency will have their work cut out for them to improve upon the great steps that recent presidents have taken. But the right choice will be the person who can exemplify the leadership of past presidents and display Whitman as the quality institution those presidents have helped make. “[The president] is the public face of this institution and that person has to be the kind of person that gives everyone faith that Whitman College is a fine place,” said Keef.
WALTER A. BRATTON Fifth President 1936-1942
WINSLOW S. ANDERSON Sixth President 1942-1948
CHESTER C. MAXEY Seventh President 1948-1959
DONALD SHEEHAN Ninth President 1968-1974
ROBERT A. SKOTHEIM 10th President 1975-1988
Consultants, committee collaborate in search from PRESIDENT, page 1
Sophomores Gladys Gitau and Jack Percival were recommended by their peers and the Dean of Students Office to the Board of Trustees. Percival is the Vice President of ASWC, and Gitau was chosen because she has also embraced a number of leadership roles on campus and consistently made the effort to be involved on campus. “This is not a representative board in the [same] sense that a faculty representative is not necessarily just going to advocate for faculty views. We’re all on the committee to choose the candidate that’s best for Whitman,” said Percival on his role in the search. “While Gladys and I can speak to the student perspective on a lot of things ... we’re not necessarily there to advocate for a particular point of view—we’re there to function as full members of the committee.” There will be forums for other faculty, staff and students to express their views on what they want to see in the next president. The committee also plans to send out surveys during the search process. Percival and Serrurier both stressed how important this feedback is to forming the outline of characteristics that the committee will use to find candidates over the summer. According to Gitau, President Bridges has always made himself an approachable and personable administrative figure with whom the Whitman community can connect. He will also leave the college’s endowment larger than it has ever been in the history of Whitman, thanks in part to his Now is the Time campaign. But with this improvement in place, Gitau hopes for a different focus in the future.
“Because he was working very heavily on the financial campaign, he was away a lot ... and that’s going to be one of the responsibilities of the president. But one of the things I would like is to have a president who is more present on campus, who is around more, maybe to deal with these issues going on like the rally last semester, things that are important to students, things that make them feel safe and included, like issues of diversity,” said Gitau. Percival hopes the next president will be able to devote more attention to other concerns in addition to fundraising. “I would like to see a president who is more inwardly focused, strengthening Whitman’s curriculum and community and [student involvement] while simultaneously still enhancing Whitman’s national reputation,” said Percival. Abraham suggested that a college president has to be a great listener who can craft a collaborative vision for the future of the college from the various voices he or she hears on a daily basis, while still maintaining strong leadership. “I’m looking for someone who is as passionate about the college as all of us are. They have to be intellectually curious about Whitman, about how we tick and where we want to go,” said Abraham. Serrurier is interested in finding someone who can move forward with the liberal arts model of education in the 21st century. “I want to make sure this person can be a leader who will make this the best liberal arts college that it can be,” she said. Another key step in the search pro-
cess is bringing in external expertise in the form of hired search consultants. According to Serrurier, the consultants play an essential role in the search process because they are experts who specialize in filling top leadership positions in education. The consultants lend a degree of objectivity to the search and also contribute their familiarity with the wider job market. “They learn from us, what we’re looking for in the next president, and they make matches with people who are out there, who may not know that Whitman College even exists. But [the search consultants] know that ... this person has these experiences, this kind of background, these kinds of beliefs, interests, philosophies and skills, and they would really like a place like Whitman,” said Serrurier. The consultants contact candidates and introduce them to the committee for the interview process. According to Serrurier, many of the potential candidates currently hold other positions at other educational institutions. For this and other reasons, the search itself will remain confidential and closed to anyone outside the committee. All committee members noted, however, that it is not only their voices that determine who the next president of Whitman should or should not be. Percival emphasized that it benefits members of the Whitman community to speak up, fill out surveys, contact committee members with feedback and generally take an interest in the search. “It’s one of the biggest decisions that we as students have input on in our time at Whitman, and it will shape the long-term future of the college,” he said.
GEORGE S. BRIDGES 13th President 2005-2015
? 14th President 2015-