When Whittier School president Linda Oubré introduced her resignation final week, it ended a lengthy standoff between Oubré and outdoors teams who’ve lengthy known as for her ouster.
Involved by the state of affairs at Whittier, the place enrollment has plummeted throughout Oubré’s tenure, a gaggle known as Save Whittier School, made up of alumni and others, has pressured the president to resign—or the Board of Trustees to drive her out. Now, with out addressing the controversy round her management, Oubré will step down subsequent month.
Oubré’s departure after a five-year run marks considered one of a number of current resignations in increased training the place presidents have stepped down underneath strain from constituents—whether or not present college students or alumni—demanding an establishment change course.
Clashes With Constituents
Like many liberal arts faculties throughout the U.S., Whittier has struggled with enrollment in recent times. In 2018, when Oubré arrived, Whittier’s fall enrollment was 1,852, in keeping with the Division of Training’s Built-in Postsecondary Training Knowledge System. However by fall 2021, the final 12 months for which information is accessible, enrollment stood at 1,387, a drop of practically 500 college students.
Current utility numbers have additionally shrunk, in keeping with the faculty’s Widespread Knowledge Set. Whereas 5,301 college students utilized to Whittier for the fall 2020 class, solely 3,062 utilized for fall 2022.
To make up for misplaced tuition income, Whittier School lower athletic packages—together with the Poets’ soccer group, on which Richard Nixon performed offensive line within the Nineteen Thirties. These cuts have since been questioned by college students, staff and alumni alike, who allege an absence of transparency within the course of, which they consider will result in a fair larger decline in enrollment.
College members have additionally alleged that shared governance has eroded underneath Oubré.
As well as, the Board of Trustees has seen vital turnover; a number of trustees have stepped down or been pushed out, although Oubré beforehand instructed Inside Larger Ed the faculty deliberately shrank its governing board to a extra manageable dimension. And a few former board members and ex-employees have alleged the faculty has tried to stifle their criticism of Oubré by authorized threats from the faculty geared toward silencing them.
Oubré has mentioned that she has obtained threats herself, although previously she has declined to debate these, telling Inside Larger Ed that an investigation was ongoing. Nevertheless, native legislation enforcement has instructed numerous media retailers that they obtained no report of such threats.
Fed up with Oubré’s management, the Save Whittier School group launched a marketing campaign to oust her that included an uncommon strategy to fundraising. Dubbed “Poets’ Pledge,” the marketing campaign raised $539,830 in pledged donations to be paid if the president resigned or was eliminated by the Board of Trustees by Could 1. As soon as the deadline handed, nonetheless, the group famous in a Could 2 electronic mail to supporters that “there is no such thing as a obligation to satisfy your pledge,” although it did encourage “a present to assist the rebuilding of the School” if the Board of Trustees took “acceptable motion” at its Could 12 assembly to take away the president.
However when Oubré’s resignation formally landed on Friday, she didn’t point out the fundraising marketing campaign and even nod to the criticisms heaped on her in current months. As an alternative, the announcement flicked solely flippantly on the challenges Whittier School has confronted.
“We’ve got labored to embrace the markets of scholars we serve as we speak and into the longer term. And now we have made the robust determination to realign our sources with our mission. We’ve got confronted onerous challenges and headwinds because of the shifting context for increased training. And now we have thrived and are effectively positioned for the longer term,” Oubré wrote in her resignation letter to campus.
A letter from the board asserting Oubré’s resignation was principally effusive, ignoring the strain across the embattled president.
“In her 5 years, Linda has labored diligently to rework the School and construct a sustainable basis for the longer term. With an never-ending concentrate on our mission of pupil success, Linda has completed many issues. In fundraising, she attracted the biggest present within the historical past of the School, a $12 million unrestricted present from philanthropist Mac Kenzie [sic] Scott,” the board wrote.
Trustees additionally nodded to Oubré’s function in main Whittier by the coronavirus pandemic, guiding it by a reaccreditation course of and bettering range, fairness and inclusion efforts.
In a separate assertion despatched to Inside Larger Ed Monday, the Board of Trustees likewise sidestepped constituent issues.
“An indicator of a Whittier School training is a continuing need to query and interact. The deep ardour and dedication of our alumni is what’s going to propel us to a future that displays our previous, whereas bridging our needed evolution into the longer term,” the assertion learn partially.
Oubré, who formally departs late subsequent month, will go away Whittier with president emerita standing. Within the meantime, the faculty can be led by interim president sal johnston—who prefers his identify spelled in lowercase—whereas a nationwide search begins to seek out the subsequent chief for Whittier School.
Whittier School didn’t present extra remark to Inside Larger Ed.
Different Conflicts
Oubré’s outgoing assertion gave no indication that the rising quantity of constituent complaints factored into her determination to step down.
However Armand Alacbay, chief of workers and senior vice chairman of technique on the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, famous that constituent teams, together with alumni, wield vital affect. And in relation to these teams, he mentioned trustees must be “receptive to all however beholden to none” and solely think about partaking on points associated to the institutional mission.
So far as Whittier’s alumni are involved, he recommended they had been withholding donations for what they noticed because the larger good, regardless of potential short-term hurt.
“It’s completely cheap for alumni who’re financially supporting their establishment to say, ‘Our hearts are open however our wallets are closed.’ Withholding donations isn’t essentially inconsistent with having the very best pursuits of the institutional mission in thoughts,” Alacbay mentioned.
Nonetheless, he famous that “elevating virtually $600,000 to push out the president is extremely uncommon.”
Generally requires a president’s resignation are triggered by a single incident that units off a domino impact of issues. For instance, Connecticut School president Katherine Bergeron stepped down in March following an argument over a fundraiser scheduled to be held at a traditionally discriminatory venue. That prompted the resignation of a range, fairness and inclusion dean, who alleged Bergeron exhibited bullying and poisonous conduct, which had simmered quietly earlier than the incident.
Main errors can even resurface previous questions on management, corresponding to when Purdue College Northwest chancellor Thomas L. Keon mocked Asian languages in an impromptu second at a graduation ceremony. In that occasion, school members demanded his resignation for the remarks but in addition revisited issues about his management concerning declining enrollment and a troublesome merger. Regardless of intense scrutiny, nonetheless, Keon has stayed on as chancellor.
Oftentimes, no matter swirling criticism, presidents go away for causes which can be by no means defined. At Alcorn State College, President Felecia Nave had confronted protests from college students and questions from alumni in current months over an alleged lack of communication and insufficient sources. Now Nave is gone, as of final month, with no clear rationalization for her exit.
Equally, at Jackson State College, President Thomas Okay. Hudson obtained a no-confidence vote in January over allegations of an absence of shared governance. He was positioned on paid administrative go away in early March for unclear causes; by the center of the month, he was out.
Alumni Strain
Oubré is much from the one school president to come back underneath alumni strain to resign in current months. At Tougaloo School, alumni have known as for the resignation of Carmen J. Walters over declining enrollment, worker retention and different points, launching an internet petition to assemble signatures for her elimination.
Walters has responded, partially, by calling the group’s claims false and emphasizing that the alumni looking for her resignation are not a part of the official Tougaloo School Alumni Affiliation.
Nevertheless, in an announcement to Inside Larger Ed, Walters struck a extra collegial tone.
“All of us share a standard objective: the sustainability and success of Tougaloo now and into the longer term, supporting our college students and adapting to this new chapter in our historical past,” she wrote. “We’ve got already held a number of conferences with our beloved alumni and are working to open up the traces of communication between the faculty and the larger campus neighborhood even additional. I intention to collaborate with all of my school household to make sure Tougaloo stands sturdy in its subsequent chapter.”
Alacbay famous that it’s hardly ever one group that drives a president out however somewhat a multipronged assault. And presidents, he recommended, can be clever to hearken to and interact with their critics earlier than the anger reaches a fever pitch and results in efforts to oust them.
“Presidents ought to venture some degree of receptivity to the critique. It can differ in keeping with what these critiques truly are, however a part of being an institutional chief is being that face to all constituents: alumni, lawmakers, college students, potential college students. You’re an envoy to all these people, and generally meaning it’s important to act with excessive diplomacy,” Alacbay mentioned.