SimpsonScarborough talked with Dr. Jerry Israel, a three-time college president that now helps other presidents and boards with some of their most pressing challenges, about his experiences and advice.
Q. Tell us about your experience with Lambuth University the past year.
A. Lambuth has a wonderful campus, loyal faculty and staff, and a century and a half of dedication to west Tennessee and the United Methodist Church. They needed to work on best practices in governance, financial aid discounting, and currricular innovation. I am hopeful they have turned the corner and will be successful under the leadership of new president Bill Seymour.
Q. You have worked with the Board of Regents at the University of Colorado. What role did you play there?
A. CU's nine Regents are elected volunteers. They have enormous responsibility and have been through a number of very difficult institutional situations recently. They wanted to work over the course of more than a year on finding common ground in the face of all sorts of divisive pressures. I am proud of the way they hung in there to work together.
Q. Having retired from a presidency in 2005 and then gone back as an interim president in 2008-09, did you notice any significant differences impacting your work following the time you were out of office?
A. The economy for sure. It certainly was much harder to find creative solutions when donors had few assets and banks had no credit available. Also, the rapidly increasing impact of technology was palpable...more online alternatives, accelerated communication and decision-making expectations, virtual meetings, etc.
Q. What major changes do you see coming down the pike that Presidents need to be thinking about?
A. Again, the way technology and all the business potential associated with it will change our institutions. Look at banking and the way it has evolved towards 24/7 customer service over the past decade. We in higher education are next. A decade from now the lines of for profit and not for profit schools and on-line and on campus deliver systems will be blurred to the point that new structures will have blossomed. I hope presidents will embrace these changes and not try to resist them.
Q.Your book, The 75 Biggest Myths About College Admissions has been on the market for a little over a year, what reactions to it have been the most interesting or surprising?
A. Invitations to speak to groups of prospective students have been the most gratifying, that's for sure. I guess the comment I appreciated most was from one parent who said the book "put my daughter in the driver's seat" with regard to the college search process. I wrote the book because I thought as an industry we have a great story to tell but for whatever reason we have been somewhat reluctant to tell it. So descriptors like "authentic" and "empowering" make me feel the effort to write it has proven worthwhile.
Dr. Israel is the former president of Lambuth University, the University of Indianapolis, and Morningside College. As president of the University of Indianapolis, Dr. Israel successfully led the institution's first comprehensive strategic planning and fund-raising campaign efforts, which raise more than $100 million and introduced Centers of Excellence in both teacher education and health care. The University's enrollment, at both its home campus and international branches, doubled during his tenure as president. At Morningside, Dr. Israel inherited a series of challenges resulting from compliance problems with athletic programs that he successfully resolved. By facing legal and NCAA issues head-on, Morningside, under Dr. Israel's leadership, regained its prestige and advanced its enrollment and fund-raising opportunities.
