SAN DIEGO, Calif.—Shortly after he signed on to lead the University of the District of Columbia in 2008, Dr. Allen L. Sessoms knew that his college presidency was doomed.
Faced with a meager budget and not enough money to pay the university’s light bill, he said that city leaders gave him a clear and uncompromising ultimatum: “Fix the college or tell them how to close it.”
Unable to secure support from the current or former mayor of Washington, D.C., the possibility that Sessoms would enjoy a long presidency at the only public institution in the nation’s capital grew dimmer by the day.
Since he was fired in 2012, Sessoms has largely remained quiet, taking a position as a senior fellow at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and working as a vice president for The Hollins Group, an executive recruiting company that is spearheading the search for a new president of the NAACP.
But yesterday, he broke his silence, appearing on a panel at the American Council of Education conference, titled “Presidential Near-Death Experiences,” where Sessoms said that the land grant university founded in 1851 wasn’t serious about making dramatic changes during his time as president.
During the session, which was moderated by Dr. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus of The George Washington University, Sessoms and former West Virginia University president Michael Garrison recounted their experiences as ex-university presidents at public universities.
“I learned that a president at a public university can’t succeed if the political class don’t want you to succeed,” said Sessoms, who was previously the president of Delaware State University and Queens College in New York City before he was hired to lead UDC. “A president can’t fix an institution without the majority of people at the institution wanting to fix things.”
