There were isolated high notes, including the appointment of medical surgeon and scholar Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick as the 17th president of Howard University. There were also scattered low notes, including a decision by the powerful Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to place South Carolina State University on probation, citing the institution’s worsening financial status and chronic leadership and administrative woes.
Program, budget and hiring cuts were again widespread. Many institutions experienced another year of declines in public and private support of higher education rooted in the nation’s economic slump that hit its most painful point in 2008 and, for many, continues today. Few saw any significant increase in alumni support to help close part of the gap in lost revenue.
Those trends help explain another troubling year of leadership churn, especially from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). By year’s end, more than half a dozen HBCU presidents had resigned after serving less than five years in the posts or were fired by boards unhappy with their institution’s ability to weather the storms.
The year ended with an abundance of CEO help wanted signs posted across the nation’s landscape, from Grambling University in Louisiana to Clark-Atlanta University in Atlanta to Virginia State University near Richmond.
One institution had gloomy news of a presidential departure that gripped the attention of many in higher education. Xavier University of Louisiana announced that its long-serving president, Norman Francis, had decided to retire at the end of the 2014-15 school year after 47 years as president.
Francis, an alumnus of Xavier, located in New Orleans, is considered dean of university presidents in the United States, based on his time on the job and role over the years, his volunteer service as an adviser to several U.S. presidents, his service on numerous leadership panels, and his mentorship to younger peers including Hampton University President William Harvey.
