A successful, veteran higher-education executive who has been characterized by peers as among a group of “presidents-for-rent” has retired for the fifth time in his career, saying he already has plans to continue working in higher education.
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the financially troubled state institution facing a major and growing deficit and the risk of losing its accreditation at the end of the year, says Dr. Frank Pogue Jr., is “retiring again,” having served as interim president of the institution since November 2014.
Pogue, 78, was recruited from retirement three years ago to help stabilize Cheyney, the state’s only public historically Black college. It has been reeling in red ink for several years, having been among more than a dozen Pennsylvania institutions to experience dramatic losses in enrollment and other financial support since the nation’s economy began taking a nosedive in the late 1990’s. The institution’s deficit is conservatively estimated at exceeding $30 million.
Pogue also had experience in successfully managing a state institution. He was hired in 1996 from the State University of New York (SUNY) System where he had been an administrator for more than 20 years, as the first Black president of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, one of the state’s historically White universities in rural Western Pennsylvania. When he retired as president in 2007, Edinboro was at the top of its game and had several endowments and a student center named in his honor.
That history came to the minds of Pennsylvania state leaders when they learned Pogue had again retired after a brief stint as president of Grambling State University in Louisiana and they were looking for fresh temporary leadership for Cheyney.
“I was brought in to stabilize the institution and keep it moving forward,” Pogue said in a brief phone interview Wednesday. The institution continues to lose money, Pogue says, noting he and state officials knew when he was coming in the door that issue could not be fully resolved in a few years.
“You can’t grow your way out of the deficit,” Pogue said, noting bolder efforts will be needed and forthcoming to right the ship.
