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An Interim President Can Be More Than a Caretaker

A nontraditional leader helped U. of Vermont through difficult times
By AUDREY WILLIAMS JUNE

Nearly two years ago, the University of Vermont's third president in just over a decade resigned after trustees signaled their loss of confidence in her. The state's governor, Howard Dean, said at the time, "The next president will make or break UVM."

Indeed, the agenda for the University of Vermont's next leader was a hefty one: Repair the university's scandal-marred image, solve a financial crisis made worse by a tightfisted Vermont legislature, curb a steep drop in enrollment, build up some programs and shrink others, and lift sagging morale.

So what did the University of Vermont do? It hired an interim president who would be more than just a caretaker.

The board lured Edwin I. Colodny, a former airline executive with virtually no experience in academe, back to his hometown of Burlington with a promise that it would support him as he made the difficult decisions that trustees thought were necessary.

"We wanted a very strong platform in place by the time the new [permanent] president arrived," says Bruce M. Lisman, a trustee who was chairman then.

The trustees latched onto Mr. Colodny for his business acumen and his knack for quickly grasping issues. They hired him in April 2001, roughly two months after Judith A. Ramaley, the former president, resigned. Mr. Colodny, a former chief executive officer of US Airways, had never worked in academic administration. He had served as chairman of the trustees and a member of the board at his alma mater, the University of Rochester, and was a member of the advisory board at the University of Vermont's business school.

But he was the driving force the UVM board wanted. He persuaded trustees to approve taking on debt to build much-needed student housing, and he worked with students to undermine an annual gathering of marijuana smokers that was a hit among students, but highly unpopular with lawmakers. He and the interim provost eliminated the university's dental-hygiene program and made cuts in the continuing-education division. Mr. Colodny dropped 5 of 27 intercollegiate sports and helped secure a donation that brought a research center to the campus. As he left office this past summer to make way for Daniel M. Fogel, the university's permanent president, the Vermont legislature showed its appreciation by giving UVM more money than it had requested.

"I made it clear that, if I took the position, I wanted to advance the agenda of the university," Mr. Colodny says.

Mr. Colodny's 13-month stint at the University of Vermont could be a model for institutions at a management crossroads. His tenure illustrates an increasing willingness by college officials to break away from promoting someone internally -- a provost or a dean, for instance -- to be an interim leader and hire a candidate from outside instead, says Thomas H. Langevin, co-founder of Registry for College and University Presidents, a company that matches retired university presidents with interim jobs nationwide. More often than not, temporary presidents, even those with Mr. Colodny's unconventional background, are charged with carrying out tough but necessary measures -- such as laying off people or stripping dollars from already tight budgets.

Short-Term Advantage
So far this year, 14 universities have hired interim leaders from the registry, Mr. Langevin says. An interim president with no real ties to a university, and who doesn't want the job on a permanent basis, "can come in and get certain things out of the way that would put a damper on the university's image and keep it from getting a top-notch candidate for the permanent presidency," Mr. Langevin says. "If you're crusading for the job, you've got a different objectivity than someone who is an outsider."

W. Michael Easton, a retired college president now in his second year as the interim head of the University of Great Falls, agrees. Mr. Easton, who had never worked at the Montana institution, was able to balance the budget, which had been running deficits, and hire key employees in the development office to jump-start fund raising.

"It was clear that I was brought in to accomplish some things and improve the institution. You don't have to expend any long-term capital to get things done. You can just move ahead and do them," says Mr. Easton, former president of the University of Maine at Presque Isle.

A 'Rudderless' University
Mr. Colodny walked into an unsettled situation at Vermont, which even in good economic times has a reputation of stinginess in state support for higher education. The three-and-a-half-year tenure of his predecessor, Ms. Ramaley, was marked by faculty unrest.

Nearly 100 faculty members accepted an early-retirement offer the college made to offset its perennial budget problems.

Ms. Ramaley was criticized for failing to move forward with a strategic plan approved by trustees. She says she couldn't carry out the plan -- which Mr. Colodny tackled during his term -- because Vermont "is a small university with longstanding traditions and very little capacity to invest in new approaches." The former Portland State University president also says turnover on the board of trustees during her tenure at UVM made it hard to "maintain focus and direction."

But perhaps most damaging to Ms. Ramaley was a hazing scandal that thrust the institution into the national spotlight. An investigation revealed that in the fall of 1999, nine freshman recruits on the university's ice-hockey team were forced to drink large quantities of alcohol and walk naked in a line while holding each other's genitals. One of the athletes sued the university, saying that officials ignored his complaints about the initiation. The university canceled the rest of the team's games in the middle of the season and, in 2000, settled the lawsuit for $80,000.

Ms. Ramaley's February 2001 resignation came as faculty members were mounting what would turn out to be a successful union drive on the campus. After her departure, "there was a sense that the university was somewhat rudderless and needed to have a sense of focus and direction," says Michael A. Gurdon, president of the Faculty Senate.

Faculty members were wary at first of Mr. Colodny, who admitted his lack of knowledge about the intricacies of academe. He is a straight shooter who sometimes couldn't suppress thoughts that stemmed from his corporate mind-set.

"He mentioned on more than one occasion that faculty shouldn't dress like their students if they wanted respect," says Mr. Gurdon, a management professor.

Mr. Colodny didn't officially report to work until early June 2001, but he was on the job well before then. Four days after he was appointed in April, he tapped John Bramley, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, as interim provost. The move ended campus uncertainty about who would fill a critical post that had been vacant for about four months. The interim president was now working alongside someone who had inside knowledge of the university and who could say "this is the right academic decision to make. This is the wrong academic decision to make," says Mr. Bramley, who was recently named provost on a permanent basis.

Over the summer, Mr. Colodny, who was paid $170,000, came to campus and charmed faculty members and students, winning points for his collegial demeanor.

Tackling Tough Issues
In August 2001, Mr. Colodny and Mr. Bramley began to tackle the major issue that trustees had wanted to deal with for years: improving academic quality while cutting costs. The pair proposed cutting the dental-hygiene program, the university's only two-year degree; moving three departments out of one college and into another; and consolidating some programs to create three new divisions.

Faculty members heatedly opposed the suggestions. They believed that the restructuring would ultimately mean losing students and research money. Mr. Bramley's modified version of the proposal dropped plans to make the nursing school, allied-health school, and the medical college into one division and put off moving the biology department out of the College of Arts and Sciences. The dental-hygiene program was still cut, and officials are planning to eliminate the graduate college and place graduate programs under the vice provost. The resulting savings of between $500,000 and $750,000 will be reinvested to enhance academic programs such as engineering.

"The restructuring was the most challenging thing," Mr. Colodny says. Mr. Bramley says about 60 percent of the reorganizing is done.

Overseeing such revamping is much easier on an interim president who isn't overly worried about angering faculty members and others along the way, says Mr. Langevin of the college-presidents registry. Permanent presidents are sometimes hamstrung by how taking a tough stance on issues will affect their tenure at a university. Says Mr. Langevin of interim leaders: "They can do what they need to do because their career is not on the line."

In late October 2001, the university announced a six-year, $250-million capital campaign, despite the absence of a permanent leader. Kicking off a capital campaign while under interim leadership isn't ideal, says Vance T. Peterson, president of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, but the venture can succeed because donors know "a new leader is coming on board, and there are high expectations for the future."

Just before Christmas, the university netted a $7.5-million donation to relocate the Institute for Ecological Economics from the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science, a gift Mr. Colodny played a key role in securing, Mr. Bramley says.

"I wish I'd had time to raise a few more million," Mr. Colodny says.

Meanwhile, eight months into Mr. Colodny's presidency, the board of trustees found his replacement: Mr. Fogel, a career academic who had been at Louisiana State University for 26 years, rising from assistant professor to executive vice chancellor and provost. Mr. Colodny and Mr. Bramley were still pushing ahead, even as Mr. Fogel prepared to take over in July.

The university announced in February that it would shrink its continuing-education division, which had racked up a deficit of almost $10-million over six years. A consultant told officials they should cut roughly half of about 100 staff members in the division.

In the end, 36 positions will disappear, about half through layoffs, and the university will have reduced expenses by $1-million.

Meanwhile, "4-20" -- a mass gathering of marijuana smokers held on April 20 each year -- was steadily approaching. When Mr. Colodny first heard about what began in the mid-1990s as a protest against marijuana laws, he was adamant that it wouldn't take place under his watch. Instead, he pushed students to come up with an alternative to an event that had helped to shape the university's party-school image. The alternative: a big outdoor party called Springfest. A small group of students gathered elsewhere on the campus to celebrate 4-20, but police officers kept them from lighting up, officials say.

"I think that was a very important step in repositioning the University of Vermont in the state," Mr. Fogel says. "There was this disgust over this annual ritual."

Financial Coup
Getting rid of 4-20 strengthened the relationships Mr. Colodny had forged with Vermont lawmakers, helping bring about a coup of sorts for the cash-strapped university. The Vermont legislature increased the university's state appropriation by 3.25 percent -- although Governor Dean had recommended only a 2-percent increase, and university officials had asked for 3 percent. Mr. Bramley says the vote was "a clear demonstration" of how Mr. Colodny's leadership helped sway legislators' opinion of where the university was headed.

Another signal of a new level of comfort with university leadership came in May, when the board voted to issue $120-million in bonds -- the largest such issue in university history -- to renovate dormitories and build new ones. Mr. Bramley says, "It's almost inconceivable" that the board, known for its fiscal conservatism, would have backed taking on such debt before.

Mr. Colodny's stay at the University of Vermont ended in late June. Mr. Gurdon says the interim president could have been elected by a faculty vote for another year: "I think people really appreciated his work." But despite Mr. Colodny's success, the university clearly can't claim victory over all of its past ills.

Financially, UVM is still troubled. It has a $350-million annual budget, but only 11 percent of that comes from the state. And with revenue from other sources not increasing substantially -- and trustees determined not to raise tuition for the next academic year by more than 3.5 percent -- administrators must keep looking for new ways to cut spending.

Along those lines, Mr. Fogel is pleading to reduce the number of graduate programs at the university. Currently, there are 1,100 graduate students and 92 graduate-degree programs -- one for every 12 students. "There needs to be a process of winnowing out programs and spending money on the ones we do well," the new president says.

Union negotiations could mar the generally optimistic mood at the university. Mr. Bramley and the faculty union are working together to draw up its first contract. Talks came to an impasse in early September.

The union wants the college to spend up to $9-million more on faculty salaries during the next three years, and the university is offering $3-million in increases.

"I often tell people I didn't come here underestimating the challenges," Mr. Fogel says. Over all, Mr. Colodny "brought a sense of integrity and stability and good order to the university. The groundwork for stepping more surefootedly was laid by the qualities of leadership that Ed brought to the institution."

The university continues to press ahead. The board recently agreed to pay $14.3-million for the campus of neighboring Trinity College, which closed in 2000. UVM will teach classes, house students, and set up offices on the property.

Enrollment patterns are heartening, officials say. Fall undergraduates numbered 7,601, up from 7,472 a year ago and the most since 1993. To attract even more students, the university intends to establish an honors college for freshmen and sophomores by next fall.

Mr. Fogel expects to spend much of his time trying to win over donors. By 2020 at the latest, he'd like to see the university's $208-million endowment reach $1-billion.

As for Mr. Colodny, he has been dubbed by the local press as Vermont's Mr. Fix-it. Last month, he moved on to help untangle operations at another troubled institution: Fletcher Allen Health Care, the University of Vermont's teaching hospital. His position: interim chief executive.

ONE INTERIM PRESIDENT'S IMPACT

Edwin I. Colodny made the following changes while he was interim president of the University of Vermont from June 2001 to July 2002:

• Eliminated the university's dental-hygiene program and transferred it to Vermont State Colleges. The move, which is part of a restructuring that included consolidating some programs and forming a new division, is expected to save between $500,000 and $750,000
   
• Eliminated 5 of 27 sports teams. Men's and women's gymnastics, women's volleyball, men's indoor track, and men's outdoor track were ended. The cuts saved less than $50,000.
   
• Shrank the continuing-education department by cutting 36 positions, about half of which will disappear through layoffs.
   
• Pushed students to create an alternative to "4-20" -- an annual gathering of marijuana users held on April 20. Springfest, an outdoor party, took place instead.

SOURCE: Chronicle reporting