The Story
Exclusive: DSJ Sits Down with President Nichol
Nichol talks with DSJ. Courtesy of Marina Stranieri.
President Gene Nichol sat down with The DoG Street Journal for an exclusive interview Thursday. The interview touched on the debate surrounding alum of ‘62 James McGlothlin’s decision to withhold a planned donation because of the 2006 Wren cross controversy. Nichol also talked about current alumni relations, the Board of Visitor’s forthcoming review of his contract, diversity at the College, and other topics sensitive to life at the College:
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Transcript:
DSJ: How has your year been?
GN: It’s been good... Partly, you have the notion of doing things a second time, or a third time, but they are ever new here and I think the challenges change all the time. …I think it’s the most important place to work in the country. I like it a great deal.
DSJ: Who exactly is James McGlothlin? What has his relationship been with the College?
GN: Mr. McGlothlin has had a long relationship with the College. He’s an alumnus. He’s not someone that I know very well. I haven’t had much interaction with him. He has been a donor in the past. Others know him better. He has had a long relationship with the College.
DSJ: What kind of donations has he made in the past? Is that material you can share with us?
GN: He has made some significant gifts to the College in the past. He’s been quite generous. You could check with the development folks, I think about - and I don’t know actually if they’d tell you the full giving record. They probably don’t. But I know he has given more than one gift to the College. We are anxious to have all the gifts that we can receive.
DSJ: I heard from another source who was part of the I Heart Nichol crowd that McGlothlin had promised a sum of money to the College in the past and then had decided not to follow through with that contribution. Is there anything you can add to that?
GN: I can’t talk to you about that.
DSJ: What is like with alumni, generally? I know you campaign a lot.
GN: I like dealing with alumni a great deal. They have a lot of affection for their alma mater. One of the best resources of the College of William and Mary is the affection which its alumni have for the institution.
DSJ: Do they ask questions about how it’s going on here?
GN: Oh yeah. They ask about everything. They always do - always have. They are curious about life on the campus, curious about what’s going well, what’s not going well. Mostly curious about how things are perhaps different than when they were here…
Alumni are interested in the fate of the College. They are hopeful for its future. You know, when you get older you’re also fascinated by what life is like for 20-year-olds now, what challenges that you face, what the focus of career-interests and sort of how you look at the world.
DSJ: I’m curious about how the presidents - how you and Sullivan - interact and how that relationship is - that’s not something that is generally known.
GN: Let’s don’t talk about my relationship with Tim. We can talk about other things.
DSJ: On similar lines, with your upcoming renewal, how are you anticipating that to pan out?
GN: There’s a renewal process going forward. I hope that it involves input from a lot of the community. I think that’s a good thing. I think there are a lot of different opinions about the success of a presidency and a value of a particular president. There are a lot of different opinions in my case on that front. And there’s a formal process which they are putting in place to make that determination.
To be honest, I try to concentrate on a number of other things rather than that. That’s the Board’s decision, they’ll make a determination about what kind of president they want and how the College should go forward.
For me, there are all these remarkable areas of interest and focus that I try - struggle as I can - not to be diverted from. What we are doing on the campus in terms of faculty-student research, particularly at the undergraduate level is, I think, increasingly a national marker for the way that a liberal arts research university can function.
This review process is challenging and interesting to many. I try not to be obsessed by it or diverted by it because the work of the College is so important and what this place can do - compared to other institutions - is so remarkable and singular that... the College deserves to have the very best president that I can be. That means I try to keep my eye on what I think of as the actual ball rather than the review processes or whatever someone may be saying about me in the paper that particular day. I think it’s important to try and remain focused on the really potent and important work of the College, which is a full day’s job.
DSJ: Have any of the controversies caused you to rethink any of your policies or actions in the past - say, regarding the Wren Cross?
GN: You learn lessons and there are different ways of going about making decisions and the like. But I also think many of the issues with which we’ve dealt are important and crucial issues - they’re vital to the future of the College.
William and Mary is a great institution. It is meant to be a national leader in higher education. To do that it has to compete even more effectively at the highest levels of the academy... But it also has to open itself up, become less homogenous, less localized, more international, more diverse - economically, racially…
Some of the issues with which we’ve dealt in the last 3 years have been quite controversial. And some of them perhaps could have been handled differently. But it’s also true that they frequently relate to the very future of this College. And on some of these fronts, if it’s a question of whether we will have a more diverse student body, whether we will have programs like the Gateway Program, whether we will be inclusive to people of all backgrounds and faiths, those are important issues that it certainly could be worth having some controversy about.
DSJ: Is there controversy about [diversity]?
GN: Yeah. I hear discussions and questions about the Gateway program, about the increased diversity of entering classes and the like. People feel differently … some embrace them very effectively. In strong terms, others, perhaps, don’t…
They present some disagreement but they also can be vitally important to the future of the College. They’re not small diversions or fads - they are important matters to the future of the College of William and Mary.
DSJ: Do you have any comments on the results of the staff survey?
GN: Relationships with the staff here are crucial. They go to the heart of what the college is and there are many areas where we have more work to do. You can’t be satisfied with our staff salary structure - particularly at some of the lowest levels of compensation…
DSJ: A six-year plan was submitted to the state. There was something mentioned about a performing arts center … and I was wondering what that is?
GN: Our next frontier is an arts center, because we have… aging and decrepit facilities in the arts. And we want to have an arts program and arts facilities that match the quality of the institution. That arts facility will then be a little way down the road…
DSJ: The faculty are now reviewing the President’s Climate Commitment. Will you sign it when they finish?
GN: I am anxious to hear from them. I study the President’s Climate Commitment with energy and enthusiasm. I’m meeting with the LEE Committee… There are academic components in the Commitment… I asked the Faculty Assembly to report on the academic side of this… I am very committed to the issues presented in the PCC.
DSJ: How do you feel about the students’ relationship to Williamsburg as a community and through the government?
GN: I salute the efforts of the student government to reach out to the city of Williamsburg and the efforts of the city of Williamsburg to reach out and deal in congenial and thoughtful ways with the students. It’s no secret I’ve been pushing for a long time for changes in the way voter registration occurs in Williamsburg. I am immensely heartened by these changes.
I’ve never understood why students at the College of William and Mary should be treated differently than those of the rest of the Commonwealth of Virginia. I didn’t think it was permissible to do so and I am glad that that is being increasingly remedied. Given all we’ve just said, it would be a very odd group to pick out the students of the college of William and Mary for disenfranchisement.
DSJ: What are you going to do over winter break?
GN: I’m going to go to the Dominican Republic with the William and Mary Medical Corps mission.