Hello listeners it’s mallerie Willy Chief producer of the amify network and I want to take just a moment to tell you about another show on en rolify that I know you’ll love breaking silos aims to showcase the remarkable work of marketing professionals and their non-marketing colleagues from different departments across campus who come
Together to achieve common goals Implement new initiatives enhance the student experience and Foster better collaboration among teams hosted by shanee bini who leads marketing at mullenberg College each episode of Breaking silos will feature a marketer and their non-marketing colleague to talk about that partnership this unique format will inspire marketers to try new
Things and connect with colleagues in new ways while also allowing non-marketing professionals an inside look at some of the most collaborative projects in higher ed marketing new episodes drop every other Wednesday and you can subscribe to the show by by visiting podcast. enola.gay and staff are productive can be difficult for an Institutional
President especially if they’re leading a large institution but even for a small institution a president is doing their part to guide efforts to do so many things ensure student satisfaction raise money keep facilities together work with the local business Community work with elected officials etc etc etc etc so how
Did one of the most respected and recognized presidents in the country work with his faculty and staff well Walter Kimbrell visited I want to work there to talk about how he worked to create a positive Talent experience during his presidencies in this episode you’re going to learn three things one
You’re going to hear about the importance of establishing in a culture from the president’s seat two learn what it means to communicate honestly with faculty and staff and three if you’re an aspiring president you’re going to get a little advice so about my friend Walter Kimbro he’s a former president of
Phander Smith college in alerander Smith University where he got the moniker hip hop pre he was also the president of Dillard University for 10 years where he helped grow the endowment by 115% he also led the effort for AUM I giving to increase from 4% to 23% Dillard also under his leadership
Recorded his largest single alumni gift of $1 million and his largest single private donation of $5 million gift from McKenzie Scott he’s now the president in Residence with Ruckers University’s Center for msis and Walter earned his PhD in higher education from Georgia State University his masters from Miami
University of Ohio and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia you can read more about Walter Kimbro in the show notes but for now let’s get into I want to work There welcome to I want to work there a podcast that helps colleges and universities boost their brand as employers of choice I’m your host Eddie Francis brand strategy consultant for edify Ventures join me every other week for discussions with some of the best Minds in Talent Recruitment and Retention human res sources and
Marketing and Communications inside and outside of higher education I want to work there as part of the enroll ofy Network a robust collection of podcasts designed to help higher education professionals just like you grow and explore our other shows at enroll.org or check out some of my personal favorites
Linked In the show Nots below en rolify is made possible by element 451 the leading AI powered all-in-one student engagement platform helping institutions create meaningful personalized and engaging interactions with students learn more at element 451c joining us is Dr Walter Kimbro brother Kimbro president Kimbro hip hop press how you doing man great to have you on the podcast I’m doing good thank you I really wanted to get you on I want to work there because uh I I need to say
This to you publicly I truly enjoyed working under your Dillard um there were a lot of times when you really really I I think went out of your way to make sure that the employees understood that they were valued little things you did like extra days before the holiday break
You know the those two extra days made a big difference you know and the fact that you knew everybody’s name just about so many names for faculty and staff and and I thought it was really important to have somebody like you on the podcast too really talk about what
It is um that drove you so let’s start with this you have worked at different types of Institutions you’ve worked at predominant white institutions you’ve you’ve been president at HBCU and you’ve worked at HBCU so when it comes to work culture overall and I know I know every institution is different regardless what
Stood out to you about the work cultures of the different types of colleges and universities that you’ve worked at yeah I mean so there are a lot of differences I mean you know I started at emry that was my first full-time job uh and of course ‘s in Atlanta he got
Coca-Cola money so there is a level of not arrogance it’s it’s like there is a level of you know we’re the best it’s you know it’s like like I used to go to lunch all the time with the woman who was over International students and then in Greek life was in residential
Services and so the woman who was director of she did facilities team plus all the housekeeping and interior design so it wasn’t just like she was over facilities she was housekeeping interior design that kind of specialty and so like I got some award as um you know
Like AFA new professional of the year and I was excited she was like baby we all superstars here this the person who’s it was like so she’s black woman went to Spellman but that was sort of like that was Emory she was like we we expect I mean we don’t expect anything
Less we all superstars so it was like a level of expectation you know that we all are great they have this institutional self assuredness it sounds like y yeah yeah that’s I mean it’s just like I said all across the the institution that was like everybody was
Expected to be great and you just sort of felt that even though like I mean people were cool and you had real good people and there’s a friend of mine who started working there 30 years ago who still works there so all that is really good you know then being at Georgia
State during the time it’s Urban commuter moving into more residential so it was an institution trying to find this place and so it’s really sort of disconnected so it didn’t have a culture really you know what I’m saying they really trying to build like to say What’s the culture there Old Dominion
Also Urban commuter trying to build an identity the the president started the idea I got for doing lecture series actually came from Old Dominion because the president there was like nobody knows anything about us and he was doing the controversial things like Dr Ruth spoke there one year Phyllis slle Al
Sharpton I remember all that so um so they were trying to figure out like how do we create an environment in the state where you have William and Mary and UVA who is old to you so that was part of it uh Aly State Southwest Georgia um you have a lot of characters
In Aly Georgia so that campus that campus was full of like these vibrant I mean it could have been a television show it was like reality TV before there was reality TV that was Alban state it was just that kind of so it was a lot of
Fun I mean you had messing stuff going on too but it was fun so they had a you know that kind of environment I’m trying to think how I would describe fander Smith because it was a place that I think people realized was in a lot of
Trouble and so I was really trying to figure out like how do we survive and do some things differently so they had to go along for a ride to say if you look historically this is who we are how do we get back to that and I think once
People saw it happening they started to get a little more confidence to say okay I you know I but it was tough in the because you know I’m coming in as a new guy bringing all the bad news and say yeah we got this audit finding this audit and the federal government is
Coming so nobody wanted to hear all that so that was really tough um Dillard for me always said Dillard and I think to a degree still does have an inferiority complex and by that I mean people were too differential to Xavier and it pissed me off I was like zavier is a great
Institution I love Dr Francis I think he’s one of the greatest College presidents ever I like but y’all got a lot of good stuff here and a lot of good people and y’all always too differential to xavior I’m just like no so that was the thing that brought so my goal was to
Try to get us to have a little bit more Moxy if you will to be like okay y’all good but we good too like in in a couple of those cases like philander and Diller you when it came to the work cultures it sound like you had a lot of massaging to
Do like you had to come in and tell folks we got this you know but but we have to be confident in our eles that we can get through whatever happens well yeah L I mean you know I said philander was you know in an existential crisis so that was a
Challenge for them Dillard wasn’t like that I mean coming back after Katrina and things are coming back together you know finishing the the campus rebuilding all of that it was just in terms of for me realizing after meeting with so many people like my first six months I met
With 200 people individually I was like man it’s some really talented people here I mean I was I was just very impressed with people I want to come back to that about instilling a sense of confidence in folks because I you know I I remember the reception I got when it
Was announced that I was going to be the marcom director there and it was people were just like oh Eddie you were going to the right place and and it fits you like a glove before we get to that I want to St back to your introduction to
The presidency so your first presidency was philander Smith college now phander Smith University what’s something that you wish you had gotten a heads up about about being a president before you stepped in your into your first presidency for philander in particular I would have liked to have
Known how bad it really was I sort of knew I started December 13th and that Friday I flew back to Albany so we could pack up you know do Christmas pack up then move to Little Rock but I met with the board chair that Friday before I got
On the and I was like man y’all didn’t tell me what was going on here and he laughed he said yeah if we told you you probably would to come I was like cuz it was crazy it was in the first week it was you had people jumping ship the the
CFO took a job at gr he said nothing personal against you he said but I know who was coming in here so I need to find a job the VP for academic Affairs left the VP for inst advancement was leaving right behind that so I’m dealing with
Skeletal crew and I’m just finding all kind of stuff that nobody knew about and so you know I always tell new presidents I was like don’t come in somewhere new talking about my vision is X Y and Z because you’re gonna look crazy you have no idea what you don’t even know it’s
Gonna take 12 to 18 months we were finding stuff in drawers like bills that had been sitting in drawers that’s the kind of stuff we were finding so it’s like you got outstanding bills and people upset with you and you don’t even know why and I didn’t make any Grand
Pronouncements because I had done some work before the the previous president gave me a boxes of stuff and so going through some of that I realized like this stuff don’t add up so that’s why I sort of knew someone right and then after my first week I was like oh this
This place is a mess but that would be the thing just you know always be very careful starting not to come in seeing what you gonna do because you don’t know and that’s the best thing you need to come in knowing that you don’t know you
Don’t have a clue so I want to jump back to dealing with the work culture and and having to work with people to be more confident in the future because I I have to imagine that your first presidency knowing that you had a lot of stuff to
Deal with going in I can only imagine that you had to deal also with a lot of folks who were probably scared nervous confused not really know I mean is is that an accurate depiction of of what of some of what you saw or just general we
Is going to go along until somebody helps us figure this out I mean what was the culture there the work culture the culture was a one of of being in denial that people didn’t fully appreciate what was going on and they had been sold which is I mean me and the
Previous president but ahads because you know she wanted everybody to believe everything was great we had these new buildings on campus and this and this and I was like yeah that’s not it’s not an accurate reflection of where we are considering those kinds of issues that’s
Not bad yeah yeah we did a now we had to do a 20% increase in our tuition and fees which the students you know they absorbed but it was like man y’all charging like the Community College here which is why people think you’re a community college but you’re a private
Institution you can’t run the business on this it’s not enough money so we did all of that but you know I’m explaining to people what’s going on and people were upset and we had just started the lecture series or somebody was like indignant like were you going to cut the
Lecture series too I said yeah I might have to and I really didn’t want to because that was one of the bright spots for us that was bringing us some positive attention so I was just getting R the riot act and I was like oh so this
Is like that morning for faculty staff Institute so during lunch I was just sitting in my office just dejected like goly these folk man you know and so my assistant she came in there and fussed me she’s AKA and she said you better not let them people talk to you like that
You better go and tell these people what the real deal is and so when we started the second half of the day I brought out Southwest Atlanta Walter and I said when all this stuff was happening my address was 217 Savannah Lane Albany Georgia but yet there are some people sitting in
This room right now when all this was happening and you ain’t do nothing to prevent it and that ended it then it was like look I wasn’t hear when it started but we gonna fix it and then it was so you had to sort of put the pimp hand
Down then and be like look I didn’t do this y’all did this but I’m gonna fix it and that was it no more problems in I mean Eddie I like showed them the documents on the PowerPoint I went step by step this on this date so I’m clearly
Not there when all this stuff was happening and people mad at me I was like I wasn’t here I just showed y’all everything I gave them the academic version they didn’t understand that but when I said look I wasn’t here but some of y’all was okay they let it go that’s
Interesting that for them there had to be a wakeup call because the work the work culture was sleeping they they were it sounds like they were sleepwalking basically you’re listening to I want to work there at met Francis and we’re talking to Dr Walter Kimbro and he is a
President residence with the ruckles University Center on msis hey it’s Eddie Francis and I want to personally invite you to the industry’s hottest event this summer The engaged Summit hosted in Raleigh on June 25th and 26th the engaged Summit is your road map for AI Readiness in higher
Education sessions will focus on Cutting Edge AI applications that are reshaping student Outreach in in staff productivity and offering deep insights into Roi it’s a dynamic blend of theory and practice and it isn’t your typical conference think of it as a two-day Master Class where marketers and enrollment managers come together to
Learn how to respond to radical changes in Ai and its transformative potential forget yawning through sessions or clearing out your inbox we know you do it this event will provide inspirational programming truly tactical takeaways and best-in-class networking opportunities oh and the best part the engaged Summit is incredibly affordable use the
Discount code in Rolla 550 and you can register for just $99 so join your favorite en rolify Network creators at the engaged Summit this June learn more and register at engage. element451 can’t wait to see you there when did you realize that your presence as a president influenced the
Experiences of the faculty instead I mean it sounds like for you know your first presidency it came right out because you had to be a very strong voice to establish that culture so would you would you say that’s when that’s when you figured it out when you had
Your sister walk in and and and let you know how you had to handle that situation I had ideas as to how I wanted to approach the presidency I didn’t know I was going to have some of the challenges but you know particularly small HBCU that are Church related um
Have a you know they need somebody with some kind of pastoral field where you got to get to know people those kinds of things that’s very important as a part of the culture and that still exists so for example our director of facilities at phander was retired military I mean
It’s just like he would pop in the office office in the morning just talk you know what’s going on old school facilities person so he was just like I if it got really cold like I know I got to come early and check on my boilers
That kind of thing so he died several months ago so I’m in L Rock and I’m speaking on program because that’s the kind of I mean we had once I left for land we still had a relationship he had called me so it’s that kind of it’s a
Different kind of Rel and I think sometimes people at particularly small even at predominately white institutions but especially at black schools the president just can’t be this person with this title I just don’t think it works and there I think a lot of people just come in like I’m the president blah blah
Blah and I’m just like ah it ain’t really like that it’s about the relationships with the people the older receptionist in my office at fanda died about a month ago I just couldn’t get back to her funeral because her daughter contacted me and she was just like yeah
She always talked about you I was like oh miss Camp used to send my children money for every birthday and she sent $2 bills that’s how old school she was so I was like no we saw that car from Miss camp and it’s like them $2 bills in
There from Miss Camp so like I said but you have to have a relationship with people to do that and I think there are too many people who don’t want to have that kind of relationship you mentioned earlier like getting the you know extra days off I used to tell people Miss cat
Was the one that would come into my office and she’d be like doctor now you know it’s about to be this vacation you need to let these people go early so then I sent out the email like Miss cat told me to let y’all go and it’s funny
It’s funny to people because they like wait a minute you got the facility person who works at the president’s house telling it’s like exactly because I don’t want her fussing at me and so that’s literally what would happen Miss cat would come in and be like Dr they we
Need an extra day the the facility staff need to you need let our boss know okay I got it but it’s because it’s the relationship and people gota they gotta under and I think that that’s important like I said it’s not just the students it’s with faculty staff it’s and you
Learn that when you’re at schools like that that you know somebody dies there and it didn’t have to be somebody who works there when um Sharon Hutchinson over nursing where her mom died she said I want you to speak on the program I was like your mom didn’t go to Diller I
Don’t she said she was always on campus with her she said and she felt like Dill was her school and you were her president too and that Ed that was powerful for me I was like I got it and I was there speaking at her funeral
Because it was I just had no idea but she like this is my school so that means you’re my president but that’s you have to be present with people that they feel like they can be connected with you in that way uh at a big school it might not
Mean as much but at smaller schools I think they’re very much relationally driven so you have to at least make the effort and everybody ain’t gonna you know fool with you like that they’re not gonna care and that’s okay but for a lot of people in particularly people who
Normally get passed over and ignore it means a lot to them you know one of the things that we’ve talked a lot about on this podcast is the importance of connection and the importance of faculty and staff feeling a strong sense of connection so that they can better serve
Students can you think about times when it really made sense to you that as goes the the morale of the faculty and staff so goes the morale of the students a lot of times to me it’s always a balance because I am I’m very much student focused and I learned this at phanda
Sometimes the faculty of fander were jealous of the students which is funny to me so you try to balance some of that you know but you know particularly for faculty you want to give them space to do what they need to do but I think it
Is a balance that you know like I said at least knowing people which is why I try to set the tone at the very beginning let people know anybody who wants to get half an hour with me you come I got a series of some open-ended
Questions and like I said that Diller it took me over six months because I met with 200 people one onone for half an hour and so when you talk to that many people at least you sort of come in like you know you’re trying to learn who they
Are how long they’ve been there what have they seen but you start to develop a relationship so like I said somebody can hate you down the line but at least they had a chance in the beginning to sort of put their best foot forward and at least try
To have a relationship uh so I think that for me is always wherever I go next I’m gonna do the same thing I just I there’s too much that I learned from that and you start to develop relationships and there gonna be some people you click with initially some you
Won’t ever click with and that’s fine to but just to get the Insight from them is very important but it does show like I said to to spend that much time because most people don’t do that they’re like oh I’m going to do a listening tour and
You might have a room full of a hundred people that’s not you’re not investing in people when you do all that it’s I’m showing you an investment when it’s like you know I’m new I got a crazy schedule but I’m like several times a day I’m sitting down with somebody for half an
Hour that communicates something to people that like no you really about that life so I want to park on that for a second talking to 200 people listening to people a half hour a piece what was the theme that came up to you about the work culture there Dr Bradway she summed
It up the best and several people talked about this as well they was just like it was too many people with too many titles big eyes and little you and they wanted much more they just felt like it needed to be a little bit more democratic in terms of how the administration saw
People that was one of the strong themes to me that you know people felt like they were in administrative roles they were better than other people which is why I think for a lot of people for me to be as close as I am with Miss cat was something different because when nobody
Else talking about like I said Miss cat just roll up in the office and start talking about something but I could see her if I went home during lunch you know at the house or whatever if we needed something extra she would do whatever um
But that was one of the key people I listen to on campus Because she you know she’s at a different level and she sees something different that I don’t see or somebody like Michelle Matthew who gonna just tell you just flat out like is she a local person so it’s like when you
When people see that you really can engage with people and it’s not just people with the titles that gives you a different kind of credibility too so I heard that loud and clear from a lot of like I said Dr Broadway faculty member been there a long time but she was
Saying like this we got this discrepancy and how people are treated based on their titles so that was you know a a really strong theme and I think some other people felt like there need to be more effort placed in working with the students uh but you know there are some
People there though I was just like I If you were faculty there prior prior to Katrina and you hung through and you stayed engaged somebody like Dr a man my I got a different level of respect for somebody like that it’s just sort of like man you you went through hell with
Everybody else and you still here so with some people there you just got to recognize that like you know what’s really interesting is that a lot of times you just mentioned someone who had been there for a long time and and hanging through disasters and that sort of thing this is
A very interesting theme that’s come up just generally socially in in talking about the Biden pres presidency of people saying well you have to know when you’re too old to do the job and you have to step aside and I find that when people get into an institution or an
Organization it’s interesting to see the difference between the people who say okay you’re too old step aside and the ones who say no no no no no you have a lot of institutional knowledge that we need to really really hang on and you are really guiding a lot of this so
What’s your experience in in from the president seat what’s your experience there it sounds like you really value those people but but when you see the other side of people saying yeah yeah they’re too old it’s time for them to go which by the way is agism that is
Discrimination let’s be clear where do you see that sitting from the presidency it depends on the person I really think I mean I think there are some people that like we had a professor at philander who really was past his prime they couldn’t get him out of there they
Kept they War they put his name on this put his name on that and I was like he’s one of those people that feels like and it’s people who feel like this if they stop working they’re going to die and they finally convinced because his health was bad his so it’s like you
Worried about him getting hurt on campus and passing out so I mean you got a different level of concern now just for the humanity that person just like but then you know people just like oh you’re trying to push you you know you might
Say well we can come up with a plan for you to work parttime because I understood that it’s like people like that need to work but you don’t need to be full-time department chair you can’t handle that anymore and then people get mad I got some letters from some people
Like you trying to push them out it’s like no we value that but you know there’s there comes a point then you got some people who can be there 70 80 years old they just killing it and it’s like man you just let them do what they you
Just let them do so it’s it’s dependent upon the person and not necessarily the age I mean heck you have somebody young come in with a hard work like they got to go so it’s not it’s not always about age and sometimes it is but uh like I
Said it depends on the person because I know there are some people who just like they really live for that work and if they stop working they they and they probably sunken a lot of their identity into where they are so oh yeah it’s their identity yeah absolutely
Absolutely let’s flip the script I can only imagine what’s about to happen here so what something or some things that you wish employees understood about the presidency you know I’m trying to think um I think the thing that people don’t always understand and you’re seeing that because of all the presidential turnover
Right now is that it is in many ways an impossible job because you have so many different constit ues with competing interest and that’s like so people say well why can’t we I mean you just take faculty and students they are they don’t understand how much of competing
Interest that they are because faculty say we want to get a raise every year Well if your tuition dependent institution where does that come from it comes from students the students are just like tuition too high as it is I want tuition to go down so how do you
Fix that you got one saying I need more money and one says I want to give you less money so where does the money come from that’s that’s a part of it you have alums who you know they want to be like it was when they were
There no we mean times are different it can’t be like that anymore so they’ll be upset if that’s you know got people in the community want the institution to do certain things now you got federal government probing institutions they expect institutions that’s the so it’s people sometimes have to give presidence
A little bit more grace because On Any Given issue you’re going to have constituents that have diametrically opposed news and you’re trying to figure out how do I navigate this so you know at some point in time somebody’s always upset because you didn’t do what what they wanted you to
Do and how does in in turn how did you find yourself dealing with the work culture there I mean because we we we know you’re really student centered but when when you have I I can remember specifically when there were times and and I’m going to tell the
Audience this one of the things about about Walter that was so cool is that you took the time like once every what two weeks three weeks to put together an entire email a list of people’s accomplishments and thanking people for things and that sort of thing and I
Remember one there was one Professor who didn’t think that their accomplishment was highlighted enough and they um and they wrote something to you about it and everybody saw it and I was like oh man I don’t know if this person meant to do this but seeing things you know like
That seeing how people may respond because they have some sort of disappointment or that sort of thing where do you see that relationship and and how do you handle that so that other people so that it doesn’t it doesn’t infect the rest of the work culture sometimes they say you when you
Have an argument it really was an argument but it’s sort of like you have to listen sort of musically it’s not necessarily what they’re saying but what else is going on and in that particular instance it wasn’t really about me it was this person is in competition with
Somebody else in their department and they felt like that person was getting more shine so it was sort of like I sort of became a a casualty of a war that was going on between two faculty I mean that’s all it was it was like wait a
Minute I like I put your stuff in all the time why is my stuff below the student stuff it’s like because when I’m curating the list as things come in I just add them I don’t I don’t lift them based on your title or rank if the student thing happened before your thing
It goes before you well this faculty member their stuff is up here it’s like cuz they sit there as first I mean that was so it was like I said it was it had nothing to do with me but this became another thing because they fear it was
Going to be weaponized by the other person so in a battle which like I said these are two people who always sent me stuff and it wasn’t necessarily just about you know celebrating things it was sort of like I’m better than this other person in my department I mean I pushed
Back and I was like look I don’t have to I don’t have to send you know know put any of your stuff out there this is voluntary that I do so if you gon to have a you gon to get an attitude with me I just won’t put anything then you
Won’t get your feelings hurt so they backed off then it was that’s one of the times you just like look I’m about to be gangster like I ain’t got this is not a job requirement for me this is something I think is good for people to know then
They backed off I was like but I don’t like I said it was when you put the student in there I was like because the students thing happened before yours so as soon as I heard about it I just added to my list I keep a running list so I
Don’t have to try to go back through so when it’s the first of the month and the 15th I just send it out that’s really interesting though because that goes back to when you were doing when you were doing your listening sessions and that complaint came up about folks
Believing more in rank than they did in culture so so I I have to ask about that so how do you deal with that because one of the things I always talk about is I always talk about the fact that being in highered you’re in the people business
And and you have to figure out how to deal with people um and their issues and whatever they bring to campus and and all of that good Stu but you still have all those folks who believe firmly in hierarchy you know my title is this so I
Should get that how do you deal with that competing interest of hierarchy versus a true sense of community so I think part is you have to model some of that behavior you know how you allow people to treat you as a president what you expect is part of it
So you know people just like oh can we get your I like no I go through line get my own no so I have to be careful with that because you don’t want to insult the people who really want to do those things that’s my dad would always tell
Me like don’t turn out somebody else’s blessing if they want to do something for you sometimes you better let them do it okay so I try to balance but you know there are presidents who are pre Pradas and you go on their campus and you see
And I mean it’s like like they feet can’t talk it’s like coming to America when they walk they want the little pedals being thrown on the ground I mean it’s it’s that kind I’ve never been like that I’m just like no no I’m not I don’t do that it’s like if there’s certain
Things we need to do you know we got an event we got these extra chairs okay let me move some chairs let me wipe off some when you do enough of that people realize like okay so if somebody ask you to do it you don’t get bent out out of
Shape because the president will do it too so I think that’s just you have to model that kind of behavior you Model Behavior because you know the the the people on the facility staff and you can call them by name and have a conversation with them um you know I
Remember one of the I think when it was Isaac when we first got here Hurricane Isaac and being at the president’s house they were trying to figure out how to come over after and uh you know clean up some of the broken branches and stuff I
Was like it’s four of us in this house and we all Able Body we gonna clean this up and put it on the y’all can haul it away but we gonna do it and my kids were little Benjamin was three like we G we gonna clean up and do it so that they
Were just like oh wait the president can’t be I was like no we mean we get to live for free at least we could do his help clean up you know what I’m saying so those kind of thing people hear those those kind of stories just like and the
President would let us do X Y andz it’s like yeah these kids need to do some stuff so I think it’s I think it’s role model and so the expectation like I said I’ve been on campuses with other presidents and you see how they’re treated and what they what they expect
From people hey there have been presidents I probably shouldn’t say it I’m GNA say it anyway when Dr Hughes was pres it was funny it’s a for funny story because she had a meeting at the alumni house and you know on our campus where Rosen wallall is where the president’s
Office is in in the alumni house and so they would drive her around the back of the campus to the alumni house for the meeting so when I first had a meeting over there with with Adrian who was over alumni Affairs at the time you know I
Walked from my office for my 30-minute meeting I walked over there and met with her so when we were about to leave she said did you drive over here and I looked at her like she was crazy and thought she she probably knew I was so
We stepped outside I said my office is right there she said I know that’s she told me this whole story and I was like that was crazy to me we’re talking about a two-minute walk it took longer to get in the car and drive around than it did
To walk but just like walking on campus and doing some of that they’re presents at and I guess based on their situation some that have to walk on campus with security I said I would never be a president of a place where I have to have Security on my own campus that
Ain’t happening um but those are it’s little things that you do that sets the tone as well for people in terms of particularly when dealing with the hierarchy so I never want to be accused of you know the big eyes and little you because I heard that too much and that’s
Like I said growing up as a preachers kid you ain’t really have a whole lot of that you had do everything that need to be done you know that’s how my dad was as a minister he try to have people doing stuff for him all the time you
Know he like he get a car he could drive he didn’t need a driver I know there are a lot of aspiring presidents who always ask you about what they need to do to get into the position if you had to give them advice about what they can do to begin fostering a
Productive Talent experience for faculty and staff what would you tell them so in the roles that they have um they can practice doing that um and I always just try to tell people that’s shouldn’t necessarily it could be your goal but the the real goal is to find something
That you really love doing um because you don’t have any guarantee that you’ll ever be a president so you got to find something that you love doing and you do a good job at but then you can start learning how to develop that kind of culture you know when I was a vice
President of student affairs at ALB State you know my team you know developing that kind of culture where you know I’m still in touch with some of the folks I spoke for commencement December commencement that would have been December 2022 and folks who are on
My staff that I saw you know just like it was like old homecoming week you know what I’m saying that because it’s kind of relationships that you develop with the people so you can practice those kinds of things and you know we started an a Wars program for student affairs
And we did our own retreats and you know convocation for our people you know our opening sessions those kind you can practice that if you got a staff of three people so those are just skills that you practice and then you know larger your staff you keep finding new
Ways to engage people um but that’s something that you can do no matter what your role is and I think those are important skills to develop that we don’t talk probably enough about you know I’m I’m going to tack on one one one more small question what about keeping your best faculty
Staff so it depends some you want to keep some you should be grooming for them to go do the next best thing too so some sometimes you have folks who really need to go and you need to push them to be like okay youve done this now it’s
Time to do something else so I think you have to be supportive with that faculty normally a little bit more stable that you want to try to keep them I mean we had there were some times at Dill where we had people who made offers for some
Really good faculty and we counter CU I was like no they can’t have that one nope now there might be some people that’s like you hope somebody will offer them something so they could you know go so you look for those but um I was just
Like no you can’t you can’t have that one so no we made counters a couple times and we lost one once lost the two lane we couldn’t compete with t Lane in terms of money but a few years later she came back and one of the reasons is that
She felt like there was much more of family much more of a community at Diller so that was to me the highest compliment because she definitely came back back for less money but she felt like the community there was much more uh engaging and welcoming than being at
A place that paid more money so that was a message to me sort of like okay I mean this is a white faculty member too so it’s like wow that that says a lot you know what I’m saying I thought that was very powerful so yeah it’s you know it
It depends on the circumstance you know sometimes you got people at critical moments you know you got faculty who are in important programs that are you really building out you don’t let them go by any means necessary uh sometimes there other folks is like no it’s time
For you to go it’s a great opportunity you need to do it how can I help you get that opportunity so it’s got to be a mixture um depending upon the person Walter Kimbro is the president and residents at the Ruckers University Center for MSI is also former president
Of phander Smith college former president of Diller University hey man thank you so much for joining me on this episode of I want to work There I want to work there as part of the enroll ofi podcast network if you like this podcast chances are you’ll like other enroller five shows too our podcast network is growing by the month and we’ve got a plethora of marketing enrollment and highed Technology shows that are jam-packed with stories ideas
And Frameworks all designed to empower you to be a better highered professional our shows help higher ed marketers and admissions professionals find their next big idea and features selection of the industry’s best as your hosts learn from Jamie hunt mallerie Wily Seth Odell D Kibbles Jenny Lee Fowler and so many
Other of your favorite leaders in higher ed and rolify is made possible by element 451 the leading AI powered all-in-one student engagement platform helping institutions create meaningful personalized and engaging interactions with students learn more at element 41.com A
source
