Questions from the audience. Please feel free to add your questions at anytime, and I will do my best to moderate. Introduce them into conversation. And now I am pleased to formally introduce our speakers. Dr. Jake Shrumm and Miss Du Cunningham. Jake. Shrum currently serves as interim vice President for advancement at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. In his role he oversees fundraising alumni relations, communications, and marketing a widely respected higher education administrator. He has served as a President of Texas, Wesleyan University. Southwestern University, and Embry and Henry College. He has also served as a senior advancement leader at both Yale and Emory. Jake holds a BA. From Southwestern University, a masters of divinity from Yale University, and an honorary doctorate from Southwestern. He is a past chair of the case board of Trustees, Associated Colleges of the South, Independent Colleges and Universities. Of Texas and the Council of independent Colleges in Virginia. He has served on the boards of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. The American Council on Education, the Council for Independent Colleges, the Association of Governing Boards, Council of Presidents, and Agnes Scott College, so Cunningham leads case. The Professional Association, serving 97,000 advancement, professionals at 3,100 schools, colleges, and universities in 80 countries. She is the author of the book. Global exchange, dialogues to advance education prior to case. She served as vice principal for advancement at the University of Melbourne. Director of Development for the University of Oxford, Director of Development at Christ Church, Oxford, and as Director of External Relations at the University of St. Andrews. Sue received a master's degree from the University of Oxford, and a bachelor's degree in performing arts from Middlesex University, London, Sue serves as a trustee and member of the Executive Committee for the University of San Diego she was recently named the New Council of Higher Education as a strategic asset in the United States. She is an honorary fellow of the Melbourne graduate school of education, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Jake and Sue welcome. We are so excited to hear from you and participate in this conversation. I will turn the program over to you. Well, Lindsay, thank you enormously for that introduction, and huge thanks to all of our amazing volunteers in District 3 for having conceived of today. And I have to say I'm incredibly excited at the opportunity to speak with Jake over the next hour, and to hear questions from those who have joined us, and I recognize names as well lovely to see some people again and see some new faces as part of this webinar discussion but really today, is really about focusing in, on our guest, speaker, who is so deeply immersed, and has done so much as a leader in higher education across the sector and out of the case. Am I always feel somewhat humble when I'm meeting with someone who Chad case a few minutes ago, and it's wonderful to have this opportunity to connect and meet. And have this conversation. So, Jake, welcome! Thank you so much, Sue, and I'm excited to have the conversation as well, and before we we were talking to everyone I wanted to say again to you that that I think you are doing a fabulous job as chair of case, and I'm glad to meet you. In this way, and hope to meet you in person sometime. Thank you very much. It'd be wonderful to meet you and personal. It's as I said earlier, also being present in your face, having the opportunity to work with such amazing colleagues and volunteers around the world, is is really what makes this role so exciting, and in fact, I'm just back from travelling to meet with members everywhere from San Diego to Bergen, in Norway and Melbourne, in Australia and Hong Kong. So the wonderful introduction that Lynny offered in terms of how cases grown and developed under your chairmanship, Jake, and beyond, is very exciting. See? But can I start off by asking you, Jake and I look forward in a little while to invite you questions from those of us who have joined us? So please, if you think about questions, do I? Encourage you to put them in the chat? And we look forward to introducing those in our conversation. But, Jake, can you share with us? Because the combination of being an advancement leader? And then an institutional data to me seems like a magic, an obvious transition. But not many people admit it. So what what was your path to the Presidency? Well, I I had first of all I had a great college president myself, who who made a huge impression on me when I was a student, and I thought to myself at that time it was this person can have this kind of effect on a student. Wouldn't it be a great job to have? And he lived in the biggest house on campus? He seemed friendly. He was a good fundraiser and a good human being, and I thought this might be a wonderful job, but I had no idea you know how you would go about doing that. I first went to graduate school at Smu, thinking I wanted to be a minister. And to be a counselor, and I ended up not wanting to listen to people's problems. 8 h a day, even though that's what I did as a college president. And I decided to transfer to Yale Divinity School because they had a program for people who were interested in religion and higher education. And so I finished my divinity degree at Yale and started working. In alumni relations and fundraising. Almost immediately after graduating, and then just kept kept moving up into the advancement field, first at at Yale, and then at Yale Divinity School, and then at Muulenburg College, and then at Texas Wesleyan from I'm a Texan so moved back to Texas, and then at Southwestern, where I went to school and met my wife Jane, and then Emery University, in Atlanta, and then I was asked to be the President of Texas Wesleyan, and then it's asked to be the President of South Westestern, and then I was asked to be the president of Emory and Henry College. So 9 years it Texas, Wesley, and 13. It's Southwestern, and I promised Emily and Henry I'd be there at least 6, because I took the job when I was 67 years old, and I stayed 6 years. So I felt like I've kept my promise to them. And then we retired. Here in Atlanta. Yeah. But speaking of retiring in Atlanta, you haven't exactly succeeded in retiring. Vp, I'm just intrigued. What? What is it? Is your experience as an advancement professional, that has best served you for being an institutional president? What would the key facets that really were valuable for you? In that transition. Well, I think I think optimism is probably one of the greatest assets that you can have. I mean, if you're if you're constantly seeing the glass half empty, I don't really think you can be a very good advancement person, no matter what part of advancement you're serving in. You know whether it's communications or alumnae alumni relations, whatever I think you have to really be an optimist and believe that what you're doing is going to help, you know. Help the well-being of humanity. And so I've always saw myself as an educator. And then, secondly, I saw myself as as an advancement person, and then, you know, as I was coming up, and then maybe saw myself as an alumni relations person. But I think if you don't think of yourself as an educator, and if you don't think if you're a president, if you don't think of yourself as the Chief Education Officer, I think you've kind of missed the boat, you know CEO can stand for a lot of things, but I think if you're the CEO of a college or university, it's it's wisest. I think, to think of yourself as the Chief Education Officer. It's really interesting. What would you say in terms of the shift one has to make in your own mind of transitioning from leading advancement as you are doing again now, and leading an institution. What's the perspective shift that has to take place? Well, yeah, I don't really quite think it's as complicated as sometimes it seems. I think if you have a lot of comments, a lot of things that you know you can do well in advancement prepares you to really look at the entire institution and and be the head of it. School the head of an institution, one of the things that I think is absolutely critical. And actually, I've never seen a college president or university president who did not have at least one really good mentor. I was very fortunate to have 2 outstanding mentors. I had others, but I had 2 that were just outstanding. One was one of the great small college presidents, and was chosen by the Ford Foundation as one of the top 100 small college presidents in the country at the time, and the other was the longtime president of Emory University Jim Laney who later became the ambassador to South Korea, those 2 people taught me so much about about being the president of a college or university. They taught me a lot about empathy. They taught me a lot about the core competencies that I know. Case, you know, is talking about these days of leadership, integrity, professionalism, strategic thinking. Name just a few. Both of these men, and they were men. And now we're for a woman. She has a lot of these as well. Those those were core competencies that they had, and I wanted to go and work at those schools because I wanted to work for that person. And I wanted to see how they did things, and you know, some of the things they did. I didn't like that much, but most of what they did. I would say 90 to 95% of what they did, I thought was wonderful. So I was able to learn a great deal from them. So I guess one of the things I would say to people who are on this zoom, you know, if if you don't have a mentor, you know. Look around it's somebody you admire in the field, and you'd be surprised if you asked them to be your mentor and maybe to visit with you a couple of times a month, you know, for 30 min or once a month for an hour. You'd be surprised how many people would be willing to do that for you and it would probably be just as a wonderful for them as it is. I think it would be for you. I know that's really important advice. I remember when I was moving to Australia, to run the advance, you know, and seeking out a mentor, actually, someone who I've known as an alumnus at Oxford, but who wasn't in education at all, but he was a business leader in Melbourne and I what I felt. I felt I need. It was mentorship around a culture and a different place. And working in that environment. And it was absolutely invaluable. So I can carry with you sort of not the question I have about transitioning from advancement into leading an academic institution. Is the extent to which there may be a perception amongst the faculty of a President should be someone who is deeply immersed in academia. They are someone who has spent their whole time working their way up the academic ladder, clearly using, you have academic credentials, and you've had a career which is covered both academic and advancement. So. Did you ever meet that? And if you did, how did you tackle it? Sure I did, and, and, interestingly enough, the place where that happened the most was it my own Alma Mater? When I went to South Western it was really good regional college, but by the time I became President it was, I think, ranked Number 50 s in the country as a National Liberal Arts College. It had a 350 million dollar endowment and 1,200 students and a Phi Beta Kappa chapter, and a lot of really bright faculty members. And the fact that I did not have an earned Phd. Was a problem for I'd say 15, you know, 1617 of those faculty members for the rest of them. No problem at all, you know I always try to address whatever the elephant in the room is. So if you know, if I don't have a an academic Phd. And earned. Phd. I have a honorary degree, but I you know I never really. I never really call myself doctor, or ask anyone else to either. But you know I I don't try. I'm not trying to be someone. I'm not, you know. I'm not a person who came up through the classroom, who was a diplomat chair and so forth. And and then I usually say to the faculty, What I hope you'll judge me on is how much I support what you believe in, how much I support the academic enterprise, how much I support you know finding ways to give you, sabbaticals finding ways you know to help you get money from the loose foundation for a professorship, or a chair, or something like that. Look at what I do for the academic enterprise rather than judging whether or not I'm capable of doing this job because of the degrees that I have. Absolutely. And and that seemed that seemed to work for most people. That's really. And that makes a hundred 50 cents. That's a really helpful, and I think the heart of what you're describing is not tending to be something you're not, and really bringing the strengths that you did with. If you look back on your remarkable career, are there things now that it would have been helpful to know earlier on? Are there things that you wish you'd known at the beginning, before you were stepping? If you wrote a precedent for example? I would say that the thing that we somebody had coached me on very quickly, even before my first presidency, would have been to say, When you can see that you don't have the right people on the bus, especially on the President's senior staff some people call it a cabinet. I never called it a cabinet, because I think only the President United States has a Cabinet President of States has a Cabinet, President of colleges and Universities. Have you know, senior colleagues, when you see that that you don't have the right person in the right seat on your senior staff, make a change, make a change for them and for your for yourself and for the institution, and do it quickly. The obviously, you wanna wait a while to see how you work with them. And to decide for yourself whether or not they can actually do the job. Well. But once you decide that they're not helping as much as they can, then what I always tried to do is to try to help them find something some other place where they could be successful, but so I could find someone who could be successful at my institution. So I really wish somebody had pushed me hard on that. I did ask. When I left Emory I asked Jim Laney, the President. It was not real happy. When I was leaving. He's I asked him. I said, Jim, what are the 3 pieces of advice you give me? Starting off as a new president and he's one of the wisest people I know, and he looked at me and he said only 3, so I thought, Oh, well, you know, and he said, Okay, I'll give you 3. Said first of all, in the first year, don't spend any money. You and Jane, my wife Jane, who, by the way, is here in the room and listening to all of this, you and Jane don't spend any money on yourselves that you know people will say, well, you know they came here and they're just spending money. On themselves, and what about the rest of us like, you know? Don't go somewhere and spend a million dollars on a President's home, or or whatever that just looks like. It's for you and not for the rest of the institution. He said. That's number one, number 2. Never lose your temper with a faculty member. And he said, The reason is because they will never forget it. Hmm! They never forget it. And he said, the third is, never lose your temper with a student. Because, he said, Jake, you will never forget it if you lose your temper with a student. Brilliant advice, really really good advice. It really was very straightforward, very common sense, but wonderful. So you know better than anybody how important it is for the chief of advancement, and the President have a close working relationship. So when you crossed over to the other side and were questioned, how did you approach that relationship? Well, the first thing I tried to do, and, fortunately for me and all 3 of the institutions where I served as president, I had terrific advancement. People running our advancement in couple of cases I had worked with them before, and offered them, you know, a job to come and work with me. At Texas, Wesleyan, and it's southwestern. When I went to Emory and Henry I. Inherited a advancement person who had been the chief of advancement for the Presidential center at the University of Virginia, and he was very, very bright and very good, and you know what I would say is you know I have some ideas. About advancement. But you know you're the Chief advancement officer, and I want you to be pushing me all the time telling me what you think I need to be doing, and so forth. And I may jump in occasionally if I have a good idea, and and sometimes I may say I think it's a better idea than something else has had. But but I tried to stay out of their hair and let them push me, because I realized that if I was gonna try to be the Advancement Person all the time I I couldn't run the rest of the institution. So so I've you know it again. Hire really good people, encourage them, you know. Pay them what you can. Congratulations, then, when they do a good job, you know. Put your arm around them. Not really anymore, but put your arm around them when they're sad, and things are not going well for them, and let them know you value them, and the people will. They'll work their hard out for the institution. Not necessarily for you, and and I say you're not working for me. We're all working for Emery and Henry. We're all working for Texas, Wesleyan, we're all working for Southwestern. We're all working for you. Don't work for me. You work for the organization. I think the what you just expressed reminds me of a piece of advice I sort was given from my campaign for chair when I moved from a small team to leaving a team of 150, and I asked him his advice. And he said, I'd need to. What only you can do. And what you're describing in terms of. If you'd stepped into the advancement role as well as being president, then there was someone in that role to do it, and therefore, setting yourself aside from that. But and I also love what you're describing about ultimately. Right. This is all about the organization that needs to, and forging that path ahead. Right. You would share of case when becoming a truly global organization was beginning to bubble up case. You was in this early years and early stages, and of course, as you know, there's now and often Asia Pacific. There's one in Latin America, we have members in 80 countries around the world, and still we have a really substantial membership here in the Us. Which is, which is, it's rightly important to valuable case. What are your thoughts on, on how people value being part of the global organization? What? How does it benefit somebody sitting in Georgia or in California or in Texas? That professional association is a global one. What's the value of connecting beyond our shores? Just a couple of initial thoughts, Sue. One is it may sound interesting to you, but the first case conference I went to was in 1973 that's for most of you on the call were born probably but anyway, the first one I went to I was working for Yale. University, and one of my colleagues said, they're having a case conference in Montreal. Would you like to take the train and go up? So we went from New Haven to Montreal? It was. It was the first. I think it was one of the first major Conferences case had in 1973, and I was there, and I thought first of all, I thought, I'm working for a world-class university, and if case is having their first meeting for this whole area of the country in Montreal. They're looking at more than just the United States. And so war. So that was one of my first thoughts about keys. And then, when I was chair of Case, we were coming under a lot of criticism from districts, because Case didn't feel like we were paying enough attention to the districts. So why in the world would you be going around the world trying to expand case around the world when you're not even doing what you really we think you ought to be doing here? I mean, we were doing a lot of good things here in in in the United States and in North America. But but we felt it was important to branch out and to and to make this a worldwide organization and bring the understanding of advancement to as many people institutions around the world as possible. Interestingly enough, the last case conference there I attended. I was a speaker, and it was it in business school, right outside of Paris? So you know, Case, Europe was really beginning to take hold when I, you know, step down as chair, and that was one of the last things one of the last duties I had is chair is is to is to make an address. In. So I think most members of case understand that we live in a in a world that is getting smaller and smaller in terms. Of how things around the world affect all of us. So, for instance, you know when the for when the forests are being cut down in Brazil, that means that that affects the air we breathe in this country. Can we get mad at them for that? No, right. We did that at the turn of the last century, because we wanted to. All that timber, and so forth and so on. They're trying to. They're trying to help their economy. I mean, it doesn't help global warming. But you know we're trying to. They're trying to help their economy. I mean, it doesn't help global warming. But you know, we can' but the point is something happening. Brazil is affecting us. My daughter, our daughter Kate is finishing her master's degree at Smith in social work this this summer. She'll walk across the stage August 20, seventh, and when we talked to her last night she could hardly breathe because of the wildfire smoke from Canada affecting western Massachusetts, and so I would think that most case members if they think of themselves. First of all as an educator. First, they would think I am really glad to be long to an old organization that is, that is really worldwide on several continents. And and I'm going to learn from people whether it's through zoom or meetings. I go to, or connections I make, I'm gonna learn something about another culture and work on. You know, global and cultural competence, which is, you know, one of embodies one of your competencies in them. In the comments see model. So I would think most people would be thrilled. They have a an organization that thinks that way, and quite frankly, in that they have a leader in who is, you know, not necessarily from this country. I don't know where you are from, but it sounds like you're from. Maybe maybe Scotland or something I don't know. Thank you. And I'm really glad that my colleague Jacob, is recording this session because I just want to cap. I would capture what you just said, because I think it was useful, really beautiful, and well, my accent gives where I was born in California. Oh, okay. Jake, but I did most of my growing up in the Uk. And lived. You're right. I lived in Scotland, and in Wales and in England, and then in Australia. So I'm confused, but I compete. And one of my greatest joys in this role is is seeing the wisdom and the learning and the innovation from every part of the globe in forming what happens elsewhere, and I think I think no place has a monopoly on inspiration of good ideas, and I think that sense of community that we all know kids have. Yeah. That's amazing. There's no other professional association that has to wider reach in terms of educational institutions anywhere in the world. So it's a deep privilege to have that connectivity at Community Lindsay. I'm looking at you to see if there are any questions in the chat, and if there are, we'd love to hear them. If they're not. I've got many more. They're not at the moment so feel free to continue, and then to the group. If you've got anything that you'd like for us to introduce, please feel free to put it in the chat. That would be great. Thank you. And this people have questions. It will be lovely to if people are able to come on camera so that we can. We can see. I think we're a small enough group that it would be lovely just to open this up to a conversation. So please do feel free to leap in. I'm really interested in your transition from failed retirement to being to being an active vice president. So how did that happen? And how is it being back in the advancement leadership chair? Well, you know I've I jokingly said to to someone the other day that I'm well on my way to a career where I started in the Advancement Office and became a press. And now I'm back in advancement, and my next goal is to be the alumni director somewhere. Very good. But anyway, anyway, but I love all these role. I mean I do I I love advanced work, I love every part of it, and so so it's been fun, and it's been especially enjoyable and worthwhile here at Agn Scott, because I get to work with so many makes so we have a staff of 22. And we have 2 males on our staff, that everyone else is is female, and and many of them are graduates of Agnes Scott. And so I've been able. I've been able to. Really, you know, see how incredibly competent our staff is, and so what I tried to do is be the encourager, and and to say, you know, let's try that idea that's that's that a try and see what happens. And if it doesn't work well, we're do something else. That wasn't the atmosphere. I don't think right before I got here. I think it was a. There was a little toxicity, and so that's that's been kind of welcomed and it's a it's a it's enjoyable for me, because because I get to work with people who seem to be happy and seem to be valued and are doing a great job. We just went over our overall goal last week, almost 30 days before the end of the year. That's wonderful. Jake. Congrats. And so you know things seem to be going well, you know, I actually I actually flunked retirement twice when I was 67 I retired from Southwestern. I thought I was gonna live in Texas. Jane and Jane, my wife, had. We bought this wonderful bungalow that we really loved. And and then Emory and Henry came along, and we weren't planning to do another presidency. But we fell in love with Emery and Henry, and quite frankly, I would have been happy to have been at Emery and Henry. My entire career. It's just an absolutely fabulous institution. But then, you know, we retired here in Decatur, Atlanta, because our younger daughter lives here, and and she talked us into coming here, and then I had said to the President of Agnes Scott, if you ever need any help, and I can help let me know and she was gracious but you know, she said you know I knew she wasn't gonna call, and then she did call and said, Were you serious? So it I've enjoyed it. I I can't tell you that it doesn't feel like work. It feels like I'm having a wonderful time. We're making progress. We're all teaching each other things. I bring a lot of people in from the app. We have members of case. And I try to send especially our younger when they first get here. Our younger staff persons to case conferences locally, we don't have a huge budget for professional development, but when we spend it we start it on case. I think that's another question I want to capture and congratulations on surpassing goal, and also congratulations to you and Jane on your daughter's imminent graduation. That's wonderful. And just to say to those of you who are gathered here when we were having our pre conversation, I was inquiring about Jake's Scotty dog PIN, which is the mascot for Agnes Scott, and I understand one gets his results. To be gift so Jake I have already. I've made my gifts, and I look forward to getting one. Jesse. I will make sure I will. I will make sure you do, Sue. That's one. Thank you. Thank you, Jesse. It's very good to see you. I think you put a question in the chat that I invite you to speak it. Sure sure great to see you too, and Jake great to hear from you. I've been taking notes, some of which I put in the chat. But yeah, I guess my question. It's kind of a classic, but it's simply what surprised you when you became a president. What was there that you didn't expect? I think you know many of us work directly under Presidents. Perhaps we've done that for a long time. So we maybe we think we know what it's like to be a president. But then, when you are one, I'm sure there are some surprises. So I'm curious what those were for you. Great question, thanks. Jesse. Yes, thanks for that. That question, Jesse. It's it is a good one. They're always surprises. They're just different surprises at different places. You have to learn pretty quickly to not let your mouth drop open so quickly. But you know. Hi I I don't think there was, you know I had worked it as a small institution for fabulous President Roy Schilling, and here at Emory, and even when I was at Yale, interacted just a few times, not much with Kingman, Brewster who was the iconic President Yale. I I thought every surprise was an opportunity to do something, and it was an opportunity. Quite frankly, Jesse, in many, in many cases it was an opportunity to do something, and think about how what you're doing affects the way students look at you and look at administrators because students, they're smart. You recruited them because they're smart. They come to your institution. You're trying to, you know. Help them move along in their educational journey. But they're looking for role models. They're looking for people who have integrity here at Agnes Scott. We say that we're educating women to think deeply, to live honorably, and to engage the most difficult issues of their time. I don't know. I don't know of another mission statement that I think captures what we're all about as much as that one does here at Agnes Scott. So, you know. I was surprised a little bit at some of that, you know, when you're in one area of an institution. You don't see some of the pettiness that you do when you're the president, and you see, you know, you see, pettiness, that that you would like to fix that you wish you could make better. But you know I don't think there was. You know you get to a place, and the place has been. It Texas westing. We had not balanced the budget in 14 years, so I knew, and we'd lost 400 students in the last 3 years. And so I knew that I we had to recruit students, and I knew that within 2 years I had to balance the budget, and so, you know, we did that. And and when I left we had 3,000 students, and we had acquired and gotten a law school. Accredited by the Aba. We had an evening program. We had a weekend university. We were trying to. We were trying to really do things that a lot of schools at that time had not started doing like getting into the health sciences we had a graduate program in in nurse anesthesia and that begs the question, did we have a nursing program. No, we would get students from other nursing programs who had worked in, you know, the for a couple of years, and we would give them their 2 year degree in a nurse anesthesia, and they would walk out and start making a hundred $45,000 a year just as soon as they started. That's fine. That's pretty good. So you know I you look at you. Look at the surprises and if if you're looking at the glass half full, you'll saying, What can we do with this? How can we make something of this? How can we make this better? And I've tried to do that. I mean, I've failed at doing that. It's many times, but it's fun to try to do that. Yeah. Go ahead. And Jake, can I get you back on Jesse's question a bit? Listen to your answers, then. I'm really keen at Mary. Had a question in the chat with I'm keen to bring in. But this things you speak in particular about Texas, Wesley, and example. One of the things that I think many of us struggle with is is sun setting. So in focusing on what you need to do to build enrollment, balance the budget. What that things that you determine. Okay, we're gonna stop doing that. We're gonna stop doing that because it doesn't contribute to that goal. And how do you go about? If you've been successful in this determining what a sunset, what to stop doing! Well, I you know, if we had been, if Texas Wesley had been out in the middle of nowhere, we would have probably had to sunset some things right away. But we were in. We were in Fort Worth. We were in a metroplex area that had, you know, 10 million people, and my thought was that if we can't get the enrollment back up 3 or 400 people, then we probably shouldn't be around and that in and of itself, would help us balance the budget. So I didn't really sunset anything. I just said to the trustees, Give me 2 years to balance the budget, and the first thing I did was I recruited development, I mean a and it enrollment officer who worked for me 3 times 4 times. He worked for me at Texas, Wesleyan. He worked for me at Southwestern. He worked for me at Emory, and Henry as Chief enrollment person, and I would give him. He was so good I would give him 4 days a month to consult with other schools, and he would turn around their programs. And so that gave him yeah. Gave him some extra money, because we, you know, couldn't always pay with some of the richer schools, could pay. And you know I kept him for a long time, and he knocked it out of the park, and so that was so important, as you know, for smaller schools. Enrollment is a must just like raising money. If you don't raise the money you don't get to do anything, and it at some point you don't get to have a school. So so that I concentrate on those. But I did have to sunset some things. It Emery and Henry and I did have to. Finally sunset. Some things that weren't working at at Texas, Wesleyan. But I tried not to do that first. You can't cut your way into success. You just can't do it. You have to come up with some ideas and some hard work, and some to use a football metaphor, metaphor, some blocking and tackling that just has to be done that a lot of people don't want to do anymore. They just don't work that hard. And you know it's hard to find good enrollment. People. It's hard to find good, you know. Fun raisers. It's hard to find good communications, people, and a good electronic relations. People. Hello, alumni relations, he! I've had to start saying alumni relations here. Goes back to what you said a few minutes ago about having the right people in the right position. Mary. Yeah, I was, I was thinking the other day just real quickly, you know, I saw an advertisement for a college president, and they were it said We we are looking for 3 things. I mean, this was pretty interesting. 3 things. This was a search firm. The school is looking for someone who's competent, someone who is courageous and someone who is winsome. And I would add to that empathetic, because I I think empathy is gonna be one of the most important things going forward in leadership, whether it's a college or university government. Whatever you know, if you can't put yourself in somebody else's shoes and empathize with them, you're gonna have trouble getting their attention. These days. So anyway, I know those relate to several of the things that are on your core competencies. Thank you very much. No, I completely agree. And I think I just often hear you work with me. I think it's perfect, especially Mary. Would you be kind enough to ask your question? Hi! Happy to. And actually, I think you've answered a lot of this President Trump. But it was, how do you spend your day-to-day job as a president and I think you did speak to that already. But so my follow-up question is, how important is your partnership with the Board? Any university where you've worked? Great question. Thank you, Mary. Thank you, Mary. That is a really good question. And it's it's Jake you just call me Jake. Please. If I can call you Mary. So it's a crucial. I mean it. I tried to. I guess it was about 80% turnover of the board at Texas Wesley, and when I was there it wasn't a strong enough board hit too many Methodist ministers on it, and by the way, I am a Methodist minister but I that I ask a Bishop of the Methodist Church to help me look at how we could strengthen the Board, and he's the one that made the recommendations that we had too many Methodist ministers so it allows us to get more business people. And people who, you know, have wealth, and so forth. On the board that's absolutely crucial to diversify we diversified the board both in terms of gender and you know, ethnic racial diversity. You know more women, more graduates on the board. I've always felt that if you can't put your own graduates on your board, what does that say about your institution? You know that you that you're educating people to go out and change the world? But oh! By the way, the part of the world that you can't change is your own Alma Mater. Well, that's crazy! Now, I think Harvard and Yale overdo it. I think you know many of their alumni are are graduates, and that's not a bad thing, but but it's it is a bad thing if you only have 1 one person who's ahead of your alumni board on the trustees. But everybody else doesn't know really anything about the school except what you teach them. So you need to have some of your own graduates. Who have already chosen the school one time. So we strengthen the board at Emory and Henry, and we strengthen the board at southwestern as well, which was really the hardest place to do it, because, you know, a lot of the Board members who I brought on had been students at Southwestern when I was a student there, and so they thought they knew as much about running a college as I did, which they didn't, but they thought they did so. You know you had to had to deal with all of that. But no, it's Mary. It's absolutely crucial. It's like the senior staff. If you don't have the right people around you on a day-to-day basis, change it up. If you don't have the right trustees on the board, change it up, and the longer you wait the harder it is. Very good, very important points. And thank you again, Mary. If for that excellent question. I will tell you. I will tell you this too. Mary and I did this. At Texas, Wesley, and you know I was trying out a lot of things because it was my first presidency, but at my first board meeting I said to the board, I said, Look, none none of you have asked me about what you should be giving to Texas. Wesleyan but let me just put it this way. I want Texas, Wesleyan to be in the top 3 or 4 things that you give money to and if we're not in the top 3 or 4 things that you give your resources to then and I'm not talking about. Amounts here, although the bigger the better. I'm talking about. You know, giving resources, a hundred percent of the board. And if you don't feel like you can do that, then please come to me quietly and say, Jake, you know this board is just not that important to me, and I said it, and you know I'll say, okay, and then you can move on. And and we can move on. But please don't be on the board and not have it. Be one of your 3 or 4 top philanthropic priorities. Excellent. I know we're coming close to the end of our time. But there was a question I really wanted to to ask you which is, and it's a it's you spoke earlier about attending that case conference in Canada also these years ago. But first of all, what role did case play in your professional development? And the second is, I understand that that when you came up with the when you were giving your farewell address to the case Board, you came up with a translation of the Acronym, that case spans for so could you say a little about the role case played and also your translation of the case. Acronym. Well, thanks for asking so, and Chase thanks for suggesting to Sue that she asked. But so you know, Case has been really important to me. And after I went to Texas, Wesley, and that's when I was chair of Case. So I was a chair of case and a president. At that time, and very, very important to me. Some of my closest friends over the years have been friends that I met through Case, and I would always try to honor Case and and Case has been very kind to honor me in some ways I really love the organization, and the people in the organization. I've known several Presidents quite well, Eustace, Theodore and Jane, and and are very, very close friends, and and I knew Peter Buchanan quite well, and I knew the first 5. I knew the first 5 presidents of case quite well, and like I said, I'm a hundred years older than all the rest of you. So that's maybe easy to understand. But what I did. At the last meeting is. I had 12 things that I wanted to talk about. And I'm not gonna talk extensively about any of it. But I just said there are 12 things that my mentors have taught me, and and here they are. One was caring is more important than cultural. 2. Everyone is capable of suggesting a good idea. 3. Listening to other people is becoming a lost art. 4, every moment of every day is an opportunity for enlightenment. 5. Kindness is better than civility and civility is better than hate. The American dream is based on doing well and doing good, and authentic philanthropist actually does love humankind. Meaning is more important than management. Empowering people is a powerful idea. There is something godlike in each of us. There are a few things more important. Then education, and because it bothered me so much that we jokingly said that case stands for copy and steal everything I said. Case for me and for my mentors, stands for caring about something extraordinary, hearing about something extraordinary. That's beautiful. What a wonderful, wonderful way place to pause our conversation until the next time. But there was some absolute jewels in that conversation. I've written copious notes. Thanks. Actually the can't cut your way into success. I think it's very profound. I think the importance of leadership of competency and courageousness of winters and empathy and meaning being more important than management like in their times, we get so focused on doing what we need to get done. And that meaning and purpose and vision is just so critical to what we're doing. And I want to thank you inormously for for giving of your time and your warmth and your wisdom of the last little while, and it's now my pleasure to have that Lindsay who, I think is going to round up session. Thank you, Lindsay, very much. Well, thank you. Sue and Jake. So much for your wonderful conversation, and as you mentioned, I have my list in front of me here, of all the wonderful nuggets that I will take away from this conversation, and I know that there has been a request Jake, that perhaps you could share with us your points that you shared with the Board of Trustees at case, so that this group can reflect on them. And take those meetings forward. But ringing optimism every single day to what we do. Gosh! That has to be a part of how we approach our work. And I. You know I, as you know, have been volunteering for case for many years now, and am a the tail end of a term here, and caring about something extraordinary. I will carry that with me every day, moving forward, and just can't thank you enough for your participation today. Thanks to all of you for joining in on this conversation, and we will certainly make sure that we follow up with with recording. And hopefully Umake's words of wisdom. So thank you all, and invest wishes for a wonderful afternoon. Thank you. Cheerio, thanks again. Thanks, Jacob, and Chase. Here we are!

video conversation

higher education administration

optimism

empathy

leadership

global connections

college president

senior staff

professional development