Transcription of 2007 Collegian article about Nugent's first four years
Manual Transcription: any errors are my own (Sarah Young ‘95)
The Kenyon Collegian
Volume CXXXIV, Number 24
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Cover Article:
Nugent’s first four years at Kenyon
By Willow Belden
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
When the class of 2007 gathered outside Sam Mather for their first-year orientation in the fall of 2003, Georgia Nugent, who had just taken over as Kenyon’s new president, called herself a freshman, just like the students she was addressing. Now, looking back on the past four years, she says her time at Kenyon has “been a wonderful experience.”
“I love Kenyon College, just as I thought I would,” said Nugent.
Since she arrived on campus, Nugent has overseen a variety of projects and initiatives, has hired several new staff members and has been working to raise more money for the College.
Under her administration, Kenyon’s former food service provider, ARAMARK, has been replaced by AVI Foodsystems. Peirce Hall is undergoing extensive renovations, which will ultimately enable to dining hall to seat 1800 students. The bookstore has been reorganized, has altered the type of merchandise it sells, and will fall under new management as early as this summer. A series of new administrators have been hired, some of whom are replacing former administrators, and others who are in newly created positions. And several policies, including ones regarding maternity leave, have been altered.
Since Nugent has been in office, Kenyon has seen an increasing number of applicants, causing its acceptance rate to fall from 44 percent in 2003 to 29 percent this year.
On the financial side, the College has received approximately $115 million in donations toward its new capital campaign, and gifts from alumni and parents have been increasing.
Also in the past four years, Kenyon has adopted a new “master plan,” which provides an outline for physical changes which the College may implement in the next few decades. As part of the first phase of the Master Plan, two new art buildings have been designed, which will be constructed near Olin Library, and two new dorms are slated to be built near Old Kenyon, pending adequate funding.
*Fundraising Efforts:
Buffy Hallinan, who was chair of the search committee that hired Nugent, said the College was looking for a candidate that would be a strong leader, who would “bring new energy to Kenyon as far as fundraising is concerned” and who would be well-supported by the faculty.
Hallinan says she thinks Nugent has successfully been addressing the College’s needs and has made significant strides in fundraising.
The College has already raised about half of the $230 million that Kenyon hopes to gain in the next capital campaign, which will be kicked off in June, according to Vice President for College Relations Sarah Kahrl. In addition, the Kenyon Fund, which is made up of gifts from alumni, has risen from about $2.7 million to $3.1 million over the past three years, and the Parents Fund has risen from just over $600,000 to slightly more than $1 million since 2002.
According to Kahrl, the successes of the Kenyon Fund demonstrate satisfaction with the College. “If the College’s alumni and the parents feel good about the leadership of the College, they vote with their Kenyon Fund dollars,” she said. “I have seen some institutions where something is going wrong, and the annual fund just stops dead. People don’t write the checks. That is not at all happening here. People are giving increasing gifts every year.”
*Is Nugent Accessible to campus?
“Communication is a priority of President Nugent’s and accessibility is a strength of her leadership,” says Jalene Fox, administrative assistant for IPHS and Political Science.
Jesse Lewin, Vice President of Student Life, agrees, “Even though I do not have a regular meeting with her, each time I did schedule a meeting with her I found her to be very accessible and very willing to listen,” he said. “Also via e-mail she is very quick: most times I have e-mailed her I got a response within an hour.”
Not everyone agrees that the president is accessible, however. In a survey conducted this week by the Collegian, in which 45 employees and 148 students participated, only 31 percent of employees and three percent of students said they consider Nugent “very accessible.” Fifty four percent of students and 29 percent of faculty said they consider her “not accessible.”
Of the employees who participated in the survey, one third said they think Nugent is less accessible than Kenyon’s previous president, Rob Oden, 29 percent said they think she is more accessible and 18 percent said they think the two presidents are equally accessible.
An overwhelming majority of students who participated in the survey say they think Nugent does not interact enough with students, and many said they do not think the president has really become part of the Gambier community.
“President Nugent is not present on campus,” said one sophomore who participated in the survey. “I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen her on campus this year. That is such a poor showing, and quite sad, considering she is missing the opportunity to really get to know Kenyon students. How is she representing us and our college when she doesn’t even know us?”
One senior who responded to the survey agreed. “It wouldn’t kill her to go to Middle Ground or the bookstore or interact with students on an informal basis from time to time,” she said.
“I transferred here from another school, a very similar liberal arts school,” said one senior who responded to the survey, “and their president was amazing and truly attempted to reach out to everyone on campus, she would have dinners for different clubs and sports groups at her house and not play favorites. Nugent has a select group of students (tokens) that she only invites to events and excludes the majority of campus…She is not receptive to new ideas and comments. It is very disappointing for this to be the face of Kenyon.”
According to Nugent and some other members of the administration, the president does not have much time for informal meetings with students.
“I start working online about seven,” said Nugent. “I typically come over to the office around 10, then most days I am literally in meetings every hour or half-hour until five, and then…often there will be a reception or dinner…I start on my work typically around eight or nine o’clock and work through until midnight…It’s a crazy schedule, so unfortunately the truth is I see people more in fairly formal arrangements than just being able to chat.”
Several students who participated in the survey, as well as a number of Village residents, said that although they realize that Nugent is busy, they feel it is important for her to get to know students and other members of the community better.
“President Nugent has done a spectacular job at doing what she was brought in to do: raise money and raise the endowment,” said one member of student government. “The problem is that she does not seem very familiar with the product she is trying to sell.”
Nugent’s job “is not easy, and of course it is largely focused on her presence away from campus, with alumni and other non-Kenyon-affiliated personalities,” said Annie Lambla ’07. “However, soon we will be some of those alumni, and it is an incredible shame that she has not also dedicated herself to developing a relationship with the Kenyon students that are becoming a part of that alumni network that is so important to her work for Kenyon off of the hill. I fear she will feel the pain of these neglects in years to come, when we are the students to whom she appeals for future Kenyon developments.”
Some students have become very familiar with Nugent, however, as the president has taught several classes at Kenyon. “I love being able to do that,” Nugent said, “because at least with that group of students, to some extent, you’re not the president, you’re their teacher and their professor, and that is very meaningful to me - to have that more realistic relationship with students.”
John Compton, ’07, who took a class that Nugent team taught with classics professor Paulo Asso, said the president was “a great professor, always full of energy and excitement. … Classical Mythology wouldn’t have been the same without the president bouncing up and down, broad grin on her face and beads clacking wildly, exclaiming “Isn’t that exciting?!”
*Transparency and openness to suggestions
Nugent said that at Kenyon, she has worked hard to be open and transparent to the Kenyon community. “I think the majority of the campus knows that they can always ask me something and they will get a straight answer,” she said. “That’s been very gratifying.”
“I’ve worked for 14 different presidents in my life,” said Chief Business Office Dave McConnell. “Georgia Nugent is the most dynamic of the 14, is the most engaged of the 14, is the most accessible of the 14, is the most transparent in her actions of the 14.”
Lewin said he thinks Nugent has made efforts to foster greater communication between administrators and the rest of the Kenyon community. Each semester this year, Nugent has hosted a forum, sponsored by the Student Life Committee, during which Nugent and McConnell have answered questions from students, faculty, and other community members.
Some members of the community, however, feel they do not always get straight answers from Nugent’s administration.
“You never get definitive information,” said Cedric Warren, a bookstore employee. “In order to build trust, you have to put out answers that back up what’s happening.”
“It’s really annoying to hear, time and again, “We can’t talk about that,” said one Village resident, who expressed dissatisfaction that the College had not answered his questions about personnel moves, the gas station closure, or bookstore changes.
Brendan Mysliwiec ’08, the junior class representative to Senate and the president of Greek Council, said he thinks the forums avoided answering some of the more substantive questions that were submitted. He said one question that was asked - but not answered - was whether, now that the dean of students no longer lives on campus, it would soon be acceptable for the president to commute from Columbus. Another question that he said was not answered at the forums concerned the connections and influence of Graham Gund, a Kenyon alumnus and architect, who designed the Kenyon Athletic Center, drafted the Master Plan, and is designing the new art buildings that are scheduled to be constructed on campus.
Several individuals also said they think Nugent does not take to heart suggestions that are made.
“It seems to me that there are forums for students to use to voice their opinions, yet student input is not factored into the decisions being made,” said one sophomore who responded to the survey. “Just because we are given opportunities to be involved doesn’t mean our involvement has any control over the outcomes.”
Seventy percent of students and 53 percent of employees who responded to the survey said they felt they have little or no opportunity to be involved in major initiatives and decision-making processes.
“I feel like I’ve had opportunities to be ‘involved’ - but this ‘involved’ meant nothing,” said one senior who responded to the survey. “Showing up and voicing concerns and having the feeling that the whole process is simply for show, and Nugent and the administration are going to do whatever…they want despite students’ concerns, is very disappointing.”
Several employees expressed similar feelings. “The administration gives lip service to community input, but has already made up its mind about major projects such as the Master Plan and other new buildings,” said one faculty member who responded to the survey. “So, meetings may be held by the President for the community, or by faculty members with architects, but the president, provost, and other members of senior staff have already made these decisions.”
Others, however, said Nugent has implemented suggestions they have made. Tucker Cottingham ’07 said he made suggestions about restructuring the health center, which were implemented.
Nugent said she thinks one reason why many people see her as un-transparent or closed to suggestions is because they fail to inform themselves or make an effort to become involved.
“As much as you try to get information out, people are less interested in actually getting the information than in protesting about it,” she said. She noted that, a few years ago, she tried holding office hours but discontinued them because very few students showed up. Similarly, she said, although the forum she held in the fall was well attended, very few people came to the one that was held this semester.
“I don’t think it’s so much up to [Nugent] as it is to students to involve themselves more in campus life and to be proactive,” said Lewin. “Students have a large voice in campus decisions and getting that voice heard entails running for office, participating in open for a or even through communicating concerns to Student Council representatives.”
*Reaction to changes
Several policy changes that Nugent has made have been well-received on campus. For example, almost 60 percent of the employees who responded to the survey question about maternity leave said they thought Kenyon’s policies in that area have improved under Nugent’s administration.
Nugent said that upon arriving at Kenyon, faculty were permitted to go on maternity leave only for a portion of a semester.
“If you’re a faculty member, you’re either giving a course, or you’re not,” Nugent said, adding that female faculty “told me these horror stories - they gave birth and then went back into the classroom. Some of what they told me was unbelievable - they would rush home to nurse…So we changed it so that [the maternity leave policy] would be aligned with the semester. We’ve also made parental leave available to both men and to women.”
“I think the new parental leave policy is wonderful,” said one faculty member who responded to the survey. “It is flexible and useful, and I am glad to see it in place.”
Other adjustments have also met with warm responses from Kenyon employees. Several employees who replied to the survey said they appreciate that Nugent has given employees extra paid leave between Christmas and New Year’s. One respondent also expressed approval of the new childcare facility that Kenyon is opening.
Other changes have been less warmly received. 57 percent of the seniors and 62 percent of the employees who responded to the survey said they think the atmosphere in the bookstore has gotten worse over the past four years as a result of the changes that have been made under Nugent’s administration. Only 29 percent of employees and 16 percent of seniors who responded to the survey said they thought the bookstore’s selection of merchandise had improved.
“I thought we had a unique bookstore,” said Cedric Warren, a bookstore employee. “It probably had some things that needed to be tweaked, but it did not need to be destroyed…We’ve become a clothing store.”
Nugent said the bookstore is still a work in progress. “Upon Jack Finefrock [the former bookstore manager] stepping down, I’ve really just felt we’re in a holding pattern until we get to the next stage.”
*Employee morale
More than half of the employees who responded to the survey said they think staff morale has gotten worse since Nugent has been in office.
Nugent “has reduced morale to an all-time low,” said one survey respondent. “She seems to care more about the Chief Business Officer than she does about the views and concerns of the students and faculty who have been here for several years.”
Several survey respondents expressed concern about the departure of various administrators and staff over the past few years. Former Dean of Students Don Omahan, former Associate Dean of Students Cheryl Steele, former Dean of Residential Life George Barbuto, former Bookstore Manager Jack Finefrock, and former Director of Security Dan Werner, amongst others, have left the college since Nugent has been in office.
“I, as I am sure many others, have had major concerns about the ‘departures’ of many long time, loyal employees of the College,” said one staff member who responded to the survey. “In all my years at Kenyon, I have never seen such a turnover of employees who either left or “departed” from the College.
“I am almost afraid to say how I feel about things because I need my job,” said another staff member. “I have been at Kenyon a long time and I have never felt the way I do now. Cannot wait for retirement.”
One Village resident said he thinks community members are starting to feel low morale amongst College employees. He noted that for several days this winter, snow was not cleared from the sidewalks in Gambier. In contrast, he said, several years ago, when a storm hit Gambier the night before commencement, knocking down a tree outside Sam Mather, the maintenance personnel had everything cleaned up by the morning.
“People on staff were always willing to put in extra effort to make sure that what was scheduled to happen would happen… Now, McConnell played hardball with the unions [and] won the battle and now we’re walking through snow for three days.”
Several staff members also said they think Nugent is micromanaging more than her predecessors and that she’s less willing to listen to suggestions from employees.
*Kenyon’s image
“I do feel that our objective at Kenyon is not to change in any radical way but to ensure that we do the things that will keep us strong and enable the things we value to persist into the future,” said Nugent. “So it’s really that catch phrase of ‘keep Kenyon Kenyon.’ How do you do that? My belief is that really, when you value something and you want to protect it and keep it safe in a sense, in fact you often have to be continually changing.”
Several individuals said they think Nugent is managing to preserve the best parts of Kenyon while strengthening areas that need improvement. One administrator who responded to the survey said she thinks Nugent is particularly invested in the teaching mission of the College.
“She has affirmed the importance of the long-standing tradition that Kenyon welcomes speakers with widely differing points of view,” said history professor Reed Browning. “She’d like to fortify the already strong teaching capabilities of the College and find ways for the College to become a beacon. That seems to me a pretty good ambition.”
Others worry that Kenyon’s character has been changing - and not necessarily for the better - under Nugent’s administration.
“She is running this college like a business from New York,” said one senior who responded to the survey.
A junior who responded to the survey said he or she thinks Nugent “has no concept of what Kenyon is, or what it should be. She’s trying to homogenize us, turn us into a mini-Princeton. She doesn’t realize that what is special about Kenyon is that it is unique. It is Kenyon, not Amherst, not Williams, not Yale, not Princeton.”
“I selected Kenyon because I thought it was a completely unique school in American higher education - one that did not play the game the same way other schools I looked at did,” said one senior who responded to the survey. “In my four years here, I have watched that uniqueness slowly slip away under the new administration as we become more prestigious. I give President Nugent credit for bringing us up to the New Ivy level, but I never wanted to go to any Ivy. That’s why I came to Kenyon.
The Kenyon Collegian
Volume CXXXIV, Number 24
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Cover Article:
Nugent’s first four years at Kenyon
By Willow Belden
Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
When the class of 2007 gathered outside Sam Mather for their first-year orientation in the fall of 2003, Georgia Nugent, who had just taken over as Kenyon’s new president, called herself a freshman, just like the students she was addressing. Now, looking back on the past four years, she says her time at Kenyon has “been a wonderful experience.”
“I love Kenyon College, just as I thought I would,” said Nugent.
Since she arrived on campus, Nugent has overseen a variety of projects and initiatives, has hired several new staff members and has been working to raise more money for the College.
Under her administration, Kenyon’s former food service provider, ARAMARK, has been replaced by AVI Foodsystems. Peirce Hall is undergoing extensive renovations, which will ultimately enable to dining hall to seat 1800 students. The bookstore has been reorganized, has altered the type of merchandise it sells, and will fall under new management as early as this summer. A series of new administrators have been hired, some of whom are replacing former administrators, and others who are in newly created positions. And several policies, including ones regarding maternity leave, have been altered.
Since Nugent has been in office, Kenyon has seen an increasing number of applicants, causing its acceptance rate to fall from 44 percent in 2003 to 29 percent this year.
On the financial side, the College has received approximately $115 million in donations toward its new capital campaign, and gifts from alumni and parents have been increasing.
Also in the past four years, Kenyon has adopted a new “master plan,” which provides an outline for physical changes which the College may implement in the next few decades. As part of the first phase of the Master Plan, two new art buildings have been designed, which will be constructed near Olin Library, and two new dorms are slated to be built near Old Kenyon, pending adequate funding.
*Fundraising Efforts:
Buffy Hallinan, who was chair of the search committee that hired Nugent, said the College was looking for a candidate that would be a strong leader, who would “bring new energy to Kenyon as far as fundraising is concerned” and who would be well-supported by the faculty.
Hallinan says she thinks Nugent has successfully been addressing the College’s needs and has made significant strides in fundraising.
The College has already raised about half of the $230 million that Kenyon hopes to gain in the next capital campaign, which will be kicked off in June, according to Vice President for College Relations Sarah Kahrl. In addition, the Kenyon Fund, which is made up of gifts from alumni, has risen from about $2.7 million to $3.1 million over the past three years, and the Parents Fund has risen from just over $600,000 to slightly more than $1 million since 2002.
According to Kahrl, the successes of the Kenyon Fund demonstrate satisfaction with the College. “If the College’s alumni and the parents feel good about the leadership of the College, they vote with their Kenyon Fund dollars,” she said. “I have seen some institutions where something is going wrong, and the annual fund just stops dead. People don’t write the checks. That is not at all happening here. People are giving increasing gifts every year.”
*Is Nugent Accessible to campus?
“Communication is a priority of President Nugent’s and accessibility is a strength of her leadership,” says Jalene Fox, administrative assistant for IPHS and Political Science.
Jesse Lewin, Vice President of Student Life, agrees, “Even though I do not have a regular meeting with her, each time I did schedule a meeting with her I found her to be very accessible and very willing to listen,” he said. “Also via e-mail she is very quick: most times I have e-mailed her I got a response within an hour.”
Not everyone agrees that the president is accessible, however. In a survey conducted this week by the Collegian, in which 45 employees and 148 students participated, only 31 percent of employees and three percent of students said they consider Nugent “very accessible.” Fifty four percent of students and 29 percent of faculty said they consider her “not accessible.”
Of the employees who participated in the survey, one third said they think Nugent is less accessible than Kenyon’s previous president, Rob Oden, 29 percent said they think she is more accessible and 18 percent said they think the two presidents are equally accessible.
An overwhelming majority of students who participated in the survey say they think Nugent does not interact enough with students, and many said they do not think the president has really become part of the Gambier community.
“President Nugent is not present on campus,” said one sophomore who participated in the survey. “I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen her on campus this year. That is such a poor showing, and quite sad, considering she is missing the opportunity to really get to know Kenyon students. How is she representing us and our college when she doesn’t even know us?”
One senior who responded to the survey agreed. “It wouldn’t kill her to go to Middle Ground or the bookstore or interact with students on an informal basis from time to time,” she said.
“I transferred here from another school, a very similar liberal arts school,” said one senior who responded to the survey, “and their president was amazing and truly attempted to reach out to everyone on campus, she would have dinners for different clubs and sports groups at her house and not play favorites. Nugent has a select group of students (tokens) that she only invites to events and excludes the majority of campus…She is not receptive to new ideas and comments. It is very disappointing for this to be the face of Kenyon.”
According to Nugent and some other members of the administration, the president does not have much time for informal meetings with students.
“I start working online about seven,” said Nugent. “I typically come over to the office around 10, then most days I am literally in meetings every hour or half-hour until five, and then…often there will be a reception or dinner…I start on my work typically around eight or nine o’clock and work through until midnight…It’s a crazy schedule, so unfortunately the truth is I see people more in fairly formal arrangements than just being able to chat.”
Several students who participated in the survey, as well as a number of Village residents, said that although they realize that Nugent is busy, they feel it is important for her to get to know students and other members of the community better.
“President Nugent has done a spectacular job at doing what she was brought in to do: raise money and raise the endowment,” said one member of student government. “The problem is that she does not seem very familiar with the product she is trying to sell.”
Nugent’s job “is not easy, and of course it is largely focused on her presence away from campus, with alumni and other non-Kenyon-affiliated personalities,” said Annie Lambla ’07. “However, soon we will be some of those alumni, and it is an incredible shame that she has not also dedicated herself to developing a relationship with the Kenyon students that are becoming a part of that alumni network that is so important to her work for Kenyon off of the hill. I fear she will feel the pain of these neglects in years to come, when we are the students to whom she appeals for future Kenyon developments.”
Some students have become very familiar with Nugent, however, as the president has taught several classes at Kenyon. “I love being able to do that,” Nugent said, “because at least with that group of students, to some extent, you’re not the president, you’re their teacher and their professor, and that is very meaningful to me - to have that more realistic relationship with students.”
John Compton, ’07, who took a class that Nugent team taught with classics professor Paulo Asso, said the president was “a great professor, always full of energy and excitement. … Classical Mythology wouldn’t have been the same without the president bouncing up and down, broad grin on her face and beads clacking wildly, exclaiming “Isn’t that exciting?!”
*Transparency and openness to suggestions
Nugent said that at Kenyon, she has worked hard to be open and transparent to the Kenyon community. “I think the majority of the campus knows that they can always ask me something and they will get a straight answer,” she said. “That’s been very gratifying.”
“I’ve worked for 14 different presidents in my life,” said Chief Business Office Dave McConnell. “Georgia Nugent is the most dynamic of the 14, is the most engaged of the 14, is the most accessible of the 14, is the most transparent in her actions of the 14.”
Lewin said he thinks Nugent has made efforts to foster greater communication between administrators and the rest of the Kenyon community. Each semester this year, Nugent has hosted a forum, sponsored by the Student Life Committee, during which Nugent and McConnell have answered questions from students, faculty, and other community members.
Some members of the community, however, feel they do not always get straight answers from Nugent’s administration.
“You never get definitive information,” said Cedric Warren, a bookstore employee. “In order to build trust, you have to put out answers that back up what’s happening.”
“It’s really annoying to hear, time and again, “We can’t talk about that,” said one Village resident, who expressed dissatisfaction that the College had not answered his questions about personnel moves, the gas station closure, or bookstore changes.
Brendan Mysliwiec ’08, the junior class representative to Senate and the president of Greek Council, said he thinks the forums avoided answering some of the more substantive questions that were submitted. He said one question that was asked - but not answered - was whether, now that the dean of students no longer lives on campus, it would soon be acceptable for the president to commute from Columbus. Another question that he said was not answered at the forums concerned the connections and influence of Graham Gund, a Kenyon alumnus and architect, who designed the Kenyon Athletic Center, drafted the Master Plan, and is designing the new art buildings that are scheduled to be constructed on campus.
Several individuals also said they think Nugent does not take to heart suggestions that are made.
“It seems to me that there are forums for students to use to voice their opinions, yet student input is not factored into the decisions being made,” said one sophomore who responded to the survey. “Just because we are given opportunities to be involved doesn’t mean our involvement has any control over the outcomes.”
Seventy percent of students and 53 percent of employees who responded to the survey said they felt they have little or no opportunity to be involved in major initiatives and decision-making processes.
“I feel like I’ve had opportunities to be ‘involved’ - but this ‘involved’ meant nothing,” said one senior who responded to the survey. “Showing up and voicing concerns and having the feeling that the whole process is simply for show, and Nugent and the administration are going to do whatever…they want despite students’ concerns, is very disappointing.”
Several employees expressed similar feelings. “The administration gives lip service to community input, but has already made up its mind about major projects such as the Master Plan and other new buildings,” said one faculty member who responded to the survey. “So, meetings may be held by the President for the community, or by faculty members with architects, but the president, provost, and other members of senior staff have already made these decisions.”
Others, however, said Nugent has implemented suggestions they have made. Tucker Cottingham ’07 said he made suggestions about restructuring the health center, which were implemented.
Nugent said she thinks one reason why many people see her as un-transparent or closed to suggestions is because they fail to inform themselves or make an effort to become involved.
“As much as you try to get information out, people are less interested in actually getting the information than in protesting about it,” she said. She noted that, a few years ago, she tried holding office hours but discontinued them because very few students showed up. Similarly, she said, although the forum she held in the fall was well attended, very few people came to the one that was held this semester.
“I don’t think it’s so much up to [Nugent] as it is to students to involve themselves more in campus life and to be proactive,” said Lewin. “Students have a large voice in campus decisions and getting that voice heard entails running for office, participating in open for a or even through communicating concerns to Student Council representatives.”
*Reaction to changes
Several policy changes that Nugent has made have been well-received on campus. For example, almost 60 percent of the employees who responded to the survey question about maternity leave said they thought Kenyon’s policies in that area have improved under Nugent’s administration.
Nugent said that upon arriving at Kenyon, faculty were permitted to go on maternity leave only for a portion of a semester.
“If you’re a faculty member, you’re either giving a course, or you’re not,” Nugent said, adding that female faculty “told me these horror stories - they gave birth and then went back into the classroom. Some of what they told me was unbelievable - they would rush home to nurse…So we changed it so that [the maternity leave policy] would be aligned with the semester. We’ve also made parental leave available to both men and to women.”
“I think the new parental leave policy is wonderful,” said one faculty member who responded to the survey. “It is flexible and useful, and I am glad to see it in place.”
Other adjustments have also met with warm responses from Kenyon employees. Several employees who replied to the survey said they appreciate that Nugent has given employees extra paid leave between Christmas and New Year’s. One respondent also expressed approval of the new childcare facility that Kenyon is opening.
Other changes have been less warmly received. 57 percent of the seniors and 62 percent of the employees who responded to the survey said they think the atmosphere in the bookstore has gotten worse over the past four years as a result of the changes that have been made under Nugent’s administration. Only 29 percent of employees and 16 percent of seniors who responded to the survey said they thought the bookstore’s selection of merchandise had improved.
“I thought we had a unique bookstore,” said Cedric Warren, a bookstore employee. “It probably had some things that needed to be tweaked, but it did not need to be destroyed…We’ve become a clothing store.”
Nugent said the bookstore is still a work in progress. “Upon Jack Finefrock [the former bookstore manager] stepping down, I’ve really just felt we’re in a holding pattern until we get to the next stage.”
*Employee morale
More than half of the employees who responded to the survey said they think staff morale has gotten worse since Nugent has been in office.
Nugent “has reduced morale to an all-time low,” said one survey respondent. “She seems to care more about the Chief Business Officer than she does about the views and concerns of the students and faculty who have been here for several years.”
Several survey respondents expressed concern about the departure of various administrators and staff over the past few years. Former Dean of Students Don Omahan, former Associate Dean of Students Cheryl Steele, former Dean of Residential Life George Barbuto, former Bookstore Manager Jack Finefrock, and former Director of Security Dan Werner, amongst others, have left the college since Nugent has been in office.
“I, as I am sure many others, have had major concerns about the ‘departures’ of many long time, loyal employees of the College,” said one staff member who responded to the survey. “In all my years at Kenyon, I have never seen such a turnover of employees who either left or “departed” from the College.
“I am almost afraid to say how I feel about things because I need my job,” said another staff member. “I have been at Kenyon a long time and I have never felt the way I do now. Cannot wait for retirement.”
One Village resident said he thinks community members are starting to feel low morale amongst College employees. He noted that for several days this winter, snow was not cleared from the sidewalks in Gambier. In contrast, he said, several years ago, when a storm hit Gambier the night before commencement, knocking down a tree outside Sam Mather, the maintenance personnel had everything cleaned up by the morning.
“People on staff were always willing to put in extra effort to make sure that what was scheduled to happen would happen… Now, McConnell played hardball with the unions [and] won the battle and now we’re walking through snow for three days.”
Several staff members also said they think Nugent is micromanaging more than her predecessors and that she’s less willing to listen to suggestions from employees.
*Kenyon’s image
“I do feel that our objective at Kenyon is not to change in any radical way but to ensure that we do the things that will keep us strong and enable the things we value to persist into the future,” said Nugent. “So it’s really that catch phrase of ‘keep Kenyon Kenyon.’ How do you do that? My belief is that really, when you value something and you want to protect it and keep it safe in a sense, in fact you often have to be continually changing.”
Several individuals said they think Nugent is managing to preserve the best parts of Kenyon while strengthening areas that need improvement. One administrator who responded to the survey said she thinks Nugent is particularly invested in the teaching mission of the College.
“She has affirmed the importance of the long-standing tradition that Kenyon welcomes speakers with widely differing points of view,” said history professor Reed Browning. “She’d like to fortify the already strong teaching capabilities of the College and find ways for the College to become a beacon. That seems to me a pretty good ambition.”
Others worry that Kenyon’s character has been changing - and not necessarily for the better - under Nugent’s administration.
“She is running this college like a business from New York,” said one senior who responded to the survey.
A junior who responded to the survey said he or she thinks Nugent “has no concept of what Kenyon is, or what it should be. She’s trying to homogenize us, turn us into a mini-Princeton. She doesn’t realize that what is special about Kenyon is that it is unique. It is Kenyon, not Amherst, not Williams, not Yale, not Princeton.”
“I selected Kenyon because I thought it was a completely unique school in American higher education - one that did not play the game the same way other schools I looked at did,” said one senior who responded to the survey. “In my four years here, I have watched that uniqueness slowly slip away under the new administration as we become more prestigious. I give President Nugent credit for bringing us up to the New Ivy level, but I never wanted to go to any Ivy. That’s why I came to Kenyon.