An HBCU transformed: Wilberforce, the nation's oldest private Black college, emerges from one of its darkest periods just in time to celebrate its 150th birthday

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, June 15, 2006 by Ronald Roach

"The biggest challenge obviously when they asked me to consider taking the presidency was that the university was in debt. I was not aware of how great the debt was because of many of the issues in its financial operations; [the trustees] assumed they had about a $3 million debt; it turned out it was closer to $5 million," Flake says.

It didn't take long for Flake to realize that fixing Wilberforce's financial situation wouldn't be a short-term exercise. He told Walker, a former banking executive, that he would need at least two years to bring the university back to financial and organizational health.

Flake recruited Mitchell, who had been a senior vice president in the Edison Schools organization, to assist him at Wilberforce. Mitchell had previously been Flake's chief of staff in the latter years of his congressional tenure. Based in Philadelphia, Mitchell, like Flake, commutes to Ohio weekly.

Mitchell says a complete reorganization of the school's academic programs, combined with an aggressive fund-raising campaign, was necessary to start the healing process at Wilberforce. They trimmed the academic spectrum from 54 majors to 17, eliminating the ones that had seen little student demand over the years. And with the approval of the trustees and the faculty senate, the school slashed salaries, cut staff and increased faculty workloads. The drastic measures worked, as Wilberforce fought its way back into financial health by the 2005-2006 academic year.

"With some very tough decisions, significant reductions in staff and being able to bring in some additional resources over a two-and-a-half year period, by year three we had completely come out of debt and had about a $300,000 surplus," Flake says.

In addition, Wilberforce has seen its endowment grow from $8 million in 2002 to $11 million in 2006.

Federal funding obtained through appropriation earmarks have also demonstrated the extent to which Wilberforce has tapped into new financial resources. As a former congressman, Flake knows who to speak to and how to get things done in Washington. According to Mitchell, the university has secured roughly $13 million in federal earmark funding during Flake's tenure.

Prior to Flake's arrival, Wilberforce had not been a player in the congressional appropriations process responsible for earmark funding, says Mitchell. With the new funding, the university has begun research partnerships with federal agencies including the Homeland Security Department, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

"I think the fact that [Flake] has such great connections in Washington, with the government, and New York, with the philanthropic community, is going to work to the further benefit of Wilberforce," Lomax says.

That Flake has been able to cure Wilberforce's financial ills and position it for future growth is a testament to his pragmatic, back-to-basics leadership. Columbia University political scientist Dr. Manning Marable compares Flake to Booker T. Washington. Though Marable says Flake doesn't subscribe to Washington's reactionary and accommodationist political views, he says the minister wields the kind of innovative organizational and management acumen for which Washington was known. Both leaders have stressed an emphasis on economic development and a focus on building successful Black institutions, says Marable.