Comeback at Fisk: a major turn-around is underway at historic university - Special Section On Historically Black Colleges And Universities - Interview

Ebony, Sept, 2002 by Kevin Chappell

WHEN Carolynn Reid-Wallace interviewed last year for e position of president at Fisk University, she told the board of trustees that if she was selected, dramatic things would happen. In two years, she said, the university would perform ahead of its reputation; in four years, reputation and performance at the school would be equal; in seven years, the school would have at least two world-class academic programs, one word-class institute and a worldwide reputation.

One year after being hired as president, she is sticking to her predictions--and she is, she says, on schedule with tremendous success.

During her first 12 months in office, Reid-Wallace--and a new team of leaders, including board chair Virgis W. Colbert--have guided Fisk to the beginnings of a noteworthy turnaround and a promising future. A historic university that was once so broke that it considered closing its doors after it couldn't pay its gas bill, is now looking to recapture its past glory as one of the elite Black institutes of higher learning.

It is enjoying its largest freshman class ever, its largest school enrollment in years (although the university remains deliberately small and cultivates a family feeling on its campus), and is coming off of its most successful fund-raising year in history. "In a one-year period, we have raised $16.5 million. It's not nearly as much as we need to raise, but we are on our way," says Reid-Wallace, a 1964 graduate of Fisk. "I want to push the envelope. Next year, we're going to raise even more money. And the next year, even more money. In order to do it, it can't simply be talked. It can't simply be articulating some lofty vision. I have to get out there and raise some serious money."

Serious money means about a million dollars a month. To do so, officials say they have to work tirelessly to get the word out about the school's rich history and future purpose. "It requires being on the road," Reid-Wallace says. "It requires having the ability and the personnel to do the follow up work. You can't just go out and tell the story. You have to see it through."

To that end, the president has traveled across the country as well as internationally in search of financial and moral support. In fact she's been on Capitol Hill so much that many lawmakers, who previously knew very little about Fisk, now know her by first name. And foundation heads are now understanding that the university deserves to be in the ranks of elite Black colleges and universities. "I tell them how Fisk changed my life, how it gave me a confidence and an ability, and an awareness of my potential as a 20th-century woman," she says. "A lot of women, and men, came through here with a sense that they can change the world."

From its founding in 1866 as a liberal arts institution committed to educating the newly freed slaves, Fisk University has always been steeped in tradition and history. Home of the Jubilee Singers and of distinguished graduates like W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, Aaron Douglas, John Hope Franklin and Nikki Giovanni, Fisk has prided itself on producing great artists and thinkers. In proportion to enrollment, the university now has a greater percentage of minority graduates who go on to earn Ph.D.'s than any other U.S. college or university. Today's incoming students are typically ranked in the top fifth of their high school classes; almost all rank in the top half.

A key to continuing that tradition is bringing in top faculty and administrators. Reid-Wallace has been instrumental in hiring a unique mix of young talent and retired professionals, and giving them freedom and direction that has lifted employee moral and purpose. She credits the school's board of trustees, including board chair Colbert, for giving her that same freedom and direction to make meaningful changes. "It has been tough; it has been challenging; it has been exceedingly demanding," she says. "We have had to do things that required tough-mindedness, a vision, tenacity and persistence. But I am pleased that I have had the support of the board in everything that I have done."

Perhaps better known for his position as executive vice president of Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing Company, Colbert was instrumental in arranging a trio of financial gifts in May, totaling $10.5 million. The three gifts included a $4 million donation from an anonymous donor, which was matched by a government grant, and a $2.5 million gift from the family of Nashville record executive Mike Curb. "This is the beginning of the return of Fisk to its rightful place in higher education among Black colleges and universities in the United States," Colbert said at the press conference announcing the gifts. "This is a turnaround situation. I feel we've bottomed out and now we're on the upswing."

For the university, the turn-around has boiled down to everyone on campus developing and voicing a conviction and an understanding that Fisk is too important to America not to succeed. Other administrators perhaps realized that fact, as did the community and loyal faculty members who took pay cuts and passed on merit raises during the lean years.