All the president's friends

ASEE Prism, May/Jun 2003 by Sanoff, Alvin P

Photograph by Chris Minnick

You might think that running a top-ranked undergraduate engineering program would be Rose-Hulman President Sam Hulbert's greatest achivement, but his real genius may be his warmth. Incredibly, he's on a first-name basis with most of the school's 1,800 students.

Most college presidents don't remain in office for a decade, let alone more than a quarter of a century. But when Sam Hulbert retires as president of the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology next year, he will have spent 28 years at the helm of the Indiana institution.

For both Hulbert and Rose-Hulman it has been quite a run. During Hulbert's tenure, the school has achieved national stature, increased its endowment ninefold to about $180 million, and added $90 million worth of new facilities. While engineering schools are known more for their rigor than their warmth, under Hulbert's leadership Rose-Hulman has managed to be both tough and caring. The National Survey of Student Engagement, a foundation-funded effort to assess the quality of undergraduate education at hundreds of institutions, found that Rose-Hulman students are far more likely than students at peer institutions to say their school both provides a supportive environment and offers an academic challenge. Rose-Hulman students also rank their school more highly on student-faculty interaction and on active and collaborative learning than their counterparts at comparable institutions participating in the national study.

The survey results reflect the nurturing environment Hulbert has helped to create. Chuck Howard, Rose-Hulman's dean of admissions, who has been at the school even longer than Hulbert, says that the president's "real genius is his warmth. He has a desire to include faculty, staff, and students as part of his family. He knows most students on a first name basis. He is the heart and soul of Rose-Hulman."

Part of what endears Hulbert to the campus community is his ability to laugh at himself. A few years ago, wearing a trench coat, sunglasses, and hat, he climbed into an 8-foot cylinder placed on the dock of the campus lake. He emerged 60 seconds later wearing a Superman outfit. Pretending to be the Man of Steel, Hulbert jumped into the lake as a crowd watched. Hulbert was not fulfilling a lifelong fantasy. He was making good on a promise to take the plunge when alumni giving to Rose-Hulman reached the 50 percent mark-a level that few schools attain.

That colorful stunt was out of character for Hulbert, who is not inclined to call attention to himself. A faculty member who has written a history of the school that covers the quarter of a century between 1974 and 1999 describes him this way: "Sam Hulbert's success stemmed from his innate, almost childlike, humility. A man of intellect, self-confidence, physical stamina, almost photographic memory, and a very healthy desire to come out on top, he seemed, nevertheless, to be without ego. His guiding principle was to surround himself with people who were better than he believed he was."

Hulbert arrived on the campus in Terre Haute in 1976 from Tulane University, where he had served as dean of the engineering school and as a professor of bioengineering. He expected to stay at Rose-Hulman for five years, or at the most 10. But Hulbert and Rose-Hulman proved to be made for each other, although there were times when both parties had their doubts - notably when Hulbert pushed for co-education.

The subject of admitting women to what was then an all-male bastion first arose when Hulbert was being considered for the presidency. He told the search committee that the school needed "to accept students based on their credentials, not their gender." While the board embraced Hulbert, a tenacious minority did not embrace his belief in co-education. Year after year Hulbert sought to persuade the trustees that Rose-Hulman would be a much better place if women were admitted. And year after year he was rebuffed. The major obstacle: A small band of traditionalists who were able to prevail because the change required approval by three fourths of the trustees. Hulbert consistently fell one or two votes shy of the needed margin. "Every time I failed I would think about leaving," he recalls, but he always decided to stay and fight. There were some board members who hoped he would leave, but they never had enough votes to push him out.

Finally, in 1991 Hulbert prevailed but with a catch. Women would be admitted, but only after a four-year transition period. In 1995 the first group of 80 women enrolled. While Hulbert would like to see a student body that is 25 percent female, today women account for 18 percent of Rose-Hulman's approximately 1,750 undergraduates. "We are not where we want to be in terms of enrolling women," says admissions clean Howard; something that is an ongoing problem for most engineering schools.

Even though women remain a distinct minority on campus, Hulbert says that "the quality of conversations on campus are much better" ever since women enrolled. "It has been a wonderful change."