President Wants To Push Eastern Into Top Tier
By GRACE E. MERRITT
Hartford Courant Staff Writer
October 14, 2007

Elsa M. Nuñez became president of Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic just over a year ago and has already set her sights on improving the university academically. In recent years, the campus has been updated with new dormitories, a new student center and a mammoth science building set to open next fall. Building on the new infrastructure, Nuñez has now begun to develop a strategic academic plan to raise Eastern from the third tier of the 24 public liberal arts universities in the country to the top five.

Q: What have you accomplished in your first year at Eastern?

A: I started the year by going to a new presidents' boot camp, which is in Southern California. Five experienced presidents talk with a group of newly appointed presidents. These are very seasoned, experienced people. And that was the best thing I could have done because these are people who really opened up to the group in terms of what they had done well and what they had not done well. One recommendation that they made that I implemented as soon as I got back was to convert the search committee into a transition committee. That was a wonderful, safe place for me to go during the year to take a breather and say, "How am I doing? What have you heard? This is how I think I'm doing. Am I reading it right?"

My first year I had three major goals. The first goal was to meet as many people as possible in the community here at Eastern, outside the community here in Willimantic and in Hartford. The second goal was to initiate a strategic planning process. The third was to be very aggressive about fundraising in my first year so that I could get my feet wet and be able to test the waters in fundraising and see how I would do. I accomplished all three goals.

Q. Tell us about the strategic planning process.

A. At the end of the day, what I did was give up control as president and trusted my instincts that if I identified smart and capable leaders on the campus that they would do what was in the best interest of the students and in the best interest of Eastern. I went to the university senate and asked them to elect a chair to co-chair with me as opposed to my selecting someone.

What we decided was that we would not look at the university in the traditional way. We created committees to look at demographics and ideals of the institution, identify academic strengths and needs, then formed an overarching committee.

It was amazing to see how much consensus we had. When you have almost 400 people working on a process and you've got good leadership, there's a lot of consensus about where Eastern should be going.

Q. What are Eastern's distinctive programs?

A. I think most people would say to you that our strengths are mathematics and science. We are building strengths right now in other areas. For example, teacher education has always been strong here.

Q. Where to do you see Eastern in five years?

A. Eastern will be a university of first choice for all its applicants. Eastern will have students primarily from Connecticut, about 90 percent. Eastern will have built its academic reputation on the excellence of certain academic programs.

In five years, we will probably be very competitive with the University of Connecticut because there's students out there who would rather come to a university where classes are under 20, where you get a lot of personal attention from the faculty in terms of advisement and counseling and where there's a lot of opportunity to shine because it's a small place. We believe that by building academic excellence and a stronger academic reputation over time we can accomplish that.

We have the buildings now. The science building under construction is 174,000 square feet and it will open in September and then after that we will build the fine arts building. You go to a private school, not Yale maybe, but you go to some of the other privates and you won't find facilities like you have at Eastern. So Eastern will be one of the top five public liberal arts universities in the country.

Q. What are the challenges facing Eastern?

A. Although the legislature has been generous in years past to Eastern and to the other three universities [in the Connecticut State University System] in terms of building, it has been less attentive to general operating costs. I cannot hire new faculty without support from the legislature in the budget. So monies for faculty is one of the challenges. You have to have a low student-to-faculty ratio in order to compete as a public liberal arts university.

Q. And what is the ratio now?

A. Right now, our ratio is 24-to-1. It should be lower.

Q. How do you think your background shaped you as a president, growing up in Puerto Rico?

A. I have strong feelings and a lot of passion for the 60 percent of our students who are here who are first in their families to go to college. When I see them on campus I can almost recognize them, especially when they are freshmen: They are timid. I really identify with those students.

This is a good place for me because I really have the mission. I went to college first in my family. I went to a public university. So that has shaped me to appreciate and value higher education and to want that for everyone. I fundamentally feel that this country is a great democracy and will continue to be a great democracy if we can educate everyone, not just the elite.

My experience being poor has been a great experience because I feel very comfortable around people from different backgrounds. Ethnicity and race doesn't enter into it. I've found that class binds people more than ethnicity and race.

I also think that because things didn't come easy to me, I just worked very hard. It comes very naturally to me to work very hard.

Fundamentally, I tend to be positive. I always have hope and I always have dreams. And so when I stand up in front of this community and dream about Eastern being in the top five [public] liberal arts universities in the country, when I say it's going to be a university of first choice, I believe it.

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