A Decade of Progress
New Leadership and New Commitments
Benjamin H. Alexander Early in 1974, a 16-member Search Committee composed of faculty, administrators, and students was organized to find a replacement for the outgoing president. On July 1, 1974, following months of serious discussion and careful debate within all sectors of the University constituency, the Illinois Board of Governors selected Dr. Benjamin H. Alexander as the 12th chief administrative officer in the school's history.
In many ways the new president was different from his predecessors as head of the institution. As the first black president of a four-year institdtion of higher education in Illinois, whose early childhood was spent in poverty, Dr. Alexander became for Chicago State a living example of what hard work, organization, and the will to learn implies. As a black man, he had been one of the few of his generation able to transcend the narrow gap open to people of color. Alexander's background as a civil rights activist, Chief Research Chemist at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and Acting Branch Chief within the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C., would serve him well as head of a major academic institution. Membership on the Washington, D.C. Board of Education and service as a trustee in the D.C. Teachers College and as an adjunct professor of chemistry at Washington's American University were also to prove valuable as relevant experiences.
The 52-year old scientist and administrator had come from a successful and comfortable life at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, to assume leadership of an institution suffering from numerous social, political and economic issues of its time. One journalist, Robert McClory, wrote:
When Alexander arrived on the new, yet still incomplete campus in 1974, he was greeted with skepticism, hostility, pity and wonder. Skepticism, because Chicago State was knee-deep in problems as pervasive as the mud seeping into its buildings; hostility, because that was the overriding mood on the largely black campus; pity because Alexander, who was about to become the first black president of a four-year university in Illinois had so much obvious good will and so little experience; and wonder, because practically everyone questioned how long he would last.
The Chicago State University which Alexander inherited in 1974 was not the Chicago State of 1969 and 1970, when colleges and universities across the country had experienced the most severe pattern of disruptions from student activism than at any time in recent memory. During those years, hardly a single campus escaped direct action of some sort, and Chicago State was no exception. Nor was the urban technological complex, in which the city's children would live, the kind of society which had existed before the Vietnam War. The years required in school for earning a livelihood and the necessity for understanding the economic and international problems upon which voters must voice decisions put new responsibility upon colleges few had appreciated before.
The new generation of political activists was turning away from national issues in favor of working on the grass-roots problems of the cities and states and individual institutions of higher education. Where organized protesters used to spend their time and energies demonstrating on issues such as civil rights and the Vietnam War, new groups were zeroing in on cluttered vacant lots, potholes in the streets, high rates of the telephone company, and low levels of responsiveness on the part of college officials.
There were many serious questions to be faced by any institution of higher education: Should it-transmit to the young the wisdom and values of the dominant culture, or devote its resources to the training of professionals, or be responsible for the moral improvement of the citizens who enroll as students? Should it isolate itself from mundane affairs, coldly analyzing critical social issues, or should it be a staging ground for social and political action against injustice and evil. Should it devote itself to the "life of the mind," or should it be a service station for the public, testing products, training technicians, giving advice to farmers, providing managers for businesses unrelated to its educational mission? Chicago State was very much in the throes of transition from a single purpose institution to one with a broadly defined urban mission.
When Dr. Alexander entered upon his duties as President of Chicago State University in September, 1974, he admittedly knew that the task ahead of him was great and the torch heavy. Even though the campus had been in use for two years, landscaping and paving had not been completed due to administrative disorganization. The recent audit had disclosed "serious deficiencies" in the financial management of the institution. Chicago State had been placed on probation by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The racial makeup of the faculty was 82 percent white with only three minorities at full professor rank and one minority chairperson of an academic department, while the student population was 60 percent black. Faculty morale was low and student achievement slipping. Chicago State had come to be referred to by the news media as a "diploma mill." This matter of academic credibility was the single most serious issue to face the newly appointed President.
In April, 1974, Chicago State had been the subject of a critical seven-part series conducted by the Chicago Daily Defender entitled, "Why Johnny's Teacher Can't Read." In these articles the school's level of academic achievement was characterized as "appalling." The articles revealed that graduates of Chicago State were flunking the National Teachers Education (NTE) exam at an alarming rate. It was said that Chicago State spent less money on remedial programs than other four-year Illinois institutions which had a smaller percentage of its enrollment. And the possibility was revealed that Chicago State would lose its accreditation from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) in 1975.
Chicago State administrators were not particularly happy with the Defender investigation, particularly the part about the NTE test which was called "almost meaningless," because the test had already been attacked as culturally biased and most school districts in the country no longer used it. But the series did dramatize the dilemma which the new President at Chicago State would face.
The investigation indicated that during the same period of time that NTE test results had been plummeting, Chicago State student's grade point averages had been soaring. In 1972, average grades for the total enrollment hovered near 2.95 (equivalent to a high B) —this despite the fact that most Chicago State incoming freshmen were admittedly deficient in basic skills such as reading and math. The strange rise in grades was largely accounted for by the fact that Chicago State students could no longer fail a course. If their work was abysmal they could take an "R" and repeat the course without academic penalty.
The question of how to maximize educational opportunity for those students who had most need of it, while maintaining academic excellence for the institution as a whole, presented a serious challenge to the new Alexander administration. While the intention behind the "R" grade policy was a good one, it removed the threat of a failing grade and produced an attitude of indifference to grades among the students. That policy, at the strong recommendation of the faculty council and with the full concurrence of the new President, was forthrightly abolished. At the end of the Fall Trimester, 1974, 115 students were expelled and 1,122 others were placed on probation. Simultaneously, the remediation program was strengthened so that most of those on probation were able to regain regular status. Today, the rate of expulsion and probation has declined. An indication of the progress that has been made can be seen in the fact that between 1973 and 1977, the proportion of teacher education graduates who passed the new National Teachers Education examination increased by more than 180 percent.
In 1962, the institution, then Chicago Teachers College: South, was tendered provisional accreditation by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). The provisional status was removed after a visit in 1967, and Chicago State College enjoyed full accreditation by NCATE for all of its programs until a review in the Fall of 1971. At that time, NCATE expressed grave misgivings about Chicago State's teacher education program and demanded sweeping changes, if accreditation were to be continued beyond 1975. Without dramatic improvement in a broad range of teacher training programs, it was possible that Chicago State would forfeit its accreditation, the loss of which would spell the end of the Division of Teacher Education and probably wipe out the graduate program completely.
Based on the specific areas of concern and recommendations contained in the action correspondence from NCATE, the teacher education faculty and the administration of Chicago State embarked upon a three year effort devoted to program reorganization and improvement. New means were defined to identify teacher education students early in their educational career, with additional strategies to assist them to remain in school and achieve their goals. The program of laboratory teaching experiences was revised, and a comprehensive evaluation model was introduced to track students' progress in teaching skills after placement. New graduate programs were instituted more closely atuned to needs of current and future teachers for advanced training.
In October 1975, an NCATE Visitation Team came for the scheduled re-evaluation of the teacher education programs. Its report was very complimentary and commended the institution for "the prompt and serious attention to concerns expressed by the previous team." In particular it cited the administrative reorganization, the addition of new upper division courses, the appointment of a Dean of Graduate Studies, and the establishment of the University Committee on Teacher Education. In sum, NCATE granted full and unconditional accreditation for the elementary and secondary teacher and counseling programs for a full ten year period, and for the school principals program for five years, in all cases the maximum periods granted to any institution in the country.
Chicago State had also been receiving minimal accreditation for almost 20 years from the North Central Association of Colleges and Universities (NCA). Such minimal accreditation was an indication that NCA findings had not been satisfactory in past years and that NCA had given the institution accreditation for a limited period in order to permit external teams of examiners to reinvestigate the situation regularly and make judgments regarding Chicago State's progress and future prospects. The last such visit had been the one in 1973, which had granted the provisional accreditation for two years, pending improvements to be assessed in annual progress reports. Originally, the return visit was scheduled for 1975, but in view of the NCATE visitation and his own recent arrival on the campus, Dr. Alexander requested, and was granted, a one year extension of the review period.
In September 1975, a new Vice President for Academic Affairs was appointed and the institution-wide self-study process for reaccreditation was initiated. A Task Force of sixteen faculty members and administrators was appointed to conduct the many research and assessment activities. Each unit of the University took responsibility for a study of its operation. A total of seventy-three exhibits was compiled for review by the NCA visitation team and the report was submitted on schedule in December 1976. The following spring, the NCA examiners spent a week on the campus, and following the presentation of their report to the Commission on Higher Education, the North Central Association granted the University a full and unconditional five-year accreditation in June 1977, a fantastic accomplishment considering the nature of the previous reports.
Both the NCATE and the NCA reports cited very positively the major differences which the reorganization of the University had made in regaining control of the decision-making processes, previously in disarray. This had been one of the first steps implemented by President Alexander upon his arrival. The several "academic divisions" had been inherited from the old Chicago State College structure and were inappropriate to the functioning of a multipurpose urban university. The three divisions of Humanities and Fine Arts, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Social and Behavioral Sciences, had been formed in 1972 to complement the Division of Teacher Education, but new programs were expanding without proper direction and budgetary controls.
Alexander recommended the immediate conversion of the academic divisions into the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Education, each to have its own dean, reporting to the Academic Vice President. In addition, two new colleges were added: Nursing and Business and Administration. A graduate division with its own dean was also authorized, and the new administrative structure provided as well for the services in library support, learning resources, continuing education, and special academic programs. Since that time, there has been further administrative consolidation, and in 1977 a new College of Allied Health was approved by the Board of Governors and Illinois Board of Higher Education.
By the end of the first year of the Alexander administration, a new mood of achievement and respectability clearly had emerged on the Chicago State University campus. In keeping with his total commitment to make Chicago State "beautiful," President Alexander was moved to seek President Ford as commencement speaker for the July 1975 convocation. At first the President, through his deputy special assistant, declined due to his heavy schedule of previous commitments. But Alexander and the students of Chicago State would not be that easily persuaded. Armed with 5,000 students' signatures on a 45 foot long scroll, a delegation of three students and three administrators, including Dr. Alexander, headed for Washington to present their request one more time to the President. Illinois Senators Charles Percy and Adlai Stevenson helped the Chicago State delegation to gain an audience in the White House, and the commitment of the President was sealed. On July 12, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford presented the commencement address to a large and enthusiastic audience in Arie Crown Theater and was bestowed an honory doctorate amidst appropriate pomp and ceremony. It was, indeed, a beautiful new day for the University.
Other changes were occurring at the University. The administrative reorganization in the fall of 1974 necessitated changes in the corresponding governance structure of the University. Throughout the 1974-75 academic year a constitution revision committee of the faculty senate met to rework the decision-making and representation provisions of the Senate. The new University Faculty Constitution was presented and approved by the Senate on December 3, 1975, to become effective in January 1976. In the months that followed, several significant policy recommendations were made in areas including senate structure, budgeting, personnel, administration, organization, student retention, admissions procedures and summer school. New academic programs were also recommended for inclusion in the curriculum.
One issue, however, which the new constitution did not resolve was faculty representation through a contract with the Board of
Governors. In the intervening years since the Board of Governors last rejected the collective bargaining request of the faculty, the Illinois legislature had recognized the right of public employees to bargain collectively, and the constituency of the Board of Governors itself had changed with the new appointment of Governor Dan Walker. The faculty at Chicago State disassociated itself from the Cook County Teachers Union and joined colleagues at the four other BOG institutions to form a new union affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers as Local 3500 of the Illinois Federation of Teachers.
Students at Chicago State University, Spring, 1974, signing a 45-foot long scroll requesting President Ford to speak at the University's July commencement.
Former President Gerald R. Ford receiving honorary doctorate, July 1975. (I to r) William G. Cole, President Ford, Donald E. Walters, and President Alexander.
Once again the union approached the Board of Governors demanding the right for collective bargaining. In an election held on October 20 and 21, 1976, the faculty of Chicago State University, together with the faculty of Eastern Illinois University, Governors State University, Northeastern Illinois University, and Western Illinois University, elected IFT-BOG of the American Federation of Teachers as their sole collective bargaining agent to represent their 1,800 members in negotiations on a system-wide basis with the universities' governing body, the Illinois Board of Governors.
Margaret Schmid, AFT Faculty Federation president, wrote an open letter to union members in the Local 3500 publication in November, 1977 which said in part:
We have collectively convinced the BOG of the dignity and self-respect of the faculty. tile have established in our universities the beginnings of a proud pattern of equal professional relations between faculty and administration.
We have been the pioneers of a new tradition, not only in the BOG universities, but in all of four-year higher education. The University is now in the second and final year of the first negotiated agreement between the Board of Governors and IFT-BOG Local 3500. The union is very much aware of where its "real" challenge lies. Whatever agreement is negotiated with the Board of Governors, it is the Board of Higher Education which recdmtnends and the Illinois State Legislature which must support and fund the salary settlements. The union now works closely with the Cook County Teachers Union in lobbying for more money for higher education as well as elementary and secondary, and more money for student scholarships.
In retrospect, it is clear that the Chicago State faculty was a key factor in the union victory. While it is too early to evaluate the long term difference the presence of the union on campus will make, two results are already apparent. First, collective bargaining has made the existing decision-making system more complex, thus the importance of the well-defined grievance procedure which the contract contains. Secondly, collective bargaining will further reduce the role of the faculty senate in decision-making. A number of the provisions worked out in the faculty constitution in 1975 have now been eclipsed by the terms of the bargaining agreement and a new governance structure and handbook are currently under study.
By the end of the academic year 1978-79, Chicago State University will be completing five years of leadership under President Benjamin H. Alexander. When he arrived on the campus in the summer of 1974 and made an assessment of the University's condition, he outlined to the Board of Governors three major priorities for his administration, which have remained paramount in his interpretation and implementation of the University's mission. These were (1) striving for academic excellence, (2) maintaining the University's unique multiracial character, and (3) responding to the needs of the vast urban community served by the University.
The first priority reflects both the institution's stated mission and the recognition that each student and alumnus/a deserves the assurance that the value of his/her degree will not be lessened by lowered academic standards. We have noted the reestablishment of traditional grading standards in 1974 and the reaffirmation by the accrediting agencies of the University's academic credibility. Moreover, in recognition of the poor academic background of many urban-educated students, the President has strongly endorsed the University's competency based proficiency examinations and has supported the expansion of funding for remediation programs. As an example of the commitment of the University to excellence in teaching, the President regularly teaches a freshman level course in chemistry or mathematics.
The second priority area, that of maintaining a multiracial community, is based upon a philosophy that students preparing for life and service in today's urban-oriented society must experience a multiracial environment in their educational preparation. Dr. Alexander said in his Inaugural address and reaffirmed in a report to his Board in 1979:
In setting these goals for myself and for the University, but particularly in setting the second of the three, I have been guided strongly by my personal philosophy. That philosophy is based on the belief that all people are brothers and sisters and that all should strive to live together in harmony and understanding.
I believe that people of every color and of both sexes can work together to bring into being a world in which hatred and bigotry are replaced by love and good will toward men; in which injustice and discrimination give way to harmony and understanding. There is no area in which these goals are more achievable than in the field of education, and there is no area in which the achievement of these goals can do more to spread this philosophy throughout society than education. I came to Chicago State University to attempt to achieve these goals, and I believe that with the help of all segments of the CSU family they can be achieved.
While Chicago State continues to produce more black graduates than any institution in the State of Illinois, the disproportionate increases in the percentage of black student enrollments each year have abated. The University throughout its history served as an educational port-of-entry for new immigrant populations: Germans; Irish; Poles; Eastern Europeans; and Italians. In the last two decades the large influx of new students came from black families. Now, with a new emphasis on occupations in business and the health professions, it is the hope of the President that the University will have a diversity of appeal that will attract more whites, Latinos, Orientals and American Indian students even as, through a steady growth pattern, the number of black students also increases. At present, about 70 percent of the student body is black and the numbers of Spanish speaking students increases annually. About nine out of ten students are the first members of their families to attend college.
The third priority, community needs, permeates the planning of the institution and is a major factor in many faculty and administration decisions. All new and expanded academic proposals must, prior to approval, satisfactorily answer two questions: will the program effectively prepare students for an urban career? Will the program answer a need that is specifically defined in the broader urban community? The President is guided•by the advice and counsel of many constituencies, and one group of particular importance is the University Advisory Council which consists of eighteen invited representatives of Chicago's most influential corporate and public service institutions. Another significant group which promotes community-university interaction is the Chicago State University Local Community Council, itself an umbrella group for more than thirty community organizations in the greater Roseland/Burnside vicinity. The Office of Continuing Education and Special Programs within the Graduate Division presents a wide variety of public service opportunities at locations all over the city. And the creation of a community relations component within the Office of University Relations has been an important asset in promoting joint university-community special events. The President is himself very active in public appearances, and the combined efforts of the faculty, staff, students and community groups have been tremendously successful in building a positive university image.
President Alexander is the first to give credit to the many achievements of the faculty, students, and staff during the last five years. There is much of which the people of Chicago State can be proud, and as a result the University has been recognized with awards of national standing on four occasions and once with international acclaim. Still, Chicago State University defines its mission in terms appropriate to an urban comprehensive university which emphasizes quality undergraduate instruction. Along with this academic commitment, its concern is expressed to the community by focusing the attention of its students, through internships and professional placement, on many of the critical problems of people in the contiguous areas. At times, our commitment exceeds our resources, so we always have to make the hard assessment of what we can or cannot do. Overall, however, we remain convinced that by stressing excellence, our responsibility to tile community will expand and bear fruit.
