The Gatepost - FSC's Weekly Independent Student Newspaper

April 14, 2006

Elsa Nuñez
By Sarah Freedman News Editor On Apr. 3, Framingham State College Presidential Candidate Dr. Elsa Nuñez visited the college and met with students, faculty and staff.
Since September of 2003, Nuñez has been the vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for the University of Maine System, which is comprised of seven universities across Maine. Prior to holding that position, she was the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Lesley University.
Nuñez received a B.A. from Montclair State College in Montclair, New Jersey, an M.A. from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a doctorate in linguistics from Rutgers University. In addition, she has held tenured positions at Ramapo State College in New Jersey, the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York and Lehman College of the City University of New York.
She is also the author of a book titled, “Pursuing Diversity,” published in 1992.
The issues Nuñez addressed were unions at college campuses, promoting FSC, and interacting with the Board of Higher Education (BHE).
Nuñez said that finding the right person for the presidency was about the president having a “set of abilities” right for the school.
She likened applying for the presidency to coming home. She valued her education from Montclair State College because she believed that we cannot “be a great democracy without a great higher education system.”
Nuñez herself said that she came from a “very modest” background as a working student to become a young administrator in the City of New York University system.
According to Nuñez, she is able to see both sides of labor and teachers’ contract negotiations, as she has been a tenured track faculty member at many colleges and is currently a vice chancellor.
She said she has a good relationship with the faculy, who are currently without a contract.
“It’s hard for us, and it’s hard for them,” she said.
In a related question about faculy relations, she spoke about her earlier failures when she was a dean at the College of Staten Island and how she has learned from them.
She said, “I had the task of leading a general education revision. And, although I had good intentions, and I think people thought my ideas were good, the process that I used was not a good one.
“And, at the end of the day, I antagonized people.”
She stayed at the college and was able to build a better relationship with the faculty.
Now, she said, “I would have done it very differently.” She learned that “process is everything and faculty leadership is critical.”
She said that when she had to decide about further changes to the curriculum, she used a better process and “the faculty were very supportive.”
In a response to a related question, Nuñez said the faculty is crucial to the success of a president. “A president cannot accomplish anything [without] the support of the faculty.
“I know what it is to have a heavy teaching load. I know what is to be promoted through the ranks. I know what it is to be published. I know what it is to have a miserable salary and try to raise two kids,” Nuñez said.
Another question she addressed was how she would handle the media coverage of Framingham State as “second-rate” and how she would promote the college.
Nuñez said she would promote the college by showing the college’s many strengths.
“You need a strategy on multiple levels on how to do that. So, once you actually develop a strategy at each level – who’s going to articulate the work that we do here at Framingham State, and the quality of that work, and the contribution it makes to the state of Massachusetts,” she said.
Noting the fragmentation of a college’s message, she said, “The message should be one message.”
Nuñez said to counteract this problem, the college president needs to promote a cohesive message of which everyone is “proud.”
Nuñez said, if she were elected president, “My face will be the face of this institution.”
According to Nuñez, if she is respected by others, the school will be respected. “The more visible I am, the name of the college goes with me.”
Nuñez said, “You want to have a message that has integrity – that we all believe is the right picture, the right framing of what this institution is about.”
She said building on the good academic reputation of FSC is important for the next president. “You are a strong place, but the message has to be elevated, and people have to know the good work that you are doing.”
Referencing her roles as a faculty member at many state colleges, she added, “I know what a state college is about. I was a student there. I know what you contribute to the state.”
Another question was about relations with the BHE. She said that within working with the BHE, “there are two roles that a president has to play.” According to Nuñez, a president must advocate for the college, but not have too much “public face” that it antagonizes the BHE.
To this end, she said a president has to be able to advocate for the school in “smart” ways. For Nuñez, this means going behind the scenes as well as “taking on” the board.
Another important question was about what she thought the biggest challenge facing FSC would be.
She said the biggest challenge for FSC was to “diffrentiate itself.” She added, “You cannot just be another state college.”
According to Nuñez, it is important that people outside the FSC community know what makes FSC different and can articulate well what that quality may be.
She praised the technology program, but said it should be incorporated “carefully and thoughtfully.”
According to Nuñez, “Integrating it into the classroom can be a challenge – making sure that it’s not an appendage.”
Other topics discussed at the visit were interdisciplinary components to learning, which she said enhances the students’ education and retention.
She said on the topic of making connections between academic disciplines, “Students blossom from that. They really get it. And they take that to the next level intellectually.”

Nuñez said she had experience working with students and tutoring them and concluded that co-curricular activities are vital to retention.
From her higher education experience, Nuñez believes fundraising could occur when business leaders see the high quality of the workers they hire from the public higher education system.
Nuñez has written grants worth an accumulative amount of $650,000 for the University of Maine system in the last two years.
Issues brought up at the student forum included the alcohol policy, parking, registration and student involvement.
Nuñez said she would try to attend and support student activities because it allows her to connect with students. She added that she would increase the amount of student input in academic and curricular matters.
In response to a related question about supporting students, she said the most important role a president has is to “always ensure students the quality of your degree is being protected.”
Nuñez asked the students what they would change about the college, to which they answered provide more parking and get more students involved.
She said these were “good problems to have” because they were not worried about “institutional credibility.”
Two important topics brought up were 21+ drinking on campus and online registration.

Students brought up the issue of having a dry campus. Nuñez said she would support a plan for students where if they were over 21, they could drink “on campus in a responsible way.”
Nuñez also said that there is online registration in the University of Maine system and there was “no need for students to wait in lines to register.” She said the process of establishing online registration is “very hard,” but “ultimately it benefits the students.”
One of her important messages of the day was this: “At the end of the day, it’s all about the students. We’re all here for the students, and if we don’t do our work with that in mind, we lose sight of that important goal.”