Service is in Her Blood

The daughter of noted blood bank pioneer Dr. Charles Drew, Dr. Charlene Drew Jarvis is no stranger to the spotlight. Yet, it is from her own political and educational pursuits that she has become a well-known figure in the Washington, D.C., area. After working as a research scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health, Jarvis shifted her attention to serving the local community. In 1979, she was elected to the City Council of the District of Columbia, where she remained for 21 years. She served as chairwoman of the council and the committee on economic development.
In 1996, Jarvis was named president of Southeastern University, the first woman to hold the position. As president of the private, nonprofit university, she has strengthened its academic curriculum, expanded certificate offerings to those in the science and technology fields, increased enrollment, and developed numerous partnerships with local businesses and organizations. Recently, Jarvis sat down with Black Issues to discuss the university's future and her role as its leader.

BI:  What drew you to higher education, given your background in other areas, especially politics?

CDJ:  I came into higher education because my 20 years as the chair of the Committee on Economic Development for the Council of the District of Columbia convinced me that women of color and other people of color were not really competing well for major economic development projects, which means that a focus on entrepreneurship was something that we were not teaching. And it seemed to me that the higher education route to getting students involved in entrepreneurship was exactly the place where I needed to be. 

BI:  What have you found to be the major differences and similarities between the two entities, politics and higher education?
CDJ: Well, there's a great deal of politics in higher education. First of all, there is a great deal of competition between universities. There is a competition for students; there's a competition for innovative programs; there's a competition for resources; and now, particularly, there's a competition between state-funded schools and private institutions. State-funded schools depended, in the past, on the largesse of the state for support, and now, in times of severe budget crisis at the state level, the universities have to go out and mine their alumni donor base. They're going to the same foundations; they are going to the same corporations that small nonprofit universities are going to. So it's creating tremendous competition at a time when foundation giving, individual giving and corporate giving is down.