Some leaders are able to move their university to a point of true distinctiveness. Usually, they construct steeples of excellence or areas of academic endeavor where extraordinary outcomes become both the norm and the legacy. Whether those outcomes are the students they graduate, the knowledge they generate, or the societal change they stimulate, powerful institutional leadership is the common denominator.
Xavier?s excellence in pre-medical education represents an academic steeple like few others in American higher education. It is a steeple because it has made Xavier University America?s most productive incubator of African-American physicians, scientists and pharmacists; it has positioned Xavier to annually outperform universities like Harvard, Yale and Princeton in sending African- Americans to medical and dental schools. Also, it has produced a MacArthur genius, Dr. Regina Benjamin, who is the nation?s current surgeon general. Thanks to Norman Francis, when people think of Xavier University, they think of healers.
The timing could not be better for such distinctiveness. It is now axiomatic that science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, are the cornerstones of the new global economy. Whatever a student?s goals, dreams or intentions, success now demands a degree of comfort with science, technology and technological change. Entire fields, industries, businesses, and professions are now driven by STEM brainpower and innovation. Colleges that are unable to clarify their ?STEM voice? may be at risk of irrelevance. Thanks to Norman Francis, when people think of Xavier University, they also think of STEM excellence.
How did this former dean of men at Xavier become the dean of university presidents in America? What makes Norman Francis so unique?
Some would cite his wisdom in taking risks or his infectious optimism. Most would cite his stability and consistency during a lengthy tenure. Having started in 1968, he has led Xavier through many of this nation?s epic storms of change ? the civil rights movement and its aftermath, the desegregation of American higher education, the rise of technology and its impact on the way we shape and deliver education, the internationalization of the competition for talent, the endowment-driven redefinition of institutional strength, and the increasing threat of institutional instability caused by economic uncertainty. And besides his steadiness during those figurative storms, many would look to 2005 and cite his dauntlessness during and after a literal storm called Hurricane Katrina.
Like a superhero, he led the evacuation of students and staff from his flooded campus, thereby saving lives and dreams. But beyond his storm-tested, 43-year tenure as Xavier University?s president, Norman Francis has ripened a distinguished institutional identity like few other colleges or universities, Black or White. And history provides a perfect illustration of how and why he was able to build Xavier?s pre-medical steeple.
As the story goes, several decades ago, a few of Xavier?s science faculty members were looking to respond to the problem of minority underrepresentation in medical schools and in various medical professions.
They met with their president, who encouraged them to develop a plan. Based on that plan, President Francis worked with them, encouraged them, invested in them and led them to the unprecedented levels of productivity they have now realized. Most important, he made wise use of Xavier University?s Title III funding, positioning it as a core part of the institutional investment in this targeted effort. Among the allowable uses of Title III funding is to strengthen and improve academic quality. Norman Francis made Xavier the definition of how that was to be done.
In this regard, his tenure is an important lesson in a rare aspect of leadership. Many leaders are unable to make tough decisions. When provided with an investment to strengthen the campus, some leaders are inclined to spread the funds far and wide in order to please many. A less popular alternative is to concentrate the investment in one or two areas, thereby increasing the chances of producing a more significant outcome.
In academic strategy, this privileges depth over breadth. Because Norman Francis was willing to make the tough decisions associated with academic investment, what has resulted is a premier pre-medical steeple at Xavier University.
Drawing on the rich ideas of some of the most prominent HBCU leaders in history, the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities has advanced the notion that today?s HBCUs ought to aspire to be ?cathedrals,? or the most well-appointed centers of learning in the world. This is an aspiration for all of higher education, since no college or university is yet equipped with both the capital and character preeminence associated with cathedral status. But many are on their way, including Xavier, thanks to Norman Francis.
His stellar success at Xavier University makes President Francis a primary source of unique lessons about weathering storms and building steeples.
? Dr. John Silvanus Wilson Jr. is the executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
