The biographies of Confederate general Robert E. Lee and U.S. Air Force general David Roe have some striking similarities.
Both were sons of career military officers. They were both outstanding graduates of military academies, where they held official posts. And both became presidents of small colleges following retirement from the military.
But there the similarities end. For when Lee assumed the presidency of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington, Virginia after the Civil War, it was his reputation that brought the school back to life.
When David Roe became president of Central College in Pella, Iowa in 1998, however, it was his well-developed and inbred work ethic, coupled with a sincere interest in students' welfare, that made the difference—plus a few innovative practices and philosophies.
Music hath charms
Roe maintains that scientific literature provides conclusive proof that exposure to music and art improves IQ. Babies in the womb develop faster if they have music played to them than if they are read to, he asserts, while students who have had music or art courses get better SAT verbal and quantitative scores than those who have not.
Not one to sit around when presented with an opportunity, Roe in 2000 submitted a proposal to the Teagle Foundation and was presented with a $170,000 grant to fund preparation for a music/art experiment over two years. Roe would turn Central College into a campus-wide lab, testing the notion that the more intrusive music and the arts are on the learning environment, the higher the quality of education.
During 2001 and 2002, three arts groups came to campus each year to work with students and faculty, to perform dances or plays, or to create sculptures. Treva Reimer, associate professor of theater, was director for the grant. She took about 20 professors from all disciplines to Washington, D.C. for two weeks. They went to theaters, museums, concerts and met with practicing artists. The challenge was to bring back what they learned to enhance the educational process in their classrooms.
Mark Johnson, a math and computer sciences teacher, brought music into the math classroom to enhance the learning of mathematical concepts. He wasn't as successful as he wanted, but in the graphic design portion of a computer sciences course, students used the visualization of music in their designs, particularly for screen savers, and it worked well.
Other professors had qualitative successes. One linked blues music to teaching poetry, while a philosophy instructor used paintings showing relationships between people and the world to teach environmental ethics. A sociology professor used the poetry of Lucille Clifton, a black feminist, to highlight gender differences. A management professor used the arts to teach creative risk-taking as a way to manage a company. One of the teams in a financial management course on the principles of investment made art purchases part of their investment portfolio.
Since Roe's been on the job, Central College also has been gifted with or commissioned a number of sculptures displayed just about everywhere. Buildings feature purchased art, as well as some created by students and faculty. The hallways are covered with art pieces, and some displays are rotated for people to encounter as they traverse the campus.
Making a difference
Though Roe says it's too early to effectively measure how such policies are impacting the institution, there are strong indications they are having an effect. When he arrived, the number one issue was turning around enrollment that had declined about 30 percent over the six years before his arrival.
This last fall, on-campus enrollment was the highest ever, the previous apex set in '89-'90. Roe's number one priority today is fundraising and growing the endowment, as the college finds itself in the public phase of the largest campaign in its history.
"Before my time, there had never been a gift as large as a million dollars, "Roe points out. "Since we have been in the campaign, we have had several one-million and multi-million dollar gifts," the largest a $3.1 million estate bequest last year.
Roe has made a deep impression on his peers and colleagues. "His energy and devotion to the institution are remarkable," notes Barbara Bowzer, Central College treasurer and VP for business. "Without that we would not have the success we are enjoying."
A global view
Roe's holistic approach extends into every corner of college life, right down to the general health of the people on campus. There's a wellness committee, for example, chaired by an exercise science professor. Junior and senior students majoring in exercise science can fulfill one course as a personal trainer for faculty and staff who request that.
Offering service as an educational experience for students is central to Central College's plan, and Roe leverages such academic/service trade-offs wherever possible to forward the school's mission. One goal is to prepare students for leadership roles on local ,national and global stages, for instance. So the completion of a cross-cultural experience now has become a graduation requirement.
About 50 percent of students satisfy the requirements through an overseas study program, spending a semester abroad at one of the institution's 10 overseas campuses. The other half finish the 'X' (as the cross-cultural requirement is called) by completing a service learning opportunity.
They can go into an urban area of concentration of an ethnic minority, where the students are the minority, and teach English as a second language, provide day care or work as teachers' assistants. Students also can meet the "X" requirement through a very active campus ministries program over spring, summer and Christmas breaks, with mission trips to a Native American reservation or to Mexico, building homes or schools. Students must analyze the experience and report back to the faculty.
Roe feels a genuine need to make Central College's homogeneous Iowan student body more culturally and ethnically diverse. There's a growing African-American student population, and the school is concentrating on building a Hispanic-American presence as well, for obvious reasons: two of its overseas programs are Spanish-speaking, and there are a large number of students and faculty fluent in Spanish.
Change, change, change
Roe has learned from experience that any organization, be it military, business or educational, will fail without superior customer service to both internal and external customers. He has been intent on having the insitution embrace a community culture committed to continuous change that enhances the student experience before and after graduation.
He has challenged faculty and staff to employ the lessons from the customer service revolution to enhance the Central College experience. Roe personally led six of his top managers to attend the Disney Institute's customer service training program, revamped with the help of the Council of Independent Colleges to focus on private colleges.
Out of that experience, Roe and his staff developed Central's service theme and standards. A thrice-annual update of where the college stands now goes to the entire college community. Faculty and staff who exemplify the standards of integrity, safety, respect, responsiveness and energy are nominated for awards that recognize their contributions to customer service. The president's advisory council each year typically picks two winners, who receive personal recognition and a significant cash bonus.
Roe finds the financial dynamics of running a small liberal arts college more complex and even more of an art than leading a large insurance company. So, as one of the tenets of his strategic plan, Roe admonishes both faculty and staff to learn the basics of how the institution is run.
Closing the deal
But it is not the admissions staff tha tis going to teach students the lessons that prepare them for life. It is the faculty, the coaches they are going to play for, and the conductors for whom they are going to play music. Roe believes the people who have to "close the deal" are the faculty. "Faculty members work very hard at doing a great job in the classroom, on committees and the like," Roe states. "But they must come to understand a critical link: they have a role in their own future pay raises by closing the deal with the students that they want to teach in their classrooms.
"The instructors are the ones that need to do that part of the recruiting process," Roe continues. "Our admissions staff can convey all of the faculty statistics and their achievements. But until those students sit dow none-on-one with the person from whom they wish to learn, we have not closed the deal."
The bigger bottom line
Roe appreciates the genuineness of the Central College community, where there is a strong sense of family. The campus culture reflects much of heartland America. Many students come from rural communities, and a significant percentage are first-generation college.
Roe, in his strategic plan for the school, speaks candidly of intolerance as one of the school's weaknesses: "Our shared values of accept-ance, mutual respect, justice, compassion and service to others are not consistently demonstrated by all in our campus community." His answer is to work hard with his student life staff, senior management and the board to bring the community to a place where it can best go after all its goals and missions.
"There has to be a team effort," Roe states unequvocally. "I've always tried to set high goals for the people reporting to me. I view my job as empowering all of the various people between me and the students, so that the interface between faculty, students and other things is as vibrant as possible." Strategic planning is a tool that helps create such atmospheres, and it has become core to his leadership style.
On leadership
John Hartung, president of the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges, has observed the effect of Roe's leadership up close.
"David has exhibited a spirit of teamwork in his dealings with all of the other presidents across the state and the country," Hartung states. Moreover, while Roe came into the Central College presidency without a great deal of experience in higher education administration, Hartung points out that Roe also has become "a real student" of the discipline.
"The 31 members in the association have all recognized his hard work and elected him chairman," Hartung says. Results, David Roe would be sure to agree, speak for themselves.
Third time's the charm
"Being the president of a university is one of the most rewarding, albeit challenging, responsibilities I've had the privilege of holding," says David Roe. "It's particularly gratifying to watch the growth of our students. Of course, an interest in students is one of the reasons that I sought this kind of a position, after I'd basically been through three retirements."
In 1986, he retired from the Air Force as a brigadier general. He got there with a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy. He's a Rhodes scholar and holds a doctorate in physiology from the University of Illinois.
Roe also was associate professor and division chair in the department of life and behavioral sciences at the Air Force Academy; a White House Fellow; a special assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare; director of NATO policy at the Pentagon; special assistant to the director of the joint staff at the Pentagon; and defense planner for the U.S. mission to NATO in Brussels.
Erv Rokke, president of Moravian College, was a classmate of Roe's at the Academy. "David is a class act, "Rokke states. "He was a student leader in the classic sense. He emerged on top of virtually every activity in which he engaged."
"David was brilliant, but well-balanced," recalls Edgar S. "Beau" Puryear, Jr., an instructor of Roe's at the Air Force Academy. "It is so unusual that you find somebody capable of so much achievement."
A straight-A student in the top 10 percent of a graduating class that had 3 Rhodes scholars, Roe was also Cadet Wing Commander, the highest cadet rank and one indicative of the evaluation of his leadership by peers as well as senior officers. He was captain of the varsity soccer team, even though he had never before played the game.
Roe went on after the military to become executive vice president of USAA, a San Antonio, Texas-based financial services corporation with $21 billion in assets, rising to CFO before retiring. In 1991, he became president of United Services Life Co., a life insurance holding company with $3 billion in assets that merged in 1995 with Northwestern National Life, to become ReliaStar Financial Corp.
He currently serves as board member and chair of the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. Roe is on the executive committee of the Iowa College Foundation, is president of the Community Betterment Organization of Pella and a board member of the Pella Area Development Corporation.
To round things out, Roe teaches a seminar on leadership—and, of course, coaches the kickers on Central College's football team.