Lessons on Progress

From a storefront school in downtown Los Angeles offering instruction in bookkeeping and penmanship, Woodbury University has grown into a four-year college with strong academic credentials in disciplines like business, architecture and design. Leading that change for the last 16 years has been Kenneth Nielsen, whose distinct owl-shaped glasses, white shirt and suspenders can’t be missed around campus. An adolescent psychologist by training, Nielsen decided to go into higher education administration after a stint running the fraternities and sororities at Cornell University during the height of the Vietnam era. Though it’s hard to imagine this very particular man trying to keep order in a frat house filled with college students, Nielsen said the experience changed his life, and set him on a new path in administration. Nielsen is leaving Woodbury, retiring this July after 44 years in higher education. Though there is more work to be done, he leaves behind a much stronger institution. During his tenure, Woodbury’s enrollment has grown to 1,800 from 1,000; he has raised $40 million for the school’s operating budget and an additional $40 million in planned gifts. He has taken the school’s endowment from $1 million to $17 million. He reflects on his accomplishments, the work ahead and his own plans for the future, which involves Mongolia, a wrestling festival and living in a yurt. His advice for his successor, Luis Ma R. Calingo, who arrives on campus this summer from Dominican University: “Set expectations, be friendly, develop a passion for Woodbury. Write the next chapter.” __– Question: You have been at this institution for 16 years. What attracted you to Woodbury University in the first place? Answer: I thought Woodbury was the American dream university. It was a place of real opportunity. It’s been around since 1884, but there were some struggles 20 years ago. I saw it as an opportunity for me and the school. Q: What were those struggles? A: They struggled with enrollment, they struggled with their identity…They really had not saved any money. If they had started an endowment in 1884 they would be rich by now. But they had not done any of that. I knew how to do that. It’s what I brought to the table. Q: How much have you raised? A: We have raised $40 million and have planned gifts of another $40 million. Q: And your wife is in charge of development here? A: Yes, it’s been a real partnership. She was a stay-at-home mom and volunteering here and doing a lot of fund-raising. The board chairman said to her, ‘Well, we really need to have you here.’ She raised most of our million-dollar gifts. Q: In what way was this a place of opportunity? A: Woodbury had a nice little market niche in business and architecture and design and the location is beautiful. But they had not reached to be as successful as they could be. I was trained as an adolescent psychologist under Carl Rogers, the famous humanistic psychologist who believed that everybody has potential. But some people are blocked from reaching their potential, and I saw that in the university and its people. My goal was to figure out how to unblock some avenues so they could reach their goals. Q: What do you think accounted for that block, as you say? A: They were not working together as a community. Everybody is important in a community. Full professors are important, but so is the janitor and the guy who cuts the grass. If you treat everyone with respect, they reach their potential and everyone benefits, the students especially. Q: What is the school’s identity today? What is it known for? A: Our goal has been to operate to the gold standard in what we do, but we don’t do everything. Most schools have 50 or more majors. We have 22. We are certainly known for the business school. We have the oldest business school on the West coast, started in 1884 when L.A. only had 7,000 people. Q: Wasn’t it a secretarial school? A: It’s interesting…Mr. (F.C) Woodbury was married to a much younger woman who said to him, ‘Women can learn as much as men, given the opportunity.’ Therefore, our first graduating class was one-third women and they were trained as bookkeepers, secretaries, administrators and administrative assistants — all business-related activities. The second thing we are known for is architecture. We are rated in the top 10 percent of architectural schools. We have the most Hispanic students of any architectural program in the country. Q: And you are opening a new digital media building to house your new digital filmmaking program. How did that come together? A: Yes, we decided that since we’re in the center of entertainment here, it was a great opportunity. Digital media is fascinating. For example, did you know when a movie comes out, within days there are 26 versions of that movie? There is a version for planes and a version for the Hindu population and the German population. And digital media people do this. And gaming! When someone mentioned gaming…I’m so naïve. I thought they were talking about slot machines. It’s an $80 billion industry annually. Q: How big is the new program? A: We just started this fall, so it’s small — 50 to 60 students. But we expect there will be several hundred in that program in the next couple of years. It’s the only one around here. And what a great location! We’re two miles from Disney and Warner Brothers and DreamWorks and Cartoon Network. Q: What inspired you to get into higher education administration? A: My first job was at Cornell University. I was trained as an adolescent psychologist. I was in charge of 52 fraternities, 30 sororities, 400 campus organizations and the student unions. It was a fascinating job. And after I was there four years, I thought I would like to continue this rather than adolescent psychology. It was a very hands-on job and it gave me the opportunity to affect people, to get into their lives, and to go back to this idea…to help them achieve their potential. Q: So this is your second presidency? A: Yes, the first one was College of St. Mary in Nebraska for 12 years. And I brought some of the same skills to Woodbury. I knew how to build enrollment. I knew how to build an endowment. I knew how to build buildings. I knew how to provide the facilities for a quality education. Q: What were your priorities for this institution when you came on board? A: I really wanted to expand the quality of the academic offerings…to achieve the highest level of accreditation in the fields we offer, and hire the right people. My second goal was enrollment. Enrollment at a private institution is extremely important — it’s part of your financing, it’s the tuition. The third goal was to build an endowment. When I arrived here we had only $1 million in the endowment. Now we have $17 million, and we have great potential for more because we have many planned gifts. Q: How close have you come to meeting your goals? A: In enrollment, it was about a thousand. Now it’s 1,800. So we had about a 60 percent increase in enrollment and mostly full-time. We have few part-time students, today. Q: What’s the mix? A: It’s about 90 percent full-time today and only 10 percent part-time. It was 50/50 when I got here. And if you look at the kind of students we now enroll, they are a broader ethnic mix and a brighter group. Q: In terms of the accreditation where are you? A: We are there with the architecture. We have a school of media and design and that is accredited by the top accreditation body. In business, we are in the fourth year of a 5-year effort to be accredited by the top accrediting body for business schools. Q: What’s the financial status of the school as you prepare to leave? A: We have money in the bank. We’re able to attract good people. We have balanced our budget and we can get rated bonds if we want to do some improvements. So financially, it’s in good shape. But it was not so 16 years ago. We had troubles. It took four to five years. Q: What was the turning point? A: We did not have an endowment and I was trying to figure out how to do this. Some schools have alumni that have a lot of money. We didn’t. Our students are first-generation Americans. I had a very good CFO who suggested that we put a line item in the budget. Every year we would set aside $400,000 from a $20 million budget and let it grow. Now that amount is up to $800,000 a year out of a $45 million budget. We picked ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Q: Do you have a hero or a role model? A: My hero is Carl Rogers, the person I was trained under. Rogers talks about the freedom to learn, but we’re not always free. We are blocked by family, by rage. Open that up and we can tap our ability. And I say use that ability to do good things. We want you to be skillful in your profession, but we also want you to have a greater responsibility for society. Q: How do you communicate that to the students here? A: I tell our students that only 1 percent of the world gets to have a college education. I tell them, ‘You are part of an elite group. Therefore you have a responsibility to give back to society.’ Q: What do you think people will remember you for? A: I’m a walk-around manager. You see me with my shirt and suspenders. I know most people by name. I’m out there. I walk around with this little blue card, and I stop and talk to people. When something is not right, I want to talk about it. I want to fix it. Q: What do you do with the blue card? A: I’m a detail person. If the flag is not up right, I make a note and I call the guy. Or the paint is peeling or the sign is falling down. I do a lot of calling when I come back to my desk. I think details are extremely important and talks about how you care…If I walk across the campus and someone is looking down, I will stop them and say, ‘What’s going on?’ And sometimes I can do something about it. Q: Is there a moment when you helped someone change their life? A: Years ago we had a guy who worked in our mailroom for 30 years and he got colon cancer. He was on his last legs. He had a daughter who was 12. Our policy is if you have worked at the institution for five years or more, your child can come for free. Well, he was dying. So I said, ‘Larry, it sounds like it’s not gonna be better for you. I just want you to know when she is ready to go to college we will let her go to school here for free.’ Q: Did she come? A: Yes. She did. Q: Has she graduated? A: Not yet. She’s still here. Q: What should be your successor’s top priorities? A: He’s got to focus on the success of Woodbury and build on that. Make it bigger and better. Q: What will be his challenges? A: Certainly the state budget. Our students get Cal Grants. It’s a critical issue for us. (If they cut that) it could cost us $3 million. It’s a big chunk, and it will affect almost 300 students. And those families cannot make up the difference. They are low-income. Smart kids, but low-income. That will be a challenge. Also, the whole federal academic regulations — they are trying to control higher education more and more. The feds wants to set standards for higher education. Q: Tell us about your best day here. A: My best day each year is graduation. I know all those students personally and their struggles so that’s my best day every year. Q: Worst day? A: I’m an optimist. I won’t allow myself to have a worst day. Q: A particularly challenging day? A: Nope. Never. I don’t have worst days. And I would not admit it if there was one. It’s the way my mind works. I’m an eternal optimist. There is never a worst day. Q: They say optimists live longer. A: Well, my dad lived to 98 and my mother to 97, so my assumption is I’m going to have a long life. Q: What do you plan to do your first day as president emeritus? A: I’m going to Mongolia for a month. I’m going for the horse festival and the wrestling festival and the archery festival. I’ve always want to go there, but it’s too cold in March when I usually go. So now I’m going in the summer and living in a yurt. Q: What’s your advice for your successor? A: Set expectations, be friendly. Develop a passion for Woodbury. Write the next chapter Q: What would you like to see here in five years? A: I would like to see that endowment continue to grow. Q: What’s a good number? A: $90 million; twice the operating budget. And I would certainly like to see a continued expansion of the quality of the academic program and the people we hire. And I’d like to see us continue to value the potential in people and making that potential grow. You don’t measure that in pencil and paper, but if you stop and talk to people you feel it, you see it. (Disclosure: San Fernando Valley Business Journal Publisher Pegi Matsuda is a member of the board of Woodbury University.)