features Sacred Teachings To the college she loved like a daughter,Susan says farewell The Difference of One

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To the college she loved like a daughter, Susan says farewell by Chuck Luce Susan-that's what everyone around here calls her, except students, who address her as President Pierce until they graduate, after which they're on a first-name basis too-Susan gets impatient talking about herself. Ask her to comment on issues facing liberal arts education or underage drinking on college campuses-topics on which she is considered a national authority-and you'll get long, articulate answers. But ask her what she thinks she's accomplished as Puget Sound's 12th president and the former English professor dips into her word-horde for a literary joke: "Well," she says, "I should not talk so much about myself if therewere anybody else whom I knew as well." It's Thoreau, from the "Economy" chapter in Walden, and Susan's way of saying she is uncomfortable with the topic of her legacy. "People have begun to talk to me about it and begun to use that term-legacy," she admits. "It feels most foreign to me. I've neverbeen motivated by that. I've been pret ty focused, to the best of my ability, on the institution and the people who are here." No one would argue otherwise. Over the course of 11 years, a longtenure for a modern college president, she has guided the college in a gutsy, and time would prove brilliant, course of action laid out by the Board of Trustees in 1979: While other institutions propped up sagging enrollments with job-specific pre-professional programs,Puget Sound went in the opposite direction, back to the vision of its founders, clarifying its liberal arts focus and growing smaller and more residential by design. In the process, Puget Sound's reputation grew, as did its strength by every measure. On Susan's watch, applications for freshman admission reached 4,400 for 650 places, an increase of more than 1,000 since 1992. Average SAT scores of incoming freshmen grew from 1067 to 1250 (an impressive improvement, even when taking into account gains from the College Board's re-centering of those scores in the mid-1990s). The student body became increasingly national during the '90s: enrollments from outside Washington increased from 57 percent of the student body to 76 percent, reflecting the growing appeal to high school seniors of broadening their experiences by going away to school. The $50 million Campaign for Puget Sound surpassed its goal by $18 million. The endowment grew from $52 million to more than $180 million (with a peak of $215 million), and annual gift income tripled. And during this past decade, Puget Sound received significant support from such foundations as Mellon, Luce, Starr, Kresge, Arthur Vining Davis, Gates, Murdock, Cheney, Kilworth and Fuchs. On the academic side, these fund-raising successes translated into a student-to-faculty ratio that improved from 13-to-1 in 1990 to today's 11-to-1. The university created 13 tenure-line faculty positions, added more financial aid for needy students, expanded its international political economy and environmental studies programs, added two Luce professorships to its Asian studies program, increased the number of students studying overseas from 6 or 7 percent to more than 33 percent, and funded opportunities for independent student research. In addition to her work on campus, Susan was active in national educational initiatives, including the President's Council for the Association of Governing Boards, and the Executive Committee for the Annapolis Group, an organization of national liberal arts college presidents. She was a member of the National Institutes of Health-National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse task force on college drinking, which recently released a report documenting the consequences of excessive drinking on campuses and recommending actions that campuses can take to reduce these harmful consequences. These in addition to an array of cultural and civic boards. During the late '90s, while other universities deferred maintenance and struggled with budgets, Susan oversaw more than $85 million in capital projects, establishing her as a prolific, if cautious, builder. "I never thought of myself as a bricks and mortar person," she says. "When I was hired, what neither the board nor I anticipated was the degree to which we needed to attend to campus facilities. There was a slate of goals for the '90s that included a new humanities building. And better performing arts space and better recreational space. And the trustees asked me to review all of that and make recommendations to them about whether these goals were the right goals." The result was a new master plan focused on the core of the campus and, among other improvements, the addition of Trimble Hall (2002), Wyatt Hall (2000), Schneebeck Concert Hall (1995), the Pamplin Fitness Center and Tennis Pavilion (1994-95), renovations to Clapp Theatre (1998), Baker Stadium (1998), the Union Avenue houses (1999), Collins Library (2001), Wheelock Student Center (1998-2001), Jones Hall (2001), McIntyre Hall (1999), and many residence halls; the creation of a new baseball field (1999), and improvements to Shotwell Track and Peyton Field (2003). Standing up for the right thing All of which is not to say that the Pierce years lacked controversy, the noisiest being the sale in 1993 of the UPS law school to Seattle University for an undisclosed sum. "We said we were a liberal arts college, but we had a law school," Susan says, "and a law school that was unusually large, with 800 students, that was located 15 minutes from the 'main' campus, and was not well integrated with the rest of the college." The law school wanted and needed additional resources, but the trustees were ambivalent. Some thought the university should continue to function with an institutional split personality. Some said the law school didn't belong and should be phased out. Another group said make it smaller in the interest of quality. None of those options was appealing. But another possibility emerged when then Seattle University President Fr. William Sullivan, aware of Puget Sound's increasing focus on the liberal arts, called Susan. "We had coffee and decided that maybe we could effect a transfer in a way that would benefit both institutions and the law school," she remembers. "So I met with Lowry Wyatt, who was the outgoing board chair, and Bill Weyerhauser, the then new chair, and other trustees. They thought we should continue the discussions, but we agreed it would be good if I talked to Norton Clapp." Clapp, a Puget Sound trustee for 62 years, had been chair of the board when the law school was founded, and the downtown Tacoma law center bore his name. He was at the time an emeritus trustee, but at age 87 he was still coming to board meetings and still wielded considerable influence. Susan and two trustees drove to his home in Medina and laid out the situation. "Norton immediately began firing questions at me, for about 45 minutes, one right after another," Susan says. "Really, really good questions. And finally he smiled and said, 'Do you want me to come to the board meeting and make a motion?' I said I did. And then he smiled again and said, 'Don't you want to know first what the motion will be?'" Clapp did attend the fall 1993 board meeting and moved that Puget Sound transfer the law school to Seattle U. Fearing that public debate might damage the law school's reputation and harm admissions and staffing, and knowing that the law school's relocation would be a contentious topic for a resurgent downtown Tacoma, negotiations were kept quiet. When both boards of trustees approved and announced the transfer, the decision set off loud cries of "slap-in-the-face elitism!" from News Tribune columnists and months of vitriol in the letters pages, some of it directed personally at Susan. One particularly stinging News Tribune cartoon depicted Susan at the wheel of a Mercedes, her string of pearls flying in the wind, while the passenger trustees gunned down an innocent bystander wearing a placard that read "law school." Some people chuckle about the cartoon now, but at that time in Tacoma many on campus failed to catch the humor in the allusion to a drive-by shooting. Ten years later, predictions that Puget Sound's standing would plummet and that alumni contributors would abandon their alma mater in droves never came to pass. In fact, the opposite happened. Meanwhile, the building that housed the law school was sold to the state of Washington, which relocated more than 350 office workers to the significantly renovated site. The News Tribune celebrated this development. Income from the proceeds of that sale has supported financial aid endowment for Washington state students. Other controversies arose when the university revised its business school curriculum to embody principles of the liberal arts, and when athletics changed its affiliation to NCAA Division III. But these, too, were in keeping with a continuing focus on mission, says Susan, who, never one to duck an issue just because it was hard, shouldered controversy when it arose, knowing the end result would be best for the college. "Susan put the stature of the university, the quality of its curriculum, and the strength of its faculty and student body first," says Bill Weyerhaeuser. "For the law school decision especially, she received too much heat and the rest of the board and I too little." A life melded with the college But then no one ever said the job of college president is easy. It's like being the matriarch of a very large, independent-minded, vocal, wildly talented family-a family that despite its precociousness still requires guidance, nurturing, and praise. And as every mother knows, good parenting requires time. For Susan, personal time and college time are indistinguishable. On a typical day last semester she was at her desk at around 8 a.m., following a session in the fitness center. She started out with an athletic search committee meeting from 8 to 9. From 9 to 10 she was interviewed by this author. Between 10 and 10:30 she returned phone calls and reviewed a grant application sent to a foundation, then did paperwork. At 10:30 she met with a candidate for a faculty position. At 11 o'clock met with another faculty candidate. Had lunch with one of the vice presidents because it was the only time the two could talk. Spent time on the phone with one of the national educational associations, talking about projects underway at the university. Made a variety of phone calls to students, faculty, staff. Met with her office staff to plan schedules. Chaired a meeting with faculty until 5:30 p.m. Entertained at home in the evening. Months pass without a free weekend. And then there's the traveling-50,000-to-70,000 miles a year on university business, consuming about one week per month. It's little wonder that Susan, who insists on doing most of her own correspondence and other writing, gets a lot done on airplanes. People who work closely with her know they're likely to receive a flurry of communication when she finds a dataport for her laptop during an airport layover. "She's been described as tireless. That's almost true," joked Academic V.P. Terry Cooney at an on-campus reception for Susan in May. "I'm here to tell you that the woman is human. I actually have seen her tired. Once or twice." But if stamina is one of her strong suits, so are her instincts around others and her compassion. "In addition to helping us take on tough issues like employee benefits, health care, and child care," says Dean of Students Kris Bartanen, "she wrote countless notes to staff members who were facing struggles in their lives, cooked and delivered meals when she could, gave a lot of hugs, and supported directly those facing both personal illnesses and great successes." Susan credits her upbringing in Janesville, Wisc., for her observational powers and her way of making people feel valued for their opinions. "Friday nights, when my father [owner of a small chain of women's clothing stores] would be at work until 9 o'clock, my mother and two younger sisters and I would go downtown at about 8 o'clock and sit in the car on Main Street, watching people go by and making up stories about their lives. The way it worked was that you had to explain your reason for creating this story based on observations about the people. So it made my sisters and me attentive to the world around us. "I was incredibly shy as a child-literally would hide behind my mother's skirts," she recalls. "One day my mother said to me, 'You know, Honey, everyone has an interesting story to tell. All you have to do is ask.'" That turned out to be a revelation. Susan found that simply by asking people about themselves she made lifelong friends and heard wonderful stories-and in large part, she observes, her work at Puget Sound is about retelling those stories to alumni, to donors, and to prospective students and their families as a way of promoting the college. "There's just incredible joy in the job. I learn new things every single day," she says. "Every time I interview someone I learn something new. I'm constantly being given suggestions for books I might want to read that I would never know about. When I came here it never occurred to me I'd spend so much time planning buildings. I've developed a certain level of expertise about all of that, which I didn't have. And the high-quality people with whom I work is a continuing pleasure. People are endlessly fascinating to me." Perhaps her greatest delight, though, is being around students. She says she loves attending plays and concerts and athletic events, and she has repeatedly demonstrated there is almost nothing she won't do for students if asked. Over the years that has included dressing up in a silver-studded leather jacket while parading with the Homecoming court around Baker Stadium on a Harley Davidson motorcycle, and riding a mechanical bull that injured her wrist badly enough to require surgery. Just this semester, students asked if they could videotape her making a testimonial for an imaginary product-Power Popcorn-for which they had a business class assignment to design marketing strategies. They presented a script, and Susan enthusiastically read it: "Power Popcorn makes me feel so good I could continue as Puget Sound's president for at least another 11 years!" Presidential transition Susan is trying to help President-elect Ron Thomas learn what made being president of Puget Sound such a pleasure for her. "I told him how much I loved this, and also that I think it takes a certain amount of insanity to be a college president," she laughs. She says she is doing her best to provide Thomas with as much information as possible about the context and the history behind campus life. For example, because of his interest in relationships with the community, Thomas has received material describing the university's relationships with Tacoma: current, detailed information about the Access Programs, the Community Involvement and Action Center, the university's collaboration with the Tacoma Urban League, other student volunteerism, the Neighbor-to-Neighbor newsletter, and the university-district committee that the college started. Since becoming more residential is one of the university's goals for this decade, he also has received material on residential life: surveys of students, focus groups, and analyses of occupancy patterns. "He and I are e-mailing and talking a lot. I try to answer his questions. He's been on campus for monthly transitional visits since his election in February, meeting with trustees, administrators, students, and faculty in informal settings. I think he's come to appreciate the extraordinary talents of the people who work and learn here." Letting go How long after July 15, her last day, will it take Susan to let go? "Probably about 24 hours," she responds without hesitation. "I will always love this place and will always be available to help, but things have their seasons, and I've done this with great love for 11 years. And now I'm about to begin a new chapter in my life." She says she is especially looking forward to having more time with her husband, Ken, a retired CEO and college professor. And time with her daughter, Sasha, an intellectual property attorney in South Florida, and her son-in-law, Steve, and Susan's brand new grandson, Sean Derek Siegel, born May 10. (Susan flew that night on the red eye to Florida, returning home several days later to participate in her last trustees meeting and her last Commencement.) Her father also lives in Florida, and that's where Susan and Ken are moving. "As much as I love the Pacific Northwest," she says, "I love my family more. Our new home is 20 minutes from the kids and 20 from my father, and Sasha's office is five minutes from my father's condo. I'm looking forward to being with them as part of daily life." Although Susan is enjoying the notion of what she might do next-"It's the first time in my life that I've ever had that luxury," she says-work will not stop. She plans two books. One is partially complete, a memoir of her mother, the late Dory Resneck, that she began during her 2 1/2-month sabbatical. She's got 350 pages down but hasn't had time to revise them. "This is a personal project," she says. "It is for the family. Also, I have in my head, if I have the courage to write it, a book on the irrationality of American higher education. I'm particularly interested in issues having to do with financing. I've just been asked to be part of a project on reforming financial aid, and on the public financing of state and federal financial aid. I think that is the major issue facing higher education." She has also been talking with people about part-time consulting on the topic of board-presidential relations-exploring such issues as how to facilitate institutional change and clarify objectives. Recently an attorney she's worked with suggested she might want to explore becoming an expert witness for cases about higher education. "And I look forward to being invited to come back here from time to time," she says. Among the scores of letters and e-mails she received expressing regret at her decision to retire but good wishes for the future was this from Dennis Long '72: "Too often, professionals, particularly those who are very good at what they do, have difficulty setting aside their 'work family' for their true family until it is too late. It doesn't surprise me that [Susan] made the right choice." And finally Summarizing the accomplishments of a decade's work that touched so many people is close to impossible. Maybe it's best to let the subject do it herself. Here's how Susan answered a questionnaire sent in advance of this year's staff recognition party to all campus employees who had reached important anniversaries working for the college: Full name: Susan Resneck Pierce Job title: President, Professor of English. Briefly describe your current responsibilities: The health, well-being, and integrity of the college in all its aspects. Briefly describe your employment history with Puget Sound: President, 1992-present. What have you most enjoyed about your work at Puget Sound? The many talented and committed members of the staff, faculty, student body, and Board of Trustees, and the alumni with whom I am privileged to work; the diversity of my responsibilities and activities; the beautiful campus; living a two-minute walk from my office; and the richness of campus life in the arts, in the many opportunities to hear interesting people speak, in athletic activities, and in an array of events sponsored by members of the campus community. What do you feel has been your greatest contribution to the university? That we have clarified and been true to our mission as a residential liberal arts college of academic excellence and national standing. Why did you choose to come to the University of Puget Sound? I was impressed with both the quality and promise of the college. What would you like your staff colleagues to know about you that they might not know? That I am an improvisational cook. Other comments: I will to an extraordinary degree miss this place and its people. And to think after all these years we are only just now learning that Susan can give the Iron Chef a run for his money. We're going to miss you, too, Madam President. A great deal. Chuck Luce is the editor of Arches.

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