Up a small flight of stairs, behind a heavy, turn-of-the-century door, Linda Oubré is conductor.
Whittier College’s 15th president, on this mid-April day, is simultaneously summoning an IT employee to help with an errant laptop, giving instructions to her new vice president of planning about how to file a report and delegating the next task to her assistant who is waiting in the wings.
Oubré, despite a meeting which isn’t starting as planned, is cool and patient.
She’s here at the 136-year-old private liberal arts college once attended by Richard Nixon to do a tough job.
And, she’s going to see it through.
Because, despite a backlash calling for her ouster and in spite of $500,000 in pledges promised if she leaves, Oubré is steadfast: She isn’t going anywhere.
Oubré, who signed on as Whittier College’s first Black president and third woman president in 2018, said she has 3-1/2 years left on her contract and full support of its board of trustees.
She’s doing exactly what she’s been hired to do, she said while taking a break to talk to the Whittier Daily News. And, she’s meeting every goal trustees have set for her.
“It’s a sign of good leadership and tough leadership during these times when people disagree and I respect the disagreement,” Oubré said of the campaign by an alumni group titled Save Whittier College that is targeting her as the cause of the private liberal arts college’s financial woes.
The embattled president is seated at the head of a boardroom table in the historic Mendenhall Building, a former Elks lodge the college purchased in 1936. Vice president and chief executive officer Cynthia Joseph is to her left. Joseph, also Black, has been at Whittier for 10 years.
Whittier College — boasting a 69% student body of color — is named after the Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier who, in the 1830s, was known for his abolitionist writings. The school, with its nickname Poets, prides itself on this Quaker heritage and a “commitment to community, diversity and finding common ground.”
Oubré said she wants to hear from detractors and said once given the opportunity to sit down and chat with her and other administrators about the state of the college, people understand a bit better.
And, the president, with decades of corporate experience and six years as the dean San Francisco State’s business college, said taking gruff is all part of the gig.
“I would not be doing my job unless people were mad at me,” Oubré said.
Enrollment at Whittier College is on the decline, according to data. But, the issue is, according to Oubré, more about how to fix that, so it doesn’t shutter like other small colleges, such as the recent closure of Marymount California University on Palos Verdes Peninsula.
According to Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, which monitors postsecondary education trends, Whittier’s total enrollment has steadily declined. In the fall of 2018, the college had 2,206 students. By the fall of 2021, just three years later, that number fell by more than 25% to 1,639.
As well, the college’s financial situation mostly declined in concert, according to financial statements posted on its website. In 2018, Whittier had roughly $299 million in assets. That number fell to $282 million in 2020, but then was bolstered by the MacKenzie Scott private donation in 2021 to $322 million. Last year, the college showed $294 million in assets.
Save Whittier College
Indeed, about 1,000 alumni recently delivered to the college’s board of trustees a statement of no confidence against Oubré . The alumni group titled Save Whittier College is also holding nearly $540,000 in abeyance, calling for the president’s removal.
On April 11, a number of concerned alumni expressed their dismay with the college’s situation and its president at a Whittier City Council meeting.
Patty Hill (Class of 1998) and David Carnevale (1997), two founders of the Save Whitter College group, said Oubré is taking the college in the wrong direction.
Hill was a four-year softball player for the Poets. She lives just three blocks from campus, married a Whittier alum and teaches physical education at a local school. Carnevale is a former Whittier College director of financial aid and currently the admissions officer for a different private college. Both have deep family ties to the college, with cousins also having attended.
The two said Oubré is putting too much emphasis on online learning and deemphasizing what makes a liberal arts college great: the social and emotional learning aspects that only come with being on campus for four years.
“The alumni have been categorized by President Oubré as noise,” said Carnevale in a recent video interview. “She’s convinced the board we want to keep the college in the past.”
Save Whittier College started making waves last fall when the school announced its decision to suspend its 115-year football team, as well as golf and lacrosse. That’s when a small group of former athletic alumni started organizing as a way to bring their issues to the administration, Hill said.
Over Thanksgiving weekend, the group grew to about 800, said Hill. They initially started as a Facebook group and grew that to about 1,600 followers before launching a website. Hill insists she and administrators of the Facebook group try to keep parents of prospective students off the page, so as not to reflect poorly on the college.
A core of about 15 alumni meet weekly, said Carnavale, to discuss strategy and to try to get their voices heard.
“The more (information) that came out and the more the administration tried to downplay what was going on,” said Carnavale, “we realized things were just not right.”
In a letter to interim board chair Kenya Williams on April 7, the alumni group accuses Oubré with “dereliction of duty in maintaining the quality and reputation of undergraduate education, poor financial management, and failure to advance the mission of the college.” The letter goes on to say Oubre fosters a “campus climate governed by fear and intimidation” that has caused “a dramatic attrition of faculty, staff and students.”
The letter goes on to say nearly $540,000 in pledges will be void if the board doesn’t terminate Oubré by May 1.
During Whittier’s annual “Big Poet Give,” conversely, the college this year raised only $130,000 when in prior years it brought in about twice that amount.
Oubré, when asked about the potential of losing a half-million dollars, said she wasn’t worried about it. College fundraising is changing she said, pointing to the $12 million donation from MacKenzie Scott the school received in 2021 and other larger grants the school has received.
Williams did not respond to questions this week about whether the board will act on the Save Whittier College group’s demands. But, in an email to Southern California News Group on April 4, she said she was aware of the petition and the group’s concerns.
In that email, which was also sent to the Save Whittier College group, Williams apologized to the alumni and admitted the board needed to be “far more intentional” in how they engage with the entire Whittier community going forward.
“We have an obligation to do a better job of involving our alumni leaders in the conversation about Whittier’s future,” wrote Williams. “Even if we disagree, together, we have a vested interest in Whittier’s future.”
Alumni aren’t the only ones taking the pulse at Whittier.
The college’s Faculty Executive Committee has administered a survey to faculty asking questions about priorities and “satisfaction with regard to a number of issues,” wrote Deborah Norden in an email.
That survey, said Norden, will be used for internal purposes, shared with faculty, administration and board. As of April 4, Norden said they were still in the process of collecting responses from the survey. She did not respond to emails asking for an update this week.
For his part, Carnavale, with the alumni group, is still hopeful.
“We want to make sure students have the equivalent of the experience we had,” Carnavale said, “but a modern one.”
Changing face of education
But that traditional, in-person liberal arts education is not going away, argued Oubré. It’s just that there are statistically fewer students in the 18-22 year old demographic to go around. And, by 2025, she said that number gets dramatically lower.
Whittier College will always cater to that core student, said Oubré, but smart administrators have to look beyond that.
“We have to take what makes Whittier special and extend that to new markets,” Oubré said, citing an example of a 30-year-old, single mother who might benefit from Whittier programs, but can’t take classes during a tradition 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. weekday schedule.
Shifting to online and hybrid solutions is crucial, she added, and she and her administration learned a lot during the pandemic as they had to switch gears quickly to get course content online.
Another change that is crucial, said Oubré, is bringing more student activities to the campus center and away from separate buildings.
Save Whittier College has been critical of the school’s recent decision to put its historical Wardman House up for sale. The 6,500-square-foot home, traditionally the residence for the college president, sits atop a hill nearly a mile away from campus.
Alumni have fond memories of beginning their college journey at the freshman reception and capping off their four years there upon graduation. Hill and Carnavale, in fact, were critical of Oubré not living in the residence herself and not being on campus enough.
But the president did live in Wardman House when she first arrived on campus in 2018, she said. But, after determining the home was just too big, in October, she moved to a smaller cottage more central to campus.
“It’s not me, living in a big mansion,” Oubré said. “It’s not who I am. I don’t think that’s the best use of the college’s resources.”
The more central cottage allows Oubré to walk around more, she said. And, she was aghast that people who don’t live on campus themselves would accuse her of not being there enough.
“I actually am on campus a lot,” she said. “And I was throughout the pandemic. I think it’s a misperception, especially from people who themselves aren’t on campus.”
Oubré said she’s cut back on joining higher education associations so that she can be even more present at Whittier.
The $5 million or so recouped from the Wardman House sale is sorely needed, said Oubré, to add air conditioning to residence halls and faculty offices that are going without. And, the stately Mendenhall Building, with a large central lobby is sorely in need of upgrades.
Meeting criticism head-on
Even before the pandemic, it was tough going for liberal arts colleges said Oubré , but COVID-19 certainly made things much more difficult.
Oubré sees her job as a change agent and that, in itself, means she has, at times, to make decisions at odds with with some in the campus community.
“These were tough times and tough decisions,” she said about the no-confidence statement delivered to the board. “My job is not about keeping every single person happy.”
Besides, she said, 1,000 signatures is nothing. There are nearly 40,000 alumni and she receives many emails thanking her for bravery and courage.
But what about those charges the Save Whittier College group levied?
To dereliction of duty, Oubré responds “that’s not what the board has communicated” to her. She’s doing fine, she said.
As for financial mismanagement, there’s been what Oubré calls an “ad hoc culture” in place at Whittier for more than 130 years. Everyone of her 14 predecessors has had to deal with it and try to change it, she said. Using her business knowledge from years as chief executive officer for an investment firm, she’s busy putting her own systems and standards in place for not only financials, but in all areas, she said.
Oubré flatly denies the charge that she’s negatively impacted faculty and staff.
“I have not intimidated anyone,” she said.
Joseph, who is in charge of human resources, said her department hasn’t received one complaint against the college’s president in the five years Oubré has worked at Whitter.
Save Whittier College also points to what they call an excessive amount of faculty and staff attrition, as well as a trustee exodus.
Joseph said there’s a lot of competition for educators.
“I think people are leaving because our salaries are not as competitive as we’d like them to be,” Joseph said, adding that people leave to take higher paying jobs at public universities. Oubre pointed to the national phenomenon of the “Great Resignation,” as another explanation.
As for attrition on the board of trustees, Oubre said she’s been deliberate in turning that panel into a more profession board.
And, that’s not a criticism, of past board members she said.
“But in higher education, especially at small colleges, the tradition has been, you write a big check, you’re on the board,” Oubre said.
The board, which up until recently has been “80% white men over the age of 70,” she said. Diversity, not just in gender and race, is important for trustees, too. Oubre wants more diversity in career and skill-set, she said
Another charge the alumni group has brought against Oubré is one of nepotism.
The president, they said, brought her son Nate Oubré on board as the college’s director of innovation. But Nate was qualified, said Joseph, and he was subjected to an even more rigorous hiring process than other candidates, because he was related to the president. Linda Oubré added she recused herself entirely from that hiring process.
Fight for the soul of the school
What’s clear from all sides is there’s a lot of passion about and a lot of love for Whittier College.
Oubré said she took the job because she believes in the mission and in the students. And, the majority of those students remind her of herself, she said, a first-generation Black woman college graduate.
Whittier is well-positioned, said Oubré, because of its diverse demographic, for success. The college already has great outcomes for Latinx students and Black women, she said.
“A diverse leader brings in more diversity,” said Oubré.
Oubré and Joseph, as Black women, have dealt with many racially charged issues at Whittier — whether before or after each of their tenures.
At one time, there were admonitions to not show Latinx students on brochures so as to “not make the white students uncomfortable,” said Joseph. More recently, when Oubré took office, Whittier did not mark Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a holiday. That has since changed.
And, even though the Save Whittier College sees the fall of 2022 as the beginning of the Whittier’s woes, Oubré marks it in a different way.
It was March 2018, the month she was named Whittier college president, that she began receiving racial threats, some veiled, some outright.
They ran the gamut, said Joseph, of voice mails, emails and hard copy letters. There was a “little bit of everything,” Joseph said, including a right-wing blogger who was critical of the MacKenzie Scott $12 million gift, saying it was not the way to promote “Black advancement.”
“(Oubré ) received several threats and has been receiving threats since she showed up (in 2018),” Joseph said.
Joseph wouldn’t give more details about the threats and said when Save Whittier College asked Whittier Police Department to collaborate “they are going to tell you no or tell you we don’t have that information or we can’t share that information.”
Joseph and Oubré said there are ongoing investigations into these threats, but wouldn’t say which law enforcement agency was behind the effort.
“We are in full investigation regarding the threat,” Joseph said.
Whittier Police Officer Thomas Mattsson, the agency’s public information officer, said in a phone interview on April 13 that he’s run Oubré’s name through their database and spoken to detectives and “there are no reports filed with her name.”
When pressed as to why police might hide this information from the public, Mattsson said, there would be no reason to.
“There are no police reports filed regarding racial threats or any kind of criminal threats,” Mattsson said, with Oubré’s name dating back to the early 2000s.
What is clear is that many at Whittier College feel disenfranchised, from its president, vice president to alumni and staff.
When asked how it happened that alumni, for example, could be feeling so shut out, Oubré took a long pause. She then grew unsettled.
“There’s no monolithic ‘the alums,’ there’s no monolithic ‘the faculty,’ there’s no monolithic ‘the students,’ there’s no monolithic ‘the staff,’” Oubré said.
It all goes back to tough leadership, she said.
“You can’t sit down with every single person who has an opinion or that their opinion counts,” said Oubré, “because then we wouldn’t be moving forward.”
