By Jan Worth-Nelson
In the conference room of his second floor suite in UM-Flint’s University Pavilion building, Laurence Alexander was ecstatic about Michigan’s weather.
The new chancellor of the University of Michigan-Flint sat down with EVM on a brilliant August day of 72 degrees and low humidity – quite the contrast from his former city of Pine Bluff, Ark., which stood at 88 degrees that same afternoon.
“Who could possibly complain about the weather?” he laughed.
The mood was surprisingly light for a man with such a serious task ahead of him. The campus Alexander steps into as its 10th chancellor has been beset with challenges over the past decade, exacerbated in part by COVID-19.
In 2020, UM-Flint experienced a 30 percent enrollment drop to fewer than 6,000 students; a 35 percent graduation rate; and then a $7.3 million budgetary deficit in 2021 – threatening the ongoing existence of the regional campus.
Laurence Alexander, UM-Flint Chancellor
(Photo by Paul Rozycki)
In response, a campaign called “Strategic Transformation” was imposed by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, with then-UM-Flint chancellor Debasish Dutta at the helm.
A national consultancy was hired and feedback was collected over two years, with concern voiced along the way by a group of faculty, staff, students and alumni who called the process too “top-down” and charged that it privileged potential employers over students, neglected the actual needs of the Flint community, and emphasized a business model at the expense of the liberal arts.
The outcomes and recommendations of that transformation process never were formally presented to the public, and Dutta left UM-Flint for another role in July of 2023 – stalling the Strategic Transformation process with his departure.
Donna Fry, dean of UM-Flint’s College of Health Sciences, then served as the campus’s interim chancellor until Alexander was selected. He started his post on July 1 of this year.
But despite all the concerns he’s inherited, though, Alexander seemed calm and collected while he discussed plans for UM-Flint’s future.
After all, as Alexander would soon explain, he, like the city he now calls home, knows how to cultivate resilience.
“The pathway is education”
Alexander grew up in one of the largest housing projects in New Orleans, La. with his mother, three sisters and a brother. He said he didn’t know one person who had graduated from college until he was 18 years old.
“People like me who’ve grown up without a lot of opportunities, without the easy road, without a middle income background, we have to work harder – you have to use that grit that you gain along the way,” he said. “But I do firmly believe that there is a pathway. That pathway is education.”
Today, the former chancellor of University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) holds four degrees – a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Orleans, a master’s in journalism and communications from the University of Florida (UF), a law degree from Tulane, and a Ph.D. in higher education also from UF.
Aside from his own studies, Alexander comes to UM-Flint with over 35 years in higher ed. He served 11 years as chancellor of UAPB, and prior to that he was a professor and administrator at UF, including positions as director of the Office of Graduate Minority Programs, associate dean of the graduate school, and chair of the Department of Journalism.
“I never conceived of myself being a chancellor of one university, let alone two,” he said. “I never dreamed that I’d obtain four degrees. But I grew. I learned at every stage of development. That’s the role that we can play as a university when we bring students onboard and open their eyes to the opportunities available to them if they commit themselves seriously to education and to their social and professional development.”
At UAPB, a historically Black university, Alexander grew enrollment, improved student retention, developed new corporate partnerships, acquired funding for new construction, and increased the university’s endowment by 200% according to his online biography.
And settling in after just two months on the job, Alexander says his guiding goals for UM-Flint will be to “enlarge, advance, and elevate the community.”
He stressed that enrollment needs to be increased as “the most successful institutions today are those experiencing growth” – growth which he hopes to see in not just enrollment numbers but in staff and faculty numbers as well.
“Although I’ve worked in higher ed for 36 years, every institution is different,” he said. “So immersing oneself in the culture [of UM-Flint] is priority number one, so that I can not necessarily bring what I think ought to happen, but so that I can be as much a part of this university — so that we can be clear about our direction and we can be supported university-wide.”
“A great responsibility”
Asserting that there are “no magic wands,” Alexander said he is in the process of engaging in a “listening tour” with faculty and staff to learn about the community, the campus, the campus culture, and the nature of “belonging” at UM-Flint.
“Universities don’t work in a vacuum,” he said. “They have a very important mission – teaching, research, service – but they also have a great responsibility to serve the communities in which they exist.”
He said universities serve as “important drivers for the community,” noting that they develop the workforce and entrepreneurs who can advance local businesses, but UM-Flint is also well-positioned to tap into partnerships with the State of Michigan and local philanthropic institutions such as the C.S. Mott Foundation, too.
“It’s not just the institution – it’s about what we can do for Flint,” Alexander explained. “Because the two are so closely related – as one goes, so goes the other.”
“There’s no dust on it”
As to the fate of the campus’s Strategic Transformation plan, Alexander said he knows much work was done on it, and as a newcomer he’s “trying to learn everything” he can before diving in.
“Just to be clear, it’s not just sitting somewhere. There’s no dust on it,” he explained. “I’m on board now and part of my work is understanding the plan – that involves engagement with faculty, staff and students.”
From his post, Alexander reports to University of Michigan President Santa Ono as well as being an executive officer here at UM-Flint. He said he viewed being part of the overall University of Michigan system as good, but he does have his ear to the ground.
“Of course I’ll be looking very closely to see how that benefits this campus,” he said. “My job as chancellor is to get the most I can for this institution.”
Aside from old business, Alexander said in his first few months he’s seen a need to develop “greater vibrancy” on campus and “seeing to it that students are getting the kinds of development that you should get beyond the classroom.”
For now though, he and his wife, Veronica, are still unpacking boxes at Ross House, UM-Flint’s provided home for chancellors on Woodlawn Park Drive in Flint. They’re sharing the home with one of their three sons, David, and Saint, their morkie (a Maltese and Yorkshire Terrier mix).
Aside from the weather, Alexander said he’d been drawn to Flint because the city’s struggles. Its history of survival and overcoming through determined community activism are recognizable to him – and rich with possibility
“A place like Flint, maybe it has seen better days, but it’s not a town that’s lost,” he said of his new home. “This is a town that’s growing — that’s thriving — in spite of everything. It’s quite resilient. It has demonstrated that resilience.”
This article also appears in East Village Magazine’s September 2024 issue.
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