Berry College: A History

EIGHT. Polishing the Image

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [First Page] [155], (1) Lines: 0 to 35 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [155], (1) The 1979 appointment of Gloria McDermith Shatto as Berry’s president-designate, effective January 1980, brought publicity of a different sort. She was the first female president of a higher-education institution in Georgia and immediately drew attention by virtue of that distinction. As an economist, she focused on the school’s financial stability and its recognition as one of the Southeast’s outstanding colleges. chapter eight Polishing the Image Entering a New Era In February 1979, the Berry Schools’ board of trusteesselectedDr .GloriaShatto,theGeorgeR.Brown Professor of Economics at Trinity University, in San Antonio,Texas,since1977andaBerrytrusteesince 1975, as president-designate of Berry College and Berry Academy.1 Prior to her stint at Trinity, Shatto hadservedfouryearsasassociatedeanandprofessor ofeconomicsatGeorgiaTech’sCollegeofIndustrial Management. She held a Ph.D. in economics from Rice University and had taught at the University of Houston as well as in the Houston public schools. Her husband, Robert, was a consulting electrical engineer. The Shattos came to Berry on September 1, 1979, to learn more about the schools before she assumed the presidency the following January 1. She was inaugurated in a ceremony on April 19, 1980, at which Dr. Vernon Crawford, acting chancellor of the University System of Georgia and vice president of Georgia Tech during Shatto’s time there, was the featured speaker. Shatto spent the fall 1979 semester familiarizing herself with the school. She studied official documents and got to know members of the Berry and Rome communities, who gave her insights that helped her select the approach to take when she officially assumed office. Shatto sought to build on John R. Bertrand’s efforts to raise the schools’ image byimprovingacademics;facultycredentials,qualifications ,andscholarlyproductivity;andtheschool’s work and religion-in-life programs. To accomplish this goal, the institution needed to look closely at resources, to balance the operating budget and put Berry on sounder financial footing, and to adopt an approach to institutional planning that would involve all stakeholders. Soon after taking office, Shatto made two crucial decisions regarding the faculty: she deferred 155 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [156], (2) Lines: 35 to ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [156], (2) Gloria Shatto, Berry’s president from 1980 to 1998, c. 1981. approval of promotions or tenure for the 1980–81 schoolyear,andshedecidednottomakeacross-theboard salary increases to cover increases in the cost of living but instead to award merit increases only. Thefacultyreceivedtheseannouncementswell.The fiscal year would end about as budgeted, with a deficit to be covered by unrestricted bequests, but the1980–81budgetwouldhavetobeaustere.Aswas the case at colleges nationwide, Berry’s enrollment had been declining since 1975, to the tune of 19 percent among male students and 6 percent among femalestudents.Theresultinggenderimbalanceleft a less-than-desirable social situation.2 InShatto’sview,Berrypossessed“resources . . . so great that we must plan and manage boldly if we aretoservethisregionasitdeserves.”3 A$21million endowment was producing income of $1.77 million a year, with an additional $14 million in funds held in trust by others producing an annual income of about $750,000 for Berry. The school expected to receive another unrestricted $5 to $6 million from the Kate Macy Ladd Trust in 1983. Virtually contiguous land holdings included twenty-seven thousand acres, with twenty-three thousand acres of timber producing about $250,000 a year in income. A rock quarry generated another $250,000 a year, and a leased bank building returned approximately $50,000annually.Berrycarriednodebt.Shattoalso included among Berry’s assets its mission as developed by Martha Berry: rigorous academic preparation , worthwhile work well done, ethical and moral valuesasapartofeverydaylife,andservicetoothers. Ontheminussideoftheledger,Berryhadchallenges such as declining enrollment, an unwieldy administrative structure, and the existence of internal factions as a result of the recent legal strife.4 Shatto clearly faced challenges that differed from those that Bertrand had confronted. She would move ahead to meet the issues of her time and to achieve “excellence ,” one of her goals. She launched a formalized planning...