Kwesi Aggrey first met Charlie Nelms five years ago at a training session for minority university administrators. Aggrey was an assistant vice president at Ramapo College in New Jersey, and Nelms was in administration at Indiana University.
Their paths crossed again soon after when Aggrey took an administrative post at Indiana University-Northwest, a branch campus within the University of Indiana system, where Nelms was a vice president.
Now, their paths cross again. Nelms, NCCU’s chancellor since summer of 2007, has hired Aggrey away from the Indiana campus and made him NCCU's new provost. As NCCU’s chief acacdemic officer, Aggrey, 51, will work closely with Nelms and with deans and department heads. He starts Jan. 2.
A chemist, Aggrey said he was impressed with NCCU in part due to its new research and technology initiatives like the Biomanuracturing Research Institute and Technology Enterprise facility. He detailed his thoughts recently in an interview with the News & Observer. Here are excerpts:
1. Did you apply for this job because you new Chancellor Nelms, or was it coincidental?
Kwesi Aggrey: It attracted my attention because I knew he was there. I knew he was the chancellor there. I had been to the campus. I attended his inauguration. Once I saw the ad, I said "Oh, I know that campus. I was very impressed when I was there. So I called the search consultant.
2. What was impressive about the campus to you?
KA: “There were three of us from [IU-Northwest] who attended his inauguration. We got the chance to drive around the Research Triangle a little bit. Being a scientist, I was very impressed with the Research Triangle and the various companies that are out there. Some of the companies, I had worked with in New Jersey. Then we went to the campus. Some of the things that were very impressive to me, as a scientist - the science and technology building and the new research building - BRITE. It's a smaller campus, an HBCU, with those facilities - it immediately said something to me. That it's a campus that's on the move and I'd like to be a part of it.
I have worked mostly at majority white institutions. Ramapo College was 96 percent white. Occasionally I'd look out and see if there was a place with a more minority population. That's what attracted me to IU Northwest. It's in Gary, Indiana. Gary is probably 80 percent African-American. That attracted me to Indiana. It's not an HBCU, but it has African-Americans and Hispanics, about 25 to 26 percent of the enrollment.
So that's another thing that caught my attention. It's an HBCU and it's public, which says the management will be better than some of the private HBCUs. and the enrollment tends to be better than the private HBCUs. When you are at a private institution, you feel it more. So there were a number of things that attracted me to the campus.
3. What's the first challenge you expect to face when you get to Durham?
KA: At this point, almost every campus - and this is not restricted to the academic side - the whole country is feeling the pinch in the budget. We'll have to address making sure we position ourselves for the budget cuts almost every state is facing. I suspect I'll have to sit down very quickly with the deans and department chairs and prepare for it. The worst thing that can happen is in the middle of the year have to give back money that has already been given to you. There's a limit to what you can cut and maintain academic programs. But at the same time, we all know this is not one of those normal times for the country. So we'll have to deal with that.
And then we get back to the student area in terms of retention and building on what people have done. Making the campus very student-friendly. When I worked in New Jersey with our big brother, Rutgers, sitting there, as a small campus, you try to really create a niche for yourself so students find a reason to go to that campus instead of going to another place.
In Durham, you have Big Brother Duke sitting right next to you. We'll have to create something that will make more and more students choose to come to us. So student-centeredness. Being able to retain students and graduate students on time will be a priority.
4. I'm glad you mentioned retention. That's been a very big issue at NCCU. Have you worked on student retention, and more specifically, as it relates to first-generation minority students?
KA: Yes, i have. Here [at IU-Northwest], I'm the co-chair of the retention task force established by the chancellor. This campus - we had a consultant come in and the first thing that was identified was retention of students. If only we could retain a good percentage of students on this campus we could address some of our budget problems. We are in the middle of city that is depressed. It is a city that had all these industries that have disappeared. One of the main things for this city is the university. We get students who would not normally leave the area to go anywhere. They come here, but somehow they cannot find what they're looking for, so we've lost students over and over and over. So we've tried to create a synergy between academic affairs and student affairs to help students succeed.
5. Are you talking academic support, tutoring, that sort of thing?
KA: We have done a lot of those things, but we are also creating a campus atmosphere that makes it possible. Sometimes, it's not even the academics, it's other things that go with it. People come in with so many other issues to deal with. We cannot just say, well, a single mother has done the right thing by deciding to go to school. They are coming in with other issues. Where are they going to leave their kids? What times are the classes offered, so they can be here at a convenient time? Or, if they're working during the day, can they come at night and still get the courses needed to graduate in four or five years.
6. It sounds like you're talking about the student-as-customer model and creating education to suit lifestyle needs.
KA: That's part of it. But also, for us, we will be in our offices. When students need our help, we'll be here. But the most important people for the students are the faculty. That's why they’re coming. We have to concentrate on the faculty to make sure the faculty make a good environment for students in the classroom.
How we do it, first, is to give them the respect they deserve. Sometimes we tend to hammer on the faculty. But as administrators we don't always give them the respect or support they need. That also comes into play. It has to be a balancing act. I've always been able to find that balance. Let's face it. If I get to work and I'm not happy with my work environment, when I get into that classroom, it's going to show. So we need to take care of that.
