Three days after Mary Schmidt Campbell arrived on Spelman College's campus, she had visitors.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials came because Atlanta was in the running for a grant.
With new development in the area, wondered Spelman’s new president, could there be a role for Spelman?
"I'd like to see Spelman and other schools in the Atlanta University Center become active members in the revitalization of this neighborhood," she said. "We should be able to walk out the gates of Spelman and see a tech center and a cafe. The Beltline should come by here and there should be green space … I'd like to figure out how we can partner with our community residents to bring this neighborhood back to life again."
Campbell, former dean emerita of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, recently shared her goals for Spelman as she prepared to be installed as its 10th president on Saturday at the Georgia World Congress Center. Her answers have been edited for brevity.
You’ve been here nine months. What has surprised you?
What’s impressed me the most is that Spelman has layer upon layer of excellence, not just in the STEM field, but in the humanities, in the social sciences and in the arts. Some of the metrics I’ve discovered since I’ve been here are pretty extraordinary … Spelman produces more black women who go on to complete their Ph.D.s in the STEM field than any other college or university in the country. The college is one of the top ten producers of black women who start successful tech startups. Spelman is ranked No. 10 in the country and is tied for 10th place with Stanford University. What that says is that Spelman has developed — over the years — the capacity in terms of producing black women scientists to be competitive with top colleges and universities, and exceeding them in some situations. The six-year graduation rate is 76 percent. For African-Americans at American colleges and universities in general, it’s 40 percent. That college completion rate becomes even more remarkable when you consider the fact that half of Spelman’s 2,000 students come from families that are Pell eligible. They’re coming to college with real financial challenges. Despite that, we are not only getting them through graduation but getting them to compete with the best of the best in the country.
One of your goals is to improve quality. What would you like to see done?
Our six-year graduation rate is 76 percent. I would like to push that to as close to 100 percent as possible. If we can achieve 96 percent in some of our special programs, that tells me that under the right conditions and with financial support, we can get more of our women to graduate. We have a fantastic faculty. Our faculty is totally committed to teaching and advising our students. We also have an extremely robust number of faculty doing research, and that means our students get to do high-level research as undergraduates. Our challenge is that richer schools try to recruit our faculty away from Spelman. I want us to be mindful of what we need to make sure that our very talented faculty stay with us and continue to contribute to the excellence that is Spelman.
You don’t have the big endowments of larger Atlanta institutions. What are you doing to increase money at Spelman?
I’m a very lucky president because I came behind Dr. (Beverly) Tatum, and the Spelman trustees, who just completed a $157 million capital campaign. As a result, we have a first-rate advancement team that has a strong development infrastructure and great alumnae support. I’m in a position to build on that. I’m very positive and optimistic about Spelman’s capacity to raise money.
About the Author
