Hample at the Helm

Eighth President is Seasoned Administrator

By Lisa Chin

For nearly seven years, Judy Hample worked in an office building along the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg, Pa., where she was responsible for guiding the operations of 14 public universities that enroll more than 100,000 students. She regularly met with her staff, as well as with legislators, union heads, university presidents, and members of the university system’s Board of Governors. It was important work, which she loved.

But something was missing. Despite the daily challenges of the position, Hample longed for regular interaction with what she considers the two most important groups in higher education: students and faculty.

As the eighth president of the University of Mary Washington, she has found the missing link.

Hample had eyed UMW for years, she said, admiring its rich history, liberal arts curriculum, graduate and professional studies campus, commitment to community, and strong academic reputation. When the presidency opened more than a year ago, she said, “The timing just clicked.”

She had announced in June 2007 that she planned to leave her position as chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) within a year to pursue something different. She pictured herself taking on a new challenge, perhaps working as a consultant or becoming president of a regional association, or maybe returning to a college campus.

UMW was the perfect fit.

Hample has built a distinguished career awash with firsts, not the least of which she earned this month when she began her tenure as Mary Washington’s premier woman president. While students, faculty, staff, and alumni continue to celebrate the institution’s first 100 years, all also are eager to focus on the future. And as the school embarks on a new century, Hample, too, begins again – in a phase of her career that is fresh, but one that also will bring her full-circle, back to the close-knit feel of a college campus.

In her first words to the UMW community, she said: “As I stand here on the stage knowing that I have been named the next president of the only public university in America named for a woman, and not just any woman – Mary Washington – I have to tell you that it’s incredibly exciting.”

During her introduction at the school’s Fredericksburg campus in early March, she added, “I celebrate today, not only being a leader, but being a woman who has been chosen to lead a first-rate institution into a promising future.”

She made the move official this month, relocating to the president’s house at Brompton and transitioning to her new and very different role. About 20 times fewer students will be affected by her decisions now. Instead of 12,000 staff members, she is supervising fewer than 1,000, and in place of a $1.8 billion budget, she manages $91 million.

For Hample, though, at this point in her career, smaller is better. “The quality of an educational experience is more important than size of the institution or organization,” she said. “As a campus president, more than a system head, it is easier to influence directly the quality of students’ educations.”

According to Board of Visitors Rector J. William Poole, “She’s worked hard to get where she is, and she’s one of the top administrators in the country.” Poole, who led UMW’s 15-member presidential search committee, said, “What made her stand out was her administrative experience. All of the presidents of the state universities in Pennsylvania report to her, so she has a real understanding of what a president has to do. She’s familiar with budgets and the process of dealing with state government and lobbying the legislators for funding – all of which is very similar to what she will do here.”

The search committee, which was assisted by the consulting firm Greenwood/Asher and Associates, comprised faculty from both the Stafford and Fredericksburg campuses, administrative staff, and members of the foundation board, alumni association, and student government. The committee spent six months scrutinizing the qualifications and references of a final pool of 55 candidates, most of whom were university presidents, vice presidents, or deans. It was a painstaking and challenging process.

Hample’s plans for UMW include increasing diversity both in the student body and among the faculty and staff. As vacated positions are filled, she said, she will work to ensure the diversity of each pool of applicants. She hopes to see inclusion embraced within the curriculum and living-learning environment of the campus.

She aims to enhance students’ academic experiences and graduate opportunities. She will continue to recognize Mary Washington’s bounty of outstanding alumni and will do all she can to make certain they remain “exceedingly proud” of their alma mater. She will address the issues of faculty compensation, program accreditation, and the state of residence halls. And she will ensure the concept of “transparency,” making sure that everyone is on the same page and that there are no hidden agendas.

Hample plans to expand UMW, but only in terms of its already outstanding academics, not its student enrollment. “One of the things I love about this institution is its size,” she said.

She said she intends to take advantage of the school’s picturesque campus environment, working closely with faculty and getting to know students by name. And she’s set on strengthening Mary Washington’s reputation as an important player in Virginia higher education, making sure the school continues to be seen as a contributor to the region and to the commonwealth’s economy.

“I don’t just talk about an idea or an issue,” she said. “I get behind it and I never let up.”

Judy – not Judith (“Southerners tend to name you what they’re going to call you”) – Gayle Hample was born in 1947 in Henderson, Tenn. The middle child, sandwiched between an older brother and a younger sister, she grew up on a large farm that produced cotton, corn, and soybeans.

From the beginning, Hample had a penchant for hard work. In her early adulthood, she earned a paycheck opening boxes and stocking shelves at a bookstore, and she even worked for a while as a hostess at that Nashville institution, the Grand Ole Opry.

Her fervor paid a different kind of dividend as an undergraduate student at David Lipscomb University, a small, private, liberal arts school in Nashville, where she chose to major in not one but three subjects – French, communication, and secondary education. She topped it off with a minor in chemistry and, along the way, developed a deep appreciation for the breadth and depth of the liberal arts.

She went on to receive both master’s and doctoral degrees in communication from Ohio State University, earning her Ph.D. in 1974.

Throughout her college and graduate school years, Hample dabbled in theater, played racquetball, and gained a passion for football, which she developed while growing up watching the Dallas Cowboys on television with her father and brother. But one activity stood out above the rest – intercollegiate debate.

Being on the university debate team taught her to think about things from every possible angle, to question every word and every number, to scrutinize and re-scrutinize, and to anticipate reactions and be prepared for myriad scenarios.

The debate skills she learned as both a team member and coach have served her well throughout her varied career, and the many stops along the way, including faculty and administrative positions at the University of Illinois, Western Illinois University, Emporia State University in Kansas, Indiana State University, and the University of Toledo in Ohio.

Her career path changed dramatically in 1998, when she left the campus environment upon being named vice chancellor for planning, budgeting, and policy analysis for the Board of Regents of the State University System of Florida, which at the time consisted of 10 public universities enrolling 247,000 students. She moved into a more corporate academic environment and away from the campus life she had come to cherish. But Hample simply readjusted her goals.

“I got into it,” she said, “and I loved it.”

A year later she was elevated to the position of executive vice chancellor in the Florida system, and, in 2001, she was named its chancellor. Then came the opportunity to lead the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

After being hired in August 2001 as only the second chancellor in PASSHE’s nearly 20 years of existence, Hample immediately set out to take the state system and its 14 universities to the next level of academic excellence. PASSHE comprises a group of institutions with a rich history, some dating back more than 150 years. Combined, they share more than 400,000 living alumni. As chancellor, Hample routinely dealt with many constituencies, but always at the top of her list were the students – all 110,000 of them.

“Students are at the heart of everything I do,” she said.

As head of PASSHE, Hample led efforts to increase both the quality and availability of student housing, to boost minority enrollment, and to keep tuition affordable, with annual increases frequently below the rate of inflation. She also pushed for the establishment of new graduation requirements to help ensure students could earn their degrees in four years.

In addition, she encouraged the development of a common academic calendar that made it easier for students to enroll in courses at other PASSHE universities, taking advantage of the broad depth of faculty expertise across the system. She insisted on increased funding for faculty development; and during her tenure, the value of federal grants received by PASSHE universities more than tripled, at a time when state appropriations for higher education dwindled nationwide.

“It’s astounding to me what she’s been able to accomplish, given the fact that she’s had very few resources to put to it,” said Ira Blake, PASSHE’s assistant vice chancellor for academic and student affairs.

In spite of her success, Hample’s decisions haven’t always been popular, particularly among the eight labor unions with which she regularly engaged in contract negotiations.

“Sometimes the comments are very personal, and it’s difficult to take,” said Tom Krapsho, PASSHE’s vice chancellor for human resources and labor relations. “It’s a difficult part of the chancellor’s job, but she’s got to do it, and she’s very good at it.”

Her expertise in this area, colleagues say, is due in part to her unflappable nature and her practice of making decisions based purely on principle, not special agendas.

“Judy doesn’t play politics,” said Jeff Cooper, PASSHE’s chief legal counsel. “I’ve never known her to do something that she didn’t think was the right thing to do.”

Take, for example, the method behind the madness of one of Hample’s proudest accomplishments: accountability and performance funding, a blueprint for allocating resources based on an institution’s success in areas such as student achievement, resource development, and university excellence.

“We developed a set of principles first, and then we ran the numbers,” said PASSHE Executive Vice Chancellor Peter Garland. “Some of the people who fought hardest for the principles gulped hard when they saw how the changes would affect their universities.”

Turning ideas like these into reality takes time, and plenty of it. Hample estimates she works about 15 hours a day, six days a week, as well as five to seven hours on Sundays. In addition to answering hundreds of emails each day – she’s best known for the ones she sends at 2 a.m. – making phone calls, and signing documents, she also spends time conducting meetings, resolving conflicts, and working on special projects. The primary responsibility of the chancellor, however, has been to lead the organization through policy development and implementation.

After all of that, “she still has the energy for fundraising and to go out in the evening with advancement people,” said Jim Dillon, PASSHE’s vice chancellor for administration and finance.

Hample, 60, doesn’t care to be classified as a “workaholic”; but, she admits, “I am sort of dedicated to my work.” She added, “I’m divorced with no children. I work hard because I want to, not because I have to.”

As dedicated as she is to her job, higher education isn’t the only thing she gets excited about. Staff members in Pennsylvania say she has an incredible sense of humor that sometimes spilled over into the boardroom. And she splashed her personality across her office like a palette full of watercolors: Tiffany-style lamps; abstract art; sculpture and mementos from her travels; a prized football from Super Bowl XXX, signed by all of the Dallas Cowboys; a photo of Mick Jagger taken by Hample herself at a concert she attended.

When she isn’t hard at work behind her desk inside George Washington Hall, hosting guests at historic Brompton, or shaking hands with alumni and community members, Hample likely will be found breathing in the campus air and all that comes with it – talking to students, getting to know faculty members, cheering on the Eagles.

At a time in her life when she could be slowing down professionally – even considering the comforts of retirement – she’s invigorated by her new job.

“As I contemplate what will be the last phase of my career,” she said, “my true and first love has always been a campus environment, and the love of students and learning.”