The president of Whittier School introduced her resignation Friday amid monetary troubles, plunging enrollment and criticism of her efficiency at considered one of California’s oldest liberal arts establishments.
Linda Oubré, who took the helm 5 years in the past, didn’t tackle the controversies in her resignation electronic mail, despatched to the campus neighborhood. She stated it was the “proper time” to step down.
“My 5 years as President of Whittier School can be ones that I’ll look again on with satisfaction,” she wrote. “It’s our college students, lots of who, like me, are the primary of their households to go to school, which have motivated and sustained me on this work. … We make a distinction and we modify the world one pupil at a time.”
She stated she sought to reaffirm the school’s values of social justice, range, fairness and inclusion to assist college students succeed and had made the “robust resolution” to realign assets. “Now we have confronted exhausting challenges and headwinds because of the shifting context for greater schooling. And we now have thrived and are effectively positioned for the longer term,” she wrote.
Kenya L. Williams, interim chair of the Whittier Board of Trustees, expressed appreciation for Oubré’s management, crediting her with attracting the most important present in faculty historical past: a $12-million unrestricted donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. Williams’ assertion on behalf of the board additionally credited Oubré with steering the campus by way of the COVID-19 pandemic and an eight-year reaccreditation course of, and increasing efforts to enhance range, fairness and inclusion.
“We’re very appreciative of her exhausting work and have full confidence that Linda’s management and imaginative and prescient have constructed a robust basis for Whittier’s future,” Williams stated.
Elizabeth Energy Robison — a former faculty worker and member of the group Alumni & Associates of Whittier School, which sponsors the savewhittiercollege.com webpage — was essential of Oubré and a number of the board members.
“President Oubré’s departure is simply step one to revive this venerable faculty,” she stated in a press release. “The Board of Trustees stays negligent in its fiduciary duties to the establishment. Our highest precedence is establishing certified management on the Board and within the Administration. We’re not there but.”
The faculty was based in 1887 by the Spiritual Society of Associates, generally often called Quakers, however is secular right this moment. It’s the alma mater of President Nixon.
In recent times, Whittier has seen enrollment plunge 35%, from 1,853 college students in 2018 to about 1,200. The decreases have pushed down annual income by 29% over roughly the identical interval, in line with audited monetary statements. In an effort to stability the books, the school final yr lower soccer and three different sports activities applications and unveiled plans to promote the president’s residence, Wardman Home, a hilltop mansion with views to the ocean.
Enrollment downturns — introduced on by inhabitants declines and rising tuition prices — have buffeted different small schools throughout the nation. The pandemic exacerbated their woes.
Whittier has additionally grappled with a management disaster, together with quite a few departures from the board.
Oubré, Whittier’s first Black president, was employed with top-flight credentials: dean of San Francisco State College’s enterprise faculty; a company supervisor for 20 years, together with stints on the Walt Disney Co. and the Los Angeles Instances; developer of quite a few enterprise ventures; a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Enterprise College.
She was outspoken about limitations to academic fairness, criticizing higher-education management for missing range and saying Whittier itself was entrenched with pockets of racist attitudes. Others countered that the issue was mismanagement by faculty leaders.
The Whittier School campus.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Instances)
Frustration and alarm concerning the faculty’s path had mounted. The Whittier chapter of the American Assn. of College Professors advised the board this yr that the school suffered from “mismanagement” and was in “turmoil.” Alumni and college students complained concerning the faculty’s troubles in open letters and social media posts.
Oubré declined an interview request. She stated in her annual faculty tackle that Whittier was “financially robust and never in peril of closing.”
The faculty will start a nationwide seek for a successor. Professor sal johnston, the vp for educational affairs and dean of college, will function interim president after Oubré’s June 30 departure, Williams stated.
Alesix Timko and Shreya Agrawal, reporters with the investigative journalism program at USC, contributed to this story.
