Eckerd College was in crisis three years ago. A risky real estate development on campus was foundering, the college's endowment fund had shrunk by more than 60 percent without the board of trustees' knowledge and both the president and vice president for finance were leaving their jobs. A dark cloud of doubt had parked itself over the sun-drenched private college on St. Petersburg's waterfront.
Today, the college is happy to report that it is well along the road to recovery. It has gained freedom from financial entanglements unrelated to higher education, renourished the endowment fund and begun a new period of growth. A $13.5-million library is under construction, a chapter of the national Phi Beta Kappa Society has opened on campus and applications are up 20 percent this year, a key indicator of success at a small, private college that is tuition driven.
Eckerd College president Donald R. Eastman III deserves much of the credit. Sporting a bow tie and an easy manner, he was hired in the summer of 2001 to turn the situation around. He has succeeded, as he describes it, "not by one grand stroke but by doing a thousand little things, doing the right things the right way."
Those little things include reducing an unwieldy 52-member board to a more responsive 30 members, and getting buy-in from the faculty, which voluntarily gave up a salary increase for a year. Eastman hired a national auditing firm to look at the college's finances and revamped its investment portfolio. One measure that such steps have regained trust in the institution: In the past two years, the percentage of alumni making donations to the college has nearly doubled to 29 percent.
This should be of more than passing interest to Pinellas County residents. Eckerd College is a valuable resource that not only attracts 1,600 residential students from around the nation and world, but also provides degree programs to 1,100 working adults in classrooms that stretch as far south as Venice. Its innovative continuing education programs, including the Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd College, have earned national recognition.
"We are not just fixing past problems, we are moving forward," Eastman said. Not so long ago, such an outcome didn't seem at all guaranteed.
