Onyx Anneau Fall 2020

Photos by Sue Weatherwax

One-on-One with President Dottie L. King LOOKING BACK ON 10 YEARS AS PRESIDENT A fter ten years, President Dottie King reflects on her presidency, the College and its future. to strengthening the College. “I knew we were going to have do small things well first,” she said. By BJ Riley ’16

A visit from Sister Jeanne Knoerle ‘49 shaped her path, however. “Sister Jeanne took my wrist in her hand and asked, ‘Are you going to apply?’ I told her that I had been thinking about it, but likely not,” recalled King, who believed Sister Jeanne and Sister Barbara Doherty ‘53, both having served as president, were bigger than life with shoes to fill of equal size. After much discussion and prayer, she decided to apply and put it in God’s hands. On her first day as interim president, King received a letter from the Department of Education (DOE) claiming that an audit had shown the College to be non- compliant with Title IV funding for the Woods Online program and that the College would have to return $42 million to the government. She worked tirelessly, traveling to Washington D.C. and working with former governors Mitch Daniels and Mike Pence and U.S. Congressman Larry Bucshon, to prove SMWC was compliant. In October 2019, the DOE issued a resolution reversing the initial finding and stating SMWC had no financial liability. “It was the first issue I faced after becoming president. It took nine years, and in the end we were shown to be correct. It was an affirmation that we had always been compliant.” With a sound educational foundation and a mission that included a deep care for the students, King began implementing what she called a “small ball” approach

King started with implementing an engagement and advocacy strategy on campus and off, addressing small capital projects in the Library and at Le Fer Lake and strengthening the areas of fundraising, enrollment and external relations. The mantra “Aspire Higher” was born during these early days, which has become a widely embraced phrase by students and alumni alike. Relaunching a campaign to building a sports and recreation center along with embracing the school colors of Pomeroy blue and white were also key milestones. Long a believer in the single gender women’s college model, King wrestled with the knowledge that it was an unsustainable one for The Woods. “I set out to examine the issue, completing five-years of research quietly and treating it like a dissertation,” King explained. She interviewed presidents of other colleges which included other single-gender institutions and colleges that had moved from single-gender to coeducational. “I was gathering data and courage. I needed courage to make the case and data to support the case,” explained King, who brought the data about decades of declining enrollment to the board of trustees in the fall of 2014.

It is not obvious when talking about Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (SMWC) with Dottie L. King, Ph.D., president, that her background is in mathematics. As granular as a mathematician has to be, King exhibits the ability to look at a broader view to formulate her vision for SMWC. Her favorite quote is from James Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of the book, The Leadership Challenge. They wrote, “It is the work of leaders to inspire people to do things differently, to struggle against uncertain odds, and to persevere toward a misty image of a better future.” King says about The Woods that she realized early on as president that “if we didn’t do things differently, we would not grow.” She often talks about the College’s future in terms of a misty image — one that is not rigid or concrete. King smiles when she says, “I want the image to always be misty. I might miss a lot of things in the pathway. I don’t like to ignore opportunities.” In June 2010, King was appointed as interim president following the departure of President Dave Behrs, who came to the College in 2007. King, who had been appointed vice president of academic affairs the previous year, said she had no plans to apply for the position originally.

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