Winthrop finalist Mahony says fundraising, clear vision keys for university

Competing to be Winthrop University’s 11th president, Dan Mahony said he has the chops to tackle the school’s most pressing issues – growing enrollment, increasing employee pay and bringing in more donations, to name a few. But, if the community wants to know about his character, his wife offered some insight on Friday.

He was the “big man on campus” in high school – the football team captain and class valedictorian. But, at lunch, he sat with the kids who weren’t very popular, Laura Mahony said.

“I think that speaks to who Dan is as a person and ... speaks to how he would be as a president,” she told more than 200 Winthrop employees during the question-and-answer period of her husband’s public presentation on Friday.

Dan Mahony, a finalist for Winthrop’s presidency, is dean of Kent State University’s college of education, health and human services. He’s also a professor of sport management, with a background in intercollegiate athletics and he has conducted academic research on effective university administration.

He and his wife were at Winthrop this week for his last round of interviews before school trustees pick a president. Mahony’s presentation on Friday follows a campus visit earlier this week by finalist Jeff Elwell, a dean at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. A third finalist, Alan Shao, a dean at the College of Charleston, will visit next week.

Several people in attendance on Friday asked Mahony questions about his leadership and management style. The successful Winthrop finalist will follow the university’s 10th president who was fired last year, in part, because she was accused of mistreating campus employees.

Mahony says he’s a collaborative leader who takes a realistic approach to decision-making.

A university president, he said, needs to be the calmest person in the room. “When things are going badly, I need to be the one who is most relaxed.”

One of the top priorities for Winthrop’s next president, Mahony says, should be to “develop a clear plan for the future.” That vision would include better recruiting and retention of students, building a “culture of philanthropy” to boost giving to Winthrop, and making sure economic development relationships in the Rock Hill community are successful, he said.

Winthrop can recruit more students and grow its enrollment if it finds the best way to package its story, Mahony said. Branding and marketing are a part of communicating what makes each university special. And, he said, that kind of communication helps state lawmakers – who allocate taxpayer money to public schools in South Carolina – understand Winthrop’s impact.

Mahony says he’s versed in the challenges facing public higher education, including handling steep cuts to university funding by legislatures nationwide. “Most deans don’t deal a lot with legislators (but) I do,” he said, adding that he visits Ohio lawmakers about three times every month in that state’s capitol.

In a tough public funding climate, he said, some colleges will die, some will “barely survive,” and “some will thrive.”

“I see a really bright future for Winthrop,” he said, adding that the university may need to review its academic programs soon to ensure it thrives and makes the best use of its resources.

Decisions about whether some programs should end are tough, Mahony said, but a new president needs to be open to that review. “If we can’t do it well, we probably shouldn’t be doing it,” he told employees.

Transparency, fundraising ‘critical’

Winthrop’s faculty, staff and students have packed meeting rooms and auditoriums this week during finalist visits. The school is nearly finished with its second presidential search in as many years. Winthrop trustees have said that they’re paying close attention to faculty and staff members’ opinions this time around.

Trustees have added more in-person meetings for this year’s finalists. More than 40 faculty and staff members and 13 students have conducted interviews with Elwell and Mahony. Shao will follow the same campus visit schedule next week.

An online survey is available for community members and the Winthrop campus to provide feedback on each finalist. The survey asks participants about their affiliation with the university and has an open-ended question for participants to leave comments – different than the survey used two years ago that posed six questions, along with a comment box.

The finalists’ presentations are recorded, with the video available online for Winthrop employees and students to view but access is password protected. Officials say those videos will be made public at the end of the last finalist’s visit.

“It is difficult to balance the desire to be open and public with the need to keep the playing field equal for all of the candidates,” Board of Trustees Chairwoman Kathy Bigham wrote in a statement to the campus this week.

Transparency has been a topic of discussion at Winthrop and one professor asked Mahony about his views on Friday. The university is a public school, which means most of its records, its budget, and its board meetings are open to the public.

Mahony, who has spent his entire career at public universities, says being a transparent leader is part of his reputation. He believes it’s important to share financial information with colleagues and solicit help from others on campus to solve problems, he said.

Public universities are facing heightened government and community scrutiny, he said, which means schools need to measure their successes and have data to back up their effectiveness. In that area, Winthrop has plenty to tout, Mahony says.

Still, getting more taxpayer support in South Carolina for higher education is difficult. Because of that, Mahony said Winthrop needs to put a fire under its fundraising efforts. Increasingly, public schools need to act more like private schools when asking alumni and donors for money, he said.

Mahony cited his success at Kent State with fundraising where he helped his college’s donation levels jump 35 percent over the past two years. When he took the dean’s job at Kent in 2008, his college didn’t have a chief fundraiser and had only minimal alumni relations programs, he said.

An increase in enrollment will help Winthrop’s financial position, Mahony said, but strategically fundraising like he’s done at other schools is equally as important. “I would certainly be focused on that from Day One.”

This story was originally published February 27, 2015 at 7:46 PM with the headline "Winthrop finalist Mahony says fundraising, clear vision keys for university."