Top Candidate for President : Faculty at Chapman Hears Koenig’s Goals

Describing himself as “direct, . . . hard-driving . . . and brutally honest,” Allen E. Koenig told the Chapman College faculty Tuesday that as president he would work to build the quality of the small, independent institution while raising its profile and bank balance.

Koenig, who is expected to be offered the college’s top job after a meeting of trustees today, assessed his management style and offered goals for the college at his first open forum with faculty members at the campus in Orange.

Koenig, 50, would be the first Roman Catholic president of the college, founded in 1861 by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Trustee Les Duryea, a member of the search committee, told faculty members Tuesday that Koenig entered the presidential race in June, deep in the final stretch of an 18-month effort to replace former president G.T. (Buck) Smith. Smith retired in March, 1988.

Duryea did not tip the board’s hand on the ultimate selection, but said: “We took longer than we wanted; we set our standards high.”

James Doti, acting president of the college for more than a year, officially remains a candidate. However, the public display of Koenig, who has been president of Emerson College in Boston since 1979, makes it appear that the job is his if he wants it.

Koenig said his reception at Chapman had been “excellent” and added that administrators and staff members seem to be “a real friendly group of people.”

Indeed, there were few challenges from faculty members Tuesday, even though Koenig raised such highly charged issues as reducing the percentage of tenured faculty from the current level of about 60%, increasing the student-teacher ratio from about 15 to 1 to 18 to 1 and cutting back on extensive course offerings.

Faculty Senate officials conducted an informal written survey after the meeting, seeking less guarded feedback from about 75 assembled staff members, who were asked whether they would support Koenig for president. Results of the poll were not available Tuesday night.

Koenig said as president he would seek to involve faculty members in a wide range of decisions, including picking a new academic vice president. The job is vacant. Koenig said candidates could come from outside or within the college.

He pledged “to serve as a chief fund-raiser” for the institution and said he would like to see the college become “university-like” within five years.

Countering concern that such an evolution might mean enrollment and physical expansion within the historic Old Towne neighborhood, Koenig said: “I certainly do not want to pick a fight with the city of Orange or preservationists or anyone else.”

Koenig also listed as his goals:

* Defining the college’s academic mission, including a statement of values.

* Evaluating academic programs and phasing out those that do not fit within that mission.

* Raising the rate of students who do not drop out or transfer from what he termed a “scandalous” 37% to at least 50%.

Presenting balanced budgets to the board.

* Assembling a team of vice presidents to accomplish the goals.

Koenig said he reduced the percentage of tenured faculty at Emerson College from 60% in 1979 to 40%. He suggested that at Chapman, the percentage could be cut by offering attractive early retirement or financial packages and help in seeking jobs elsewhere.

Any reductions would be voluntary, he said.

Koenig also spoke of the need to build the quality of students and faculty at Chapman while cutting broad and expensive academic course offerings.

Bringing all three elements into balance, he said, would be “one of the biggest challenges that I will face.”

In a light aside, Koenig also confided to his academic audience that he is not particularly disappointed that, with an enrollment of about 2,200, Chapman has no football team.

“I am not a jock,” he said. “One of the things that I am most delighted about is that I will not have to attend football games on Saturday afternoons.”