Mark Wrighton descended the steps of his yellow Foggy Bottom home on F Street, the longtime residence of George Washington University presidents. His 5-year-old dog, Spike, trotted down alongside him.
Spike — somewhat of a misnomer for the small, fluffy mutt — gets three walks a day, Wrighton explained. The regular excursions are also an excuse for the 72-year old president to meet students, chat with prospective families and catch up with faculty.
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“I believe that the president should not be isolated in this office,” said Wrighton, who started as GWU’s interim president in January. “I want to be available to people who are working here.”
Wrighton, whose decades-long career in higher education includes years as a chemistry professor and provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 24 years as chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, arrived at a university in turmoil. The tenure of GWU’s former leader was marred by controversy, and his departure from office left the campus in a state of insecurity.
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Now Wrighton, who plans to stay for up to 18 months, will work to stabilize the campus of more than 27,000 students — the largest in D.C.
“My role is to build momentum for this institution,” Wrighton said during an interview in his office. “My aspiration is that 2022, the first year of our third century, be looked to as a turning point in the rate of progress.”
Building stability
Last year, as GWU celebrated its bicentennial, the campus was in a state of turbulence.
The coronavirus pandemic continued to wreak havoc, leading the university to host its second virtual graduation ceremony even as other schools in D.C. held in-person celebrations. The campus was coming off a tough budget year because of lost revenue and unexpected expenses triggered by the pandemic — but managed to break even after “mitigation efforts” that included layoffs and a hiring freeze.
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Meanwhile, concerns about then-President Thomas LeBlanc’s leadership continued to mount, and a faculty survey revealed widespread dissatisfaction with his administration and a culture of distrust. In interviews, professors pointed to a string of leadership blunders, including a now-defunct plan introduced in 2019 to reduce enrollment and increase the number of students studying science, technology, engineering and math. Faculty often complained that LeBlanc ignored principles of shared governance, processes through which faculty — and, sometimes, students and staff — participate in major decisions.
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In February 2020 came allegations of racism after LeBlanc made an insensitive remark in a response to a question about divesting from the fossil fuel industry — for which he later apologized. In August of that year, the university hired a marketing executive from Michigan State University who state prosecutors said was part of an effort to stonewall an investigation into disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar.
“There were a lot of challenges,” said Frank Sesno, who leads strategic initiatives in GWU’s School of Media and Public Affairs. “Challenges of covid, challenges of budget and challenges of faculty and others who feel that the faculty governance has been minimized or that they just haven’t had the forum that they wanted.”
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In May 2021, LeBlanc announced he would retire at the end of the 2021-22 school year. Shortly after that, M. Brian Blake, the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said he was also departing, to serve as president of Georgia State University — leaving GWU to fill two of its most senior positions.
In his retirement message, LeBlanc said GWU needed a leader who could plan for a future after the pandemic. But school officials, after consulting with LeBlanc, decided to accelerate the process and announced in September that he would leave about six months sooner than planned.
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Concerned by other vacancies at universities throughout the country — many a result of pandemic-era retirements — officials decided to find an interim replacement to put the university in the best position to attract a permanent president, Grace Speights, chair of the GWU board of trustees, said in September.
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Enter Wrighton, whose charge is to change the trajectory as GWU enters its third century.
“I think he’s got an interim title, but he’s trying to project a permanent mind-set,” Sesno said, adding that Wrighton is trying to “assure people that he is the bridge to a stable and future-oriented leadership.”
More specifically, Wrighton said he is focused on fundraising, helping GWU continue to weather the pandemic, and filling open leadership positions including deanships at the School of Nursing and College of Professional Studies. Wrighton has already named a new provost, Christopher Alan Bracey, a legal scholar and longtime GWU professor.
“We’ve had a number of interim leaders who have been doing a great job,” Wrighton said. “But, I think, part of the anxiety and uncertainty that is a part of the situation here … stems, in part, from the interim roles that some of the leaders are playing. Formalizing the leadership team is a very important agenda for me.”
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Rebekah Tromble, an associate professor and director of the school’s Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics, echoed Wrighton’s concern.
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“If we’re missing a huge number of people in those administrative roles, it’s so hard to be able to say, from the faculty perspective, that we have an understanding and comfort with the direction that’s being set at the administrative level,” Tromble said.
The university needs a leader who is willing to be immersed in the community, Tromble added. So far, according to Sesno, the interim president is doing just that. Wrighton is a regular presence at campus events and, on a recent Wednesday, held a meet-and-greet with staff called “Pastries With the President.”
“This reputation preceded him that he’s a good listener, and that’s what I’ve seen,” Sesno said. “He’s making a real effort to be a listener.”
‘A tall, tall order’
Despite the inroads Wrighton has made at GWU, his brief time on campus has not been free of complications.
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In early February, posters critical of the Chinese government were displayed on campus. The images showed Olympic athletes — the winter games were held in Beijing — snowboarding on a surveillance camera and aiming a rifle at what appeared to be a Uyghur activist.
Wrighton said the university received messages from people who were worried about anti-Chinese racism and, in a message to a student, responded that he was also concerned. Some staff responded to make sure the posters were removed, but there was never an official mandate to have the images taken down, officials said.
“People were pretty upset that the posters were being taken down, and some people were upset that the posters were put up in the first place,” said Zachary Blackburn, a sophomore and assistant news editor of the school’s student newspaper. “It was pretty divisive.”
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But in a message to the campus, and amid claims that the university was attempting to censor students, Wrighton said his administration reacted too quickly and that he should have tried to better understand the situation before commenting. “Upon full understanding, I do not view these posters as racist; they are political statements,” Wrighton wrote.
Officials said the posters were designed by Chinese Australian artist Badiucao who, in a tweet, said the posters depicted issues including “Uyghur genocide,” “the regime’s omnipresent surveillance systems” and the “lack of transparency surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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Still, the images were hurtful to some students. The Chinese Cultural Association condemned the posters. “In the United States, everyone has the right to freedom of expression; however, incitement to racial hatred and ethnic tensions, regardless of national boundaries, is not tolerated,” the student group said in a statement.
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The ordeal underscored tensions on campuses throughout the country, as students and faculty clash over issues related to free speech and academic freedom.
“These are not just traditions, but this commitment to the liberty that we have in the United States is essential to our way of life,” Wrighton said in an interview this month. But, he continued: “We have a responsibility here to make sure that every student feels supported and included, is welcomed and is provided the support they need when difficulties come to them. And that includes international students.”
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Days after Wrighton addressed the campus over the posters, he wrote again to inform the community about a data analytics pilot program that monitored locations of students, faculty and staff last fall. The president apologized for the university’s “failure” to inform the community about the project before it started.
Although the project did not analyze individualized data, some descriptors, such as gender, were used to assess how campus facilities were used. Wrighton said he learned about the project after arriving on campus.
“All of the data that was collected has been destroyed or will be destroyed,” Wrighton said this month, adding that the project “was an inappropriate experiment with the use of new technology.”
Under Bracey’s leadership, Wrighton said the university will develop new policies for the use of data for analytics.
“A lot of people realized that it wasn’t something that Wrighton, himself, did, that it was a program that only occurred under LeBlanc,” Blackburn said. “In general, though, I still think Wrighton is popular among the student body and the university community.”
Still, the incidents struck a chord. Even with the former leader out, trust on campus remains fragile.
Many are depending on Wrighton to right the ship.
“We definitely need someone who is willing to go above and beyond the usual measures a university president would take, and recognizes that bringing that sense of community and commitment has to be a top priority,” Tromble said. “Building community and trust, it’s a tall, tall order.”