Facing rough waters: Christine Plunkett continues to lead IW as first female president

Rather than running from an educational institution that is taking on rough waters, Christine Plunkett, Iowa Wesleyan University's first female president, is doing the opposite and diving right into the role.

'It was more scary than exciting,” she said of being asked to take on the leadership position following former President Steve Titus' retirement in July of 2019.

Titus' departure was preceded by announcements from the university in November 2018 about potential closure at the end of the following year due to financial troubles.

Following community fundraising efforts and a developing partnership with Saint Leo University in Florida, Iowa Wesleyan avoided shutting its doors.

But with the recent announcement that the university will not proceed its relationship with Saint Leo, IW is again looking for potential collaborations and partnerships to secure its future.

Even with the slight setback, Plunkett is optimistic about the future she is leading the university into.

Plunkett served as the university's chief financial officer, a role she took on in 2015 before becoming president so she is no stranger to helping higher-education institutions through difficult financial situations.

'This is a pattern for me. This is the third place where this has happened where I've been the finance person and there's a change in the leadership and they ask me to remain on in the leadership position,” Plunkett said. The president began her professional career in finance before making a transition into education.

Plunkett was assigned to IW through the Registry for College and University Presidents, which helps match and place temporary leaders for higher education institutions. While Plunkett was intended only to stay for one year, she ultimately decided to remain with the university to continue to provide financial guidance. Now as President, Plunkett has promised the same dedication to IW as it continues to navigate an uncertain future, but has no plans to enter a more permanent role.

'For some reason, I often find myself at institutions that are often financially challenged. I think it's because I'm drawn to institutions that serve usually under-resourced students,” the president added.

A native of Vermont, Plunkett explained that her desire to help struggling institutions stems from being able to serve students. The president, who's residence in her home state is at the center of Middlebury College, said she often gets asked why she doesn't just work for 'one of the most wealthy colleges” in the country.

'I'd feel like a cog in a wheel,” she said, 'To me, it's the students that draw me and I'm definitely drawn to institutions that serve students that might not otherwise have the opportunity. That means that they're usually institutions that are struggling a little bit because you're not usually able to get your revenue coming in a steady way when you have under-resourced kids.”

And while she considers her financial expertise an important asset, especially for institutions facing financial distress, Plunkett also acknowledges that she has a passion for education and an affinity to lead, parts of herself that she credits to her mother, Connie Plunkett.

'My mom was just a very strong, independent woman. She wasn't the head of a company or anything like that, she was a science and math teacher,” Plunkett said, 'She became known throughout the state of Vermont, for her talent in inspiring girls in math and science in an era when girls were usually shut down … To this day, I have women come up to me who had my mom as a teacher and say, ‘She made such a difference in my life.'”

Plunkett says her mother lead by example, in both strength and confidence. While it was never outright spoken or 'pounded” into Plunkett by Connie, it was simply understood that Plunkett could accomplish anything that she wanted to, there were no barriers.

'There's a lot of her in me,” Plunkett said.

The confidence instilled in her by her mother would help Plunkett navigate a male-dominated world as she began her professional career in finance. The president can remember wearing suits and putting her hair up in a bun to 'blend in with the men.”

'I was very confident that I could do it and I would do it but I did grow up as a young professional where [sexual harassment] was very prevalent. I can remember standing in an elevator with a group of men and having my rear-end pinched, comments made in the hallway. They stick with you and they burn,” Plunkett said.

Still, even as a young and driven professional, Plunkett never imagined she would end up leading several higher education institutions.

'I never set out to become a college president. My husband and I look at each other all the time and go, ‘who would have thought?'”

For a university like IW, who has a history of progressiveness, especially with women like Arabella Mansfield and Peggy Whitson, it can be shocking that it took until 2019 for the 178-year-old institution to have a female president.

'I think the university looked for the best fit at the moment and it happened to be a woman. I don't think there was a concerted effort to sit down and say it's time to have a woman president, it's just where I happened to be at the time,” Plunkett said.

Plunkett sad that a difference in mind-set may have also contributed to why it took so long for a woman to sit at the top of leadership.

'I think maybe men are more inclined to be climbing a career ladder with a certain goal in mind whereas women just want to get things done,” she said, 'It's a question I ask about the country too. It's an easy question to ask. How can you say that over the course of 200 years, there has never been a woman who had the leadership skills or the competence or the intellect to lead the country or lead an institution? You know it's not about that, it's about traditions and patterns that institutions have found themselves holding onto that need to be broken,” she said.

Now as a leader and role model for other women herself, Plunkett wants to continue her mother's legacy of bringing women up.

'What has been really meaningful to me has been the number of women who have come up to me, whether its staff members or students, and expressed their pride in it … I think women feel compelled to help other women in their careers and their lives and I do connect pretty well with women who work here who I can see have promise or need some mentoring.”

Looking forward, Plunkett says she hopes to continue to help the university expand. Despite some concern that the lack of a partnership with Saint Leo puts the university back in financial distress, Plunkett said that IW is in a much different place than it was a year prior, in part due to ramped up fundraising as well as further support from the university's lender USDA.

Moving forward, the university's New Directions committee will begin meeting to review other collaborative opportunities and partnerships.

Plunkett explained that IW's troubles are not unique to the university but are emblematic of a larger issue facing small, private institutions across the country and many are also facing closure due to financial distress. While she gives no guarantees on whether IW will be able to weather their financial struggles indefinitely, she points to growing programs and enrollment numbers as positive indications that the university is healthy.

'We're all looking at new and creative ways to collaborate and work together and in that sense, I feel Iowa Wesleyan is really at the forefront,” she said.