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Head of the Class:

An Exclusive Interview with Delta College President Dr. Peter  Boyse

By Robert E. Martin

       Dr. Peter D. Boyse is a man with a mission.
    

I wrote those words over 14 years ago when Boyse was selected to fill the shoes of Delta College president Donald J. Carlyon, when Carlyon's contract expired on December 31, 1992.
    

During his tenure Boyse assumed the duty of guiding Delta through precarious waters - a time when the college needed to expand its impact throughout and beyond the tri-city community in the face of startling technological revolutions and within the parameters of finite resources.
       

Prior to assuming the helm at Delta, Boyse held a B.A. in physics with a minor in mathematics and received a Master's Degree in Nuclear Science at the University of Michigan. He later changed his direction in life and received a second Master's in College Student Personnel Administration at Oregon State University, where he also received his Ph.D in Postsecondary Education in August of 1987.
     

Boyse served as Executive President & Chief Operations Officer at Delta, hiring and supervising a full-time and part-time staff numbering close to 1,000 when he first came to the College.
    

As a fellow alumnus of Albion College (where we both earned our B.A. degrees) we both share common ground about a time and era where education was built upon tradition and discipline, yet consistently open to innovation and experimentation.
       

On the eve of his retirement as President at Delta College, I sat down with Dr. Boyse one last time to discuss the legacy of his illustrious career, his key accomplishments, and the key challenges that Delta and other institutions of higher education face in the years to come.




Review: Looking back over your tenure for almost 17 years now, what do you feel are the biggest changes you've witnessed, both good & bad?

Boyse: Technology has made such a huge impact upon us today that I would say it would be the number one change. It's certainly had a major impact on how the College - and everybody - does business.

When I started here the Internet was almost non-existent as far as the everyday person was concerned. There were a few computers on people's desks, but if so it was basically a terminal that led into a mainframe. Now literally every employee has a computer on their desk and access to e-mail and calendars, which has both simplified and complicated our lives. Because let's face it - when computers go down, everything comes to a standstill.

It's funny because 10 years ago if a computer system went down people continued to work around it, but today everybody just walks around the hall scratching their head asking 'What do it do?'  It's amazing to me because I was here for most of those years when the technology transition took place and remember the struggles, not to mention expense, of building computer labs and redesigning courses and changing our administrative systems as well. The impact of the computer has been huge.

Secondly, the college has gone through two accreditations since I've been here and we came through both of those in good shape. We've stabilized our finances, even though we've struggled with the State Budget, which is probably the biggest negative change in the last five years. The downturn in state revenues has impacted us heavily, but we manage to work through that, and although we don't have extra money, we're not in any danger of having a critical financial situation. Thanks to good local property tax support, coupled with tuition support, and some money from the state, we're in good financial shape, which is something I'm proud of.

Finally, the upgrading of our facilities is a significant change. The college itself is in very good shape from a physical standpoint, which is very fortunate. The high levels of physical maintenance are a big change for the college, and it looks like it will be in good shape for many years to come.

Review: How much has the focus switched in college from a job perspective to computer oriented careers?

Boyse: Off the top of my head I couldn't tell you exactly how many students trained in computer related fields, but I do know we saw a lot of expansion there in the early phases with many more people involved in programming and computer maintenance.
Incidentally, if you're a faculty person in that area you are studying all of the time and always upgrading. Most professions can still survive if they drop a year or two behind, but that isn't true with computer vocations.

Review: What do you view as your biggest accomplishments - things you take particular pride in having nurtured to fruition?

Boyse: The fact we've gone through two accreditations. That's very important to this institution. If you're not accredited, trust me, you're in trouble because credits won't transfer to other institutions.

 

I think we've been able to maintain a high quality of educational environment here and have built a good reputation for learning and teaching so that our students go on in life and do very well. Those are the most important things.

 

From the physical perspective, the level we've upgraded the school to a place where people enjoy working & studying is also important to me. You see more students staying on campus because we have a nice environment. Delta will always be a commuter campus because it doesn't have the same environment as a residential campus, but it's great to see students staying here to study and use the facility.
       

I'm also proud that our enrollments have gone up in the last five years. During the '90s they declined a little bit because the economy was so good. There was all kind of work out there and people didn't feel they needed to go to school, but when the economy starting taking a downturn we saw increases; still, over my entire tenure our enrollment has had a steady upswing.

Review:  That's pretty commendable given the fact that we're talking about years when you had the shrinkage in numbers from the years of the baby boomers, coupled with the population in the tri-county region hovering around 400,000.

So tell me, what do you feel are the biggest challenges that Delta faces in the future?

Boyse: The same kinds of things other colleges are facing in terms of resources. As long as the state is having difficulty meeting its budget, you won't see any additional resources from the state, which has been a major portion of revenue for years & years. 
Finding new resources will always be a challenge. That's one of the reasons why Community Colleges have gotten more into private fundraising business in recent years. I certainly have had to stand up a lot in the area of philanthropy and fundraising for the college in order to find private dollars and support for the capital outlays of college projects.
     

Secondly, in this area of the country, I think enrollments will be a challenge in the future, just because of what you mentioned about shifting populations. As things stabilize and age with the baby boomers and people retire or move to different areas, you're seeing smaller high schools and smaller graduating classes in high schools, so what's happening to offset that is that a greater percentage of graduating classes are coming to college, even though their classes are smaller.
    

When you and I graduated only the top 20-30 percent of graduating classes in high school went to college. Now that figure has doubled. In fact, in Midland it's 90 percent of the high school graduating classes that go to college. That's because in the 20th Century high school became a necessary level of education; now, in the 21st Century it's college that is necessary. Everybody needs at least a couple years of college to survive in the job market.

Review:  What about the 'brain drain' factor?  A problem in Michigan for some time now, especially since the decline of the auto industry, is the best & brightest young people going on to other parts of the countryŠ

Boyse: Yes, that's true. Our manufacturing economy has taken a severe hit and in the future I don't believe it will come back, certainly not the way it was in the past. Consequently we have to bring other industries into this area. We work with all local businesses so if somebody comes in looking for jobs, we assure they get trained employees. Frankly, that's a major part of our mission.

Review: I'd like to explore problems with school financing with you deeper. I have a friend that teaches at University of Michigan that used to despise John Engler, but recently was ranting against Jennifer Granholm because she recently reneged on a pledge she made earlier not to cut higher education budgets any further if they held the line on tuition costs.
 

Yet the reason Granholm reneged is because the state budget turned out of balance again, but the thing is that it never balances. Then Granholm cut $25 million on universities again to make the budget work and said that colleges might get it back if the state meets it budget projections, but the thing is they never do.

 So no matter who holds office, as Governor it seems the only thing that happens is damage to Michigan universities. Let's face it, after time they can't compete for the best researchers and students anymore.  Is there a solution to this quagmire?

Boyse: I think so, but I don't think the legislature will do what is necessary, which is to temporarily increase taxes. The income tax has been reduced by 1/2 percent for the last two years and I think we need to bump it up a couple percent for the next few years so that we have a mechanism whereby state revenues begin to increase. Then we can bump it back down again.

 But for the short term, if you want to attract businesses to a community, you need a strong K-12 and university system and other services that haven't eroded. The only thing we can do is get increased tax revenues for the short term.

Review: You hear a lot about how from a generational perspective there's been a decline in the caliber of students' reading and math skills at levels where they should be coming away from high school and into college. What are your thoughts on that?

Boyse: That's a tough problem at all higher levels of education. We've expended a lot of resources on remediation and developmental education. I'd say fifty to sixty percent of our students that walk through the doors need to be remediated at some level - some are very minor, but either in math, reading, or writing skills - those are the most deficient areas.
   

When students come to college they feel they should be doing collegiate level work, but many are not prepared to so they need to go back and take developmental courses until their skills are good enough so they can gain from college level work. Sometimes that takes a while.
And when you pay tuition you don't want to pay additional tuition to get through those developmental courses. And of course you want to get out in the work force, but you can't if you're not adequately prepared. So it takes longer for these students to finish college, which is really a tragedy and a lot of wasted time and effort.
  

I'm not down on the K-12 systems at all, but I attribute this to a number of factors. First, as we were talking about before, in the past if you had a high school diploma or not you could drop out and still get a decent job at Steering Gear. Those jobs don't exist anymore. So as I said earlier, a great percentage of students are coming out of high school into college.
     

The top 20-30 percent need no remediation, but 60-90 percent at the lower levels do require it. A lot of this I attribute to the fact that the family structure is changing so dramatically. Families don't seem to be as stable as they once were, as far as I can tell. Two parent families where one parent stayed home with their child were very common 30-40 years ago.

But today a lot of young people are left alone or in day care situations and aren't getting the kind of nurturing from parents that they once did, and parents don't seem as supportive of the public school system as they once were. This makes it more challenging for public school administrators and teachers to teach our students. They are being asked to do more, with fewer resources to do it, and they don't enjoy the parental support they once did.
    

If I got into trouble with a teacher as a kid, my parents were on my ass. Now parents go and defend students and downgrade the teacher. After awhile teachers get discouraged and they ask why they should butt their head against a wall.

Review: Another factor is that as we move into a more global economy with more competition internationally, American graduates are falling far behind.  In a recent survey of the top 20 educational levels of developed countries worldwide, America came in 17th. This survey didn't include India and China because they are considered developing countries, but we all know the impact their graduates are making on the workforce. Plus in most European universities kids are required to learn two languages by the time they graduate. 

Boyse: I do think and know here at Delta and community colleges all over the country that a much greater focus is being brought on the idea of bringing global perspectives into the classroom. We have a diverse student body that we respect and feel they need to be exposed to a lot of different viewpoints, but there certainly is a lot of work we have to do.
  

In terms of languages, I think students don't speak anything other than English in many instances because they don't have to. In Europe you need another language in order to survive, plus you might live in Germany and work in France, so it's more of a necessity.
 

Here in the United States in large communities many young people know different languages, though you might need to drive to Quebec to practice French, but there isn't the same need here yet.

 

I do think most young people that have an interest will learn how to speak different languages, and more understand there is a real advantage knowing how to speak another language. From a marketability standpoint, they can see the dollar signs out there.
 

I have a cousin that speaks three or four different languages that works for the U.S. State Department, and I think as young people are exposed to the global environment more will come to the realization of how important it is to speak a number of languages.  I have seen more interest in this than 15 years ago.

Review: When you first came here your predecessor, Mr. Carlyon, had taken the college through its infant stages and made it grow to a certain level. Obviously, the president forges a face & personality for the institution. When you came into Delta did you have major goals that you set for yourself and do you feel they were achieved?
 
Boyse: Apart from bringing technology to the campus and being smart about how we use it, which I mentioned earlier, I would say it would have to be maintaining the quality of education that the college had already enjoyed and enhancing that.
      

The quality was always here at Delta but a lot of people in the community were not as aware of us, and I think we've done a good job branding the 'Delta Difference' in the public mind. That wasn't around when I first got here. But by promoting the 'Delta Difference of quality, affordability, personal attention' for the 7 or 8 years now, people now go, 'Oh yes, the Delta Difference'.
      

And finally I'm very pleased at the way we've rebuilt the infrastructure of the college, making it an attractive place and enhancing its image in the community.

Review: So what are your plans after retirement? Are you a big golfer?

Boyse: People have talked to me about different opportunities, but I'm not committing to anything until I have some time off. I want to stay involved and have considered some consulting work, but I intend to live here and stay in the area.

My oldest daughter recently presented us with our first grandson a year ago and she is completing her Master's degree at Saginaw Valley, though not working this year because of the baby. My youngest daughter is graduating from Michigan State with a Bachelor's in nursing. She will be close by in Detroit, so my wife and I want to stay here. We have a lot of good friends here and my wife is native of Oregon, so we'll spend some time there. We both enjoy traveling, so we'll do some of that. I'll read some books and do the kinds of things you do when you have time off.
     

I've never been a good golfer.

But I would like to get to the point where I can swing and hit the ball properly!

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