Editor's Note: Susan Martin will start as Eastern Michigan
University's 22nd president — and its first-ever female
president — July 7. The following story was reprinted from
the spring 2008 issue of Exemplar magazine.
Back
in the late 1950s, a young girl named Susan Work attended
classes at a one-room schoolhouse in Croswell, a tiny farming
community in Michigan's thumb. It was typical of the schoolhouses
that, by then, were beginning to vanish in the wake of
organized school districts and new, low-slung school buildings.
It was small enough for the kids to throw a ball over,
a time-honored schoolhouse game. It had two outhouses — one
for boys, one for girls — no
running water and just one teacher.
 |
EMU'S NEXT PRESIDENT: Susan Martin,
provost
and vice chancellor of academic
affairs at the
University of Michigan-
Dearborn, officially becomes
Eastern
Michigan University's president July 7.
She
will become EMU's first female president in
its 159-year history. |
One of about 35 children in grades K-8, Work
was a good student because she was smart, but also because
of that one, no-nonsense, demanding teacher. Mrs. Murray
was her name. She had high standards, teaching much more
than just the three Rs, recalls Susan Work Martin today.
"We did plays, monologues, drama — you name it. She was
unbelievable," Martin recalled.
That teacher just happened to be a graduate of Michigan
State Normal School in Ypsilanti, Michigan; she attended
many classes in Welch Hall.
More than four decades later, that school is now Eastern
Michigan University. And little Susan ? is now Dr. Susan
Martin. She is going to be in Welch Hall, too — as EMU's
first female president.
It all became official May 14, when the EMU Board of Regents
unanimously selected Martin, 57, as EMU's 22nd president.
Her schoolhouse-to-university presidential journey, on
the face of it, is inspirational enough. It also places
her in what must be a very small, if not solitary, category
of sitting university presidents who attended one-room
schoolhouses (her ability to drive a tractor by age 10,
in order to get to softball practice, perhaps qualifies
her in a similarly unique category).
But that journey also symbolizes why Martin seemed to
be the right person at the right time for EMU. Her breadth
of experience, from shorthand-taking secretary to state
government finance posts to provost, combines with a down-to-earth
manner for a winning combination, said Thomas Sidlik, chair
of the EMU Board of Regents.
"She has an engaging personality and, in a college president,
you need someone who deals with a variety of people — high
school freshmen, legislators, people in Washington, community
leaders, faculty administrations, union representatives.
You need someone with that engaging, comfortable personality,"
Sidlik said. "She also has a Ph.D in accounting and has
shown she knows the numbers inside and out. I think she
really proved to the campus community last week her command
of the numbers. She had done her homework."
As for Martin's ability to move EMU past its recent troubles?
"She knows how to move forward," Sidlik says. "She's a
great choice. The board is happy, the audience of several
hundred people is happy. Here's one EMU got right."
Board Vice Chairman Roy Wilbanks agrees.
"This is a great day for Eastern Michigan University.
She will be an outstanding president and I hope that the
entire university community will now support her and her
endeavors."
That certainly seemed likely May 14. All who met or listened
to Martin warmed to her, as they did during the forum tha
took place the week before. There was a discernible sense
of excitement and optimism all over campus.
On that first whirlwind day, Martin easily negotiated
a busy schedule on a campus she had previously visited
just four times. She began at the 9 a.m., five-minute-long
Board of Regents meeting, where the regents made their
historic selection. Next came a press conference, followed
by several interviews with print and electronic media.
A reception for her took place at EMU's Student Center,
and was attended by hundreds of faculty, staff and students.
Smaller, more private meetings followed.
During all of this, she made two signature comments:
"It's raining today, but there are no dark clouds hanging
over Eastern Michigan University anymore," she announced
to spontaneous applause at the press conference.
Later, at the Student Center, she held up an EMU sweatshirt,
smiled, and issued a world-wide invitation: "Come on! Join
me at Eastern Michigan University!"
Martin takes office July 7, but she isn't waiting to get
started. She hopes to get searches started for several
vice president positions and, well, read a whole lot. The
little schoolhouse girl who once checked out "entire shelves" of
books and read one novel a day, has plenty of "materials
I can dig into and get grounded into the real EMU," she
said.
But grandiose plans and new strategic plans are not on
the radar — and are not necessary, Martin insists.
"Somebody was asking me about the first 100 days, and
I said, 'No, no no, we're not doing that. We're doing the
first thousand days,'" Martin said, with a fresh burst
of laughter that often punctuates her remarks. "Eastern
doesn't need a new vision and 18 projects for the first
hundred days. We have a good plan, a big university with
a lot of stuff in motion, and we have a vision and strategic
plan."
It's the how-to that needs some help, and how-to is Martin's
strength, she adds.
"I can look at the vision and say, 'How do you make that
come to reality?' You want to be Number One not only in
enrollment, but in reputation among the other 12," referring
to the public universities beyond the University of Michigan,
Michigan State University and Wayne State University.
"But how do you really do that? I can take that and be
thinking of that, and reading and looking at other examples,
and think, 'How does it really come down to a road map
of what we're doing and what more we need to do? How do
we make that picture come alive in five or 10 years, and
keep that trajectory going?'"
One of her first how-to goals: make EMU No. 1 in student
enrollment, after the big three, by increasing enrollment
2.4 percent next year and 2.5 percent the following year,
and then building on that base.
Another way to implement enrollment increases is to enhance
what is already a healthy international student enrollment,
Martin said.
"There are a lot of families (overseas) who have the means
to send their children to an American university. That's
their dream, and we can be a very hospitable place for
that," Martin said. "We're right near a major airport,
we have a very accessible faculty, smaller class sizes,
dorms to fill."
Martin's strength in budgeting and finance — she
has a Ph.D. in accounting and considerable experience in
state government and university management — auger
well for what she articulates as the new challenge of 21st-century
universities. All of them.
"Public universities in the 21st century are challenged
by fiscal issues they never had in the past. In this state,
overall, you look at public universities, and the state
support for the general fund budget has declined from approximately
55 to 70 percent, depending on the institution over the
last 20 years, until now, 25 to 30 percent, which has caused
boards and administrations to increase tuition," she said. "That
has made it more challenging for students to afford college."
How to increase accessibility and affordability "means
we have to be much better stewards and managers of our
resources than we ever were in the past. I think we have
to do more fundraising than we have in the past. You know,
Eastern's been here since 1849, and most alumni live in
Michigan."
That was part of her rationale for a chuckle-producing
antic she pulled at the press conference, one ripe audience
(TV, radio andprint media), and again for another audience
— faculty, staff and students, at the Student
Center.
Holding up a dollar bill, she announced the creation of
the Eastern Michigan University Excellence Fund.
"I'm going to make a personal pledge of $10,000 to start
it off. To anyone who is listening, if you love Eastern,
if you care about Eastern Michigan University...then you
take one dollar, put it in an envelope," she said, holding
up a dollar bill and an addressed envelope, "and send it
to the EMU Excellence Fund, Office of the President, Welch
Hall, Ypsilanti 48197."
Pausing for a moment, she then added, raising two more
bills, "If you're doing well, put in another five, or a
twenty, so we can show the world that people care and are
proud of Eastern Michigan University!"
Martin's years growing up on a 500-acre farm and driving
tractors into town made her independent. She flourished
throughout school, and was a star member of her high school
debate team. That prompted her bachelor's degree in public
speaking from Central Michigan University in 1971. How
did she get from there to accounting?
"That's an easy story," she said. "I worked in the summer
as a bank teller to put myself through college."
After graduating, she got married and ended up at the
University of Texas at Austin. Martin learned that if she
worked on campus, she could receive in-state tuition.
That led to a job as secretary for the microbiology department, "working
for scientists," she said.
"They were not very good at keeping track of their fiscal
grants and things, so I just started doing that and I found
I loved it," she said. "So, I thought I'd take an accounting
class. I was the only woman. I was openly harassed by the
instructor and students. So, I decided I would set the
curve."
Set the curve, she did, earning a master's degree and
then her doctorate in accounting from Michigan State University
in 1976 and 1988, respectively. Meanwhile, she was getting
the kind of experience public universities need today.
She was Commissioner of Revenue for the State of Michigan
and Deputy State Treasurer for the Bureau of Local Government
Services.
At Grand Valley State University and, more recently, at
the University of Michigan-Dearborn, she taught courses,
worked on various study abroad programs, and established
a warm, working relationship with academic institutions
in post-Iron Curtain Poland and Ukraine. She chaired the
accounting and taxation department, and eventually served
several roles in the Office of the Provost. Among them:
managing the $154 million budget for the Academic Affairs
Division.
All of this on-point experience sure sounded good to EMU's
Presidential Search Advisory Committee.
Martin, who with her husband also has raised three children,
said she was shocked when she received "the call" May
10 about her selection as EMU president. But she does
not deny she is a "good fit" for EMU right now.
"I've got a lot of savvy and experience, for instance,
in state government as an auditor and in higher positions
working with legislation, the appropriation process and
with a staff in Treasury. So, I know Lansing and I can
certainly ramp up to work there and represent the university,"
she said.
"In addition to that, I've spent 20 years in
higher education — 24 if you count being a secretary at
MSU and UT Austin," she
laughs. "So,
I've done every job except the groundskeeper and the boiler
room. I really know a lot about universities and I think
I can hit the ground running."
"And I'm a pretty strong manager. I'm very open, but I'm
willing to make decisions to move things along. And I don't
have anything to prove."
Talk about setting the curve.
Still, even Martin did not quite expect she would be where
she is today — not just a university president, but also
EMU's first female to hold this prestigious position.
"Really, it's just been the past couple of days that it's
sort of culminated, with all this emotion on campus. It's
kind of overwhelming what an honor it is to be selected
as the first woman president in Eastern Michigan's history.
That's 159 years," Martin said. "It's not that I'll
just be a role model for women, but also for young men
who start out without any thought of going to college,
with modest means, and go to a public university like Eastern,
start working and do well, and keep working, and then end
up as president. It's sort of the American Dream." — Sheryl
James is a freelance writer from Brighton, Mich., and interim
senior publications editor for EMU's Office of Marketing
and Communications
