Board of Higher Ed. chancellor fondly recalls UMass days, looks to the state system's future

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

Judith Gill says she used to spend a lot time in the Hatch as an undergraduate. (Stan Sherer photo)

hirty years into a career in higher education, Board of Higher Education Chancellor Judith I. Gill, '72, still remembers the events that got her interested in her career.

     As a sophomore during the student strike of 1969-70, which protested the Vietnam War and other things students perceived as unjust, Gill chaired the University and State Communications Council. The organization's big event was Legislators' Day, scheduled for May 5, 1970. Gill worked hard on the logistics of bringing dozens of members of the Legislature to campus and had been sending as many students as possible to Boston to lobby. As the event approached, national and international events caused the tension between students and "the establishment" to increase.

     "I was told I needed to cancel it because if I didn't, legislators would be harmed," she said. "It was the scariest day of my life to that point."

     Gill met with the dean of students and director of student activities, "fully expecting them to tell me" to call off the event. To her amazement, they instead affirmed that the decision was hers.

     "I decided to go forward," she said. "I worked with the student strike force. We got bodyguards for the legislators, students from their districts. We called all of the legislators and told them they needed to wear casual clothes [to help them fit in]. There were 84 members of the General Court who came to campus. It was an incredibly successful day.

     "It was [at UMass] that my interest and commitment to public higher education began."
     
      Gill, who still describes herself as an activist, said she has found working for change within the system to be rewarding.

     "You work within the system until you find the system can't work," she said. "I haven't reached that point. I have learned to think outside the box, but that doesn't mean you work outside the box."

     After graduating, she went on to work for the President's Office as a staff associate and as a legislative liaison for the University. She later worked for the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education and the Council of State Colleges and Universities in Washington State. She received a master's degree in public policy from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her dissertation looked at the relationship between the University of Michigan and state government, examining how and when the university decides to cooperate with other state institutions. She has also taught at Denver University.

     Gill became acting chancellor of the Board of Higher Education Jan. 6, after the sudden and unexpected death of Chancellor Stanley Koplik.

     "I lost my friend," she said of Koplik's death. But though they had worked together closely, Gill said she was surprised by the emotional nature of her new job.

     "I sat next to Stan for four years, and I had no idea the kind of pressure and stress and responsibility I would feel," she said. "It's a hard job; it's a tough job; it's a lonely job."

     The discovery gave her pause, and, although she was a formal candidate for the chancellorship, she wasn't sure she wanted the job. During a trip to her alma mater, she made up her mind.

     "It was at Commencement," she said. "I was staring out the Campus Center window
[of her hotel room], and I was looking at where [the lawn stretches in front of the Metawampe statue]...and thinking, 'If we could really have a system, if we could tie it all together, God, this would be great!'

     "I told Steve [Tocco, chair of the Board of Higher Education] that day. We were standing in line [waiting to enter the stadium in the platform party procession] in the pouring rain, and I turned to him and said, 'I want to be chancellor.'"

     She got the job Aug. 1 and has already set her priorities. Building an integrated state public higher education system is at the top of her list.

     "That will always be on the forefront," she said. "The system I want to build has to be built on relationships."

     Gill said she expects the appointment of Charles Wall, president of Greenfield Community College, as the board's deputy chancellor, effective Dec. 1, will allow her to spend more time on the 29 campuses of the state system.

     "I needed to be out on the campuses, and I knew that Charlie would be wonderful in the office."

      Her other priorities include teacher education, technology and accountability.

     "Steve [Tocco]wants [Massachusetts] to return to being the leader in teacher education," she said. The board has been working on a technology initiative that will involve the entire state higher education system. And she is hoping to develop and use a performance measurement system to ensure accountability.

     Gill hopes that solid accountability and an effort to educate citizens and legislators about the benefits of strong public higher education will result in increased support for public colleges and universities.

     "People know that an individual invests in higher education, [but] the whole concept of higher education being an investment [for the state] is not one that is widely accepted," she said. "That's what we've got to be able to demonstrate. Once we have demonstrated that the investment has paid off, there'll be more money."

     More money, in particular, to address the aging physical plant and new construction needs of the state's colleges and universities.

     The board recently voted to develop a capital plan for the 29 campuses that could provide as much as $393 million for new construction and addressing deferred maintenance over the next five years.

     The campus improvement project is based on a proposal written by the University that was adapted to include other state colleges and universities.

     "We worked very hard with the University and the state and the community college presidents to get a proposal in which everyone would feel they are a partner," she said. "It took two months, but I'm pleased. We put so much energy into something that is truly a system-wide proposal in which we are equal.

     Gill said that by strengthening the state's higher education system over the next 10 years, she hopes to give something back to the campus she loves.

     "The closest friends that I had, I made here at UMass Amherst. This is where I grew up. This was the best four years of my life.

     "When I leave this job, I want to be a faculty member, so I've got to do some writing in the next 10 years. I haven't published in the last four. It would be a neat way to round out my career."