Temple trustees take stronger oversight role as university struggles with ‘unprecedented confluence of serious challenges’

Temple University’s board of trustees is taking a stronger oversight role of the university as it faces what its chairman Mitchell Morgan called an “unprecedented confluence of serious challenges.”

Board leaders in a message to the Temple community Thursday evening said the board had formed a special committee on March 13, with the support of president Jason Wingard, to apply “more rigorous attention to urgent matters,” specifically campus safety, enrollment, and “university engagement and responsiveness,” between its quarterly board meetings.

Also on Friday, Wingard, who, like Morgan, is facing a no-confidence vote by Temple’s faculty union, said in a message to the campus that he intended to pause some of the initiatives in the strategic plan aimed at elevating Temple “to the next level of best-in-class” to focus more intently on campus safety and the enrollment decline.

“I believe that vision is still possible,” he wrote. “However, to address the pressing issues facing Temple, it is clear that we must pivot from that external agenda to an internal agenda committed to our most urgent priorities.”

He also promised more communication and interaction in an accompanying announcement posted on the university’s website.

Temple has been wrestling with how best to beef up safety in the area around campus following the Feb. 18 shooting death of Temple Police Sgt. Christopher Fitzgerald while on duty. Enrollment has fallen 14% since 2019 — 16.5% since its peak in 2017 — and a source close to the deans said deposits for next year are down 25% compared to the same time last year.

» READ MORE: Temple faculty union authorizes a vote of no confidence to take place against university leaders

Meanwhile, the university is facing leadership challenges, with the faculty union preparing to take a no-confidence vote next month on Wingard, Morgan, and provost Gregory N. Mandel. That followed a 42-day strike by the Temple University Graduate Students Association that ended earlier this month after a new agreement was ratified. The deans, who also are concerned, have requested a meeting with Morgan, according to the source, and a student survey by the Temple News published earlier this week showed that 92% of the 1,000 who voted disapproved of Wingard’s performance.

“I think we can all agree that the university is experiencing [an] unprecedented confluence of serious challenges, and that there are growing and legitimate concerns from students, faculty, parents, and alumni,” said Morgan, founder and chairman of Morgan Properties, who has led the Temple board for more than three years. “Forming the special committee was critical to assist the board [in providing] oversight and direction of matters of urgent concern ... that reach beyond the work of any single board committee.”

» READ MORE: Temple grad students overwhelmingly ratify agreement, ending their six-week strike

The committee, he said, will meet with key groups, including Temple police, deans, faculty, staff, and students.

Jeffrey Doshna, president of the Temple Association of University Professionals, the faculty union, called the announcement by the board a positive step.

“If this is reaction to the serious issues that we raised in our dialogue ... then we are happy to see the board take these steps toward greater engagement,” he said.

While the administration’s handling of the graduate student negotiations may have been the impetus for considering a no-confidence vote, union leaders have cited other areas of concern including noncontract renewals for some nontenured faculty, mounting public-safety concerns, and vacancies in some key administrative jobs. They also have raised concerns about university finances and problems in the offices of ethics and compliance and research and have cited Wingard’s seeming lack of presence on campus.

Others have said it would send the wrong message to vote no confidence in Temple’s first Black president when he has had less than two years on the job and has been confronting post-pandemic problems like rising gun violence.

Wingard, 51, a former Columbia University dean who also previously worked at Stanford and the University of Pennsylvania, became president of the 33,600-student Temple on July 1, 2021.

In his message Friday, he said the university would focus on two priorities: “Safeguard the safety, security, and well-being of our students, faculty, staff, and the entire Temple community. And combat the decline in Temple’s enrollment exacerbated by COVID-19 and a broader national decline in college student enrollment.”

While many colleges are struggling with lower enrollment, in part due to a decline in the high school population, Temple officials also have acknowledged an impact from safety concerns. And Wingard emphasized it again in his message.

“University enrollment and campus safety are inextricably linked,” he wrote. “The primary goal is to increase security, specifically in those areas with a density of students, and to continuously communicate details on our progress. We must instill confidence among prospective and current students and their families that we prioritize their safety.”

His memo outlined some of the initiatives underway to improve safety, including a better agreement with the Philadelphia Police Department to provide up to 288 hours a week of supplemental patrols on nights and weekends, and the recent addition of eight new officers.

The university, he said, faces a “significant deficit,” and schools within Temple are working on adjusting their budgets.

The memo outlined plans that have been underway to combat the enrollment decline, including offering more scholarships and completion grants for students from lower-income families. The school also is looking at restructuring its international admissions and expanding its recruitment nationally. A new vice provost of enrollment management, Jose Aviles, a native of South Jersey, will start May 1.

Wingard said the university would communicate more regularly with its stakeholders.

“Going forward, you will hear from us much more regularly and frequently, and we also want to hear from you,” he wrote.

Morgan said the board has been working on the issues the university is facing, but noted that the challenges are “significant, complex, and intertwined and not susceptible to easy fixes.”

The special committee will be chaired by Lon Greenberg, retired former chief executive officer of UGI Corp., and include Morgan; Leon Moulder Jr., retired founding general partner of Tellus Bioventures; Bret Perkins, senior vice president, external and government affairs at Comcast Corp.; Phillip Richards, executive chairman and founder of North Star Resource Group; and Jane Scaccetti, founding partner and CEO of the tax firm Drucker & Scaccetti, which recently joined Armanino.