The first day on a new job can be nerve-wracking. However, few would argue that Webster University’s new chancellor, Tim Keane, has more to deal with than first-day jitters.
Keane officially assumed his post Aug. 1, but his meetings with campus community members began before then. There is major repair work to be done to Webster’s finances, but also to the community’s trust in university leadership.
“That would be one of my very first initiatives, to try to bring people together,” Keane said.
The St. Louis native is returning home from the West Coast, where he served as the dean of the Knauss School of Business at the University of San Diego (USD). His resume runs the gamut, ranging from 20 years in the private sector, leadership and directorial roles at four other universities, and a brief stint in professional soccer.
His face-to-face approach reaches far beyond hand-shaking and includes feedback sessions with department faculty about existing issues. Morale among faculty, staff and students waned after it was disclosed how the salaries for former chancellor Beth Stroble and current president Julian Schuster ballooned alongside the university’s operating deficit.
Lately, there seems to be a shift, with the outlook on the positive.
“I think everybody’s very excited,” Keane said. “I think the energy’s already there, it’s just a matter of harnessing it.”
It appears as though Keane has been placed at the helm of a careening ship. The most recent tax filings from May 2023 saw Webster’s operating deficit at a staggering $39 million. The credit rating agency Moody’s bond rating dropped further into junk status, to boot.
“St. Louis wants us to succeed,” Keane said. “St. Louis cannot have another Fontbonne. That is a black mark on St. Louis.”
An interim report by the Higher Learning Commission is fast approaching, making January the deadline to prove the university’s survival as an ongoing entity, or risk losing accreditation.
The new chancellor’s attempts to take control involve the formation of a new strategic plan. To do this, Keane looked back to 2015, when the university marked its 100th year with the establishment of a brand identity as a global institution.
This was also the last time a strategic plan was written since 2008, when the university adopted a plan called Vision 2020.
“It looked to me like there was a stake in the ground on what the strategy was, and this being a global institution was a big part of that strategy. They accomplished what they chose to do,” Keane said.
Through his experience in the private sector and at USD, Keane finds long-term planning to be “useless” in an environment like higher education that is constantly changing.
Keane prefers a more iterative plan, one that involves an annual collection of information and redesigning where necessary.
“I think one of the challenges we have is that we have economies of scope. That is, our brand is international, but are we doing it efficiently? Do we have a diversity of assets that can then protect us?” Keane said.
Among students enrolled in international locations, 75% come from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Keane says this number needs to be more balanced.
“It’s a little bit risky to have all of that tied up in one place. We have to make some changes to diversify that,” Keane said. “We gotta step back and say, ‘How can we bring alive all of the locations, maybe to the level of Tashkent or close, so we have a truly diversified footprint?’”
At the Fall Convocation ceremony on Aug. 23, Keane made his first public address to the university community. In his speech, he said Webster’s global presence is the largest of any university he has been involved with.
“Growing up here, I knew Webster to be an iconic institution. I was pretty pleasantly surprised that it had grown so uniquely in this community and the international footprint was also one of those surprises to me. I knew that was established, but I was surprised how well they’ve done it,” Keane said.
It was the first time in 15 years that students had been invited to the convocation event. In a meeting with Webster’s marketing team, Keane was surprised to find the event was normally held for faculty and staff as a “State of the University” address.
“I said, ‘We can do a ‘State of the University’ address any time. This is the opportunity for us to actually welcome students. Make them feel like they’re part of the family,’” Keane said. “It was funny, because they were a little taken back, because it’s never been done, principally.”
Following convocation, Keane announced an across-the-board hiring freeze for the university effective immediately – a move that appears to be part of an overall strategic plan.
Keane’s strategic planning kicked off with listening sessions for staff and students to share what processes are broken and need to be fixed. Then, on Sept. 26, Keane and the university’s leadership team will embark on a retreat to have a candid discussion about the state of the university.
“From that, what we’ll do is we’ll understand our current state, then we’ll break out and do a facilitated discussion about the business model. We’ll do that as a facilitated discussion and have a third party come in and I know a guy who’s a good friend who will do it for free,” Keane said. “Most of this is all for free, by the way, because we don’t have any money.”
The entire strategic planning process will need to be done by Thanksgiving. For now, the university leadership is monitoring cash flow.
“We are improving,” Keane affirmed.
Keane turned down the complimentary house and car that traditionally comes with the chancellorship. The home, which former chancellor Beth Stroble occupied, is being sold, making a $1 million drop in the bucket toward breakeven.
“There’s a lot that I think people take for granted here that we just need to bring together and change the narrative in the market. Part of that was, when we were negotiating, my contract offered housing. I said, ‘Sell the house. We need the money. I’ll buy my own house,’” Keane said.
The university may be short on funds, but Keane says the Webster community is not short on passion. And while the list is long in terms of what needs changing to right the ship, Keane believes the community is up to the task.
“I think the people at Webster have floaties on. I think there’s buoyancy here,” Keane said. “All I’m doing is trying to bring people together.”
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