“ RUNNING A COLLEGE IS DIFFERENT [THAN PRACTICING LAW] BECAUSE THE IMPACT OF ANY DECISION ON NUMEROUS LIVES IS VERY SIGNIFICANT. IT HAS DEEP REVERBERATIONS.”—Barry Mills, president of Bowdoin College
Early last year, New Jersey legislators considered
removing Pritchett’s campus from the Rutgers sys- tem and merging it with Rowan University, an idea endorsed by Gov. Chris Christie in response to drastic state budget cuts. Pritchett, meanwhile, urged Rutgers-Camden
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stakeholders to join him in voicing opposition to Christie and legislators. Such a merger, the chancellor contended, could take a decade or longer to complete. Pritchett and other critics predicted a forced
merger would drive Rutgers-Camden faculty and students to colleges in Philadelphia, only fi ve miles away, because the new institution would lack the world-renowned Rutgers name. Furthermore, most of his 6,600 students attended Rutgers-Camden rather than Rutgers-New Brunswick 50 miles away because of local jobs and family obligations, Pritchett argued. Almost 90 percent of Rutgers-Camden students were commuters, about 80 percent held off -campus jobs, and more than one-fourth of undergraduates were age 25 or older. Following months of protests from students and fac-
ulty and countless trips by Pritchett to the state capital, legislators left Rutgers-Camden a distinct campus and scrapped the merger proposal. Looking back, Pritchett, whose law practice in the
1990s focused on real estate development, credits his legal training in prevailing last year at the legislature. “Winning that battle involved bringing people together with disparate viewpoints and organizing people around a set of goals,” he recalls. Before joining Rutgers-Camden, he taught his-
tory for four years at Baruch College of the City University of New York and law for seven years at the University of Pennsylvania. Pritchett also believes government jobs such as a nine-month stint in 2008 as Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s deputy chief
DIVERSITY & THE BAR® MAY/JUNE 2013
Barry Mills is committed to improving the socioeconomic and ethnic diversity of Bowdoin.
of staff and policy director gave him legislative insight helpful during the fi ght to keep Rutgers- Camden intact. While Pritchett remains fi ercely protective of his
campus, DeCoudreaux is just as passionate about the mission of Mills College, a women’s institution that off ers graduate programs to men. Whereas 300-plus women’s colleges existed in the 1990s, there are now fewer than 60 nationally including Mills. A trustee and alumna of the all-women Wellesley
College, DeCoudreaux champions single-sex educa- tion, which she contends eliminates the competition for academic support and opportunity common in coed environments. Back at Lilly, she always told recruiters who called
to keep her in mind for jobs involving education and women’s advocacy. “Because I made my interests known,” she says, “I wasn’t surprised to hear of the Mills College opening. I’m lucky this college found me. If you believe in the organization, it helps make the 24/7 job fun.” D&B
Lydia Lum is a freelance writer and former reporter for the Houston Chronicle and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
MCCA.COM
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