Leading a college through COVID, racial reckoning, and reinvention

Executive overview

Leading an institution through overlapping crises — a pandemic, faculty unrest, racial reckoning, and economic disruption — demands both speed and deep consultation. Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell, outgoing president of Spelman College, defused a faculty boycott, hit a capital campaign goal early, and launched new programs by treating every major decision as a community process.

Rapid response is not about top-down authority. It is about doing the preparation work early so that when a crisis surfaces, the answer is already ready.

Enduring institutional impact comes from building community trust before you need it.

Defusing the faculty boycott

• Faculty signalled intent to stay remote; Campbell reframed it as a concern to address, not a revolt to suppress
• The college had already been documenting its safety protocols in detail before the boycott threat emerged
• Once faculty received that documentation, they withdrew the threat quickly
• Vaccination mandate extended across the Atlanta University Center consortium, since students cross-register between campuses
• Result: 94% of students and over 90% of faculty and staff vaccinated; positivity rate below 1%

Remote learning: what worked and what didn't

• Faculty learned that remote teaching requires deliberate redesign — not just translating in-person content online
• The pandemic exposed how deep the digital divide was: missing devices, no wifi, unconducive home environments
• Students' strongest need remains in-person relationships — peer-to-peer, student-to-faculty, student-to-advisor
• Remote will not disappear but will be used selectively, where it genuinely fits the course type

Social justice, voting rights, and racial reckoning

• Spelman's social justice curriculum (African Diaspora in the World, Big Questions Colloquia) predates the post-Floyd reckoning — the moment shone a light on existing work
• Stacey Abrams, a Spelman alumna, led the voter registration effort that transformed Georgia's political landscape
• Corporate investment in HBCUs after 2020 has been largely followed through; the most productive partnerships treat both sides as bringing expertise

Launching the Center for Black Entrepreneurship

• Student interest in entrepreneurship grew steadily for five to six years before a formal center existed
• Black women's businesses are among the most underfunded in the country — the center addresses a documented gap
• The Black Economic Alliance approached Spelman and Morehouse jointly; both colleges were already seeing demand
• Major investors include Bank of America, Mastercard, Blackstone Launchpad, and Ford Foundation
• Plans include an entrepreneurship minor, strengthened co-curricular programs, and an online component to reach beyond campus

Institutional achievements under Campbell's tenure

• Capital campaign target: $250 million over five to seven years; raised $274 million in four years
• Endowment grew from $342 million to nearly $500 million
• Undergraduate teaching ranked in the top 25 nationally; ranked fourth in the nation for social mobility
• New initiatives: Center for Quantum Computing (with IBM), data science program, fine arts building renovation, first new academic facility in 25 years
• Spell Reads literacy program: 150 elementary students tutored by 100+ Spelman volunteers, achieving 9–21% gains in reading assessments

Leadership principles Campbell applies

• Consult every constituency before major decisions — strategic plan, capital campaign, COVID protocols, transgender admissions policy all used broad consultation processes
• Slow deliberation produces durable outcomes that hold when tested
• Resilience is a reserve that institutions discover under pressure, not a trait they either have or don't
• Watch the students: their inventiveness in solving constrained problems (like redesigning a welcome event for social distancing) is a leading indicator of what the institution can become