THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140322
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HAMPTON LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
Shirley Robinson Pippins believes in the power of positive thinking. Indiana Jones is her shining example.
``I like Indiana Jones because he's an ordinary man who does extraordinary things,'' she said. ``He just assumes it'll work out. He has three minutes to figure out how he'll get out, and he gets out.''
Pippins, 47, a divorced mother of three, hasn't had to fight off Nazis or other bad guys. But she has performed some leaps and bounds of her own - rising from being the daughter of an Indiana brickyard worker to the president of a college.
Last month, she took over Thomas Nelson Community College, which has 7,500 students. She gets $88,261 a year.
Pippins is the second black female college president in the state. The other is Belle Wheelan, a former Tidewater Community College administrator, who leads Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg.
Pippins knows there are other black people, other women, who haven't been so fortunate. ``Some of it really is being in the right place at the right time and having the skills that allow you the opportunity to move up,'' she said. ``I know there are people smarter than I am who have run into barriers.''
She doesn't dwell on the difficulties of single motherhood, either. ``There is an African proverb, `It takes a whole village to raise a child.' I always put a village together wherever I go,'' she said.
In her previous job, in Westchester County, outside New York City, she relied on the local crossing guard to get her kids to school if she had an early appointment. Here, she has found the Girls Club in Hampton, where her daughters go after school.
``I try to always network with a lot of different people,'' she said.
Professors and administrators notice she's doing that on campus, too, and they like her style.
``She seems to be a very no-nonsense sort of person,'' said Thomas Long, assistant professor of English and past president of the Faculty Senate. But she also has ``immediately gotten down to connecting with each of the constituencies on campus'' in a stream of one-on-one and group meetings.
``The whole package,'' Long said, ``gives me a positive picture of someone very competent and very professional.''
Rennie Wolfe, dean for student services, praised Pippins for meeting with both past and present student and faculty leaders.
``I just see her using a lot more informal channels of communication,'' Wolfe said. ``When she makes a judgment call, she's not making it on one opinion.''
Pippins says it's too early to make many judgments. ``I'm talking to a lot of people now, and I've spent a lot of time listening,'' she said. ``I'm looking at Thomas Nelson through two lenses: One is the process by which people feel part of a family, part of the decision-making process, and the other is what we're about as an institution.''
She doesn't offer specifics, but she says she'll follow the aims of her predecessor, Robert G. Templin Jr., to improve technology and work closely with Peninsula companies. ``Local businesses should look to us as catalysts for change and look to us for their needs to be met,'' Pippins said.
``I'm learning the place, so it's hard to determine what our differences might be,'' she said of Templin, who was named president of the state's Center for Innovative Technology. ``He did an excellent job of establishing links and enhancing the reputation of the college. Our goals may be the same, but the strategies may be different.''
Pippins grew up in a black working-class community in East Chicago, Ind. Her father was a brickyard worker who also operated a variety store. He was her first example of the power of positivism.
As a civil rights activist, he helped prod the city police and the local department store to hire black people. ``He showed me that change was possible. If people stayed together, good can be achieved.''
Pippins didn't attend a two-year college. She received bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology from the University of Illinois and master's and doctoral degrees in education from Columbia University's Teachers College.
From 1975 to 1984, she worked in a variety of jobs for Westchester County, including director of the office of employment and training. She knows the financial squeezes that have tormented her fellow Virginia college presidents; the budget of her employment office was slashed from about $30 million to $3 million.
``I see it as a challenge,'' Pippins said. ``It doesn't frighten me to be in these situations.''
Pippins joined Westchester Community College in 1984 and, during the next decade, rose to vice president. She sees an expanding role for community colleges - serving first-time students, professionals needing retooling, adults seeking hobbies.
``We talk a lot about lifelong learning, so ideally people can see us as a place to come back to. A lawyer might think, `I always wanted to do something in art. Maybe I'll go back to the community college.' ''
She took the job at Thomas Nelson because she wanted a new challenge and thought the area would be a good place to raise a family.
Pippins' office bears reminders of all three children - a picture of flowers made years ago by her son, Dakota, now a 22-year-old senior at Harvard University; a photograph of her youngest child, Andrea, 9; and a pen set bought by her middle child, Raqiyyah, 13.
Raqiyyah is Arabic for high visions - which all her children possess.
``My father said that his father lived in a house without running water,'' Pippins said. ``His daughter lived in a house with five bathrooms, and I have a son in Harvard, and here I am running a college.
``My kids think anything is possible.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Shirley Robinson Pippins has succeeded in getting over life's
hurdles - sometimes with others' help. ``I try to always network
with a lot of different people,'' she said.
by CNB