By JORDAN GREEN, Editor-in-Chief
Twice she applied, and twice she was denied.
In 2001, Dr. Janet Cunningham was vying for the university president’s job for the second time. Already a vice president at Northwestern, she thought she was a strong candidate – and she knew she was a passionate graduate, she said.
When the job went to someone else, she called the victor, congratulated him and gave him a message.
“I know you know I was finalist,” Cunningham said to Dr. Paul Beran. “I just want to tell you that you should have no concern with me. What I care about is this institution doing well, and I’m going to do everything to help you make that possible.”
The third time proved to be the charm. Because more than 20 years after that phone call, Cunningham says her care for Northwestern is even stronger as she wraps up her 16-year presidency. In June, Cunningham – the second-longest serving president in Northwestern history and its first female president – will retire from her nearly 50-year career in education.
“It’s time to let some new ideas be out there,” Cunningham said. “Not that I think I’m out of ideas. I have given a lot, Northwestern has given a lot back to me, and it’s just that circle of life.”
LOVE FOR LEARNING
Thanks to her Kindergarten teacher, Cunningham found her life’s calling in an Alva school classroom at the age of 4.
“I knew, like the first or second day of school, ‘I am going to be a Kindergarten teacher,’” Cunningham said. “There was nothing I liked better than school. I loved to read. You could go anywhere and do anything if you could read.”
One of the first places Cunningham’s family expected her to go was college. She chose Northwestern, where she earned her bachelor’s degree. Around 1972, she said, she became a student worker at the university.
Cunningham continued her education and eventually was hired to teach in the university business department. She was in the classroom for 11 years before becoming an administrator.
She was the school’s executive vice president before ascending to the presidency, working in various administrative capacities for three presidents.
Two of them were people she competed with for the job.
PRESIDENTIAL PROGRESS
Cunningham first applied for the president’s job after Dr. Joe Struckle, the longest-serving Northwestern president, retired in 2000. She didn’t get the job when he left, nor did she get it after Struckle’s successor.
“At the point I wasn’t selected, I said, ‘OK, that’s fine,’” Cunningham said. “I knew I wanted to be here, whether I was president or was vice president or executive vice president. It didn’t matter. I wanted to be here.
“I thought, ‘I can contribute from the second chair.’”
She did just that until 2006, when Beran – the second president after Struckle – left.
This time, the university didn’t begin a search process. Its next president was already in its midst.
Though many positions in higher education were long dominated by men, Cunningham said she never faced discrimination in her work. She also said she learned “something valuable” from all three of the presidents she worked for.
When people ask her how she feels about being the first female president of the university, she replies: “I don’t know.”
“It’s just never been an issue,” she said. “I think competence was rewarded. … I think people maybe in this part of the world don’t think about it, don’t make a big deal about it.”
PLANS POSTPONED
Cunningham had started kicking the idea around in 2019 of retiring in 2020. But her daughter, former Northwestern mass communication instructor Allison Zimmerman, had a request: stay on as president for one more year.
Her wish would turn out to be prophetic.
Zimmerman died February 14, 2020, after a long battle with health issues. One month later, Northwestern joined schools across the nation in shutting down in-person learning as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe.
At that point, Cunningham couldn’t quit.
“Then, I just didn’t feel like that was an appropriate time,” Cunningham said. “Not that I could fix COVID or do anything, but I just thought my experience might be helpful.”
A firm believer in the value of in-person learning, Cunningham said higher education leaders across the nation and at Northwestern developed a nimble, effective approach to online learning.
And though administrators steered the school through the COVID storm, Cunningham wanted to leave with a proper goodbye – seeing students’ unmasked faces one last time.
For the most part, the 2021-2022 school year has given her that opportunity, she said.
“I just wanted to have a closer-to-normal year,” Cunningham said on a recent Thursday afternoon. “We’re going to go play basketball tonight against Southwestern. We didn’t get to last year.”
LASTING LEGACY
Northwestern has modernized its infrastructure and added new educational opportunities during Cunningham’s tenure.
Cunningham says she’s proud of the growth the university’s Foundation and Alumni Association has had during the last several years. She’s also quick to note the creation of Northwestern’s first doctoral program and the university sports teams’ move to the NCAA Division II. The university has also remodeled dormitories, upgraded technological infrastructure and rebuilt its football field and press box.
Members of the Regional University System of Oklahoma, which oversees smaller state schools like Northwestern, said Cunningham’s leadership is praise-worthy.
“RUSO extends our sincere thanks to President Cunningham for her leadership of Northwestern over the past 16 years,” Regent Connie Reilly, chair of the RUSO board, said in a news release. “Her vision and dedication have driven the last two decades of the university’s growth. Not only has President Cunningham led Northwestern with integrity, but she has been an asset to higher education at the state level as well.”
Jane McDermott, a regent who lives in Alva, said Cunningham has had an “indelible impact” on Northwestern.
“Her commitment to providing our community with access to high-quality, affordable higher education is commendable and evident in the accreditations, partnerships and endowed chairs she has facilitated during her tenure,” McDermott said. “She will be greatly missed.”
Getting those projects done wasn’t easy. But Northwestern leaders were determined to make them happen, Cunningham said.
“I don’t think anyone would have ever believed we would have a doctoral program,” Cunningham said. “I think there were a lot that didn’t think we could go Division II. … From my own place and my own perspective, I think we allowed ourselves to dream a little bit, and that’s helped.”
She’s quick to ascribe those successes to others.
“Something that I’ve always thought about, and tried to live, is: Share the credit, take the blame,” Cunningham said. “If things are going right, share that with anybody and everybody – your team. If things are going wrong, you take it.”
Making those projects come to life requires significant fundraising and community involvement, Cunningham said. Her approach to these tasks is less financial and more personal.
“I don’t think of myself as a ‘fundraiser,’” Cunningham said. “I just think of myself as someone who believes in the story of Northwestern. If I’ve been lucky enough to tell that story and have someone else believe in it, too, then that’s where the fun comes from.”
FAMILY VALUES
Cunningham said she sees Northwestern as part of her family. And she’s retiring, in part, to spend more time with another part of her family: her husband, children and grandchildren.
Cunningham and her husband, Rick, plan to remain in Alva, where they have their own home. After her tenure ends, they’ll move out of the president’s home on the campus grounds. They plan to travel and spend time with their five grandchildren, and they’ll keep supporting the university.
She says she’ll be a “quiet cheerleader” for the Rangers.
“I will continue to be very supportive of Northwestern, but in a very quiet way,” Cunningham said. “The new person – they don’t need to have me looking over their shoulder or doing anything like that. It’s somewhat unusual that you stay in the same place, but this is our home.”
Cunningham said she will not be involved in the search process for a new president, which the Regional University System of Oklahoma is expected to begin in late January.
Cunningham said she hopes the next president will care about moving Northwestern forward.
“I think there are good people out there,” Cunningham said. “I don’t think I’m one of a kind. I think there are people out that there that won’t be me, won’t try to be me, should not try to be me. They should come in and do things their own way and cultivate their own style.
“I’ve never tried to be anybody but myself, so I would encourage somebody to do the same thing.”
