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Crisis Leadership: An Interview with Dr. Cynthia Cherrey

By Ross Boomer, Claremont McKenna College, '09

Cynthia Cherrey is Vice President of Student Affairs and Clinical Professor at Tulane University. She is also Executive Director of the International Leadership Association. When Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in August of 2005, Cherrey, as both a leader and leadership scholar, was in a unique position to both contribute to and observe the leadership process from within the inner circle for what Tulane President Scott Cowan called the "reinvention of the University."

Question: Leadership Review What, in general, was the process the administration had to go through during this situation?

Answer: Dr. Cynthia Cherry The University went through three main steps. The first was survival after Katrina hit, in terms of how we could keep the university going. The second step was recovery. We hired a reconstruction firm that has experience with other disasters including 9/11 and the hurricanes in Miami. And now we're on the third step of renewal – the plan for the future of Tulane University.

Q: What are your main responsibilities in the Office of Student Affairs?

A: Well, everything we do now is considered the "the new normal." Things aren't exactly the same anymore. My position usually is responsible for the co-curricular and extra-curricular programs, cultural, social programs, areas like international student programs, housing, recreational programs, counseling programs. The other areas are crisis response areas. Student Affairs staff are trained for responding in crisis situations.

Q: What did you have in place for responding to crisis situations before Katrina?

A: We had a full emergency preparedness plan in place. The extent of this disaster meant that even the best emergency plans were not sufficient. Due to the severity of this natural disaster, after the initial evacuation plan, the senior leadership had to build on the foundation of our plan and improvise. It was the collective leadership of the senior administration that was together 24/7 that had to figure out what needed to be done and how to get it accomplished.

Q: Describe this collective leadership.

A: The senior leadership team was made up of twelve senior officials. After the evacuation of the faculty, staff and students, the senior team reconvened in Houston. Imagine twelve people sitting in a hotel room bringing back a billion dollar organization. That's what it was like at the beginning.

Q: How did one cope with all this stress?

A: Everyone was under an extreme amount of pressure and stress. This type of situation amplifies the best and the worst in an organization. But there was a bonding that took place in the group. We all stepped outside our normal positions and did what needed to get done. We collectively worked towards the common goal of bringing back Tulane.

Q: Describe the type of group dynamics that went along with this collective leadership team.

A: In effective organizations leadership is dispersed throughout the organization. Every person had the same goal. For President Cowen to be successful, he needed a strong group of leaders to help him. He got us focused on what needed to be accomplished in the present and what we needed to do to plan for the future. The goal was to bring the university back, and we looked at the key tasks. First, we had to get a communication system up and running. In New Orleans, communication was down. Tulane had faculty, staff, and students scattered all over the world. We had a back up communication system but even that went down, so we had to think creatively and acquire resources to get our communication system up and running. Relationships with for-profit and nonprofit organizations were critical in finding solutions. The second key task was to communicate with our students, faculty and staff. That was part of the recovery phase. In addition to communication, we started to determine where all of our staff and students were, and we then went out across the country to communicate with them. We had successful live chats on the web, and we also had 26 town hall meetings where we had contact with over 4000 students. To hold these meetings we had to travel to Boston, LA, New York – places where the students were temporarily going to school.

Q: What is the current situation with the beginning of a spring semester?

A: We are now in the "Renewal Phase." Tulane will continue to be a world-class institution with exceptional educational programs. We will also have a unique relationship with the culturally rich city of New Orleans and build on the historical strengths of Tulane and the New Orleans community. Our focus includes being financially vital: having a strong undergraduate program and a limited number of graduate programs, all building on strengths of the university. "Renewal" focuses on the undergraduate program, residential program and programs that work toward a partnership with the urban community. Students will be engaged in civic education and outreach.

Q: What are the current student views of what is happening?

A: Right now 85 percent of students say they are coming back. As I've traveled across the country, I've seen how our students can't wait to come back.

Q: How are admissions looking for the Class of 2010?

A: We're actually seeing an increase in applicants compared to last year.

Q: What advice would you give to the administrations of other colleges and universities that could potentially face a disaster similar in scale?

A: The leadership of any institution needs to take emergency planning seriously, look at as many scenarios as possible, practice those scenarios, have a plan, make sure that the plan has a plan, – asking yourselves "what if this would happen?" or "what if that would happen?" Colleges should also make sure the plan is communicated to everyone involved, including faculty, students, parents and staff. Once a disaster happens be prepared. And no matter how prepared you are you may need to improvise. No matter what happens, you'll always have something that surfaced that you could never imagine…like Katrina! That is why it is so important to have effective leadership in place. It takes the power of many working together to make the impossible possible.