Hulbert announces Aug. 1 retirement

Nicholls State University President Stephen Hulbert has informed the University of Louisiana Board of Supervisors he will retire Aug. 1.

“It seems like 10 years is the perfect point to transition the presidency to somebody new with a different set of experiences and ideas,” Hulbert told the Tri-Parish Times on Monday evening.

Hulbert, who turns 69 on May 31, will retire to his new home in Prescott, Ariz., where he will be closer to his son and grandchild in Phoenix, but he doesn’t expect to stay in place for very long.

“We’re going to travel extensively,” he said, adding he looks forward to a return to Istanbul, Turkey, his “absolute favorite place on Earth. … It’s an extraordinary mixture of thousands of years of history that you don’t see elsewhere in the world.”

Prior to arriving at Nicholls, Hulbert served as chancellor of the University of Montana-Western for four years, the commissioner of higher education in Rhode Island, and interim president, provost, vice president for academic affairs and vice president for administrative services at the University of Northern Colorado.

“Coming here, I’m not so sure Becky and Steve Hulbert had any idea what they were getting themselves into,” Hulbert said. “We found it to be extra welcoming and gracious and warm.”

Under his direction Nicholls made the transition into selective admissions requirements and tallied it’s best Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accreditation score in the university’s history.

In Fall 2003, Nicholls had an enrollment of 7,262 students, according to institutional research figures. First-time freshmen had an average ACT score of 19.5. In fall 2012, 6,606 students enrolled, and first-time freshmen had an average ACT score of 21.4.

The university also broadened its base of students. In 2003, 62 percent of the university’s students were from Terrebonne or Lafourche parishes. That number was 49 percent in 2012, with St. Mary and Jefferson parishes combining for an additional 16 percent.

According to university numbers, nearly 42 percent of 2005 first-time freshmen at NSU graduated from the university or another Louisiana public intuition within six years.

“We have become an even stronger institution in spite of natural and unnatural incidents that have happened to this region,” Larry Howell, the university’s executive vice president, said on Monday. “From oil spills and hurricanes we’ve experienced, but also through the unprecedented cuts to state funding in, mostly, higher education. … I think he has been an outstanding leader.”

Howell said Hulbert informed him that he was announcing his decision to retire midday on Monday, but it didn’t catch him by surprise.

“When he came, he told me five years,” Howell said. “I think we were darn lucky to have him for 10.”

Under his watch the Galliano Dining Hall, Calecas Residence Hall and Beauregard Hall were renovated; the new recreation center, with student-imposed fee increases, was completed last year; and groundbreaking on the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute’s classroom building was held last month.

Hulbert’s tenure at Nicholls was plagued with six consecutive years of state-issued budget cuts as state lawmakers under the governor’s direction have persistently used education and health care funds to offset beginning-year and mid-year revenue shortfalls.

State support to Nicholls has declined from $35.8 million in 2008-09 to $17.9 million in 2012-13, a 50 percent reduction. In addition to $17.9 million in losses, state mandated costs, such as payments into the state’s retirement system, have risen by at least $4 million over the same period.

The university has cut 122 employees since 2008-09, including 33 instructors. It was a 12 percent decline in faculty and 18 percent reduction in staff over that time, university officials have said. Those who remained haven’t received a pay raise since 2007.

He lauded the commitment of faculty, staff and students throughout the cuts inflicted to the region’s four-year institution.

Throughout the decade he served as Nicholls’ chief, Hulbert frequently spoke out against the politics of higher education funding.

“Everybody looks at colleges as being inefficient,” Hulbert told the Tri-Parish Times in 2011. “I’ve been listening to this for 20 years, calls from legislators and governors for greater efficiency out of institutions at the same time budgets are cut. It seems to me to be an absolute contradiction to expect greater productivity, greater efficiency while budgets are being cut and tuition is being held down. It seems to be a political statement. It does sound good for the media and for the general public, but at some point in time, you’re going to find you have an empty program.

“When our state is at the bottom of so many lists in terms of our performance you have to wonder at what point in time does the public realize state government is accountable for that too, not just education?”

Hulbert will not participate in the process to select his successor, but he pledged to support a smooth transition of leadership.

“My commitment to Nicholls remains absolute now and throughout the months ahead of my departure,” Hulbert said.

Nicholls State President Dr. Stephen Hulbert (third from left) receives a donation from BP. The Nicholls president announced he will retire on Aug. 1 after 10 years with the university. 

COURTESY PHOTO