School of Education and Social Policy alumnus Wayne Watson (BS69, MS70, PhD72) was named president of Chicago State University, a public school with 7,200 students on the South Side of Chicago. Earlier in the year, Watson had announced he was retiring as chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago. Watson is a former Northwestern University trustee and the current chair of the School of Education and Social Policy's board of advisors. He also was honored by Northwestern in 2004 as a distinguished alumnus.
Since 1998, he has been chancellor of Chicago's city college system, one of the largest community college systems in the country. The network of seven community colleges at 19 locations serves 115,000 students and has a budget of $476 million.
As chancellor, Watson brought significant innovation to the city colleges and tackled challenges including budget problems, student remediation and faculty discontent. He was responsible for a major capital campaign to build a new campus for Kennedy-King College and improve the six other colleges. His initiatives also included establishing apprenticeship programs, a culinary institute and a new evaluation system, as well as achieving accreditation for all the schools in the system.
At Chicago State, the trustees' decision to appoint Watson came amid controversy, and he will confront challenges that include declining enrollment. Chicago State began as a teacher training school in 1867, was later acquired by the Chicago Board of Education and since 1965 has been run by the State of Illinois. Its Board of Trustees is appointed by the governor.
Prior to his job heading the city college system, Watson served as president of Harold Washington College and Kennedy-King College. He also held jobs ranging from university professor to pilot, airline executive to headmaster.
Watson was the featured speaker at the SESP convocation in June 2005. At that time, he urged SESP graduates to become "change agents" by turning their commitment into action. In turn, he emphasized his own commitment to education, despite the many challenges facing him: "It is the love in me for my work and for my students which fuels me. It is love and the belief in the human potential that motivates me and gets me through the day," he said.
Watson has also shared his expertise with students at the School of Education and Social Policy by teaching a class called Community Colleges and Urban Education. The course is an elective in the Higher Education Administration and Policy program.
An in-depth 2005 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, "In Chicago, a Chancellor Pushes 2-Year Colleges to Change Their Ways," describes Wayne Watson's philosophy about creating a paradigm shift at the City Colleges.
Last Modified: 11/19/09