 HBCU Dutchess Radio welcome back to our presidential series conversations with distinguished presidents and chancellors from historically black colleges and universities. Today our distinguished guest is a friend of the show Edward Waters College president Dr. A. Zachary Faizon with big personal news today an extension a contract extension those that's always a happy day in our sector when you consider the alternative somebody getting kicked out so we you know we love somebody somebody hanging around for a bit so you are on paper in Jacksonville till 2023 and this announcement comes as you are welcoming back students to the campus for the fall semester first can you give us just your thoughts on the extension you know the time that you're having there and what is it like to get this kind of really really good news when you are you know not to not to be you know pessimistic or anything but you're in a really tight spot in terms of hey we're bringing these these students back and we're excited about a new semester but we're in the middle of a pandemic and we want to see how it's going yeah well first year thanks for for letting me let me come on and share good news about Edward Waters College but certainly just I mean very excited about the board's confidence in our work and our leadership and again we were we actually were on paper to 2023 an extension now carries through July 2025 so two more years a real vote of confidence from our board and our board leadership and you know again it's been it's been exciting and and I think for us it's a it's a a trying time right now of course in the middle of the pandemic for all of us and so you know I think that it I certainly don't want to speak for our board but but I can speak for myself and that I wanted to ensure our board that I was here for the long haul and that I was going to see us through whatever challenges that may come and I was just pleased that the board felt that that we had demonstrated enough in our prior two years here at the institution for them to have that kind of vote of confidence in our leadership as we're going forward so let's talk about that um EWC you know obviously the flagship of Jacksonville the oldest in the state of Florida but there are some things that you have done that have really really not only stood out Edward Waters from you know the private HBCU sector but in some ways the sector at large because you know you've had opportunities to get state funding for right for capital projects you've got investments from state legislature which is historic and unprecedented for you guys uh you're continuing to get you know support from the city of Jacksonville um that's correct you know you're giving is up enrollment is going on up you've enhanced research how do you what what is the system that you have to have in place now obviously people can walk and chew gum at the same time but it right rare when you see growth in a lot of different directions at one time it's at least from the outside signals there's a lot of buying down there would you agree with that yeah and what do you think the secret sauce is for getting that accomplished well i think you hit the nail in the head i mean it's all about collective buy-in from the top down and i will say it really starts similarly with the relationship and the synergy between the board and and the president and i'm blessed to have that kind of synergy to have that kind of leadership um from our board our board has really empowered me um and been a partner with me in this administration to really move the institution forward and so i would say i really cite that as probably the most uh imperative and critical thing uh that that that that is really really propelled the work that we've been doing forward i mean you mentioned some of the things that um we've been able to accomplish um from you know the the historic about 3.5 million uh dollars in recurring funding um that we're going to be receiving from the state of florida i will tell you um that certainly my board was engaged and involved in helping us to advocate and lobby towards that again it it has to be a symbiotic partnership between the board um and and the institutional administrative leadership and again i've just been blessed to have that kind of synergy here at ewc one of the things that really stands out um and this is important given where we are and the financial implications of being in a global pandemic you guys and your team helped to knock down uh a cash deficit um and end it with a surplus for the last the close of the last fiscal year now yeah i i will yeah for folks who don't for late people who don't understand what that is what what does that mean and how do you do it if you can disclose it i'm gonna put it in i'm gonna put it in in in in terms that i folks can understand if rob and peter the paypal okay we're literally you you're ending each of your uh fiscal years with accounts payable from the prior year and you've got to use uh the tuition and revenues from your incoming year to pay off your account payables from prior years so you never catch up right and so you know that was that was something that you know we really had been suffering under the yoke uh for over a decade um and and i will say that it was probably one of my first and and probably i think my most prodigious challenge was i say we the institution can't persist this way we've got to we can't we literally are not gonna make it if we don't we don't do something very differently so we were fortunate um the institution has been had been of course making a number of efforts over the years um in trying to court uh different financial institutions um looking at how they could cut costs looking at how they could raise revenues um and certainly a lot of a lot of effort went into that we were we were blessed to be able to establish a partnership with the reinvestment fund um which are out of out of atlanta they also have uh matter of fact i think they have a headquarters up in baltimore um in your neck of the world um and they've done some prior work with fifth they've done some prior work with talladega um and they came down and sat with me sat with our leadership team sat members of our board and and and and fortunately they bought into of our vision um of course they wanted to see our data they wanted to see our financials and essentially what they did was they partnered with us um i think it was actually a a a a significant factor in their partnering with us was was our place in the community um ewc sits in a in northwest jacksonville it's a urban community like most of our our historic private hdc youth often sit in the heart of the african-american community a community that often now has been neglected um and i think that the fact that we are an anchor for that community as matter of fact i know um and have a an economic impact or 50 million dollars in that community certainly was instrumental in in the re-investment fund partnering with us to to to to do a refinancing deal when again so many financial institutions wouldn't touch us but but they believed in in our vision they believed in where we were going and and we had some positive indications in terms of enrollment um in terms of our retention in terms of our graduation rates and just what the vision was and they could see that we were taking demonstrable steps uh towards making that vision a reality so um you know we were able to to do a refinancing deal with them uh that actually yielded us enough upfront cash to refinance to pay out all of our accounts payable and generate a a a seven figure uh net cash a surplus for the institution so um and and like you mentioned i mean it couldn't have come at a better time with with with kind of you know not knowing how ominous you know the future may be given that we're in the middle of a pandemic so it couldn't have happened at a better time for ewc now let's talk about that that the the covid-19 element here because even though this is a scary scary time for almost every hbcu it is also it been a positive time in the sense that young people have expressed more uh interest in attending black colleges they're they're applying more they're getting deposits absolutely and they're coming has that has that been the case in in Jacksonville at ewc and what are some of the numbers looking like for you we are absolutely seeing that i mean i've been sharing with everyone we are cautiously optimistic i mean some of the numbers that we're seeing in terms of interest so i'll give an example we've got over 5300 applications for ewc and our enrollments right around 900 students so 5300 applications for us is significant that's about a 54 increase in overall applications our deposits are up i've gotten nearly at last check about 400 deposits in terms of new students that you know freshmen uh transfers um new students that's up about 52 percent for us now we're right literally right in the middle today of welcoming back our returning students and our this week our new students are are coming in as well so you know we're we're we're cautiously optimistic of course i will share with you you know until i see the wife of their eyes you know i can't i can't make any any any any bold declarations but absolutely we have seen a tremendous tremendous tremendous uptick in terms of interest and deposits and so we're hopeful that that will bode well for us uh over the coming weeks how do you and your team navigate the reality that this is a virus that disproportionately impacts and negatively impacts black folks and you're in a state that is i guess the nation the nation's hot spot and when you consider yourself because you're you're a georgia boy so you you know you you're from a state that's a hot spot you're working in a state that's a hot spot when you look out over your campus you look out over your city you look out over your hometown how do you navigate and say how do we what optimism do you draw to say this is going to be okay yeah i will say that that it has been not without great consternation i mean it this is it was probably the most difficult decision that that i've had to make as president was to decide you know what's the pathway forward for us in the middle of this pandemic and of course we we decided to um resume on campus operations will be operating with a hybrid hyphelix and virtual instructional environment um and and and and we're still navigating it um of course we have you know developed uh pretty comprehensive about a 35 40 page uh uh covid 19 resumption of campus operations manual uh which you know some of the highlights are you know for example this year we're doing only single occupancy in all of our residence halls um so we've got students that are in hotels because again in this environment you know you know dorm rooms are relatively small anyway which we use with fact two or three even up to three in a room you can't do that in this environment um so we've done single occupancy in all of our residence halls and ppe kits mask for everyone physical distancing in all of our classrooms we're encouraging as many students as possible uh to to attend virtually um even even even if they come back to campus you know let's let's you know stay in our rooms and and and utilize our learning management system uh to to to get the instruction uh virtually so i mean it's it is certainly um not something that i think any of us have all figured out but i think we're navigating it as very best we can um wanting to have always ensure the safety uh of our students and our faculty and staff and our entire community is certainly the priority uh but balancing that also with with the needs of our students you know and i one of the things that i've shared with a lot of people is that hbcu's are not a monolith you know you can't say it because institution a made this is well all hbc's will know my demographic is different you know i'll share this real quickly when we moved online back in the spring there were some institutions that shut everything down and sent everywhere everyone home and and they were lauded for that and why right they should have been for for that campus well for my campus if i did that i have about 300 students that literally have nowhere to go so so shutting my campus down literally means that i would have had homeless students right right and so you know again you know so that's the reason why i say we shouldn't you know make these kind of broad you know judgments every campus is different you know every every every situation is different and so i think that we just have to really trust the leadership and that the leadership you know has the ear and the sense and the pulse of their campus community and that they're going to make the best decision as possible thinking about the faculty staff and students that that that that they serve what are some of the goals not because you've accomplished a great deal in a short period how do you set new goals for the campus and and what are those conversations like with the board and the alumni of the students yeah how do you how do you fashion what you know next looks like well let me say this we are in no way a finished product i mean i'm certainly we're proud of of of the things that we've been able to accomplish but we have a a long way to go and and the good thing is that again i think we're well on our way to being able to do the things that our board wants that our entire academic community wants so you know kind of you know probably from the horizon probably is is really the fact that we were able to achieve the additional state funding is going to really propel us forward in terms of being able to begin to add some of our new academic programs um so our academic leadership teams a matter of fact is writing right now uh prospectus is in proposals to send into SAC COC for three new academic programs one is in computer and information science the other one is social work um in other words in forensic science we're also looking at nursing um and the last one is that we are going to be submitting um the uh attended information uh for us to be able to bring on the first graduate degree program at dwc um and so all this is going to happen within the next six to twelve months i'm pushing everyone really hard um to be able to do that so we're going to be you know transitioning not going wood you know obviously there's a process with sacks and them getting uh our prospectus and approving it and coming to campus and and all of those attended factors but uh we're going to be shifting dwc to dwc prayerfully been an x12 to 18 month um that was part of that we're doing some things yeah yeah that's part of the announcement absolutely um that first graduate degree program we're looking at at a master's degree in business administration and we're it's going to be online we're going to we really also want to begin to own on the online space in a much more robust way we think that that's an opportunity for a space for dwc um to really be able to to extend its wings and and showcase its brand um you know we're you know again building upon the fact that sacks has approved uh our first ever fully online degree program which is a bachelor's degree in business and organizational management um and we also earn the approval to offer all of our academic degree programs fully online so we are really going to be very very intentional uh about moving forward um in that space and then the final question i'll ask man and this is on a personal tip so it's you're one of the the few presidents um that is super active on social media and what i think distinguishes you is that you're showing um in a lot of ways the way to keep work-life balance uh you're still taking your wife out on dates yeah you and i have something similar we both hopped on a peloton bike during a during a moment during a pandemic you gotta do it so how do you how do you work so hard and push so hard but manage to to keep time for family for for self uh to be able to recharge for that hard work that that that is ahead when you come back into the office i'll tell you i think that for me at least initially it really was a challenge believe it or not i i you know i i had put on weight but on 30 or 40 pounds i've gotten that off of me you know because these jobs are they're difficult they weigh on you especially if you're doing them the right way you know uh so um you know but i think it's important for uh our students our faculty and staff to see that that that you do have work-life balance that you you know you go hard in the paint for ewc but that you do have a family you do have a wife you do have kids you do have you know other things outside of that i think that that makes you more palatable makes you more human makes you more touchable um particularly for students um and so you know it's just kind of part of my leadership ethos it's who i am and and i think that you know any leader you have to be authentically used um it's you know especially students they know the real from the faith so you know you have to be authentically you and and really um you know work to keep that balance because if you if you if you don't next thing you know you'll you'll find yourself getting out of balance and then that that impacts the quality of your work so it's something that that's important but i think it's something that you know i know at least for me i continue to try to refine and and and strike that right balance as best i can