Photo by Pat DePuy/Managing Editor
President Hefner sits at his desk during a talk with The Leader, as he reflected on his past. –Pat DePuy/Managing Editor
Fredonia says goodbye to campus president and icon, Dennis Hefner
ETHAN POWERS
News Editor
A 65-year old Dennis Hefner stands on the upper level of his office in Fenton Hall, hands folded behind his neatly pressed black dress suit, pensively gazing out the three massive windows that cohesively reveal a clear, brisk day on the SUNY Fredonia campus. Hefner sees more than a university that stands as a model for small liberal-arts colleges everywhere which seek to attain innovation through renovation, he also sees the fruits of his labor that span a 16-year career.
It would be disingenuous to draw a parallel between a successful emperor overlooking a his vast domain, marveling and relishing a career spent securing brick-and-mortar projects and uniting people of different cultures into a singular, representative body. Rather, during this quiet moment of reflection, Hefner recognizes the enormous successes of the past while acknowledging a campus future in which he is not present. His thin grey beard exudes the chaotic nature of the spring semester as he in the process of hastily preparing to greet children at the school’s “Take Your Kids to Work Day” event. A book titled, Readings on the Regulations of Business which he co-authored during his first year at Grad school, sits idly on his desk. It’s there to prepare him for a keynote speech he is set to deliver later that day on the importance of student/faculty research. Several original Janet Turner pieces are placed delicately on the walls of his office amidst a collection of other watercolors and artwork for which Hefner outwardly shows an almost childlike exuberance and jubilation for.
A picture bestowed to him by his fellow faculty members at California State University, Chico, where he served as Dean of Agricultural and Human Environmental Sciences from 1988-1990, displays a dairy cow underneath the administration building’s archway. The faculty took the picture in jest to remind Hefner that he had come a long way from the deeply urbanized metropolitan hub that is the San Francisco Bay Area, and he keeps it on the right wall of the office’s entrance to remind him “never to take things too seriously.” A miniature replica of a San Francisco 49ers helmet sits on a shelf behind him to represent his upbringing. Amongst all of this reminiscence, a small model of the Fredonia clock tower stands proudly at the edge of the president’s desk. A staple and icon of the Fredonia campus, the clock tower itself personifies the man often sitting in the chair behind it in the sense that they each share that very same uniquely honorable role.
Hefner now enjoys the reserved tranquility of the window-gazing pause eight months after he announced his plans to retire in front of roughly 450 Fredonia employees in Rosch Recital Hall. It was at that moment that the faculty and community alike were hit with the seemingly unimaginable revelation that they would have to say goodbye to the campus’ most successful leader and longest-tenured president in the school’s modern history.
The list of accomplishments is staggering.
Throughout Hefner’s career, enrollment of undergrads at Fredonia has jumped 25 percent, improving the school’s rank to third among four-year colleges in western New York. He has secured approximately $360 million in capital construction funding over the course of his term which has led to the creation of the campus’ Natatorium, University Commons, Rosch Recital Hall, University Stadium, Campus and Community Children’s Center, Business Technology Incubator, and the Robert and Marilyn Maytum Music Rehearsal Halls, as well as the new $60 million Science Center currently under construction. Further notable renovations to campus buildings include Maytum Hall, Williams Center, and the planned $40 million expansion of the Rockefeller Arts Center. It’s not very surprising that Fredonia been the single most successful university in securing construction dollars amongst all of the SUNY masters-level universities within the last 16 years.
The grandiose vision of SUNY Fredonia that Hefner himself helped realize seemed to be nothing more than an unattainable pipe dream when he first arrived in 1996. Instead, Hefner began the process of upgrading the campus firstly by addressing the most basic and essential of the university’s needs.
“When I was first appointed president, I gave remarks to all of the faculty and staff and said that I saw the need for us to move forward in four areas,” Hefner said. “One was diversity for the campus. Another was in the area of assessment. We had a few assessment initiatives going on but not a campus-wide assessment program at the time looking at continuous quality improvement. We needed good strategic plans, and we needed to improve our technology. We had four e-mail systems going at the time I arrived on campus, none of which really worked. It was awful. We were way behind the curve in technology.”
Soon after, Hefner had implemented the “Fredonia in 4” program, enabling the school to reach seventh in the nation for 4-year graduation rates. He then moved $204,000 from other parts of the campus budget to address Fredonia’s poor class selection which would allow students to get full class loads much easier than they’d previously been able to.
“You work on things and periodically you have to lift your eyes and look out at the campus and say, ‘Oh, we should be moving in this direction,’” Hefner said.
It’s one thing to preach such a proactive set of beliefs, but it’s another thing altogether to act upon them. Hefner put his philosophy to practice when he was first given a tour of the campus as one of the presidential candidates. He walked into Diers Recital Hall and recalled that it bore a striking resemblance to the auditorium and stage at the elementary school he attended. Constructing a replacement for the outdated area immediately became a priority for the presidential hopeful. “I didn’t know how we were getting it yet, but I knew we needed it,” he said.
The countless public construction projects Hefner has secured have contributed to a Fredonian identity that goes far beyond the confines of the university’s campus grounds. With SUNY Fredonia as the centerpiece, the town itself has developed a distinct individuality, preventing the area from becoming as Hefner puts it, “Brocton with an Applebees.”
“If SUNY Fredonia wasn’t here, we’d be a part of Brocton. We might be slightly better, because we have an Applebees at the exit,” Hefner said with jovial burst of laughter. “This university has been critical to the development of this community.”
Hefner continued by explaining how he sought to get the university to become utterly intertwined with the surrounding region. “There was kind of a dichotomy when I arrived between Fredonia and Dunkirk as the school had very little going on in the city,” he said. “I have worked to expand that relationship because I consider Fredonia and Dunkirk to be of the same larger area.”
No other project has better embodied that goal than the success of the Fredonia Busines Technology Incubator placed in downtown Dunkirk. The Incubator had already produced financially viable and has been instrumental in the revitalization of Dunkirk’s business sector.
If a leader is to be judged by the way in which they perform during times of hardship, Hefner has undoubtedly cemented his status as one of the SUNY system’s greatest strategists. The SUNY Fredonia president has witnessed the operating side of the campus budget be cut 14 of the 16 years that he’s been serving. Next year, Fredonia will be about $1 million in the green.
“We’ll have three times more in terms of a positive budget than I ever saw in 16 years. It’s part of the reason why I’m leaving now,” Hefner said with a buoyant smile. “What we’ve done on the operating side is return to enrollment growth. That has been able to provide some additional money for other uses. If we didn’t have that enrollment growth, we’d be in very difficult shape right now.”
Unquestionably, Hefner will come to be defined by his relentless advocacy of SUNY education to the State Legislature in Albany. The concept of “rational tuition” was consistently at the forefront of Hefner’s agenda as he argued that setting small, manageable increases to tuition would allow SUNY schools to better forecast their revenue and increase their ability to provide students with adequate classes. Following a battle with legislators that lasted nearly the entire course of his career, New York State voted into law a five-year rational tuition policy in 2011 with the backing of Governor Andrew Cuomo.
President–elect Virginia Horvath, who currently serves as the vice president for academic affairs at SUNY Fredonia, echoes the sentiments that Hefner’s unyielding effort and outlook is nothing short of inspiring.
“I’m most impressed with the way he can overturn difficult circumstances, and we’ve certainly had those in the seven years I’ve been here,” she said. “We’ve had challenging budgets given to us by the state and a lot of time, just uncertainty about our status. He’s able to sit there, listen to the facts, and then say ‘Alright here’s what we’re going to do.’ He maintains this positive attitude about how we’re going to stay on course.”
When asked what will prove to be the lasting impression of Hefner’s legacy, Horvath responded with assertion.
“Never give up,” she said sternly. “That seems to be his motto. It was his motto in finding funding for buildings and when we faced budget challenges. That was the dominant theme of his time, and I believe it will continue to be for the future as well.”
Horvath also relayed her appreciation for Hefner’s genuine interest in the students and the events they are so involved in, stating that it is a defining characteristic which she will take into office with her. “At times when I’d get discouraged, he’d say, go to a student event because that reminds you of why you’re here. He’s known for going to all of these events, and I think partly why he does it is to remind himself of why he does the work he does.”
As an international student from Shanghai, China, Zhuojun (“Georgie”) Fu knows the importance of a president who is directly involved in campus affairs. She currently has a heavy course load as a double major in public relations and computer science, with minors in leadership studies and applied mathematics. Fu has received a number of awards and accolades over her time at Fredonia, most recently the Lanford Presidential Prize which recognizes a member of the graduating class who has exhibited balanced achievement and exemplifies SUNY Fredonia’s ideals. As a result, she has spent quite some time shaking hands and talking with President Hefner.
“I feel like his achievements and impact is everywhere, which subconsciously influences everyone including the students and faculty,” Fu said. “He creates a very healthy, positive, friendly environment for us and the way he interacts with the students, in a way, reflects how we should interact with each other.”
As President Hefner takes his last walks around the Fredonia campus he admits he hasn’t given much thought to the surreal fact that each annual university event he attends, just as he has done every year for over a decade and a half, will be the last time he’ll be able to do so as Fredonia’s president.
“It hasn’t really set in,” he said. “Every now and then, a little bit of the realization creeps in, but for the most part, I’ve just been so busy and I haven’t really had time to think about it. When the second Commencement is over on May 12, I have a feeling it’ll set in pretty heavily at that time.”
Hefner affirmed that while leaving will most certainly be a very emotional time for him, he is adamant in his belief that now is the best time for his departure.
“I will not have any regrets about leaving,” he said. “My thoughts now, and I’m sure my thoughts in the future will be that I’ve been very fortunate to have been the president of such a wonderful university for 16 years. We have terrific students, the faculty has been wonderful to work with and the community has been supportive. I couldn’t have asked for a better position to have. I will leave here feeling a lot of pride in what we accomplished here, as well as with a large number of wonderful memories.”
When faced with answering how Hefner himself would personally like to be remembered years from now, perhaps the single most important question of all, the long-serving university leader known for his sincerely light-hearted exterior turned expressionless and somber. Hefner crossed his hands and looked down at them before speaking in a slow, soft tone of voice.
“What I hope people will say is that during my presidency, I was able to get people to work together for the betterment of the university and the students we have here,” he uttered. “That was always my ultimate goal. I know I will be partially remembered for some of the buildings I’ve secured, but more importantly I wanted the campus to be able to get through some very difficult fiscal times as a complete, cohesive unit, and I think that has been accomplished.”
A final celebration of Hefner’s legacy will be held in the outdoor arcade of Rockefeller Arts Center on Thursday, May 3 at 2 p.m. The reception, which will be free and open to the public, will carry with it an air of both poignant nostalgia and hopeful anticipation as the venue itself bears some heavy significance. It was there that Hefner’s post-inauguration reception as SUNY Fredonia’s twelfth president was held.
It is a rare occurrence that one individual is equipped with the necessary skills and patience to unite an entire region under the scope of their influential guidance. Dennis Hefner arrived at SUNY Fredonia 16 years ago in the hope that he could gradually develop a university he saw a great deal of potential in. His dedication and service over the next decade resulted in one of the most impressive and rapid transformations imaginable for a small liberal-arts college. Hefner deeply believed in the university’s philosophy of success being a tradition. More than that, he made it his own, one that he would promote every day of his career as an activist of the importance that a collegiate education carries. When Hefner finally takes his last steps on the Fredonia campus, the university will be losing an unwavering lobbyist, brilliant strategist and extraordinary leader. What it’ll be gaining however, is a friend and advocate of SUNY education whose presence ultimately became much more than memorable – it was legendary.
The list of accomplishments is staggering.
Throughout Hefner’s career, enrollment of undergrads at Fredonia has jumped 25 percent, improving the school’s rank to third among four-year colleges in western New York. He has secured approximately $360 million in capital construction funding over the course of his term which has led to the creation of the campus’ natatorium, University Commons, Rosch Recital Hall, University Stadium, Campus and Community Children’s Center, Business Technology Incubator, and the Robert and Marilyn Maytum Music Rehearsal Halls, as well as the new $60 million Science Center currently under construction. Further notable renovations to campus buildings include Maytum Hall, Williams Center and the planned $40 million expansion of the Rockefeller Arts Center. It’s not very surprising that Fredonia has been the single most successful university in securing construction dollars amongst all of the SUNY master’s-level universities within the last 16 years.
The grandiose vision of SUNY Fredonia that Hefner himself helped realize seemed to be nothing more than an unattainable pipe dream when he first arrived in 1996. Instead, Hefner began the process of upgrading the campus firstly by addressing the most basic and essential of the university’s needs.
“When I was first appointed president, I gave remarks to all of the faculty and staff and said that I saw the need for us to move forward in four areas,” Hefner said. “One was diversity for the campus. Another was in the area of assessment. We had a few assessment initiatives going on but not a campus-wide assessment program at the time looking at continuous quality improvement. We needed good strategic plans, and we needed to improve our technology. We had four e-mail systems going at the time I arrived on campus, none of which really worked. It was awful. We were way behind the curve in technology.”
Soon after, Hefner had implemented the “Fredonia in 4” program, enabling the school to reach seventh in the nation for 4-year graduation rates. He then moved $204,000 from other parts of the campus budget to address Fredonia’s poor class selection which would allow students to get full class loads much easier than they’d previously been able to.
“You work on things and periodically you have to lift your eyes and look out at the campus and say, ‘Oh, we should be moving in this direction,’” Hefner said.
It’s one thing to preach such a proactive set of beliefs, but it’s another thing altogether to act upon them. Hefner put his philosophy to practice when he was first given a tour of the campus as one of the presidential candidates. He walked into Diers Recital Hall and recalled that it bore a striking resemblance to the auditorium and stage at the elementary school he attended. Constructing a replacement for the outdated area immediately became a priority for the presidential hopeful. “I didn’t know how we were getting it yet, but I knew we needed it,” he said.
The countless public construction projects Hefner has secured have contributed to a Fredonian identity that goes far beyond the confines of the university’s campus grounds. With SUNY Fredonia as the centerpiece, the town itself has developed a distinct individuality, preventing the area from becoming as Hefner puts it, “Brocton with an Applebees.”
“If SUNY Fredonia wasn’t here, we’d be a part of Brocton. We might be slightly better, because we have an Applebees at the exit,” Hefner said with jovial burst of laughter. “This university has been critical to the development of this community.”
Hefner continued by explaining how he sought to get the university to become intertwined with the surrounding region. “There was kind of a dichotomy when I arrived between Fredonia and Dunkirk as the school had very little going on in the city,” he said. “I have worked to expand that relationship because I consider Fredonia and Dunkirk to be of the same larger area.”
No other project has better embodied that goal than the success of the Fredonia Business Technology Incubator placed in downtown Dunkirk. The Incubator has already produced financially viable businesses and has been instrumental in the revitalization of Dunkirk’s economic sector.
If a leader is to be judged by the way in which they perform during times of hardship, Hefner has undoubtedly cemented his status as one of the SUNY system’s greatest strategists. The SUNY Fredonia president has witnessed the operating side of the campus budget be cut 14 of the 16 years that he’s been serving. Next year however, due in large part to Hefner’s brilliance, Fredonia will be approximately $1 million in the green.
“We’ll have three times more in terms of a positive budget than I ever saw in 16 years. It’s part of the reason why I’m leaving now,” Hefner said with a buoyant smile. “What we’ve done on the operating side is return to enrollment growth. That has been able to provide some additional money for other uses. If we didn’t have that enrollment growth, we’d be in very difficult shape right now.”
Unquestionably, Hefner will come to be defined by his relentless advocacy of SUNY education to the State Legislature in Albany. The concept of “rational tuition” was consistently at the forefront of Hefner’s agenda as he argued that setting small, manageable increases to tuition would allow SUNY schools to better forecast their revenue and increase their ability to provide students with adequate classes. Following a battle with legislators that lasted nearly the entire course of his career, New York State voted into law a five-year rational tuition policy in 2011 with the backing of Governor Andrew Cuomo.
President–elect Virginia Horvath, who currently serves as the vice president for academic affairs at SUNY Fredonia, echoes the sentiments that Hefner’s unyielding effort and outlook is nothing short of inspiring.
“I’m most impressed with the way he can overturn difficult circumstances, and we’ve certainly had those in the seven years I’ve been here,” she said. “We’ve had challenging budgets given to us by the state and a lot of times, just uncertainty about our status. He’s able to sit there, listen to the facts, and then say ‘Alright here’s what we’re going to do.’ He maintains this positive attitude about how we’re going to stay on course.”
When asked what will prove to be the lasting impression of Hefner’s legacy, Horvath responded with assertion.
“Never give up,” she said sternly. “That seems to be his motto. It was his motto in finding funding for buildings and when we faced budget challenges. That was the dominant theme of his time, and I believe it will continue to be for the future as well.”
Horvath also relayed her appreciation for Hefner’s genuine interest in the students and the events they are involved in, stating that it is a defining characteristic which she will take into office with her. “At times when I’d get discouraged, he’d say, ‘go to a student event because that reminds you of why you’re here.’ He’s known for going to all of these events, and I think partly why he does it is to remind himself of why he does the work he does.”
As an international student from Shanghai, China, Zhuojun (“Georgie”) Fu knows the importance of a president who is directly involved in campus affairs. She currently has a heavy course load as a double major in public relations and computer science, with minors in leadership studies and applied mathematics. Fu has received a number of awards and accolades over her time at Fredonia, most recently the Lanford Presidential Prize which recognizes a member of the graduating class who has exhibited balanced achievement and exemplifies SUNY Fredonia’s ideals. As a result, she has spent quite some time shaking hands and talking with President Hefner.
“I feel like his achievements and impact is everywhere, which subconsciously influences everyone including the students and faculty,” Fu said. “He creates a very healthy, positive, friendly environment for us and the way he interacts with the students, in a way, reflects how we should interact with each other.”
As President Hefner takes his last walks around the Fredonia campus he admits he hasn’t given much thought to the surreal fact that each annual university event he attends, just as he has done every year for over a decade and a half, will be the last time he’ll be able to do so as Fredonia’s president.
“It hasn’t really set in,” he said. “Every now and then, a little bit of the realization creeps in, but for the most part, I’ve just been so busy and I haven’t really had time to think about it. When the second Commencement is over on May 12, I have a feeling it’ll set in pretty heavily at that time.”
Hefner affirmed that while leaving will most certainly be a very emotional time for him, he is adamant in his belief that now is the best time for his departure.
“I will not have any regrets about leaving,” he said. “My thoughts now, and I’m sure my thoughts in the future will be, that I’ve been very fortunate to have been the president of such a wonderful university for 16 years. We have terrific students, the faculty has been wonderful to work with, and the community has been supportive. I couldn’t have asked for a better position to have. I will leave here feeling a lot of pride in what we accomplished here, as well as with a large number of wonderful memories.”
When faced with answering how Hefner himself would personally like to be remembered years from now, perhaps the single most important question of all, the long-serving university leader known for his sincerely light-hearted exterior turned expressionless and somber. Hefner crossed his hands and looked down at them before speaking in a slow, soft tone of voice.
“What I hope people will say is that, during my presidency, I was able to get people to work together for the betterment of the university and the students we have here,” he uttered. “That was always my ultimate goal. I know I will be partially remembered for some of the buildings I’ve secured, but more importantly I wanted the campus to be able to get through some very difficult fiscal times as a complete, cohesive unit, and I think that has been accomplished.”
A final celebration of Hefner’s legacy will be held in the outdoor arcade of Rockefeller Arts Center on Thursday, May 3 at 2 p.m. The reception, which will be free and open to the public, will carry with it an air of both poignant nostalgia and hopeful anticipation as the venue itself bears some heavy, perhaps even eerie significance. It was there that Hefner’s post-inauguration reception as SUNY Fredonia’s twelfth president was held.
It is a rare occurrence that one individual is equipped with the necessary skills and patience to unite an entire region toward a common goal. Dennis Hefner arrived at SUNY Fredonia 16 years ago in the hope that he could gradually develop a university that he saw a great deal of potential in. His dedication and service over the next decade resulted in one of the most impressive and rapid transformations imaginable for a small liberal-arts college. Hefner deeply believed in the university’s philosophy of success being a tradition. More than that, he made it his own, one that he would promote every day of his career as an activist of the importance that a collegiate education carries. When Hefner finally takes his last steps on the Fredonia campus, the university will be losing an unwavering lobbyist, brilliant strategist and extraordinary leader. What it’ll be gaining however, is a friend and advocate of SUNY education whose presence ultimately became much more than memorable – it was legendary.
