Prez of Franklin Pierce reflects on historic role
Mooney is first woman, first alum in charge
Newly appointed Franklin Pierce University President Kim Mooney joined Boston Herald Radio’s “Morning Meeting” program yesterday to discuss what it meant to be the first alumna and first woman to the hold the post in the university’s history.
Q: Talk to us about how the experience has been for you personally.
A: Franklin Pierce University is my alma mater. I earned my undergraduate degrees there and I’ve had a very long relationship with the institution. So in addition to being a former trustee, I was also the academic officer for about eight years prior to becoming president. But when I think about being president and being the first woman and the first alumna to serve in the role, I think of it as a coming of age story. Franklin Pierce University started in the 1960s, I was born in the 1960s, and it makes sense that now is a good time for this. I’ve always loved this school and I always wanted to see it do well, and when I had the opportunity to return and serve as provost, I was very excited to do that because I wanted to bring leadership to the institution, but I never imagined being president.
Q: What sort of perspective can you bring that is different?
A: I always think about our institutional DNA, I think about what I understood as a student there and how that has translated into the future to where we are now. And I think about that as not just the curriculum — which is a fabulous undergraduate liberal arts curriculum that intersects with professional preparation — but it’s also about the way the faculty and staff and administration believe in the students and the way that they put the highest value on student success and student leadership . ... That has always been part of the fabric of the university.
Q: What was it like for you to try to lead the school and have productive conversations with students during the presidential election, considering New Hampshire is so important to the process?
A: Fortunately, we have the Fitzwater Center for Communication and Dr. Kristen Nevious, who leads that center, and is a wonderful leader. Our partnership with the Boston Herald gave our students the opportunity to really enter into professional-level work as journalists and political scientists, and made my job easier because the students themselves on campus were so aware of the political climate, so invested in it and so vocal about it that they didn’t actually turn to me or really to others for leadership on that. They really took it upon themselves to shape the conversations on campus.