For nearly three decades, Rufus Glasper ’74 has held the catbird seat on evolving higher education trends in this country. As chancellor emeritus of Arizona’s Maricopa Community Colleges, one of the country’s largest community college systems, Glasper has witnessed many changes in the business of education. Challenges facing students today are much different than those he faced as a student at Luther, he notes. “Life has gotten more complicated,” he says with a knowing chuckle. “When I enrolled at Luther more than 40 years ago, the cost of education was around $2,100 per year and there was no question I would finish my degree in four years. These days, the average time to a bachelor’s degree nationally is six years* and the cost of an education is much, much higher. The financial commitment to education on the part of federal, state, and local governments has diminished and there are myriad demands on people’s time. In short, getting an education isn’t as easy as it once was.”
Glasper speaks from a place of deep experience, having spent his entire professional career in this sector. He came to Luther from the Chicago area with the goal of becoming a high school teacher, but soon realized that his heart was in business and finance. After completing his bachelor’s in business administration, he earned a master’s and certificate of advanced study in school business administration from Northern Illinois University and a doctorate in higher education finance from the University of Arizona. Glasper is also a certified public accountant. In 1986, he joined Maricopa Community Colleges as director of finance and associate vice chancellor. After nearly a decade in that position he advanced to vice chancellor for business and CFO, and in May of 2003, he stepped into the role of chancellor, leading the institution until February of this year.
From the outset of his time at Maricopa, Glasper says, he was thinking about the end game. “Because I was on the finance side of the house for so long, I kept a close eye on funding trends. I realized that the legislative statutes were changing and the state was slowly disinvesting in education. In fact, the percentage of our budget from the state went from 29 percent in 1980 to zero today.” So Glasper concentrated on structuring Maricopa for self-reliance. “We started looking at ourselves differently and running Maricopa more like a business, taking steps such as establishing the largest two-year online educational institution in the country and setting up incubator services for small businesses, with Maricopa as a shareholder should they go public.” Glasper’s efforts paid off handsomely. Maricopa made it through the 2008 recession without imposing a single furlough day; the school earned a Triple A bond rating; the budget remained stable, ranging from $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion; and operating reserves rose to more than $400 million, up from $13 million when he took over.
In March, Glasper embraced a new challenge, assuming the office of president and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College, an international nonprofit whose raison d’être is catalyzing the community college movement, a goal that falls right in this seasoned veteran’s sweet spot. “As chancellor at Maricopa for the past 13 years, my focus has, of necessity, been more heavily weighted toward politics and fundraising than student outcomes,” he says. “My new role at the League offers me the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day activities of an administrator and focus on leadership development and student success, which I love.”
Glasper’s voice rises with enthusiasm as he discusses what community colleges bring to the table. “Maricopa Community Colleges are the largest provider of job training in the state of Arizona,” he says. “They help students of every persuasion, from those seeking a two-year degree to those looking to amass credits and transfer to a four-year institution.” Indeed, he notes, Maricopa educates 60 percent of the juniors entering Arizona State University’s system, and the majority have higher grade point averages than students who started out at the university.
During the recession in 2008, he continues, Maricopa also saw many students with bachelor’s degrees returning to community college for certifications because they couldn’t find jobs in their degree fields. “The average age of our students dropped from 32 to 26 and these incoming students found a level of quality they didn’t anticipate,” he says proudly.
Glasper is equally enthusiastic about ways in which the League for Innovation can assist community colleges by sharing and scaling best practices across the nation through sponsored research; hosting of an annual Innovations Conference, a Learning Summit and a STEMtech Conference; and management of an Executive Leadership Institute dedicated to training the next generation of community college leaders. “My role is to identify what works well in community college education and then share those findings in conferences, publications, and presentations,” he says. “The Lumina Foundation established Goal 2025, which states that by 2025, 60 percent of Americans will hold a degree, certificate or other high-quality postsecondary credential,” Glasper concludes. “It’s a laudable goal and I know that community colleges can play a vital role in meeting the challenge.”
* At Luther over the past five years, approximately 70 percent of students earned their degree within four years. luther.edu/ir/enrollment