Retiring JCSU chief Clarence Armbrister looks back

PHOTO | TROY HULL

Clarence Armbrister guided Johnson C. Smith University through probation by its accrediting agency, the COVID-19 pandemic and creation of an ambitious business model.

Clarence Armbrister is turning in academics for golf clubs.

Armbrister, who is retiring as Johnson C. Smith University president after five years, is reflecting on accomplishments, navigating the COVID-19 pandemic and the influx of $83 million in gifts from the Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative that will transform the historically Black university.  

During an interview with The Post, Armbrister, 66, details JCSU’s strategic plan to boost academic rigor and student recruitment and enrollment. Responses are edited for brevity and clarity.

Topic: Why leave JCSU now.

CA: It was a confluence of events – family considerations, the opportunity to spend more time with my family. Particularly, I have four grandchildren, the oldest of whom is 13 and getting to that age where they don’t want to be around parents very long. It was a natural time for me when I sat down with the board about my contract and how much time we’d want to spend. Once I took time to step back and take a look at it, I thought now was a good time.   

Topic: Processing his legacy.

CA: I think with time comes reflection, so … I feel fairly cognizant of things that have happened. We came in with a lot of challenges, but I think in the time we’ve been here we’ve gotten a lot of good things accomplished, the most significant I like to say is bringing Johnson C. Smith to the consciousness of this greater Charlotte community. I think that’s something I’ll look back on positively.

Topic: Making the transition as an outside the box hire (Armbrister is an attorney by training).

I’d worked in higher ed before, so it wasn’t like I was totally new to higher education. In fact, I’d been in higher education from K-12 and the most recent experience I was at Johnson C. Smith was at a boarding school that went from first through 12th grade [near Philadelphia]. Was I nervous? I wouldn’t say I was nervous because I was confident in my abilities.

I was really confident about the fact that Johnson C. Smith sat on a foundation, a platform that was very, very enticing to come to; being in the great city of Charlotte, with all of the positive things that were going on here. Then I got to learn after I got here, how inclusive the community is, both the philanthropic business and the civic community. And once we were able to get our story out there how people kind of rallied around Johnson C. Smith, so I wouldn't say I was nervous.

Topic: The most daunting challenge.

CA: Well, there are a couple of things when I first got here. Two weeks before I started, we found that the university had been put on probation by its accrediting body. So that was initially a big challenge, and we were able to resolve that with some great help from our friends here in terms of putting together a structural plan that the accreditors found worthy of approving.  

But the biggest and longest daunting challenge I have to say was COVID. Who knew in March of 2020 when we sent our students home, that for Johnson C. Smith, they wouldn't come back until August of 2021. A lot of people forget we will did not open up and have students on campus for the entire academic year 2021, and so when our students left on March 23, 2020 – and that date is etched in my brain – we didn’t get students back into August a year after that. It was really challenging …in a number of respects.  

Topic: Rebounding from the pandemic-fueled slide in enrollment from nearly 1,600 students in 2018-19 to a shade under 1,110 in 2022-23.

CA: COVID did a number on us in terms of enrollment. Being closed for those over 18 months really put a damper first on our students who were continuing. It was very challenging for them to be online and so many of them went to institutions that were either on ground or because of … economic challenges.

We sent these students home and many of them had to contribute to the economic vitality of their own families, so they were trying to go to school, work to take care of the little brother or sister who was also at a school. It was just challenging. And so being closed that entire 18-month period, we didn’t have an opportunity to be in touch as we will usually be with our students – the kind of small environment, high-touch environment that we have at Johnson C. Smith. That was number one.

Number two is in terms of recruiting students, it really puts a damper on your recruiting efforts if nobody can come onto campus. We were literally closed the whole time.
 Now we have a plan, we have some resources to commit to that plan, particularly in the area of scholarship money. So that over $80 million that was pledged through the Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative, the Duke Endowment and other corporate entities pledged, about $19 [million] was pledged for scholarships. We started a couple of scholarships that we never had before … If you are a [Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools] graduate, and you come to Johnson C. Smith, you're going to get $2,000 off the bat. You don’t really have to do anything other than that. We have scholarships for the first time for transfer students, particularly those students who transfer from [Central Piedmont Community College] as well as Gaston Community College to bring them into the pipeline at Johnson Smith and give them the opportunity to take advantage here as well.  

Topic: George Floyd, racial reckoning and JCSU.  

CA: There’s always going to be work to be done, so I don’t want anybody to think that we have planted a ‘Mission Accomplished’ flag, but I will say this: the confluence of events started out with the unfortunate murder of George Floyd. That was going on in the midst of COVID and then we were in the process of creating our own strategic plan, so it was really kind of a confluence of events where we created our strategic plan and we began to talk with much of the civic and corporate and philanthropic leadership in the Charlotte area about our plan, and how they might support it.  

And then, through the graciousness of God and basically the great forethought of our mayor Vi Lyles, who came up with this idea of the Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative. Considering Johnson C. Smith has been one of the four pillars of that it was really a combination and confluence of all of those events that helped us get to the forefront, this community's mind and quite frankly, it has taken off somewhat nationally.  

Topic: How to build JCSU going forward.

CA: The first pillar of our strategic plan rests in terms of academic excellence. We want to make sure that when students come here, they have an opportunity to take highly rigorous, highly challenging academic courses. We can’t be all things all people, but we want to take advantage of some of the natural affinities that we have here, including the fact that we are in the second largest financial center in the country. So, it is it would be natural for us to really emphasize our business programs.  

Another thing that we want to take advantage of is incredible investment that our good friends over at Atrium Health, under the leadership of Gene Woods, is doing in terms of the innovation center in the new medical center to really emphasize pre-health programs in biology, chemistry – some of our larger majors – along with business. We want to double down in that as well, so we’re taking the opportunity to really, really emphasize some of these academic programs with the view that you will get exponential learning opportunities.

We have something here we call the JCSU Promise, and it says basically four things. Number one, when you leave Johnson C Smith, you're going to be able to communicate effectively. Number two, you’re going to be able to think critically. Number three, you're going to be able to work independently as well as collaboratively and number four, and most importantly, be able to demonstrate to whomever it is – your employer or graduate school – that you’re not only competent [but] excellent in whatever it is that you’re doing.  

Topic: Life after JCSU.  

CA: I’m going to listen to Mrs. Armbrister mostly, but we’ve made a commitment to stay in North Carolina, so we’ll be heading to the coast. We’ll be in Wilmington, so I’ll continue to be in the Tar Heel State.

There’s some board service that I have that I’ll be involved in. I’m going to try to improve my golf game. I need to do better. My goal is to break 80 before I turn 80.    

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