Worcester Business Journal

10 Worcester Business Journal | May 15, 2017 | wbjournal.com Departing after seven years, Robert Johnson left Becker with a richer endowment and smarter students BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal Digital Editor B ecker College was in dire straights. Kenneth Zirkle, its president, left abruptly for another school in 2008, right around the same time that the school's chief financial officer and accounting firm also departed. The Great Recession had just struck. "At the time, Becker was adrift," said Arthur "Jay" DiGeronimo, chairman of the Becker board of trustees. "We knew we had some positive aspects of the school, but they were inarticulate; and resources weren't directed to growing the school in the right direction." DiGeronimo was on the search com- mittee that found Zirkle's replacement, a man named Robert Johnson, a senior vice president at Sinclair Community College in Ohio. Johnson stood out to DiGeronimo right away. The candidate asked incisive questions about those interviewing him and about the college instead of, as the trustee put it, talking about how great he was. "It's hard to briefly describe the trans- formation Becker College has made under his presidency," DiGeronimo said. Even now, Johnson recalled how bad things were then. Becker was two or three student recruiting cycles away from going out of business, he said. Creating agile minds Johnson left the school on May 8 after leading it for seven years, and will become chancellor of UMass Dartmouth on July 1. Nancy Crimmin, Becker's senior vice president and chief academic and student affairs officer, has been named interim president. If there's one thing Johnson – a 57-year-old Michigan native – accom- plished at Becker, it is what the college calls agile mindset. Becker appears to be at the forefront in higher education of a school of thought that students shouldn't just be taught to their major or to basics like math and English but also what Johnson calls robot-proof skills. Under Johnson, Becker replaced sev- eral general-education requirements with courses on empathy, entrepreneur- ship, social and emotional intelligence, and divergent thinking, or solving Leaving a better Becker Becker College President Robert Johnson, here walking on campus with students, has been credited for turning the school around after a challenging period. P H O T O S / E D D C O T E F O R B E C K E R C O L L E G E Becker College Race/ethnicity: 69% white, 10% Hispanic, 8% black, 2% Asian Students from Massachusetts: 58% Tuition, room and board: $54,041

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