Nineteen alumni relations employees were recently laid off in an effort by new fundraising chief Scott Nichols to improve efficiency within the department and invigorate Boston University’s slow-growing endowment.
Nichols, who assumed the office of Development and Alumni Relations vice president May 1, made his presence felt just weeks into a tenure marked by high expectations, from both current and former colleagues.
“It was pretty apparent to me that in order to achieve improved fundraising, we needed to reorganize to a degree,” Nichols said, adding that the job cuts were targeted at positions that “weren’t having much impact.”
Nichols said he does not anticipate any more cuts “of this scale” in the near future, although he noted that “there’s tremendous pressure on expenses around here. Every dollar really counts.”
Human Resources Associate Vice President Manuel Monteiro said layoffs come “essentially, when we’re attempting to improve services [to the university community].”
BU has offered estranged employees a severance package of one month’s pay plus one week’s pay for every year of service to the university. Also, career counseling is available to help place the former employees in new jobs. Nichols did not rule out the possibility of retaining some of those laid off for work in other positions.
One of the 19 former alumni relations officials rejected Nichols’s rationale for cutting jobs, disputing his assertion that only jobs having little impact were affected.
“The reason they’re giving for cutting these jobs is not lining up with the reality of the situation,” said the former employee, who insisted that the layoffs were not about productivity, but rather “an excuse for them to get rid of people that they didn’t want to have working.”
The staffer requested anonymity because of concerns about receiving severance pay.
“Our department definitely needs an overhaul,” the staff member said, “but I don’t agree with the jobs that were trimmed. I don’t think it has anything to do with productivity.”
The ex-staffer said the severance package was inadequate, and the job counseling program had been unhelpful.
“One month to find a job?” the former employee said. “That’s totally insane.”
Nichols was unavailable to respond to the staffer’s concerns, but a university spokesman said BU feels it has offered a “reasonable severance package.”
“Layoffs are difficult, however, the university has worked and is working to provide professional outplacement,” the spokesman, Colin Riley said, adding that job cuts were in “nothing other than the university and the various schools’ best interests.”
Although the cuts took those laid off by surprise — many of them had their email access shut off before they were informed of their severance from the university — the element of surprise has been a key to Nichols’ success throughout his career, at least according to one man who worked closely with him for 15 years.
Jeff Cruikshank, president of a private consulting firm, spent 15 years with Nichols at Harvard Law School, where Nichols oversaw two unprecedented fundraising drives, raising $183 million and $270 million respectively, with the latter still expected to bring in $130 million more by 2008.
When it comes to Nichols, Cruikshank said, “expect the unexpected.”
“Even though [Nichols] makes up the rules in the development world, he also breaks them,” Cruikshank said, adding that he often takes risks to achieve greater success.
Cruikshank called Nichols “daring,” “iconoclastic,” “nimble” and a heretic to “old-fashioned fundraisers.”
For his part, Nichols said he would ultimately like BU to conform to the fundraising standards of other “big, private, urban universities,” including New York University and the University of Southern California.
Currently, BU’s $700 million endowment ranks 74th among private universities, despite being the fourth largest institution of its kind in the country.
President Robert Brown said any changes Nichols makes to the alumni relations department are not at the expense of fundraising, but in its interest.
“Scott is beginning the process of making sure our development and alumni organization is up to the task of communicating with our alumni and friends and raising support,” he said in an email. “His reorganization” — which includes the job cuts — “is about redeploying resources with this goal in mind, not about lessening our support of the effort.”
After almost one year of laying out strategic plans for the entire university, Brown said, “the next step will be to generate financial support”– and that is where Nichols comes in.
“I am incredibly enthusiastic about working with him,” Brown said.
But perhaps it is Nichols’ enthusiasm for working with Brown that drove him to come to BU, at least according to Cruikshank.
“I don’t think Scott would have taken the job if there wasn’t a strong president,” Cruikshank said.
Nichols has also shown a penchant for adapting to a changing fundraising environment, exemplified by his attitude toward the importance of technology in fundraising.
In 1999, Nichols told The Washington Times that, when it comes to the internet, “most of us are betting it is not going to have a big impact on big donations in any short-run way.” He now professes that the web will be a cornerstone of alumni giving.
“The use of information that’s available through the miracles of modern technology is what I expect us to really rely on and enhance here,” he said.
