> Skip to content
FEATURED:
  • Student Success Resource Center
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
ADVERTISEMENT
Leadership
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Show more sharing options
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Copy Link URLCopied!
  • Print

Sweet Briar’s ‘No Nonsense’ New President Faces a Tall Task

By  Steve Kolowich
June 23, 2015
Phillip Stone, the incoming president of Sweet Briar College, was described by one former colleague as “the closest thing to walking on water that I know of.”
Bridgewater College
Phillip Stone, the incoming president of Sweet Briar College, was described by one former colleague as “the closest thing to walking on water that I know of.”

Phillip C. Stone believes in the power of a good story.

Storytelling was a key part of Mr. Stone’s fund-raising strategy at Bridgewater College, in Virginia, where he served as president for 16 years, according to Carol A. Scheppard, its vice president for academic affairs.

He is also easily moved by other people’s stories, said Ms. Scheppard, especially ones about students who beat the odds. “He was very efficient about running the institution,” she said, “but you couldn’t trust him with giving away money to students who came in with a hard-luck story.”

We’re sorry. Something went wrong.

We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. Please make sure your computer, VPN, or network allows javascript and allows content to be delivered from c950.chronicle.com and chronicle.blueconic.net.

Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one, or subscribe.

If you continue to experience issues, contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com

Phillip C. Stone believes in the power of a good story.

Storytelling was a key part of Mr. Stone’s fund-raising strategy at Bridgewater College, in Virginia, where he served as president for 16 years, according to Carol A. Scheppard, its vice president for academic affairs.

He is also easily moved by other people’s stories, said Ms. Scheppard, especially ones about students who beat the odds. “He was very efficient about running the institution,” she said, “but you couldn’t trust him with giving away money to students who came in with a hard-luck story.”

The story of Sweet Briar College is a compelling one. The 114-year-old women’s college was marked for death in February, only to be brought back to life, at least for now, by a group of alumnae who raised $21 million in pledges and sued to replace the current administration with one that wants to keep fighting for survival.

Now Mr. Stone has been tapped to write the next chapter. He is expected to take over as president of Sweet Briar next week.

ADVERTISEMENT

It will not be an easy assignment. Sweet Briar has struggled for years to persuade young women to enroll, offering increasingly generous financial-aid packages that have hurt the college’s tuition revenue. This year the average discount rate on Sweet Briar’s $35,000-per-year tuition was more than 60 percent. Yet only 20 percent of the students accepted into the Class of 2018 chose to attend.

The college’s temporary death sentence, announced in early March, has almost certainly compounded those enrollment challenges. Sweet Briar so far has not said how many students it expects to be on the campus this fall or how many academic programs will be offered.

Mr. Stone declined to be interviewed on Monday. But several former colleagues said that if anyone was capable of turning Sweet Briar’s dance with death into a success story, it is the former Bridgewater president.

“He’s the closest thing to walking on water that I know of,” said Belle S. Wheelan, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges, the accrediting agency that oversees both Bridgewater and Sweet Briar. Mr. Stone served as chairman of the agency from 2007 to 2009.

“He can tell funny stories with the best of them,” she said, but he is “no nonsense when it comes to getting stuff done.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Healing ‘Open Wounds’

Ms. Wheelan, who counts Mr. Stone as a friend, said Sweet Briar’s new president has his work cut out for him. For starters, the college will have to submit “substantive change” paperwork to the accreditor if it intends to make any major changes in its scope, mission, or faculty roster. That paperwork will be due “immediately, if not sooner,” she said.

“Phil’s going to have to hit the ground running, for sure,” said Ms. Wheelan. “The good news is, he understands our process and knows what to expect. It’s not like a new president coming in from a different region who has no clue what we’re about.”

Higher-education leadership is Mr. Stone’s second act. He was a lawyer for 24 years before being named president of Bridgewater. There he oversaw significant changes in Bridgewater’s administrative structure, according to Ms. Scheppard, and “added programs to meet admissions demand.” The college also added an equestrian center. During his tenure, enrollment at Bridgewater expanded from 882 students to close to 1,700.

Mr. Stone grew to be a respected figure in higher education, serving on several state task forces and acting as chairman of Ms. Wheelan’s accrediting agency. Though not an extrovert by nature, “he’s able to navigate all kinds of social and political power situations with confidence,” said Ms. Scheppard.

His hobbies are more solitary. The former Bridgewater president is an avid hiker, according to Ms. Scheppard. Also, he spends a lot of time thinking about Abraham Lincoln.

ADVERTISEMENT

Mr. Stone’s enthusiasm for the 16th president is well known. He reportedly owns more than 500 books on Lincoln, along with assorted memorabilia, and his curriculum vitae lists him as an affiliate of four different Lincoln-related associations. For nearly four decades he has led trips to Lincoln’s family burial plot, not far from the Bridgewater campus, as part of a one-man campaign to remind people of Lincoln’s roots in Virginia.

“Some years we’ve had more than 100 people attend,” he told a local newspaper in 2009. “Other years, when the weather is bad, it is just me and my Saint Bernard.”

Ms. Wheelan said she’s seen photographs of Mr. Stone wearing a stovepipe hat, though The Chronicle could not immediately find any such photos online, despite searching very hard.

Saving a small college from financial collapse is a different task than guiding a country through civil war. Nevertheless, the Sweet Briar job might require something of a Lincoln-like temperament, said Ms. Wheelan.

Mr. Stone has “the kind of personality that brings people in to solve the problem, and that is what I think Sweet Briar needs right now,” she said. “There are a lot of open wounds there, and they need somebody that’s going to mend it.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Steve Kolowich writes about how colleges are changing, and staying the same, in the digital age. Follow him on Twitter @stevekolowich, or write to him at steve.kolowich@chronicle.com.

Read other items in this Sweet Briar Picks Up the Pieces package.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Leadership & GovernanceFinance & Operations
Steve Kolowich
Steve Kolowich was a senior reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education. He wrote about extraordinary people in ordinary times, and ordinary people in extraordinary times.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Related Content

  • Sweet Briar Savors the Promise of Revival, but Fund-Raising Challenge Is Vast
  • Sweet Briar Students and Faculty Members Face an Uncertain Future
  • Joy Over Sweet Briar’s Reopening Is Tempered by Questions About the Road Ahead
  • Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
    Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
  • The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
    The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
    Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2023 The Chronicle of Higher Education
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin