Dr. Ruth Shaw
This article describes the life and career of Dr. Ruth Shaw '69, '72. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: Morton, Linda Johnson, "Dr. Ruth Shaw," ECU Report, October 1987, Volume 19, No. 2.
July marked a special anniversary for Dr. Ruth Gwynn Shaw '69, '72 -- her first year as president of Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) in Charlotte.
She is the institution's first woman president and at 39, its youngest.
Confident and energetic, her hard work has earned her an enviable reputation.She is respected as a natural leader who brings out the best in people.
"There are a lot of parts to this job that are hard, but I really like what I do," she says. "I'm fascinated with it."
Those who work with her are fascinated as well. "The first word I think of to describe her is warm," says Chris Buchanan, Shaw's administrative assistant. "She's easy to talk to and relates to people so well; that's her real secret.And her memory is unbelievable."
"The North Carolina community college system and Central Piedmont Community College are fortunate to have a president of so high a caliber as Dr. Ruth Shaw," says Robert W. Scott, N.C. Department of Community Colleges president.
"Her energy, her dedication, her commitment to the ideals of the system and her own personal sense of excellence have made her the perfect choice to lead our system's largest college into the difficult and challenging years of the coming century."
Shaw was recruited for the position from El Centro Community College in Dallas, Texas, where she served as president for one year.During that time she turned a $1.5 million budget deficit into an $800,000 balance, partly by reducing the staff following a period of declining enrollment.
Prior to that, she was employed at Cedar Valley College in Dallas, where she worked her way through the ranks as vice president of instruction, assistant to the chancellor and associate vice chancellor of educational affairs.
Being female has not been a problem for Shaw, who prefers thinking of herself first as a person then as a woman. "Sometimes I have to help other people through their initial discomforts with my position," she says.
"There may be an increased interest in me as an individual because I'm a woman, which makes the job at times more demanding.I don't think, however, there's any difference in the job itself because of my sex.
"My hope is that I'm able to bring some perspective to the job because of my experiences and upbringing."
Shaw was born in Danville, Va., and moved to Greenville at the age of 10.After graduation from high school she enrolled at East Carolina, where she received her bachelor's and master's degrees in consecutive stints.
"Society went through a dramatic change during my college years, principally because of the Vietnam War," she says."During my freshman year the mood was very carefree; it was a party-time atmosphere.In the course of those years something changed. Part of it, of course, was me as I matured and took on more responsibilities, but a lot of it was in our society.
"I remember it as a period of activism when we moved from a self-absorption to a focus on what was happening in our world.It was a period of intense questioning from which a new focus emerged, one that was much more outward than inward."
Shaw recalls the sit-ins and black arm bands worn in support of the peace movement."East Carolina was a rich, open place to be," she says. "There was tremendous tolerance for all sorts of expressions."
She speaks fondly of the English faculty and remembers her educational experience as rigorous and challenging. "I had so many professors who not only encouraged but demanded we think for ourselves," she says. "That focus on analysis, synthesis and creative thinking, as well as critical thinking, influenced me tremendously.
"The whole exercise of developing a thesis and defending it is the best rehearsal I know of for management responsibilities.In order to defent a position, you have to think about what's wrong with it; you have to know all sides of the argument."
Virginia Herrin, professor emeritus and former director of graduate studies, remembers Shaw as an outstanding student in her sophomore English literature class.
"What sticks out in my mind is that she had excellent faculties for critical analysis and interpretation," Herrin says. "I was surprised at her ability at that level; she seemed advanced beyond her years."
After receiving her master's degree, Shaw taught English for two years at Martin Community College in Williamston. "That's where I first began to see myself as an evangelist for the community college movement," she says.
"Something really caught fire in me at that institution, a calling as clear as any pastor ever had to the pulpit. From the first day I went into the classroom I knew I was going to spend my career working in and for community colleges and the people they were designed to serve."
Like many first-time teachers, Shaw began a new phase of her own education at Martin."I started out feeling fairly cocky and condescending to the students. I could not believe how inadequate they were," she says. "Suddenly I was teaching reading and technical writing.I was completely unprepared, having focused my college career on literature and expository writing.
"If you were an English teacher, the assumption was that you could teach anything -- speech, reading, grammar, composition.
"By the end of the quarter, I figured out that I was the person who was inadequate. I set about trying to find out how to teach these students. I went to seminars and meetings and picked the brains of other people who had been in my situation."
Her quest eventually led back to ECU, where she and Dr. Keats Sparrow, acting chairman of the English department, were asked to develop and teach the Certificate of Advanced Study, a post-master's program for two-year college English teachers.
"Ruth taught methods courses on how to teach English in the two-year college, and I taught content courses which dealt with composition and technical writing," Sparrow says.
The two also co-founded "Teaching English in the Two-Year College," a journal now owned and circulated internationally by the National Council of Teachers of English.
In 1973, Shaw began doctoral work on a part-time basis at North Carolina State University in adult education. In 1975, she left ECU to pursue her doctorate full time at the University of Texas at Austin.
"When I entered the Community College Leadership Program at Texas, I did not intend to move along a traditional administrative route," she says. "I conceived of myself as a master teacher and planned to return to East Carolina to continue working in the development of teachers for community colleges.
"New opportunities came along, as they always do. I began thinking about the dreams I had for students, and that I could make some of them come true if I was in the leadership of an organization."
In 1977 Shaw received her Ph.D. in educational administration with a specialty in community college leadership. "She was clearly the kind of person who should have gone on for her doctorate," Sparrow says. "She's effective in anything she does; we're very proud of her."
Shaw is satisfied with her first year's performance at CPCC. "I feel this way principally because of the sense of understanding and common purpose that I've developed with the people at the college and in the community," she says."The future of the college depends on building connections.I'm proud of our work this year to extend some connections that were already in place and to build some new ones."
While extending CPCC's connections, some of Shaw's personal connections have had to wait. "I've given far more energy to the job and the institution than I think I would have in a more balanced work and family situation," she says."I expected it to be that way. I've done it with a lot of help from my mother, full-time help at home, and an extremely supportive husband."
Her husband, Colin, is director of market research with Green, Smith and Crochett, Inc. He has written a chapter on "The Role of the Presidential Male Spouse of a Community College President" for "The Presidential Spouse," a book published this spring by the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges.
They have a five-year-old son, John, as well as college-age children from previous marriages.
Shaw expects to regain her sense of balance and calls herself a team player. This attitude enables her to approach the job with enthusiasm and confidence.
"I have a lot of confidence because I have the help of some pretty powerful people," she says."I believe in the people I work with and have tremendous confidence in their ability to get the job done."
Despite her reputation as a no-nonsense, full-steam-ahead leader, Shaw says she's not an iron maiden. "I'm a vulnerable and sensitive person," she says.
"I guess one of the things that frightens me is the possibility of losing intimacy with my family and friends, of losing my sense of vulnerability. I've seen what the position of president can do to people, and that one can become like the emperor who had no clothes.
"And the responsibility of helping to chart the course of this very great institution I sometimes find daunting as well as challenging, as I think most people would who had any sense about them," she adds.
Personnel decisions are probably the most difficult to make, Shaw says. "But that's the challenge -- to determine how to treat people with dignity and respect in tough times, to do the right things for the institution and yet, see that a person goes away intact."
Wary of simplistic solutions, Shaw believes success is achieved through a combination of preparedness and opportunity. "I don't believe you can dress for success or that a certain handshake works, or that there's some kind of secret code," she says. "You have to be comfortable with yourself and your own strengths.You can't be paralyzed by concern over the impression you're making."
Despite this philosophy, Shaw tends to be extremely critical of herself and her own performance."I'm far too much of a perfectionist," she says. "Probably what daunts me most is myself."
In the future, Shaw plans to focus on making CPCC more useful and accessible. To accomplish that, changes will have to be made in the curriculum at CPCC and North Carolina's other community colleges.
"We have to adjust our programs to address students' needs for career skills, rather than simply job skills," she says."I think we'll see a renewed emphasis on general education. And there'll be a shift from an over-emphasis on narrowly defined skills that help people get first jobs but don't direct them towards careers."
Shaw quotes Department of Labor statistics which show that 40 percent of the skills needed for a particular job become obsolete about every five years. "We have a built-in and cyclical demand," she says."The needs are never entirely met, and you're never completely finished."
Although Shaw does anticipate new directions for CPCC's future, she doesn't want to improve comprehensiveness at the cost of reducing the quality of technical programs.
"Our system is acknowledged as one of the best in the country, particularly in the area of technical education," she says. "Even at CPCC, which has more college transfer students than any other college in the state, we're 70 percent technical/vocational.
"The challenge is to do both things wisely and well."
by Linda Johnson Morton
