Raising Maine

By PATRICIA McCARTHY, Raising Maine Contributor

Selma Botman has a way of turning around situations that many would find too daunting by converting them into challenges to embrace.

Was the switch to working in Gorham – direct from a job in the heart of New York City - a big culture shock? Not for Botman, who says she had spent enough time in Maine to know what she was getting into when she became president of the University of Southern Maine last summer.

She and her husband spent time here while their daughter, Megan, was at Bates College. They liked the state so much that they eventually bought a house on Peak's Island. The USM job was advertised shortly thereafter, making Botman wonder if her new position was just meant to be.

Did she still feel that way when, almost immediately after her arrival, a budget crisis demanded that she make very difficult cuts at USM?

That's been "no fun," but Botman says the situation also gave her a chance to prove her mettle. "It's easy to lead during good times, but not in hard times."

It's all a matter of perspective and experience to know how to face challenges for Botman, whose 12-page resume clearly shows plenty of the latter. She took time out recently to discuss her approach to her job and family with Raising Maine.

RAISING MAINE: I'll cut right to a question that has nothing to do with your job. I see that your husband works in Boston. How do you deal with having a long-distance marriage?
BOTMAN: This is our sixth year of doing things this way, and we've been married 32 years. He's my childhood sweetheart, and we've just made it work. It's a much shorter commute for us here than in New York. Most of my life has been connected to Tom Birmingham, and we've just worked it out.

RAISING MAINE: The job you left (executive vice chancellor and university provost for The City University of New York) seems so vastly different from this job, size-wise and with number of students and everything. What attracted you to this position?
BOTMAN: CUNY is a wonderful and very huge university – 225,000 credit-bearing students and another 240,000 non-credit-bearing. But what is significant, and what attracted me to both places, is that their missions are very similar. CUNY educates largely first-generation immigrant students and adults. USM also educates those first-generation and adult students, and many, many transfer students, students who have tried one or more universities before and found their way back to school by enrolling at USM. I also wanted to get back to working on a campus. I started out as a professor at Holy Cross College, in the department of political science, and I'm very happy to be back on a campus. USM is the only public comprehensive university in Maine, and it has a very specific mission, targeted at baccalaureate, master's education and very selected doctoral programs.

RAISING MAINE: Was there anything difficult about moving here?
BOTMAN: Leaving my girls, who live in Manhattan. They were my opera, dance and theater partners, and it was just fabulous having them around. And I truly loved City University of New York. I worked with some of the best colleagues ever, so leaving that university was very hard for me. But now, I feel very privileged to be a university president.

RAISING MAINE: You had a pretty tough start here, and as you said, you had an immediate chance to prove your mettle. How would you define your leadership style?
BOTMAN: I wake up every morning and believe that I am stewarding the precious resources of the university. I have an obligation to make the best decisions for these 10,000 students enrolled at USM. Nobody predicted this state, national and international financial meltdown. But it's important to remember that we will get through it. I call myself an impatient dreamer! I like to get things going, I work really hard and I work hard to be democratic. And I believe that if you bring smart people together, you'll get smart answers to hard questions and be able to face challenges. I feel my job is to communicate truthfully, effectively and often.

RAISING MAINE: What have you been able to get started?
BOTMAN: We are creating new academic programs, adjusting our new general education curriculum, putting new administrative processes into place. We've balanced the budget. I've held nine USM town meetings and two all-faculty meetings. I created a budgetary advisory committee made up of faculty, students and staff. Not everybody agrees with all decisions we've made, but we listen, ask for input and work things out. We have emphasized student success. In fact, there's nothing more important to me than student success. In truth, it's autobiographical: I always say that education changed my life and I want every student at USM to have the same opportunities I had.

RAISING MAINE: How do you mean that education changed your life?
BOTMAN: Well, my father never went through eighth grade, and he was a shoe factory worker. My mom went through high school and went back to work, at a desk job for the state of Massachusetts. They were not learned people, but they understood the value of an education and did everything they could to give my brothers and me a good education. That is where my passion comes from with regard to student success. I attribute everything I've done to three things: hard work, education and people who believed in me.

RAISING MAINE: How much have your girls received that message your parents gave you?
BOTMAN: They're both completely independent young women. They're both in the business end of the fashion industry, working for the same company. One is a planner and one's a buyer. They've seen my husband and I work hard and they share our ethic. They take seriously their responsibility to their work. And they're both family-oriented, too.

RAISING MAINE: What made you want to pursue this world of academia in the first place?
BOTMAN: I had a psychology professor in college who was a recent graduate from a Ph.D. program, a brand-new mother, a great teacher and researcher – and I wanted to be her! I had an abiding interest in Middle East history, and I recognized that exploring that subject was exactly what I wanted to do.

RAISING MAINE: Why did you have that interest?
BOTMAN: I was raised Jewish and knew only one side of the Middle East equation. I was interested in learning about the Turks and Arabs and developed a scholarly interest in Egypt. And it still fascinates. I taught a seminar for 16 USM students last semester on the history of modern Egypt from the end of the 1700s through today. It was fabulous – the highlight of my week.

RAISING MAINE: How did you manage to find a balance and swing pursuing these studies and jobs while raising two daughters?
BOTMAN: I'd first like to say that motherhood is the best thing that ever happened to me, no comparison between it and work! But I was very lucky to have a mother, a mother-in-law, a sister-in-law and a great-aunt who helped me raise my kids. These wonderful women were enormously helpful. And I had a husband who took seriously his role as a dad.

RAISING MAINE: What kind of advice do you have for people graduating from college at such a difficult financial time?
BOTMAN: It really is a tough time to be graduating, which means that it's even more incumbent on us to guide people through career services. The good news is that we're going to get through this financial crisis. As a result, it will not be a mark against students if they can't find a job right away. I know it's disheartening, but it's going to get better, and when it does they'll have what it takes to engage in a satisfying career. I'd say they should follow their dreams, recognizing that there is plenty of time in a lifetime to do many things. I would tell them to be patient about the job search and to take the interview process seriously – to take the whole process very seriously. And once they secure their jobs, they should realize that they have opened themselves to learning and given themselves the tools for success. In that way, every job can be a dream job.