This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 25, 2012 - When Marguerite Ross Barnett became the fifth chancellor of the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 1986, the campus was poised to become a more integral part of the region, not only in terms of education but also in terms of the area’s economy.
She lit the spark that helped make the change happen, using a forceful personality and sense of salesmanship that made the area’s top executives look at UMSL through a different lens.
“She could sell ice to the Antarctic,” says Blanche Touhill, who served as the campus’ vice chancellor under Barnett, then succeeded her as chancellor when Barnett left in 1990 to take over the leadership of the University of Houston. She died of cancer two years later, at the age of 49.
To honor her memory and her accomplishments, UMSL will dedicate the Marguerite Ross Barnett Plaza at 10 a.m., Friday on its north campus, between Express Scripts Hall, the Social Sciences & Business Building/Tower and Lucas Hall. The ceremony will feature remarks by her daughter, Amy DuBois Barnett, editor-in-chief of Ebony Magazine.
The plaza, which was designed by Austin Tao of the Lawrence Group in St. Louis, features four granite columns, which stand for the four years Barnett was at UMSL. A likeness of the former chancellor designed by local sculptor Vicki D. Reid will overlook the plaza. The project’s budget is $283,000, most of which has been raised from private sources in a campaign led by UMSL graduate Hubert Hoosman.
He said that even though donations for the plaza were being sought at the same time that the campus was in the midst of its larger Gateway to Greatness fund drive, Barnett’s name and her accomplishments still drew enthusiasm more than two decades after her departure from St. Louis.
Hoosman noted that at the time Barnett led the campus, he was “a young family man, changing professions, going to night school, trying to raise a family. But everybody knew things were changing at UMSL.”
Now the head of Vantage Credit Union, he said he wanted to help give back to the school that gave him his start and recognize the woman whose drive created efforts, such as the UMSL Bridge Program, that are still going strong today.
At first, he said, plans were for a statue of Barnett, but the vision become more expansive when more people became involved. “They didn’t want that staunch, old-time statue look,” Hoosman said.
The same dynamic could be said to have taken hold when Barnett succeeded Arnold Grobman as chancellor. Much as John F. Kennedy’s administration demonstrated renewed vigor when he took over from Dwight Eisenhower in 1961, Barnett brought an energy and a freshness to UMSL that helped her build quickly on a solid foundation.
“I think what Marguerite did,” Touhill said, “was institutionalize the idea of partnerships. Previous chancellors had slowly embraced the idea of an urban university, that the campus would do well if it had contacts with the community. The university has things it can offer to the community, and the community would be better if it linked with the campus.
“She developed the means by which those actions could be institutionalized, and she did that with partnerships. So she did two really rather remarkable things.”
Among Barnett’s most noteworthy accomplishments, Touhill said, was establishing a close relationship between UMSL and the area’s business community.
“She was the first chancellor to get on Civic Progress,” she said, “and that was a huge step for the campus. When you’re sitting with the 27 CEOs, you understand what they are doing in the community, and if you are a partnership institution, you can take advantage of that information.
“I think there were a lot of gains made before her by each of the chancellors, but she gave a spark to it. Everybody on campus believed they were really ready to grow and develop and their aspirations would be fulfilled.”
Though Barnett’s time on campus was brief, and her life after she left St. Louis lasted only a short time, Touhill said her spirit has animated much of what went on after she was gone.
“She was a dynamic person,” she said. “When she came, I don’t think most of us thought she would be here for 10 years. All of thought that one day, she would be secretary of education or president of the University of Chicago or Stanford. She was a woman on the way up. We sensed she would capture people’s imaginations and move the place forward.”