'Things we want to get done:' CLU interim president readies for fundamental changes

John Nunes leaned forward across the conference table in his new suite of offices at California Lutheran University, a blue-stoned signet ring flashing on one finger.

"I know what institutions that are in precarious positions look like," Nunes said of the Thousand Oaks liberal arts college. "This place isn't even close."

Nunes — pronounced like "newness" — stepped into Cal Lutheran's top job in July. His predecessor, Lori Varlotta, resigned after tensions with university faculty boiled into a sweeping vote of no confidence in her leadership.

He inherited a campus with enrollment down by about 25% since 2018 and revenue beginning to dip, according to financial documents.

The university's Board of Regents announced Nunes at the same time as Varlotta's resignation, giving him a two-year contract as interim president. Nunes, a Lutheran minister, academic and writer, was serving as pastor at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Santa Monica.

Nunes was born in Montego Bay, Jamaica and raised near Toronto, Canada. He moved to the U.S. in 1981 and got his first university job — as an adjunct professor — at Buffalo State University in 1988. He earned his doctorate from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in 2011, studying postcolonial identity, and in 2013 became a professor at Valparaiso University in Indiana.

Board Chair Ann Boynton said CLU's regents were drawn to Nunes' pastoral reputation and "incredibly broad" experience — including tenures as president and CEO of the nonprofit Lutheran World Relief and president of Concordia College in New York until its closure in 2021.

The Bronxville, New York campus was one of four in the Lutheran Concordia College system to close in the space of eight years. Nunes told Inside Higher Ed at the time of the closure's announcement in January 2021 that the decision was preemptive, avoiding both a "precipitous close" or a "long, lingering threadbare existence."

Two months into his tenure, Nunes said there is "zero" chance he'll reprise that moment at Cal Lutheran.

Nunes said the factors that led to Concordia's closure — among them a backlog of deferred maintenance and precarious finances — aren't in play at Cal Lutheran.

More: Cal Lutheran's tax filings

The university still has issues. After a 2018 peak of nearly 4,400 graduate and undergraduates, enrollment has dropped six years in a row. This fall, the university announced, that number was just above 3,300.

Boynton said higher education has seen a "seismic" post-pandemic shift toward alternatives to traditional undergraduate degree programs and Cal Lutheran needs to adapt. It's the reason the board gave Nunes a two-year runway as interim president.

"Being an interim can be very freeing for someone in that position," Boynton said.

Nunes said the university has made "incremental" cuts over the summer, laying off six people and eliminating another 30-odd open roles. But Nunes said he's using his tenure to look at more fundamental changes like outside partnerships and new fields of study.

"One year (would have been) a placeholder. Two years means there's some things we want to get done," he said. "Our board has good business sense, and they have an appetite for thinking big."

"Who knows, wouldn't it be exciting if we had some, some radical plan to...," Nunes paused. "You know, schools are merging with everybody now — hospital systems, I mean, all kinds of interesting things."

Two months in, Boynton said, Nunes has impressed.

"We did not make the wrong choice. I will say that emphatically," she said. "He is focused on the right things. He is insightful and perceptive."

Rebuilding trust

Varlotta's May resignation came after a Jan. 16 faculty assembly resolution — passed 122-3 — that accused the third-year president of eroding the university's "historically close" community.

Boynton attributed some of the uncertainty on campus during Varlotta's tenure to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but said she believes that regents have also lost some campus trust.

"I am incredibly sorry that happened," she said. "We need to work on ensuring that people are heard."

Kristine Butcher, a chemistry professor and faculty senate member, said Friday that she and others are relieved that Varlotta is gone. She's cautiously optimistic about Nunes' tenure, she said, after he invited some faculty to cabinet and board events over the summer.

"I found him funny and thoughtful," she said. "I appreciate those efforts to reach out to us."

Varlotta's tenure was also marked by an acrimonious court battle with former U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly over a research center on campus that bears his name. The first phase of that civil proceeding closed Aug. 7 and awaits a decision from Ventura County Superior Court Judge Henry Walsh.

Nunes declined to talk about the ongoing case.

"It would be foolish of me to try to weigh in on this," he said. "I look forward to the day when it's behind us."

Isaiah Murtaugh covers education for the Ventura County Star in partnership with Report for America. Reach him at isaiah.murtaugh@vcstar.com or 805-437-0236 and follow him on Twitter @ isaiahmurtaugh and @ vcsschools . You can support this work with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America .

This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: 'Things we want to get done:' CLU interim president readies for fundamental changes