Meet The New Medgar Evers College Interim Provost Dr. Betsy Hendrey to serve in role through August

By David Gil de Rubio

When Dr. Patricia Ramsey, president of Medgar Evers College, announced that Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Field Hendrey was appointed to be the Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, the proclamation was made as the school has been focusing on the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) self-study process. Conducted every eight years, this procedure is a rigorous self-assessment of an institution’s mission, policies and educational quality measured against seven standards of accreditation. For the last two years, the College has been preparing a self-study document, which will be submitted to MSCHE March 1. A team sent by the MSCHE will review the self-study then come to campus April 12-15 to conduct a site visit in order to determine whether the school is meeting these standards. It’s an incredibly important exercise used to ensure educational quality and access to federal financial aid, and input will be sought from all areas of campus.

Since retiring in 2022 following a 33-year career at Queens College, Hendrey has served as a consultant for QC. Her bona fides pertaining to MSCHE are well grounded. She served on Queens College’s steering committee for their successful MSCHE 2017 accreditation visit, where they were selected to be on the prestigious Collaborative Implementation Project, which piloted the new MSCHE standards. All CUNY schools including MEC now use those new standards. With such a deep understanding of how MSCHE works, Hendrey is clear about the importance of this self-study, especially given how one of her prior roles was as a visiting reviewer for MSCHE.

“This is a way for the institution to step back so they can look at how they are doing, see where things can be improved and also demonstrate that the school’s mission is being advanced,” Hendrey said. “I think it’s as simple as that. It really is fundamentally about making sure that we’re doing the best for our students.”

She added, “What I think I bring to this is I can read the documentation like a reviewer since I have been a reviewer. [One goal is to] make it easy for the reviewers and guide them through [a school’s self-study]. That’s what I’m going to try and bring to it. There has been a tremendous amount of work done and I really commend what’s happened.”  Others at MEC who have worked on the self-study have also served as reviewers, for example, SVPs Clark and Kane, and Professor Daniels and Associate Provost Hoyte, who have co-chaired the MEC steering committee, bring wide experience in accreditation, in Nursing and Education respectively.

Hendrey’s career in higher education had its start growing up in the Washington, D.C. area where both her parents worked for the federal government. Despite majoring in economics, she initially had no intention in following in her father’s career footsteps as an economist. (“He had a Ph.D. and I think I was conditioned to go to grad school.”) Experiences teaching full-time while working on her dissertation turned out to be a positive experience for Hendrey. After graduating cum laude from Princeton University with an A.B. in Economics followed by a M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University, the Maryland native wound up at Queens College.

While Hendrey started out on the faculty and initially had no intention of moving into administration, she eventually served in a number of roles, ultimately becoming the provost. During her tenure in this position, Hendrey oversaw all aspects of academic affairs directing a budget exceeding $80 million for an institution that served approximately 19,000 students at the time, across upwards of 100 undergraduate and graduate programs. It’s this kind of experience she hopes to bring to bear in helping Medgar Evers College navigate the Middle States process.

“Obviously, Medgar Evers College goes through a self-evaluation process each year– Medgar Evers College has a strategic plan and they’re assessing their progress on that,” Hendrey explained.
CUNY has a strategic roadmap and each year the college reports on their progress on key indicators. There are the internal processes of departments—academic and non-academic review. Student learning assessment—there’s a whole process that goes on. The idea is that this is one point in a continuous cycle.”

Hendrey’s interim role is slated to end in August and she will not be a candidate for the permanent position. During this time, the college will be searching for a new Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.