When Dr. Kenneth W. Dobbins announced his retirement in September, he spoke about his plans to continue working with the AASCU-Penson Center for Professional Development as a consultant for other university presidents and governing boards of higher education institutions.

"For 40 years, there was Penson Associates," Dr. Patty Cormier, the executive director and senior associate for the center, said. "Penson Associates was designed to help presidents in a variety of areas. It could be for strategic planning, it could be for board development, it could be for working with your team, just a variety of challenges and issues that presidents have to contend with."

Cormier said that Penson merged with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, or AASCU, last year because most of the institutions they were consulting with were already part of that organization.

Dobbins chaired AASCU from 2010 to 2011 and has served on their board for multiple terms. He currently serves as an associate for the AASCU-Penson organization.

"I'll do some consulting and help presidents and their campuses on financial and enrollment management and other facility issues they may have," Dobbins said. "I've done that a couple of times already."

Dobbins added that his past as a management consultant for the Air Force Audit Agency prepared him for consulting work.

"Sometimes you can get more done as the consultant because people know the expertise that I have and they use that to say, 'This has happened at Southeast, and this is how you can implement it at your place,'" Dobbins said. "One place I went had a horrible budget process, so I helped them do something similar to what we have."

Cormier said that AASCU-Penson's goal is to find university presidents to be associates that can actually help other presidents to help their college or university improve.

"All the associates, and that would include Ken Dobbins, are people who have successful presidencies," Cormier said. "We don't choose anybody who has not been a successful president. You can't become an associate if, for example, you were asked to leave an institution for a variety of reasons."

Cormier said that after his retirement, Dobbins will continue his work as a consultant, but will be able to visit more universities and colleges each year.

"Ken has particular expertise in the area of finance," Cormier said. "There are many, many institutions throughout the country that really need help with finance. Now, he can do a whole lot of other things. I mean he knows a lot about public/private partnerships, as well as building and construction, so we're going to be able to utilize him in a variety of capacities."

Dobbins has also been involved with AASCU's New President's Academy since 2005 as one of its five faculty members.

"The new president's academy was started almost 20 years ago, actually by Ed Penson, who also formed Penson Associates," Cormier said. "The American Association of State Colleges and Universities wanted to have an opportunity for a new president to have a weeklong intensive, we call it boot camp, training."

Cormier explained that the week consists of training in strategic planning, fundraising and communicating with the many constituencies a president has to address.

"Everybody thinks that presidents know exactly what they have to do, and to be honest with you, they don't. When you've been an academic provost or a chief financial officer or you've been a student affairs V.P. -- until you're in the role of president, you don't know. We go into a great deal of depth about trying to get presidents ready for this new role."

Cormier said that the event is always a success, with those who attend giving "100 percent positive feedback," and she has seen those who attend go on to have successful presidencies.

"What Ken Dobbins [does] is a whole unit on finance, so he goes through what a balance sheet looks like, what you should be looking for, how do you allocate financial aid, how do you work that into whatever you are doing in recruitment," Cormier said. "Again, a lot of presidents did not have to do this, you know, they did other jobs."