It's time for a new dawn at Central College in Pella, Iowa. Central College has been managed by President Mark Putnam since 2010 and continues to suffer from declining enrollment, low morale, and a lack of leadership transparency. 

The following letter was put together and signed by 21 concerned Dutch alumni who want accountability and transparency at Central College. The signatories made clear that Mark Putnam and Mary Strey are no longer fit to serve as Central's leadership due to the fact that they have poor reputations, and they are not putting the college first in a difficult time for higher education. There is widespread concern that the college is going to close under the continued reign of Mark Putnam if something is not done to change course and get a real leader. This group is meant to spread the word among Dutch alumni and be a safe and anonymous space for discussion and sharing updates. Central is a very special place to us all, and we are not going to allow the lack of transparency and selfish behaviors of leadership destroy our school. 

This letter was sent to the Board of Trustees on March 1st 2025. We have not been given any responses to this letter and believe we are not being taken seriously due to the ages of the alumni who signed. We demand answers and a plan from the college on how these issues will be addressed. Please sign this petition in order to gain the attention of the board of trustees. 

Letter sent to the Central College Board of Trustees: 

To the Honorable Trustees of Central College, 

We are writing this letter to you out of genuine concern for the health and direction of Central College  under the helm of Mark Putnam and Mary Strey. Over the past few years, many liberal arts institutions across  the country have struggled with declining college enrollment numbers, a harsh macroeconomic environment,  political attacks, and increased competition from behemoth public universities. Understandably, these  conditions are no one’s fault. However, resilient, passionate, and visionary leadership is required to survive and  even thrive in this complex, difficult reality—something Central College appears to be currently lacking. 

Stories have been circulating (with evidence) amongst Central College’s alumni population about  closed buildings, buyout offers for staff and faculty, and other cost-cutting measures aimed at balancing the  college’s finances. Meanwhile President Putnam and Mary Strey have not taken a single pay cut. Notably Mark Putnam was compensated $324,025 in 2024 according to ProPublica for overseeing an institution with  approximately 1,095 students as of Fall 2023. For comparison, the President of Texas A&M University – College Station is paid $1.1 million to oversee a student body population of 79,114 students as of Fall 2024.  This discrepancy is quite dramatic: Putnam earns approximately $295 per student compared to $13 per student  for his Texas A&M counterpart. Similarly, Mary Strey earns significant total compensation from Central  College at $248,742 according to ProPublica, and this amount has grown in recent years despite her concerning and troublesome reputation among students, faculty, and staff. 

We firmly believe that Mark Putnam and Mary Strey no longer have Central College’s best interests at  heart. It is a well-known fact among recent alumni that Mark Putnam does not occupy the President’s Mansion  in Pella and instead prefers to live in Des Moines or at his lake house in Michigan. Similarly, Mary Strey  occupies a lake house residence in Minnesota. Neither acts as a bona fide resident of the State of Iowa nor the  City of Pella. While this executive carpetbagging behavior is sadly commonplace today, that does not make it  right. It reflects extremely poorly on Central College as an institution, and this knowledge signals to us as  young people that our leadership does not believe in putting the mission of the institution over their own  personal desires for wealth, comfort, and status. 

In our view, the “Imagine More” campaign represents a last-ditch attempt at vision that falls short due  to the disconnect between Mark Putnam, an understanding of Central College’s core competencies, and the  community of Pella. Living in the townhomes for our upperclassman years at Central College was a formative  and unique experience for many Dutch alumni. The idea of knocking down the townhomes and building  apartments continues leadership’s trend of chipping away at the uniqueness of the Dutch experience that began  when Central College’s home-grown study abroad programs were shut down and then outsourced after the  pandemic. At its core, Imagine More envisions an apartment community partnership between Central College  and the greater Pella community to house students and professionals in one space, saving costs for Central and  bringing more affordable housing to Pella. However, we argue that a key factor of reality has been overlooked:  the stark difference in life experience as a student and as a professional. Inevitably, college students may party or be loud at this stage in life, while professionals desire a peaceful and quiet living space to return to after a  long day at work. Conversely, apartments that may be cost-efficient for students may also attract older adults drawn to the low cost because they have problematic backgrounds and could potentially even pose a danger to  students. In this way, Imagine More not only appears as an attempt to destroy some of the remaining  uniqueness of the Central College student experience, but it also comes off as a pure marketing gimmick—a  campaign suited for the world of the past, yet not well-envisioned for the complex reality of 2025. 

As recent alums, we have watched with disillusionment as Central has become less like the well rounded, supportive experience we had only a few short years ago. Financial challenges for the college  abound, and the institution seems to have pushed some of its core competencies to the wayside in favor of  following the masses. What do we mean by this statement? Instead of having the vision and courage to chart a  new and different path, Central has pivoted to become more and more like a public university, losing its  competitive differentiation. Unlike Grinnell College, which has by and large continued to represent a bright  spot in the Iowa liberal arts landscape during this upheaval, Central has responded by doing away with its  homegrown study abroad program, keeping stagnant leadership in place for more than a decade, and getting  swept up in the STEM-only movement at a time when our country most desperately needs the balancing force  of the humanities and soft skills in addition to STEM. We do recognize that Grinnell College’s much larger  endowment provides it with more financial freedom to maintain its course, whereas Central has chosen to  make adjustments departing from its long-term strengths and instead pursue short-term cash injection schemes. We still see the potential for Central to become like a Grinnell College in this harsh landscape, but it appears  that nothing is being done to think “inside the box”—operating within constraints to find innovation and  pursue success. In other words, Central must rapidly adopt a fresh, innovative strategy that starts with  intentional, strategic stakeholder analysis at its core, rather than pursuing change for mere effect. 

Now the question becomes: in this tough environment for liberal arts institutions, how does Central attract and retain high-achieving students? Simple (yet seemingly difficult for leadership to execute): Central  needs to capitalize on its unique student experience where students feel like they belong to a community and  are valued. For years, the answer for many students was easy: study abroad. In fact, multiple authors of this  letter came to Central due to the regional prowess of its study abroad programs. Arguably, study abroad was  one of Central’s core competencies—what set it apart in the market from other competitors. Even though  tangible costs in the short-term necessitated the closure of these programs, the benefits Central gained in the  long-term by bringing in top-tier students were priceless and should have been given a more thorough look.  Nevertheless, at the heart of study abroad was the sense of a tailored student experience and that you were  cared for as a person. Central College faculty and staff invest heavily in student success, and this fact is the key  selling point that needs to be exploited much more creatively and vigorously in future Central campaigns.

Central College’s future hinges on being able to lead with vision and capitalize on its student  experience as a solution to the well-documented student loneliness epidemic across the country. A 2024 Active  Minds survey of approximately 1,100 American college students found that nearly two-thirds reported feeling  lonely, with more than 50% concerned about their friends’ mental health as well. Strikingly, we never felt very lonely during our time at Central. For those of us who have moved on to larger, public universities or the  workplace, our loneliness levels have greatly increased because we are treated like a number and not cared  about for who we are as people. There is a significant opportunity right now for Central College to market  itself as different in this way, and it needs to be done more aggressively. Students who attend the University of  Iowa or Iowa State University, for example, may pay less tuition and fees, but they will not have the most  pleasant, well-rounded student experience. Not having to live on campus leads to isolation, and a successful academic track record does not equate to being noticed or appreciated at such massive schools. In contrast,  Central College’s greatest strength has been and always will be its people and the community of Pella. Even if  you are an introvert who does not socialize, this closeknit local environment makes finding community and  belonging almost inevitable, and we argue that many students (ourselves included) would pay more money to  experience a genuine, supporting environment in which they feel valued. Simply feeling valued propels one’s success in life further than the access to resources of a large university could ever do. At Central, education is  truly personalized, and this angle needs to be emphasized in marketing, on social media, and in recruiting. 

Furthermore, contrary to Putnam’s claim in his forthcoming book that leadership churn represents a  major roadblock to institutional success in higher education, we argue that leadership stagnation is what truly  prevents institutions from succeeding in today’s environment. Leadership stagnation stifles the agility needed  to respond to complex and increasingly multidisciplinary contemporary challenges that demand swift action.  Excessive reliance on historical patterns and organizational theory inevitably limits a modern university’s  capacity to innovate and effectively address the evolving needs of students and society, which leaves these institutions vulnerable to obsolescence. We do not want to see Central College meet this fate under Putnam. 

Ultimately, we believe the current leadership at Central College is not equipped with the generational  understanding nor the disruptive mindset for providing the visionary leadership needed most in higher  education during this tumultuous time. Regardless of opinions on Mark Putnam and Mary Strey, they do not  appear to have skin in the game for Central College’s future, and we hope that the Board recognizes this fact. They are misleading everyone under the guise of ‘difficult times are to blame’ while using Central as a vessel  for furthering their own career legacies and lining their own pockets while the institution stagnates and suffers. We know Central is a very special place that has not only equipped students well for successful employment in  the workforce, but it has more importantly provided a holistic, high-quality education that builds well-rounded,  competent, and caring American citizens. While this effect cannot be seen or quantified in the short-term, it  will pay endless dividends for this country and the reputation of the college in the long-term. All of the authors  now attending higher education can attest: the quality of our Central education compared to peers at public  universities has been truly unmatched, and the time has come for Central College to capitalize on this strength.  It is time to turn a new leaf in the college’s chapter, bring in new leadership, and start showing the country and  even the world what a Central Dutch education can do for you. We believe there is a lot of opportunity on the  horizon for Central College, but we have to do everything we can to take advantage of it right now in the  present. We must figure out how to thrive in an environment of constraints and inspire a newfound enthusiasm  in Central College, and this change begins with installing new leadership at the top—now. 

Thank you for listening and for your continued service to Central College.