For Paul Dworkis, being an Emersonian came almost naturally. 

“I didn’t start at Emerson until December [2019], but I actually started working on the Marlboro transaction in September, about a week after I had accepted the offer,” Dworkis, Emerson’s outgoing vice president for administration and finance and chief financial officer, told The Beacon in the fitness center in Piano Row, alongside college spokesperson Rosemary Lavery.

Despite retiring at the end of December after five years in the role, he says he doesn’t plan to leave Emerson just yet. Dworkis agreed to continue supporting Emerson as an expert consultant for the remaining 2024-25 fiscal year.

“Beyond that, if the college still needs help—I’m an Emersonian—I’ll always be there to support them,” Dworkis said.

Prior to Emerson, Dworkis held associate vice president of finance and administration and chief financial officer positions at Columbia University and University of Maryland, College Park. At Emerson, Dworkis managed the institution’s finances, facilities, construction, human resources, and real estate departments—a shift from the larger schools he had previously worked at. 

Dworkis credits former President Lee Pelton with his early connection to Emerson: Early on, Dworkis was instrumental in the Marlboro transaction, an estimated $22 million, which gave him an intimate understanding of Emerson from the start. 

“The goal was to make sure that what we acquired from Marlboro had no real adverse impact on anything about Emerson and only had an additive value,” Dworkis said. 

Emerson’s acquisition of Marlboro’s assets added 20 faculty members, more than 50 students, and an estimated $25 million to the college’s endowment.

Shortly after he began at the college, the COVID-19 pandemic began, which led to COVID-related expenses (testing, residential and academic spaces in hotels, Plexiglass dividers, personal protective equipment), in addition to budget cuts.

Emerson withstood the financial pressures of COVID-19 with its investments generating a 32.7% return in 2021. Its endowment grew from $183.3 million to $259.6 million.  

“It was really about maintaining [connections with students] and thinking about the health and wellness of the community that allowed us to take the appropriate budget actions, but not put the college at a position that we would not be able to restore,” Dworkis said.

Meanwhile, the college spent $7.5 million of its endowment that year, viewing the use of endowment funds as the last resort, even during the pandemic.

Alongside the opening of the fitness center earlier this year, Dworkis also led the launch of Emerson’s unCommon Stage on the Boston Common.

“What was really important to us was to build out a space that ultimately really gives Emerson presence, and gives life to this community,” Dworkis said, specifically pointing to the partnership between the city, the college, and local brewery Trillium Brewing. “This is our front door, and we really didn’t want to miss that opportunity.”

Dworkis leaves the college during its latest budget challenge. In June, college officials announced that Emerson faced an enrollment decline, which the college officially attributed to  “negative press and social media” from pro-Palestine demonstrations last spring. The decline ultimately led to $10 million in budget cuts, including 10 staff layoffs and the end of two programs. 

The college also partnered with Boston Architectural College to house 28 students on one floor in the first-year Little Building residence hall. Despite this, he said, the college remained optimistic about the foreseeable future.

“We sort of applied a lot of what we did in COVID to solving what we saw as a budget challenge,” Dworkis said. “It’s not a one-year budget challenge because a smaller incoming freshman class will have a multi-year effect, but we went through the same planning exercises.”

Emerson “took responsible cuts everywhere” to have “minimal impact” on the college, he said. The cuts included voluntary faculty buyouts, reduced faculty searches, delayed selected staff searches, and reduced operational expenditures, the college wrote in an August email to the Emerson community.

Looking to the future, Dworkis does not anticipate more budget cuts related to low enrollment if the measures taken over the summer prove to be sustainable. He said the college is considering working with other institutions to house more students on the same floor the BAC students live on in the Little Building. This would aim to make up for any revenue the college lost, but an agreement has yet to be made.

“You will find Emerson to be stronger one year from now or five years from now,” Dworkis said. “I don’t see this moment as really interfering in the long-term success of Emerson.”

After half a decade at Emerson, nearly 10 years in higher education, and 25 as a CFO in journalism, Dworkis said he was ready to slow things down.

“I’ve failed at vacations my whole life,” Dworkis joked. “Vacation wouldn’t be so bad, right?”

Dworkis lives on Cape Cod, where he and his wife moved in 2019 to be closer to their daughter. He plans to spend more time with his family during his retirement.

“My daughter and I do jigsaw puzzles as a fun hobby. I wouldn’t mind sitting there without having to go to my next Zoom call and do one of those,” Dworkis said.

Dworkis will always remember the trust and confidence his colleagues, faculty, staff, and students instilled in him. He said the past five years at Emerson were “rewarding.”

“Emerson is a great place,” Dworkis said. “I’m so proud to say that Emerson was part of my life.”