Remarks at Official Introduction
Dr. Dorothy Leland
Dec. 1, 2003Thank you, Dr. Meredith, for your very generous words and the confidence you have expressed in my leadership. With the wonderful talent and goodwill that is represented in this auditorium, I can assure you that Georgia College & State University is in good hands!
To members of the Georgia College & State University community and distinguished guests and friends, it is wonderful to be here again! It is my deep honor and delight to have been selected as the next president of this very fine university. Thank you for your good wishes and support.
I know from my conversations with Regent Howell that he is a strong proponent of Georgia College & State University's liberal arts mission. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in history, which may be why he has such wonderful answers to that vexing question that liberal arts majors sometimes face, "...but what can you do with a degree in X?" Thank you, Regent Howell, for your support of public higher education in Georgia and for your role in bringing me here.
I also want to thank Dr. David Evans and members of the presidential search and advisory committee. They faced a Herculean task in managing this search in a compressed time-frame and did so with considerable professionalism and good humor. As a candidate, my interactions with the search and advisory committee provided me with some very positive glimpses of Georgia College & State University and its incredible students, faculty and staff.
When I first learned that Georgia College & State University was searching for a new president, I called friends and associates in Georgia to see what I could learn. Without exception, the people I talked with had the highest praise for Georgia College & State University.
My contacts praised Georgia College & State University for the quality of its academic programs and its student-centered learning environment. They also praised the people at Georgia College & State University – and this is significant. Georgia College & State University has emerged as a jewel in Georgia's higher education landscape, thanks to your commitment to students and dedication to the ideals of liberal arts education. I am deeply appreciative of who you are and of all that you have accomplished.
Most scholars agree that the first concept of liberal arts education emerged with the development of democracy in Athens during the 5th Century B.C. A loose definition of "liberal arts" in this context might be: "the skills needed for freedom" or "the skills required for citizenship." Although time and circumstance have altered our understanding of the skills required for citizenship, liberal arts education remains fundamental to ideals of democratic society. Liberal arts education empowers the mind, opens the heart, and enables responsible action. Surely these are individual and public goods worthy of our commitment!
This is why Georgia's designated public liberal arts university is so very special. Georgia College & State University provides students with much more than the opportunity to earn degrees needed for career preparation, although this is important. But it is the value added to these degrees that makes education at Georgia College & State University distinctive.
Georgia College & State University nurtures intellectual curiosity and provides students with the analytical tools required for becoming self-generated inquirers. Its learning environment seeks to cultivate the moral imagination and foster individual responsibility and civic commitment. Georgia College & State University students acquire skills of deliberation, a respect for civil discourse, a capacity for empathy and the ability to navigate multiple perspectives. Such skills and dispositions have a profound impact on the individual lives of students and on the fabric of our state and nation.
It is not surprising that many of our nation's leaders graduated from liberal arts colleges or universities, where the value added to degrees includes the broad base of knowledge and dispositions and skills needed for effective leadership. What is special about Georgia College & State University is that it offers this value-added liberal arts education at an affordable cost, thereby lending truth to the ideal that our nation's leaders can come from any socioeconomic class. This too is worthy of our commitment.
In both words and actions, Chancellor Meredith and the Board of Regents have affirmed Georgia College & State University's mission as Georgia's public liberal arts university. They have recognized that as a matter of public policy, the State of Georgia should provide affordable access to a high quality liberal arts education, and they have specified this as Georgia College & State University's distinctive mission. I can assure them – and all of you here today – that I will be a tireless advocate for the public benefits of the liberal arts education that Georgia College & State University provides to its students. I will nurture the incredible learning environment that you have established and seek ways to support the scholarly and creative activity and close faculty/student interaction needed to sustain it. I will honor your spirit of community and your insights as we work together to create a road map for the future.
I am convinced that this future will be bright indeed. Georgia College & State University has already earned statewide recognition as Georgia's designated public liberal arts university and is positioned to gain national prominence as well. This prominence will be achieved as we chronicle the accomplishments of our students and brag about the talents of our faculty and the supportiveness of our staff. It will be achieved as Georgia College & State University becomes known as a laboratory for instructional innovation and student engagement. It will be achieved as Georgia College & State University creates a culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse learning environment that frees its students from parochialism and makes them conversant with the world's pluralism. It will be achieved as Georgia College & State University further strengthens its connections with its community and models civic responsibility.
These are just some of the reasons why I am so very excited about joining Georgia College & State University as its next president! I want to thank Dr. Rosemary DePaolo for her extraordinary leadership as president of Georgia College & State University and Dr. David Brown for his wise and capable stewardship during this interim period. I am deeply honored to follow in the footsteps of such distinguished leaders.
Presidents serve as stewards of the academic and educational values of their institutions. This is why my first priority as your new president will be to listen and learn. Although my mind is not a blank slate – I have ideas and a vision – the script for Georgia College & State University's future remains to be written. You who have already accomplished so much also have much to teach me.
Thank you Dr. Meredith and Regent Howell and distinguished guests and members of the Georgia College & State University community. I look forward to joining Georgia's great university system and this incredible public liberal arts university.
Go Bobcats!
