Davidson College president Thomas W. Ross and wife Susan, left, greeted parents during orientation in August. (Photo by Bill Giduz)
By COLLEEN McKOWN
Davidson College will inaugurate Thomas W. Ross as its 17th president this Saturday, Oct. 27. The former Davidson trustee and 1972 Davidson grad says the college “in many ways, is not even the same place” as when he was a student. At the same time, he says, “some of the most important core values of the institution are still very much the same.” Ross recently sat down with DavidsonNews.net to share his thoughts on Davidson’s academic tradition, the challenges and strengths of the Davidson College community, and his goals for the future of the college.
GIVING BACK
President Ross sought the new job in part because of a desire to give something back to a place that had a significant influence on his life.
“In many ways it made me who I am and gave me opportunities I would not have had. And recognizing that… as I went through the search process, I realized that I could do something to add some value to an institution that had that kind of impact on me,” he said.
“It’s not out of obligation, but out of responsibility and out of a commitment to service that brings me here. It’s a commitment to serving an institution that I think has a significant role to play in several ways,” he added.
President Ross studied political science while at Davidson. He also has a law degree from the University of North Carolina. Before coming to Davidson, he was executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation for seven years. He also previously served as a North Carolina Superior Court Judge for 17 years. During that time he chaired the Sentencing and Policy Advisory Committee and served as director of the state’s Administrative Office of the Courts.
The new president brings a wide range of skills to the new job, ranging from the practical knowledge of how to manage an institution’s budget to the insight into people he gained as a judge: “My judging experience … taught me more about human nature, about people, about what’s important to people, and about how people confront problems and deal with them than any experience I could have had.”
President Ross credits his Davidson liberal arts background with the variety of career opportunities he has had: “I think part of what a liberal arts education teaches you is that there is a vast amount of knowledge in the world. … What’s important is to understand that you’re always learning … that kind of lifelong learning enables you to do many different things with your life.”
WHAT TO KEEP, WHAT TO CHANGE
Though Davidson College has changed in fundamental ways since he graduated — among other things, it’s now co-ed — President Ross said the college has retained its core values, namely, the commitments to honor, integrity, service.
The town of Davidson also has grown, he said, though it’s still a small place where people know each other and share values, goals, and common lifestyle choices.
When asked his vision for Davidson, President Ross said, “It isn’t about one person’s vision, it’s about the institutional vision. And you arrive at an institutional vision by being inclusive, by reaching out and involving students, faculty, staff, alumni, and trustees in a process.”
In keeping with this conviction, President Ross sent out an e-mail to all faculty members during his first day in office. The e-mail consisted of two questions: “What are the traditions and values present here that are so important they should never be changed?” and “What are two or three challenges facing Davidson that we should give immediate consideration to?”
CHALLENGES
Responses ranged from five words to five pages, he said. Values the faculty wanted to retain included the honor code, the commitment to service, and the faith tradition. They also saw the college’s new no-loan policy as both an opportunity and a challenge.
The no-loan policy, passed by the trustees last spring, eliminates all loans from financial aid packages. Students with financial need now have their need met exclusively through grants and work-study arrangements. But the new policy comes with a $70 million pricetag, money President Ross will have to raise through a new fund-raising campaign likely to begin next year.
The Duke Endowment has already helped out, but there’s more to be done, he said. “The Duke Endowment gives us $10 million of that $70 million. It also provides us with some expendable funds that will enable us to bridge the gap between now and when we can raise the rest of the endowment,” President Ross said.
Other challenges included increasing Davidson’s diversity and establishing its place in the global world.
Another challenge will be balancing the breadth and the depth of the Davidson education. President Ross cites Davidson’s commitment to undergraduate research as a unique part of the Davidson experience. He foresees other colleges and universities following Davidson’s lead in this area. “How do we provide more intense opportunities for students while retaining the breadth of a liberal arts education?” he asks.
RAISING DAVIDSON’S PROFILE
President Ross would also like to see greater engagement with people in the Charlotte area, who may not appreciate what Davidson contributes to the region. “I’d like for them to recognize that Davidson is a national treasure, that it is a highly-ranked liberal arts college that produces outstanding graduates that go on to be extremely successful in a wide variety of fields, that are leaders,” he said.
Charlotte area residents and businesses can engage with Davidson in a variety of ways, according to President Ross. Businesses can recruit students for internships and jobs and get “the best and the brightest that we’re turning out here.”
Residents can take advantage of campus events, both academic events and sporting events. Ross said, “We’re one of the smallest Division I programs in the country, and yet we’re highly competitive. We have a men’s soccer team that’s been in the Final Four before, our basketball team has been in the NCAA tournament a number of times, and we have people that have played lots of our sports at a very high level.”
ON HIGHER EDUCATION
President Ross said he worries the nation’s colleges and universities are at risk of focusing too narrowly.
“Increasingly, I see higher education maybe tilting too much toward workforce development and not retaining its core important values of training people holistically to appreciate life and to have a commitment to life and to the people with whom they travel along the path of life. I think Davidson, because of its commitment to the liberal arts education, has tended to produce strong leaders as well, and if ever in my lifetime we’ve needed strong leaders, it’s now,” he said.
President Ross noticed a confederate flag hanging from one of the fraternity houses earlier this semester. He commented on the flag during his opening Convocation speech.
“What’s been wonderful about it is that students on many sides of that issue have been sitting down together and have been talking, and I think there is a tremendous level of understanding on all sides that wasn’t there before. So I’m really pleased that the issue I raised has started some discussion about a tough issue, and has created an environment in which people are increasingly willing to talk about those issues.”
REPLACING VAGT
President Ross replaced popular president Bobby Vagt, who retired this summer after 10 years. “I think Davidson was blessed to have Bobby. He was an outstanding president, and he accomplished a great number of things here. It’s a different institution now than when he came 10 years ago.”
“I have been, in my career, in tons of meetings around public policy change in this state. I’ve spent my life engaged in that kind of work. I cannot tell you the number of times I walk out of a meeting and either find out or recognize that a Davidson person was in that room leading the discussion.”
One of President Ross’s immediate challenges is coping with an entirely different pace of work, one filled with phone calls, meetings and a mountain of email.
“The answer to how you deal with the e-mail, the phone calls, the meetings, the constituency groups, the fundraising, is a very simple, one word answer. It’s passion. It’s passion for the place. If you love the place and you care about the place, it’s energizing to be doing the work.”
