Earlier this spring, President Randolph Lowry announced the wrapping up of his 16-year run at Lipscomb. Now the university has launched a nationwide search, seeking to find a new president that stays true to Lipscomb’s values while embracing the new changes that’ll come in the post-COVID era.
“Think of it as a skyscraper,” said Mitch Edgeworth, Vice President of the Board of Trustees and the leader of Lipscomb’s presidential search committee.
“What we tend to see on a skyscraper is what’s above the ground, it’s the growth. That’s the new programs, recruiting students and recruiting faculty. That scaffolding gets put up and we keep growing, but you also need to have a deep foundation.”
Edgeworth sat down with Lumination immediately following seven hours of “listening” to University and Academy voices. He said, “We really went through a series of questions and had a great chance to listen along the themes of what’s working well, that we don’t want to lose and what we want to keep going forward,”
“Then there’s identifying the challenges that the university and or Academy are facing and how might we need to address and how might the next president need to address those challenges.”
The factors going into the decision of ‘who’s Lipscomb’s next president?’ are consequential to the preservation of Lipscomb’s faith-based culture and the ability for the university to grow with the times.
“We’re going to want a president who is both who’s equally talented at developing both the growth aspects as well as oversee operational efficiency,” said Edgeworth on the characteristics of potential candidates.
“Also, a person deeply rooted in his or her faith so they intentionally will want to maintain an intentionally Christian University and Academy at all levels; that is a paramount aim.”
Edgeworth’s use of “his or her” brings up another pressing issue. Throughout Lipscomb’s nearly 130 years, all 17 presidents have been white men. Now diversity is playing a role in the search, not only in candidates but also within the search committee itself, “We will not put a search committee together that does not accurately reflect the diverse representation that we seek for the university,” said Edgeworth.
“It will be important for us to that whichever president is selected, that president also embraces diversity and inclusion. If you have diversity without inclusion, you have failed.”
The Presidential Search Committee is seeking the inclusion of the entirety of Lipscomb’s community in this decision, not just a select few influential voices. “A survey was sent not only to students but faculty, staff and alumni, from both the University and Academy,” said Edgeworth.
“We’re excited about that survey because while we had a chance to spend seven hours in a more intimate setting listening to folks, that does not always grab the broader audience.”
Results from the surveys are set to be integrated with the feedback from the more “intimate” meetings with stakeholders (the representatives of different interests on campus like academics, athletics, etc.). This information influences the next president by gathering “top list themes” that are reflected in the responses.
COVID-19 and its impact is one of the top themes influencing the decision, “We need to find somebody who has experience in a post-pandemic world” said Edgeworth with a laugh.
“There is no such thing unless you go back nearly over 100 years… but we will be searching for somebody who is nimble, creative, innovative and humble,”
“Humble in a sense that they can ask the talent that’s around them ‘What should we do here?’, ‘How do we do this better?’ and ‘How do we reach the student population in this new post-pandemic world?”
When it comes to the timeline, the committee is looking towards a date later in the summer. David Solomon, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, told Lumination “Our aim is to have a president in place before the fall semester has grown, but above that aim, we are intentional about searching for the right president.”
Lumination will continue to keep you updated with the search for Lipscomb’s next president
Artwork via The Babbler, October 1986