Inauguration Speech

Well, good morning. Thank you for your patience today and your attentiveness. It means so much. It is an honor to have all of you here today to celebrate Roanoke College and this really remarkable community.   
  
It says something about this place, you’ve heard it over and over, that there have only been 12 people, myself included, to be president of Roanoke College. For context, 27 presidents have served the United States in the same time period. That’s a lot of history. 
  
I’ve wondered how I would feel before you on this day. I’ve had 16 months to think about this symbolic moment where a person is trusted to steward the story of a community towards a bright future. I predicted I’d feel humbled (and I do), nervous (and I am), excited (I am), and maybe a little self-conscious. I do feel all of these things. But mostly, I feel grateful. 
  
I’m grateful to the board of trustees, who saw in me a partner for the future of Roanoke College, and I’m anchored by our board chair, Malon Courts, who has offered incredible support, wise counsel, and unwavering integrity over the past year. One of the things I admire about him most is he has a saying — you can’t do better than the truth. And I can count on the truth coming from Malon Courts. 
  
I am grateful for a college that is buoyed by its past presidents, who have regularly offered perspective and care, and who have done so because this place, its people, and its enduring mission remain in them. I’m especially humbled to take the reins from President Emeritus Mike Maxey, who dedicated his professional life and career to this college. Mike, thank you for your support, your continued contributions, your generous conversations, and the way you wave when you see me on campus. I always interpret your gesture to be some combination of “Go get em, you got this!” and “See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya!” I got that right, didn’t I, Mike? You know, you of all people know the weight of this role, and I’m strengthened by the gentle ways that you have helped me bear it. Thank you. 
  
I am grateful for all the delegates here today, including those from my own alma maters, Baylor University, The Ohio State University and the University of Maryland, College Park. I’m equally grateful for our government public servants and community partners. Your presence reminds us that Roanoke College belongs to a community of people committed to the greater good, and who show up every day for the love of the people we serve.  
  
I am grateful for the other college presidents in our region and beyond who’ve become my personal counselors. You understand the promise and the pain of this role, especially in this really, truly challenging moment for higher education, and your support has been critical. I want to offer a special thank you to our next-door neighbor, Hollins University President Mary Dana Hinton, who has been particularly supportive. Almost every day this week, she sent me a gospel playlist to listen to and to encourage me. Early today, she sent me a song entitled, “It’s Working.” I sure hope so. 
  
Also, my presidential panel colleagues here today: my dear friend and graduate school officemate Robert Kelly, president of the University of Portland; my mentor and coach Nathan Hatch, Wake Forest president emeritus; and Eileen Hulme, one of the best bosses I’ve ever had, now chancellor at Indiana Wesleyan University.    
  
I am grateful for my cabinet, the leaders who make sure we keep the main thing the main thing at Roanoke College. Your talent, your dedication, and your love for students make you a mighty presence and a strong partner for our future. Thank you. 
  
I am grateful for the inauguration committee, led by the unstoppable Sally Walker — She is unstoppable. Where is she? There she is. She’s hating that I just pointed out that she’s over there. Everyone go see her later today. — along with scores of excellent staff members who have done for this moment what I watch you do every single day, which is go above and beyond in the service of our students and our mission. You humble me.  
  
And I have to put our athletic coaches in this category as well. Your spirit pervades our community, and we are truly better because of you. By the way, did you know we have 547 student-athletes at Roanoke College? And when we have a football team, we’ll have more student-athletes at Roanoke College than that big beast of a school Virginia Tech up the road. 
  
I am grateful for the Roanoke College faculty, who have let me be neither idle nor simple for a second since the day we began. Never before have I had conversations about the future of higher education with as much passion and complexity. I can honestly say I believe we are reaching with hope towards hope, and I am sustained by much evidence that we are reaching together even when it’s hard.  
  
I am grateful for the more than 18,000 Roanoke College alumni, who have a big love and big dreams for this College. You are indelible proof of what Roanoke College offers the world.  
  
Now, if you’ll indulge me on a personal point, I’m so grateful for my family. My parents, Frank Sr., who is 95 years young in spirit but a little too unsteady to be with us today, and my mom, Sue, a retired middle school science teacher who is here and who is the most beautiful 91-year-old you’d swear is 75. Where are you, mom? I’m thankful for the lifetime of education and the love you offered me.   
  
To my seven, much older siblings (I’m the youngest and the favorite), you carried me through my childhood on your backs and on your bikes and into more shenanigans than might have been legal for your much younger brother. I want to mention our late sister, Barbie, who we lost way too soon. You all have carried me with your prayers and your deep investment in our shared passions and extended families.  
  
To our young adult kids, Brayden, Christian, and Ivy Anne, my career has placed unfair demands and a weight on our family that you have willingly shouldered. I remember when we, as a family, considered this role at Roanoke College. I asked each of you for some guidance. Brayden, my financial advisor, said it seemed wise, but he was worried about my retirement planning. Christian, your counsel from your experience at a small liberal arts college was frankly inspiring and incredibly motivating for me. Ivy, we share a similar heart. You offered encouragement that it’s okay to be afraid and still do the thing. I am so proud to be your dad. Thank you for loving me.  
  
To Kelly, you are the single most undeserved gift of my life. You’re the best human being I know — full of grace and unending care for people from all stations of life and the most principled and brave partner I could imagine. Thank you for seven years of dating (I’m very upset you mentioned the Cutlass) and 32 years of marriage. 
  
And finally, I’m grateful for Roanoke College students. You are the “why” I hold onto to greet every single decision, every direction, every morning: students. I believe you keep us focused on what matters most in the world, and I think my heart beats loudest for students because I’ve always been one, even though I didn’t look like one for a very long time.  
  
I was no star in elementary school, middle school or high school, but I was filled with wonder and saw the world as my playground. You heard me say I was the youngest of eight. There are nine years between my next sibling and me. You can imagine how tired my parents were by the time I came around. If there had been a sticker on me, it would have definitely said free-range. This is the honest to goodness truth, for fun, I collected live cicadas outside and I put them inside all over the house. I put them on the curtains, the couches, I perched them on the edge of the oatmeal container. You get the idea. I also collected discarded Christmas trees as soon as the holidays were over. As our neighbors drug them out to the curbs, I picked them up, and I would build a fortress in my own backyard. Literally every holiday season, I would have 50 or more discarded Christmas trees in the backyard. 
  
My imagination ran wild, and I thought every single dream was possible. I’m not sure where that came from, but maybe it’s because I was born 22 days after Neil Armstrong made that giant leap for humankind on the moon.  
  
I will be honest, one thing I never could have imagined back then is that I’d be standing here in front of you as a college president. Never in my wildest dreams. As I’ve shared publicly before, I had learning difficulties in school that made it a real struggle for me. My future in high school, including going to college, seemed to me like an impossibility. But I suspect like many of you, I’m here today because a few remarkable teachers could see my potential before I could imagine a rich future for myself.   
  
When I struggled in math in high school, Mr. Christian quietly believed in me. He showed it through small acts, like helping me review a test I had failed and then playing tennis with me afterwards. I don’t know how many mornings we worked on the same problem, over and over, before school. He introduced me to his wife, Deneen, also a math teacher, who stepped up to tutor. He had enough on his hands. He had to involve his wife in this. They never gave up on me, and strangely that beautiful “C” I finally earned, it became the jet fuel for a future passion for education and a lot of really unexpected success in college.  
  
I went on to earn a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a Ph.D. and eventually became a tenured professor. Who could imagine? How fun for me that the Christians are here today. Deneen and Keith, would you please stand and be recognized for your incredible dedication to young people, and on behalf of all the teachers who have influenced the lives of those of us here or watching today?  
  
I share this story with you because it’s why I believe what we’re doing at Roanoke matters so deeply. We are nurturers of imagination — a quality Einstein once proclaimed to be more important than knowledge itself. Our job is to help students believe in better versions of themselves, envision a world beyond what they understand, and to run in the direction of big questions and complex challenges.  
Truly, I believe today’s students, the ones in this very room, are our greatest hope.  
  
The last decade-and-a-half has been really tough on us humans. I know you would likely agree. And the road ahead looks anything but smooth. I won’t get into listing the many challenges that we are confronting, but suffice to say, there are many. And we in higher education find ourselves at a crossroads, as colleges and universities contend with rising costs and crushing student debt, decreasing enrollments, changing student needs, and an American public that questions the value of a college education altogether. It can be overwhelming.  
  
But if I have a single dream for this nearly 200-year-old community, it is that we will not shrink from an uncertain future, but instead will follow the lead of our remarkable students, who are brimming with hope and wonder despite the challenges and uncertainty they face. I know that imagination and innovation most often spring from challenge, and we are always better for it in the end. Quite frankly, I don’t know of a single big challenge — be it personal, institutional, or societal — that has been solved by staying the same.  
  
Today, the question at hand is not whether higher education, including Roanoke College, should change. It’s how we should change. I want to acknowledge how deeply uncomfortable change can be for all of us. Us humans don’t like change. And I know it feels hard for this community right now. I know this because you’ve told me — through conversations, emails, letters, phone calls, social media, memes and, God bless America, Yik Yak.  
  
Here’s the good news: When moments through our long history have compelled us to change, our mission has allowed us to balance tradition and innovation skillfully. This is the story of our founding in 1842, when two Lutheran pastors opened a tiny classical preparatory school for boys in Augusta County, Virginia, to provide students of humble means a classical and scientific education at minimal cost so they could enter theological seminaries, an opportunity otherwise unavailable. 
  
It is our story, just five years later, when our founders moved the school’s belongings in a single wagon to our current location in Salem, Virginia, where we would soon become known as Roanoke College. A move to increase enrollment, expand our reach, and provide educational opportunities to Southwest Virginia. Exactly what we’re saying we want to do today.  
  
It is our story in the 1880s, when President Julius Dreher recruited and welcomed Native American students from regional tribes and international students from Korea and Japan and Mexico, among others. So by the early 1900s, Roanoke College had more international students than any other college in the South — a remarkable accomplishment for a small college following the Civil War. 
  
I could go on and on. My point is this: We can be proud that change and courage is baked into Roanoke College’s DNA, and it has been since the beginning. So, too, has an enduring commitment to access, inclusion, service, and the deep and abiding relationships that flourish here and beyond. These values also reflect the wild imagination of the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s common calling for its 27 network colleges, which asks us to empower and serve the neighbor so that all may flourish. We are compelled by that calling. We remain rooted by our intellectual and educational traditions while also trying to stay open to different people, perspectives, ideas and, yes, innovation. 
  
Friends, as it has been for 181 years, the future of Roanoke College is ours to create and ours to become. Once again, we must bravely find the courage to imagine it together. And I mean big, bold, even especially the kind of ideas that defy convention and seem unthinkable.  
  
As luck would have it, one such example captured my attention a few weeks ago as I was taking a break from writing these very remarks. It was a tantalizing headline in The New York Times, and here it was: “Maybe in Your Lifetime, People Will Live on the Moon and then Mars.” Wild, right? This part of the story really blew my mind, quote: 
  
“The U.S. space agency will blast a 3-D printer up to the moon and then build structures, layer by additive layer … a moonshot of a plan made possible through new technology and partnerships and private companies.”  
  
Did I mention NASA plans to accomplish this momentous task by the year 2040, a mere 17 years from now? Now, each night I look up at the bright moon and I become that 10-year-old again, filled with wonder.  
  
Friends, I know it can be hard to see a future that is different than today — be that building houses on the moon or transforming a college. But today, we really must find our wonder; big ole ideas we would offer if there were no constraints. What are our next moonshots?  
  
Currently, any Roanoke College student will tell you about the remarkable ways that our faculty shape their critical thinking skills, convince them of talents they didn’t know they have, and foster a capacity for writing, communicating and working in teams. At Roanoke College, the liberal arts and applied professional programs aren’t in competition. They are complementary. I love that our computer scientists are also poets, that our artists are also exercise scientists, that our mathematicians are also data scientists using sports analytics to improve our athletic teams, and that our faculty are moving us from disciplinary stations to transdisciplinary practice. This is why we are transitioning to our first four interdisciplinary schools over the next few years. The world’s problems will no doubt be solved by interdisciplinary teams bridging previously uncrossed boundaries. It’s a moonshot, one that will offer our students the opportunity to develop their creativity and precision, their critical thinking and their technical skills. 
  
And while we’re “moonshotting,” could I be so bold to dream that any talented, committed student, no matter their socioeconomic realities, will one day soon be able to attend Roanoke College without debilitating student debt? I am so proud that more and more underrepresented and underserved students are choosing Roanoke College. Students who are veterans, from rural areas, students of color, first-generation students, students receiving the Pell Grant. I am so proud. These students believe we can help them achieve their dreams, and this moonshot means building an endowment for student scholarships that honors our legacy of access and inclusion. Who wouldn’t want to invest in something that shifts the course of history for these students and their families? I should have asked our faculty marshals to pass an offering plate! 
  
I believe this moonshot is possible because of the imagination I already see unfolding through our partnerships with friends and neighbors in industry, government, and community organizations. Together, we are reimagining education as a community-wide, collaborative practice, where we combine expertise, resources, opportunities, and dreams to innovate for the future. Just a few examples: The new “Rapid Maroons” program with Virginia Western Community College, which gives Virginia Western students a direct path to Roanoke College, including access to joint advising services and student activities while they are studying at Virginia Western. We’ve also partnered with Virginia Tech on the “Direct to Tech” program, which provides direct admission to qualified Roanoke College students into Virginia Tech’s master’s programs in Computer Science and Applications and Computer Engineering.  
  
We’ve partnered with the Commonwealth of Virginia to establish a new lab school that will offer college credit to Salem High School students, especially designed for students exploring health-related professions.  
  
We’ve launched the Bridges program, partnering with local K-12 schools to identify aspiring teachers of color who will use a Roanoke College education to mentor and raise up a new generation of underrepresented teachers.  
  
We’ve piloted a Future of Work program with Deloitte to help students prepare for jobs that don’t exist yet. And hold on as we begin to share news about emerging partnerships with Carilion, LewisGale and TMEIC, powerful industry partners who care deeply about economic development and preparing a college-educated workforce.  
  
And let this be heard, Roanoke College will partner with anyone who cares about building a brighter future for our community, and we don’t need any credit. If you’re in the room today and you represent an organization that cares for this community and you are not already our partner, please call me tomorrow! I know this for sure, we rise and we fall together. And I’m determined that we will rise.  
  
These partnerships and other exciting initiatives are opening the doors to students who may not have otherwise considered Roanoke College for their future. Sometimes innovation sounds so practical. And it is.  So why do I call it a moonshot? Because even as I’m talking to you today, the world around us has changed, and the changes around us will only come faster and faster. Imagine this: In just one year, our faculty have had to shift how they teach because of artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT that burst on the scene out of nowhere, changing the way we think about knowledge and creativity and academic integrity.  
  
We must imagine a world our graduates will serve. One that doesn’t exist yet. Historian Yuval Noah Harari, author of “21 Lessons for the 21st Century,” he puts it this way: “Reconnecting neurons and rewiring synapses is really hard work. But in the twenty-first century, you can’t afford stability. If you try to hold on to some stable identity, job, or worldview, you risk being left behind as the world flies by with a whoosh.” 
  
So today, I invite all of you to join me in wonder. This next chapter in Roanoke’s history will require a team of creators who are rooted in our values and open to all that is possible. Everyone on the team must be able to listen, to solve problems, practice humility, understand how things get done, and nurture and empower people around them. 
  
In the end, when a single student finds a calling, becomes compelled by the cause of justice, learns to care for humanity, discovers a talent, hones a skill or finds the courage to speak up for a value, the world stretches. Potential becomes reality. We all grow larger. We get to live in wonder on our many, many moons. I can’t think of a better way to spend a life. And so, as the grateful 12th president of Roanoke College, I’m here and I believe we are ready. The future is ours to create. Thank you.