Three join Tusculum College Board of Trustees on May 18

Three new members were added to the Tusculum College Board of Trustees on Saturday, May 18, one of them a past interim president of the college, another a noted Greeneville minister, and the third a 1990 alumnus who has built a successful career in the midwest.

Joining the board were former Tennessee state senator Thomas J. Garland, chairman of the Tusculum Institution for Public Leadership and Policy; the Rev. Dr. Dan Donaldson, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Greeneville; and Ben C. Kalny, sales and marketing manager with EPIQ Systems Inc. in Kansas City. Garland and Donaldson live in Greeneville. Kalny lives in Overland Park, Ks.

Jim Durham, chairman of the board's trusteeship committee, welcomed the three trustees. "It is a privilege to have three such fine individuals, all with their own strengths and varying backgrounds, join our board. We are greatly strengthened by their presence. At present Tusculum College is in a period of remarkable growth and development, and excellence in leadership at the trustee level is crucial. On behalf of the entire board, I welcome these three gentlemen and thank them for their willingness to serve."

Thomas J. Garland, who served as interim president of Tusculum College for a year between prior to the current administration of Dr. Dolphus Henry, is returning to the board after having been a member in the late 1960s and early 1970s. During part of his earlier tenure he served as board chairman. Garland served for about two decades as a state senator representing Greene County. He also spent five years as chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents, overseeing the nation's seventh largest higher education system. He also has had a successful career in business and banking, and founded and chairs the Tusculum Institute. He recently joined the Niswonger Foundation as senior advisor.

Garland was the 2002 recipient of Tusculum College's Distinguished Service Award at the recent annual President's Dinner. The award recognized him for his outstanding and varied service to Tusculum College for many years. At present Garland is also one of three co-chairmen overseeing the Campaign for the Library, a $10 million capital campaign that will fund renovation and significant expansion of the historic Tate Library on the local campus. Garland and his wife, Pat, have four children.

The Rev. Dr. Dan Donaldson has served as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Greeneville since 1998. That church has many historical, denominational, and personal connections with Tusculum College. For eight years prior to that, Donaldson was director of the Calvin Center at the Camp and Conference Center of the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta. His earlier experience was in pastoral and youth-related work at the presbytery and individual church levels in Knoxville and South Carolina.

From 1981 onward, Donaldson has an extensive history of involvement in the work and functions of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) across East Tennessee. In 1995, he was president of the Presbyterian Church Camp and Conference Associates. He has been an assistant stated clerk for the Presbytery of East Tennessee and a permanent clerk for the Presbytery of Knoxville, among other positions. He did his undergraduate work at King College in Bristol, and did his postgraduate work at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., receiving his doctorate of ministry, church growth, degree there in 1984. Donaldson and his wife, Patricia, have two children.

Benjamin C. Kalny, who earned his undergraduate degree at Tusculum College, then went on to graduate from the Washington and Lee University School of Law in 1994, has since 1997 held various sales and marketing positions with EPIQ Systems, Inc. EPIQ Systems specializes in case management solutions for bankruptcy trustees. Kalny's current position is sales and marketing manager.

From 1994 to 1997, Kalny was regional sales manager for Henke Manufacturing Corporation. Earlier, he attended the Washington and Lee University School of Law, receiving his degree in 1994. During the year between his graduation from Tusculum College and the beginning of his law school studies, Kalny worked as a radio broadcaster in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Kalny and his wife, Valerie, have one son.

The board also took the following actions:

• Changes were made in the charges of several committees of the board of trustees to better clarify committee responsibilities and to standardize the language in which they were written. The board also created an audit committee to take on a function previously charged to the business committee.

• Approval was given to a slightly revised mission statement for Tusculum College, along with a statement of Tusculum College's basic institutional values, as well as an updated version of the strategic plan for the college.

The mission statement as approved reads as follows: "Tusculum College remains true to its origins as a church-related institution of higher learning in the civic republican tradition by developing educated citizens distinguished by academic excellence, public service, and qualities of Judeo-Christian character. The College reflects the ideal of its civic arts heritage through its commitment both to integrity and to the development of strong citizenship qualities in the traditional-aged students from diverse backgrounds as well as the working-adult students from the region. Furthermore, the College uses innovative approaches to teaching and learning at the undergraduate and Master's levels to instill factual knowledge, cultivate the habits of practical wisdom, and develop the skill of reflective thinking, all necessary for personal success in a democratic society."

The Tusculum College values statement listed the following institutional values: integrity, student success, excellence, financial self-sufficiency, environment, health and safety; respect for people, growth, and accountability. Each value listed was accompanied by definitions and explanations.

• The trustees gave second-reading approval to the college master plan, which will serve as a revisable "roadmap" for potential long-term development of the campus in coming years.

 

• A revised and consolidated faculty handbook that incorporates into one volume what in the past had been separate Residential College and Professional Studies faculty handbooks was approved.

• Assorted routine housekeeping measures, such as authorization of those individuals who may sign Tusculum College checks, were passed.

• Several faculty promotions were authorized. The names of those promoted will be released after official letters of notification have been mailed.