Thank you Chairman Welty. I accept the Tusculum College medallion and the responsibilities that it symbolizes. I do so with humility, seriousness and pride. The individuals who have preceded me in this role humble me. Those whose leadership helped lay a foundation upon which Tusculum will prosper. I accept with deep seriousness the faith of future generations of students who will entrust their lives’ preparations to this college. And I am proud of the contributions of dedicated faculty, staff, alumni and friends of this distinguished institution.

I would like to ask those in attendance to help me begin this response by acknowledging the dedicated leaders who have preceded me: Presidents Doug Trout, Bob Knott and Tom Garland. Please join with me in recognizing these special individuals with your applause.

I believe, in my heart, that one arrives at a point such as this not just through singular work — but also as a result of one’s relationships with others. Judy, my wife of 27 years, has been the love of my life, my confidant and, at times, my harshest critic. She has given much to me over these years and I have never asked as much from her as I have asked recently. She is an asset to my work and to the College. I am pleased that our daughter, Jessica, is able to be with us on this occasion. For years, I have told the parents of prospective students to have confidence in their children and, in return, they will become their closest friends. Judy and I have had that confidence in Jessica and she is the focus of our pride. She is both a daughter and our closest friend.

I am pleased to welcome my parents, Dolph and Betty Henry, from Radford, Virginia as well as Judy’s parents, Paul and Jane Worthy from Media, Pennsylvania. I want to extend a special welcome to other members of my family:

• Judy’s sister and brother-in-law, Diane and Herb Braselman from Augusta, GA

• their son and his wife, Evon and Meredith Braselman from Atlanta

• my cousin Randy Martin and his wife Trish from Wytheville, Virginia, and

• Julia Volmer, Judy’s aunt from Fernandina Beach in Florida.

I am particularly honored by the presence of colleagues with whom I have been fortunate to work over my career. Bill Turner and I go back to my student days at Roanoke College and I have long relied on his friendship and wisdom. I value the years that Beth Heiser and I worked together at Capital University. Finally, I would like to welcome my former president at Roanoke College, Dr. Norman Fintel and his wife Jo. Together they represented my alma mater with the grace and compassion that Judy and I have often recalled.

Inaugurations are celebrations of institutions — not of individuals. Their timing symbolizes a new chapter in the life of a college. In the case of Tusculum College, 25 chapters have been written to date. 25 individuals precede me as president. Each chapter reflects the ambitions and accomplishments of those whose lives were intertwined with the College. We mark today, the turning of the page into Tusculum College’s 26th chapter.

My own contribution to Tusculum’s new chapter began in the early fall of 1999 when I got a telephone call from a dear friend, John McRae. Both John and his wife, Trish, are with us today. John told me about this small college in East Tennessee that was beginning a search for a new president. He said this school had untapped enrollment potential and, with its current assets, the college seemed poised to capture that potential. I was intrigued. I read everything that I could about Tusculum and called colleagues who might have been familiar with the school. My interest grew as I learned about innovations that made this school truly unique. I began to see that there was something different about Tusculum, something subtle but exciting. This was a college that had a long and established heritage, yet which embraced innovation.

I arrived for the first round of interviews in January of 2000 and was immediately struck by the beauty of the area. The mountains, that we had left 15 years before, filled Judy and me with a sense of coming home. I felt a growing assurance that my interest in Tusculum College was not misplaced. When I met with the presidential search committee, that sense of assurance grew. These were impressive people, people with a vision for this college that was contagious. I met faculty, staff and trustees who were dedicated to finding a president who's personality, interests, and leadership style were a match with their college. I met a senior, who was an integral part of the search committee, and whose questions were as probing and insightful as any I encountered.

I was fortunate in that Tusculum was not only searching for their next president; they were also hosting the visiting team for the Southern Association. The institutional self-study revealed the personal accomplishments and challenges of a long established institution with unimagined potential.

I began to gain a vision of what Tusculum College could be five, ten, twenty years down the road. I found myself dreaming, hoping, and planning. And the more I did, the more I knew I wanted the privilege of helping to write the next chapter of Tusculum’s story.

And now, here we are. The first lines of that new chapter have already been written, and much more lies ahead. What will be the central themes of this new chapter? Who will be the characters? How will it come out at the end?

I know that there will be 3 themes. These themes will define the central characters, and the end result. These themes are: Tusculum’s sense of community, its approach to thinking strategically, and growth in Tusculum’s enrollment.

Sense of Community —

I will address first the theme of Community, because I see it as foundational to all else. My first efforts as president lay in the area of community building. It is my heart-felt belief, the driving passion behind my entire presidency, that Tusculum College can only achieve its full potential if it is unified. We cannot be a collection of communities who are united in name only. Apostle Paul said: We must be "many members, yet but one body." Paul was thinking of the church when he wrote those words, but I believe the same idea holds true here at Tusculum College.

I am determined that the 26th chapter of Tusculum’s story will be that of a close-knit community of caring individuals who, with grace toward one another, collectively embody the spirit of making a difference. This community will have an impact far beyond the confines of our physical campuses. It will reach into any place where Tusculum students, graduates, faculty and staff are recognized for their commitment to public service and enriching the lives of others.

Tusculum’s spirit of community will be open and welcoming. The reach of our arms will be wide. We will embrace the rich asset of collaboration — joining in partnership with sister colleges, neighborhood businesses and service agencies. While we, by intention, will always be a small college, the result of our collaborative efforts will be limited only by the boundaries of our imagination.

It will be recorded that, in the 26th chapter of Tusculum’s history, the students, faculty, and staff of the College, as well as the sister colleges and localities that we embrace as our extended family, will have greatly benefited from the community that is Tusculum College.

Thinking Strategically —

This new chapter of Tusculum College’s story will also be a record of achievements. And those achievements will be directly linked to our keen strategic sense of direction.

In the end, this chapter will have recorded that we strived for results far beyond the constraints of the present day and achieved the unimagined. It will have recorded that clearly articulated objectives and even clearer measures of progress guided us. It will be recalled that our governance was both effective and simple, and that our administrative structures were designed to allow us to achieve our intentions.

Chief among those intentions will be something expressed in every thing we do: we will graduate individuals who are not simply possessors of educated minds, but who are active and contributing citizens living out the moral values upon which this institution, and indeed our democratic society, have been built.

In this phase of our history, the Tusculum College graduate will possess qualities that distinguish him or her from graduates of other institutions. But in a world in which it is estimated that the volume of knowledge will double every 73 days, knowledge alone will not be sufficient to make a graduate distinctive. Already even the most gifted of students cannot possibly retain all of the knowledge available in even the most narrow of fields. So the Tusculum graduates must be recognized for not only what they know, but also what they can do. They will be recognized for their ability to sift through mountains of information, decide which sources are credible, and derive knowledge that is most applicable to the most dynamic of situations.

Tusculum will be distinguished as a place of innovation where there are clear institutional expectations of student learning, assessment of our progress as a college in achieving that level of learning and continual refinement of our programs and services to achieve an even higher level.

Enrollment Growth —

In order for Tusculum College to achieve its desired educational outcomes, it must be balanced. It must grow.

And we will grow. We will grow because we will do the things that are necessary. We will grow because we will stay rooted in the soil of our rich heritage while also being nourished by the rising sun of the future. We will grow in a natural way, because we will continue to work to make Tusculum the kind of college students want to attend.

This chapter will reflect a wider array of academic programs, support services and extra-curricular activities. The sum of all this will be a more liberally educated student and a continually revitalized environment — in short, a fun place for our students, faculty and staff.

Within 5 years, our Residential College will reflect an undergraduate enrollment of a thousand students. It will be a campus where the characteristics of our students match the resources of our institution. It will be a campus dedicated to both the liberal and civic arts. Graduates will be as prepared for challenging careers as they are prepared for advanced degrees. Regardless of their direction after Tusculum, they will always be committed to making their communities better.

The quality of our programs is not limited to just the Greeneville campus. For over 10 years, the College has afforded working adults the opportunity to fulfill their personal potential in their careers and in service to their communities. While this chapter in Tusculum’s ongoing history will record a consistency in educational outcomes between the traditional and working adult students, it will also boast of individual achievements far beyond personal dreams. To accomplish this, we will consolidate and expand our programs for working adults in the Knoxville metropolitan area into a campus presence that will be recognized throughout the region. It will reflect a program that can transform a hesitant adult learner with potential into a Bachelor’s or Master’s level graduate whose contributions are limitless!

Today we turn the page to this new chapter. We now begin to write Chapter 26 in the life of this 207-year-old institution that is Tusculum College. This one day will remain vivid in the memories of perhaps but a few; but the coming years will be indelible for many as we pursue almost inconceivable opportunities. This ceremony is inherently symbolic — symbolic of a new beginning. This is truly the first day in the rest of the institutional life of our college; a college that has touched the lives of so many for so long.

I stand before you committed to joining with you to make this new chapter of the Tusculum College story one of the best. My personal commitment is bound up with an ever-increasing appreciation of the rich experiences and accomplishments of those who have laid a foundation upon which we now have an opportunity to continue building. Much of what I have laid before you reflects more of a journey than of a specific destination. That journey begins now! I challenge each student, each faculty and staff member, and every alumni and friend of Tusculum College to individually contribute, to help write this chapter collectively.

Let the word go forth that the future of Tusculum College begins today. And let it also be clearly understood that we will be successful.

Thank you.