2. LaGrange College President Dan McAlexander, center, shakes the hand of former college president Walter Murphy. Murphy and former college president Stuart Gulley presented McAlexander with the presidential medallion.

3. Dan McAlexander, left, takes the oath of office from Board of Trustees President William Hodges. McAlexander’s wife, Celeste Myall, holds the Bible. Presented to the college last year, the Bible belonged to Rufus Smith, who was LaGrange College president from 1885 to 1915.

McAlexander: LC will be prominent academic enterprise

LaGrange College inaugurates 25th president

By Jennifer Shrader

Staff writer

Amid all the ceremony, pomp and pageantry and after the days and weeks that led up to it, even Dan McAlexander had to take a step back during his inauguration as LaGrange College’s 25th president.

“Wow,” McAlexander said after receiving the presidential medallion from two of his predecessors and taking the oath with a Bible that belonged to the college’s president 100 years ago.

“This is an incredible ceremony and a beautiful day,” McAlexander said before launching into his prepared remarks.

More than 700 people gathered on the Frank and Laura Lewis Library plaza Friday morning to witness McAlexander take the official mantle of power. Leading the procession were students from LaGrange College classes as far back as 1938, representatives from other prominent colleges and universities in the Southeast and faculty of LaGrange College, as well as the college’s board of trustees and leadership council.

The ceremony was not without its personal moments. McAlexander recognized his family, friends and colleagues who came to LaGrange for the program, including his mother, Billie McAlexander, 82. Former college President Stuart Gulley, whom McAlexander succeeded in July, gave his successor a pat on the shoulder as the new president walked to the platform.

McAlexander is a man who “appreciates what and who came before him,” said Lynette Robinson, executive director of the Associated New American Colleges and Universities.

The new president reflected on accomplishments of his predecessors.

“We are celebrating this occasion on what only recently was a sprawling, unsightly parking lot,” McAlexander said, referring to the plaza and library, dedicated just a year ago.

College leaders spent time leading up to the inauguration making a list of what had been done in the last 10 years. The list included the library, the new admissions office in Banks Hall and the Gulley Gateway Bridge, connecting the north and south campus, as well as other milestones and changes.

“What buildings were not here before, what educational opportunities did not exist, what changed in the curriculum?” McAlexander said. “The list ran to more than a page, single-spaced – startling achievements that transformed this college.”

McAlexander promised to keep up the progress, first of all pledging to build “a new, state-of-the-art science building,” something that’s been in the strategic plan for years, and continue to strengthen the college’s position financially. But he also spoke of a new plan he and college leaders are calling “Vision 2020: from Promise to Prominence.”

“Essentially, this plan is about taking bold steps from a position of built strength,” he said. “It is about focusing with persistent discipline and incisive clarity on that at which we are already very, very good, honing these things into the distinctive hallmarks of an increasingly well-recognized, highly valued, prominent academic enterprise.”

As part of the plan, McAlexander said the college will work to a time where all students are afforded the opportunity to study abroad for a semester, not just in January-term classes. Only 30 percent to 40 percent of students take courses abroad now.

McAlexander also wants to see the college have more of a presence – and impact – on the community. LaGrange and LaGrange College were founded within four years of each other.

“The town and the gown have grown up together,” he said. “We share a history, a present and a future that is deeply, inextricably linked.”

The president said he hopes to unite the town and said LaGrange College has been perceived as “too often looking in only one direction (the north of Broad Street, well-to-do section of town) when reaching out to its community.”

“For this college to fulfill its Weslyan tradition of serving all and particularly those who most need it, for it to gain access to some of the richest learning opportunities for its students and for it to become stronger as it helps its community grow more healthy, it must find ways to reach out to all of LaGrange, particularly to those citizens characterized by residence south of Vernon,” he said.

McAlexander said he already has met with black and Hispanic community leaders, “conversations greeted with a generous and open spirit, hope for developing relationships in the future and enthusiasm for beginning to work together.”

LaGrange Mayor Jeff Lukken, who spoke during the ceremonies, agreed that the destinies of the college and the city are “bound together.”

“Who at the helm is important to all of us,” Lukken said, calling McAlexander the “right man at the right place at the right time.”

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.