(Editor’s Note: President Bill Greer is the 15th president of Milligan College. The Milligan alumnus was named president on March 18, 2011, and assumed office on July 16, 2011.)
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In the future, do you see Milligan’s incoming classes growing in size or is Milligan content with the current size of the student body?
This year’s class is a little larger than last year’s, and last year’s class was larger than the year before, so we hope that continues. We aren’t looking for massive growth, but moderate growth in the student population helps everyone. From a financial standpoint it means the budget is easier to balance, and when the budget is easier to balance we are able to keep tuition increases low. We are working really hard right now to contain costs to keep tuition from going up and becoming a burden on students and families. We are working hard to make sure we have a diverse enough curriculum that appeals to a broad base of students who most of all want a Christian liberal arts education at a small college like Milligan, but we have to meet a lot of need, so we want to be market-relevant, and that’s why we have added a number of programs throughout the last few years and will continue to add programs. Ultimately, we want Milligan to be long-term and healthy and a little bit of growth helps that.
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Will Milligan expand its campus or parking to accommodate the growth of the student body?
We have a master plan for the campus over a number of years, assuming good moderate growth and financing becoming available through donors. We have room for seven more housing buildings near the village complex. A dream and wish we have is to put a track facility up there by the field house. We hope to put more housing on the hill towards Webb. We don’t have any immediate plans to do away with Webb, but one of these days it probably will be replaced, and it would be replaced with buildings that are a similar design to the Village housing. And that could also possibly replace Kegley and Quillen with an area for parking. Of course, there are plans for more parking and housing, but all of that depends on how quickly the student body changes and the availability of financial resources. This could take a number of years, and it may be that the plans change before it happens. There are several things out on the drawing board over the next 20 years.
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For many years, Milligan has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report for being among the “best regional colleges.” Now due to the expanded graduate offerings, Milligan was ranked among the top Regional Universities in the South by U.S. News. Will Milligan College be changing into Milligan University anytime soon?
There are no immediate plans to change the name. If it is in the best interest of the college to change the name, then we will entertain that idea at the right time. The reality is we are now an institution that operates under a university model. A couple of years ago we reorganized our academic areas into schools. Now, we have five different schools. An educational institution that is organized in that way really is a university. We also have a number of graduate programs. The Carnegie foundation, which is the organization that classifies institutions into colleges, moved us this year to the Master’s College and University category. We were listed as a baccalaureate college last year.
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In planning for future developments, are there currently any plans or funds to make Milligan’s campus more accessible to students with disabilities, such as those in wheelchairs or those unable to use the stairs around campus?
We have worked really hard to be as accessible as we can with the terrain that we have and the resources that we have in a campus that is 150 years old. We are also here in our sesquicentennial year, so we have lots of well-established historic buildings. Anytime we have had a student with special needs, we have always made the necessary accommodations for that student. Not too long ago, we had a student who was wheelchair-bound and who was able to get around campus in a motorized wheelchair. We were able to accommodate her in all of our various buildings. Perfectly? No, not perfectly, but we did the best we could with the resources we had and the infrastructure we have. As we have built buildings and constructed things, even in the Village, there are handicap-accessible suites. There are several suites in the building that have fully accessible bathrooms and accommodate folks with special needs. As we have built things you will see more ramps. For example, the tennis complex has a lift next to it so people can get to the top of it. As facilities come online, they always accommodate, and we have done the best we can to retrofit when we have had need.
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Is there any hope for currently popular sports to be added as official intercollegiate sports in the future?
We are always talking about the possibility of new sports. We have talked about lacrosse and have had conversations about Iron Man and about ultimate frisbee as intercollegiate. There are just lots of things, and there is constant conversation about sports. We are putting most of our effort right now into growing academic programs and increasing student population in that way, because we feel like we have about the ratio of non-athletes to athletes that we think is a good mix. As the overall student population grows, then we can consider some additional sports, but I don’t think it’s going to be in the immediate future.
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According the United States Department of Education’s College Scorecard, 83 percent of Milligan’s students are Caucasian. What is Milligan’s diversity program doing to increase diversity?
The flip of that is that 17 percent of our student population is of varied ethnic backgrounds. Just a very few years ago that number was 4 percent, so we were very low in terms of ethnic diversity. We have actually made tremendous strides in increasing campus diversity, and we have several things that work against us in that regard. One is this region of the country isn’t very diverse. So most of that diversity has to come from outside the region which 50-60 percent of our student body does. Nonetheless, there is a very low percentage of ethnic diversity in this region. Milligan is traditionally affiliated with the Christian churches and Churches of Christ. That is a religious movement that is historically not very diverse. So for us to have moved from 4 percent to 17 percent is really tremendous change. Can we do more? Sure. But, we have come a long long way.
- What is the most challenging part about being president?
Probably the most challenging thing is simply coping with the pressure that is on me as the caretaker of Milligan. And I feel that I am the caretaker here because I had a great predecessor in Don Jeanes who cared for and loved Milligan and cultivated me to succeed him. What makes this so challenging is finding that balance between navigating change and preserving our heritage. I spend a lot of time dreaming about what Milligan could be and building a strategy to get there, which involves lots of change. Our college is really unique in that is has lots of owners. Students own it, faculty own it, administration own it, alumni and donors own it, and when I say they own it, I mean they feel a sense of ownership. My greatest hope is that every student who leaves here always feels like they own a piece of Milligan.
I am also cut from the Milligan cloth. I graduated from Milligan and met my wife here, our kids graduated from here and my mom went here, my grandfather went here. So it’s in me, and I want to preserve the things that are really special and important about Milligan even as we change it. That is my constant challenge and struggle, leading us forward while hanging on to everything that is special about this place and protecting it.
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How would you describe Milligan in one word?
Impactful. I think that everything that happens here is impactful. I think our professors have an impact on ours students. I think our students have an impact on each other and on our professors. I think our students graduate, and they have an impact on the world, and our students have an impact on the kingdom of God. You cannot come here without there being an impact