Thursday, Feb. 5, students, alumni and community members gathered in the Glenn Close Theatre to hear College of William and Mary President Katherine Rowe moderate a discussion with College Chancellor Robert M. Gates, President Emeritus W. Taylor Reveley III and Longwood University President W. Taylor Reveley IV on leadership in higher education.
Part of the College’s Charter Day celebration, the conversation centered around the release of Michael Nelson’s ’71 new book, “How College Presidents Succeed: Lessons in Leadership from Three Generations of Reveleys.”
In his work, Nelson describes lessons from three generations of Reveleys, who all became presidents of prominent Virginia universities. Gates wrote the foreword for the novel.
“The lesson that meant the most to me and also characterizes what I have tried to do was how do you preserve and enhance the traditions that make a university great and that have led to greatness,” Gates said. “And at the same time, get rid of those things, the ‘barnacles’ I call them, that grow up on institutions that become obstructions to the future, to change and to adaptation.”
Reveley IV explained what leadership looks like from immediate and long-term perspectives.
“It takes some good, heartfelt perspective to keep everything weighed in the scales appropriately,” he said. “To be thoughtful pretty deeply about the long run and not just what is right around the corner; what you can do together to make sure that an institution is strong, not just a year from now, a decade from now, but a century from now.”
Gates highlighted how leaders can navigate changes in organizations introduced by the use of social media and online platforms.
“I think particularly if you are leading an agenda for change, what the president has to be is present,” he said. “You have to use all the different platforms that are available to you, but on a campus, I really believe that the physical presence of the president makes a huge difference.”
Rowe asked Reveley IV how he leads others when the path is unclear to him.
“I have been lucky with regards to the decision-making because it is a lot easier when you have got people you trust and love to bounce the decisions off of,” Reveley IV said. “It works the best when you have got a chance to talk it through with people that have that wisdom and experience themselves.”
Reveley III, the College’s 27th president, discussed leading the College through 2008 and 2018.
“I tried to make clear to these students, and to everyone else, there would be a lot of change in the country going forward, and you needed to be resilient,” he said.
Shifting to the present, Gates emphasized how education strengthens citizenship.
“The importance of the humanities is in giving us a sense of who we are as people, and as a people, as Americans,” he said. “So the value of higher education is not just preparing people to get a job, it is preparing them for life and to be part of the democracy.”
Reveley III expanded on Gates’ answer, identifying the supportive role institutions have during times of extreme change.
Reveley IV views education as a means of support.
“There will be institutions to facilitate that liminal experience and turn a teenager into an American citizen,” he said. “That’s what American colleges and universities have always been great at, and I think so long as we keep that as a north star, things will work out, one way or another.”
