From the President
Juli Fulks, the head coach of our women’s basketball national champions, espouses a philosophy of servant leadership. Her players lead as individuals by putting the team first. This may sound paradoxical, but honestly, who’s going to argue with the results? This team demonstrates so clearly the 4 C’s of success: critical thinking, curiosity, creativity and communication.
I was there in Dallas, cheering like mad in that moment right after the buzzer as the streamers fell. It’s the kind of moment that resonates throughout an institution, giving it a boost of energy and strength going forward. This vitality was born not only of individual aspirations, but also of selflessness. Imagine you’ve got the ball in the paint and a questionable shot at the basket. Do you launch it, and maybe rack up your own point total … or dish it to a teammate on a hot streak? Is your No. 1 goal to make a name for yourself, or is it to be on a winning team? And I mean winning, as in 60-1 over two seasons.
There’s another aspect of what I mean by selflessness here. It’s the realization that you can better serve others if you’re also seeking excellence yourself — and that goes beyond athletics to the foundation of our student experience: the Transylvania faculty. To help these professors excel, a recent and quite substantial grant will reward their distinguished work and help us recruit new faculty of the highest caliber. Note how that word “excellence” shows up twice in our announcing the news: “The Board of the Bingham Fund for Excellence in Teaching at Transylvania is pleased to announce a $25 million, 15-year grant to fund up to 12 Bingham Endowed Chairs for Teaching Excellence at Transylvania University.”
Among the first to benefit from this investment will be our Class of 2027. I’ve had the privilege of meeting some of these incoming Pioneers, and they’ve impressed me with their intelligence and spirit of engagement. To help them prepare for a challenging, rapidly changing world, we will offer new minors like data analytics and medical humanities, continue to support cutting-edge digital programming, and, through our peer-led Embedded Learning Forums, provide academic assistance in subject areas that have proved traditionally difficult.
Also this past school year we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the anti-discriminatory Title IX law, which, along with individuals like legendary coach Pat Deacon, has helped women’s collegiate athletics flourish. When coach Deacon arrived at Transylvania back in 1970, we had only three teams for female athletes — now there are 14. We have the best NCAA Division III women’s basketball team in the nation, and we could not be more proud of their accomplishments on the court, in the classroom and in the community. They are truly prepared for a lifetime of success.
Fly Pios!
