Lizzy Donker, Editor-in-Chief
Sanjana Priyonti, Junior Editor
The Sewanee Purple recently sat down with the 18th Vice-Chancellor and University President Rob Pearigen ( C ‘76) to discuss important campus topics and plans for the Fall semester.
The article has been edited lightly for clarity.
What are you most excited about for this semester?
“It’s just exciting to see all the students back. And I’m really excited about that great first year class. It’s a terrific class–their academic profile, the numbers. There’s a lot of energy in the class. And I think it’s really fun to bring people back to campus at a time when we’re getting such great attention based on our beautiful campus and wonderful things happening in the village. So I think it’s just a lot of positive momentum going into this year..”
What do you see as the biggest challenges and hopes for success this semester?
“Higher education is still going through a period of challenge. There are a lot of questions about the value of higher education and about the return on the investment. And so I think it’s really important for us as a University to make the case for and be very clear about the value of this educational experience. And to me, having this great liberal arts experience on this incredibly beautiful domain with outstanding faculty and students, I think the challenges are great, but we have many things working on our side to ensure a really successful year. So that’s what I’m really excited about.”
“My greatest hope would be that every single student who’s here now will complete the semester and be back in the spring. Dean [of Students] Nicky Campbell is making a real hard push toward encouraging student success in retention, and I think one of the signs of success will be if we can retain. We do a very good job retaining students. We’ve got a good retention rate, good success rate, but we could be better. And so one of the signs of success will be if we complete the semester with the same number of students that started. That’d be amazing.”
Can you share with us some of your planning initiatives for the semester?
“Sure, so, a couple of things. One of them, we’re going into the second year of a new strategic plan. You’ve probably heard about it, this elevating mind, heart and place. And I think the plan is really important as a framework and as a guidepost for what we’re doing at the University. I often say to people when they come to me with an idea about this or that, I always say, oh, where is it in the plan? You know, where can you locate it? Because if it’s not in the plan, we can’t keep going down the path. We really need to stick to the goals and the strategies that are part of the strategic plan. One of those, actually related to several goals is sort of advancing the academic interests of our students and their opportunity for character building and moral courage and success. And so we are talking about pulling together a group committee, Sibby Anderson-Tompkins and Dr. Amy Patterson will be chairing a group looking at how to pull together the offices of global citizenship, civic engagement, and our office of community building and connections and see if there’s a way to pull those groups together in more collaborative, more integrated learning experience and more synergistic opportunity for these groups to be together. You know, I’ve visited these different offices when I first came here, and one of them is located down the street from South Carolina, one’s over the Hatchet House, and one’s over to EQB, and it just seemed to me like they do good work, and there’s a lot of work that they do combine work. But I like to think of an overarching programmatic umbrella, and perhaps all under one roof so that those groups could come together; it’d be even more effective in their work with students and in the high impact practices that are called for in our strategic plan. So you may have seen reference to this planning initiative that brings these groups together. So I think that has a lot of potential. And it’s really exciting to me because each one of these programs has something to do with both the curricular and co-curricular and extracurricular component and having that integrated learning and action has a lot of potential. And again, it’ fits precisely in the goals of the strategic plan.”
How is Sewanee responding to policy changes from the Trump administration, particularly regarding DEI initiatives?
“Well, we obviously are paying attention to the news. We’re keeping up with what’s happening in Washington. I think it’s important for us to do that. The programs that we have, we will continue to support programs in that area. The Roberson Project is very important to us. Our Bonners leadership program is very important. Our indigenous initiative program is important. Our truth, community healing and transformation [program] – these are all programs and services that are important to us and will continue to be and going forward. Even as we live into our values and continue to be the place that we know we can and should be, I actually think that we talked a little while ago about this center that we don’t have a name for. We’ve just got a committee that’s looking into this, but a center for something like community and engaged citizenship, pulling these different offices together, including the program that are just mentioned–to me, we’re building something. We’re not just changing a name. We’re growing, we’re building, we’re creating something new by bringing these offices together that have this natural connection and a really important role in supporting and serving our students. So I see the things we’re doing here as building and creating and growing, not as a way of turning back.”
Speaking of changes, some members of the community have expressed concern that moving the Title IX Office to human resources could impact Sewanee’s nationally recognized prevention programs and potentially could reverse recent progress in addressing sexual misconduct. So how do you respond to these concerns, and what was the reasoning behind this decision?
“Well, I was never quite confident or certain that the Title IX, EQB and ADA, all three of those areas belonged under the previous division. I don’t know if that was the best place for them. We are absolutely committed to the continuation of our strong stand for nondiscrimination, for the protection of individuals here, and for the fulfillment of our obligations under Title IX and Title VI. So this was not in any means of segmenting [or saying] this isn’t this area of importance to us. I think it’s placing it in an office that has potential for integrating those services in a way that will be meaningful for our students. And in fact, Dean Campbell will soon be posting a position in the student life area that will have a component related to Title IX. So I see it as a logical restructuring but by no means minimizing the importance of our approach in these areas.”
Can you also speak a little bit about budget cuts and their potential impact?
“We made some adjustments in the budget for this current fiscal year. We asked budget managers to try to reduce some of their budgets by 10%, and I think they were fairly successful in doing that in most areas, and I don’t think you’ll see a big impact there. That’s not to say it doesn’t pinch a bit, but I believe we’re making decisions that are prudent for the institution’s financial position, and that will allow us to continue to do all the things that we need to do and do them really well. We have not filled some positions across campus where vacancies occurred, so that’s helped with our budget. So we’re paying close attention to it. We had a group that was focused on it last year and this year we’re going into a process of what’s often referred to as zero-based budgeting. The department will start with – you have to build your budget from the ground up, rather than just giving them [budgets] out and saying, here, [each department is] going to figure out how to use it. So I think that also is going to help.”
What is your stance on international students? How do you see them and how do you think they influence the whole experience others have on this campus? And do you see the number of international students increasing?
“Well, I think that you add a lot to our campus. You know, I’ve said often that I want the University to look and be more like the diverse world in which we live. And so having international students here really brings another set of experiences, a set of eyes, a set of opportunities for our students to learn more about your experience and your culture, about your being here, even as you’re learning more about our world. You add a lot. You know, early this summer, we were a little worried about whether our new international students would be able to come visit due to some visa concerns. It turned out everyone was able to get their visa. And so we have, I think, 22 new international students, and they add a lot to our campus. I’m delighted to have another good group of international students here. I look forward to Phoebe and I having you all over the house sometime soon. We always enjoy doing that. It’s not like we have a set number that we’re interested in achieving. We have some scholarship funding … but we’d love to see more international students and we’re actually part of a new program, the Davis program. And that has the potential for attracting even more international students. So there is absolutely no cap on international students, and we would like to have even more. Maybe you can help recruit more.”
We’ve noticed that there are some changes happening in the University. How do you think these changes will affect those coming in a few years?
“I think we’ve made some really great strides. I think the Biehl Commons has a lot of potential, but it could probably be even more utilized as a place for our students. I mean, it’s kind of a front door living room for our students. So I hope we can advance its use. I think some of the changes in the Fowler Center are real improvements to what the student athlete experiences, [and] not just the athletes, but all students. We’re looking at doing some renovations, potentially at the Bishop’s Common, that will make it a more student friendly place. So I think all of these are really good, important opportunities for physical changes to our campus. The strategic plan also encourages some developments in our academic program. You know, we added the data science major last year, and that’s, I think, a really important development. We’re adding a faculty position in our business experience. I think that’ll be very beneficial. There’s a lot of demand; that’s our largest minor in Sewanee. So I think those are some really good changes that are leading us toward living into this strategic plan. I love one of the elements of the strategic plan that calls for every major department to have courses available that somehow tie back to this Domain. I think we can have some sort of curriculum across the Domain initiative, so that an English major or a science major, or an art history major, they will still have some classes and courses that tie back to this incredible 13,000 acre domain. I just don’t think you can say enough about what it means to have this beautiful 13,000 acres here on this mountain top.”
When we spoke before, you mentioned wanting to teach a class during your time at Sewanee. Are you still planning on doing that?
“I am. I’m still not sure when. I’ve been hoping I might go to teach this spring. And that’s still a possibility. So at some point, yes, I feel very much interested. I am very much interested in teaching again. I look forward to when I can get around to doing that. Yeah, that would be awesome.”
What do you want your legacy to be like?
“I don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about my legacy. I’m really focused on today and on helping this institution be and be known as one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country. That’s the goal, to be and be known as one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country. Actually, I think we already are, but I think we need to be known for it even more and to be even better. Here’s an interesting thing. We’ve loved the attention we’ve gotten with Princeton Review naming us the number one most beautiful campus in the country. The weekend after that, the Garden & Gun magazine reached out to me for a quote about that. And my quote was something along the lines of, well, we’re very pleased to be recognized as the most beautiful campus in the country. And I went on to say, but I hope we’ll also be recognized and receive similar accolades for our academic program, for our sense of community, and for the impact that our graduates are having in the world after they finish. So I love the beauty part, but there’s more to this place. After all, our academic program is kind of why we’re here. And the sense of community that’s so important is, I think, a very meaningful part of this experience. And the success and the impact that our graduates are having in the world beyond the domain. But I just think it’s important to say, yes, we’re beautiful, but that’s not all. We’re also all these other great things.”
Have you read any good books lately?
“Gosh, that’s a good question. I read a book this summer, “North Woods”, which was really an interesting book. It had been recommended to me, but I’m currently reading–and I had never read it before–Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” My wife Phoebe and our daughter Caroline and I were in London this summer, and then we went up to York for a couple of days to York Minster. And then we took a bus over to Whitby, which is a coastal town there in England, and Whitby is the site of where Count Dracula, when he came from Europe, owned this ship–this spooky ship. It landed in Whitby, so the scene of Dracula, much of it was in London and in Whitby. So when I was over there, I picked up a copy of “Dracula”, and now I’m reading it. It’s very good. I mean, I had never read it. I know, there’s a lot of movies and TV shows and whatever about vampires, but it’s really well written.”
What do you think your most listened to song of the year is? Like, if you had a Spotify wrapped, what’s your number one song?
“Well, that’s easy. It actually went on, the night before I was installed, the Sewanee Symphony did a concert and they actually played it that night because I had mentioned in some interview that it was my favorite song. It’s a song by Mary Chapin Carpenter, and it’s called “Why Walk When You Can Fly?” And you should go listen to it. It’s a beautiful song, and I say it’s the most listened to, because my family jokes with me about this, but whenever I cook, I like to cook out and I like to cook and I like to grill outside. Whenever I turn on the grill, I put on Mary Chapin Carpenter and so they like, roll their eyes. They go, here he goes again.”
Do you have anything else you would like to share?
“No, but I appreciate the good work of The Sewanee Purple and the students really enjoy having The Purple out there and thank you for your leadership with that. I believe strongly in the value of the free press and it’s important instrument in our nation’s history. And today, as much as ever.”