“Ever since Saturday, I’ve had one particular, very important question on my mind,” began Longwood University President Elect W. Taylor Reveley IV at the formal announcement of his presidency. “And that is whether I’m a member of the red team or the green team.”
The Longwood University Board of Visitors (BOV) named Reveley as the university’s 26th president with a unanimous vote during their Saturday, March 23 meeting. Reveley will succeed Brig. Gen.
Patrick Finnegan, who resigned in June 2012, and Marge Connelly, who has served as interim president since July 2012. He will serve as president until at least 2018. “We felt very comfortable with his vision and view of his Longwood, and he had really prepared, which always makes you feel good when somebody cares enough about your university to really spend a lot of time looking into it,” said Marianne Radcliff, BOV rector and ex-officio member of the presidential search advisory committee.
Reveley currently serves as managing director of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, a nonpartisan institute that focuses on expanding understanding of the United States presidency, policy and political history. He will assume his role as president on June 1.
“We really wanted to make sure we had people with different perspectives,” Radcliff said. “We definitely wanted higher education to be one of those perspectives, but we also wanted a little bit of business acumen.”
In addition to his work at the Miller Center, Reveley was previously coordinating attorney for the National War Powers Commission and chair of the Board of Trustees of Virginia Intermont College. He has also served as a corporate attorney at Hunton & Williams.
Reveley received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University, his master’s degree from Union Presbyterian Seminary and his J.D. from the U.Va. School of Law.
After a nine-month national search, Reveley was one of the four finalists who visited campus for an interview process that included private question and answer sessions with various groups representing the university, said Radcliff.
These constituents included students, faculty and staff that representatives from the 15-member Presidential Search Advisory Committee selected. Radcliff said these individuals were asked to keep the identities of the presidential candidates a secret.
Radcliff said the final four candidates visited campus on March 14 and 15 (two individuals interviewed per day). The Presidential Search Advisory Committee recommended two finalists to the BOV that Saturday, which Radcliff said was an “easy decision.”
The two candidates went before the BOV the next Saturday, March 23, before the governing board appointed Reveley as president-elect.
Dr.DerekTaylor,associate professor of English and vice chair of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee chaired by BOV member Jane Maddux , said Reveley “had a lot of support from the committee.”
Taylor said Reveley has an “impressive mind,” as he “has one of those supple minds that is able to see all of the possibilities and is able to think things through in a very strategic and wise way.”
Reveley has familial ties to Longwood, since his grandmother and her sisters, as well as his great grandmother, graduated from the university.
His grandfather taught biology at the university. His paternal grandfather also had roots in higher education in the area, as he served as president of Hampden-Sydney College.
When asked how he knew Longwood was the right fit for him as a leader, Reveley said, “The foremost thing is the spirit of the place. It’s just kind of self-evident as you’re walking around campus.”
As far as the initiatives Reveley plans to launch during his time as president, he would like to focus on the retention rate. He noted that about 60 percent of Longwood students complete their undergraduate degree within six years. He said it “would be nice to see that number improve ... and help people get through and get their degree in a timely way.”
Reveley would also like to help “build the visibility of Longwood. A university that’s 175 years old that is one of the hundred oldest college and universities in the country ought to be better known than it is.”
While Reveley said the media is a factor in raising the university’s profile, he also believes it is important to “really continue to emphasize what a great student experience Longwood is and to keep making that better and better and better. I hope that would be seen as one of my single achievements is that people continue to love this place and love it even more.”
A focus on fundraising will also be a priority for Reveley, as well as working with the General Assembly and the Commonwealth of Virginia, in general, to retrieve state funding.
“I think that in the spirit of strategic planning, one thing that’ll be fun to think through with everyone, is how we can shape the Longwood curriculum for the future in a way that makes the most sense,” said Reveley.
Reveley believes shaping the university’s curriculum around the concept of citizen leadership would be an effective way to go about this.
Reveley enjoyed his time working with students his time working with students at the Miller Center and is looking forward to interacting with students at Longwood.
“He’s really a mesh of everything you could want in a president,” said Brian Reid, student representative to the Presidential Search Advisory Committee. “He’s taught before, he’s been a student in college, he’s had administrative experience, he knows his way around the legislature in Virginia.”
From spending time with Reveley, Reid believes he “understands the struggle of the 21st century student.”
Reid added, “He will always make an effort to show students he does care about us, and he’s here for us, and if he’s not here and you don’t see him on campus, it’s because he’s somewhere advocating for us.”
Each university president seems to have a unique approach to his or her role. Regarding his own leadership style, Reveley said he plans to be “very engaged with the students.”
As far as the Longwood event Reveley aims to make his signature, he quipped, “I haven’t picked out exactly whether it’s the dunking booth or the Big Event; there’s a lot of traditions here.”
