Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify
In the forty-third episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Suzanne Allison Davis, President of Greenville University. Davis opens by discussing the roles presidents play in strategic planning processes—offering observations that stretch back to preparing a community to engage in such a planning effort to keeping constituents focused on the details once a plan is well underway. Davis then shares that while she never planned to serve in higher education, she believes her graduate degrees in business and law serve Greenville well as she seeks to provide direction for how a Christian, liberal arts institution can navigate the challenges facing higher education today. Part of Davis’s commitment to Greenville stems from her days as a student and the ways that Greenville professors and coaches walked alongside her during a tragic season in her family’s life. While Davis depends upon large batteries of data to make decisions, her own undergraduate experience reminds her that each datapoint reflects a particular student and his or her experience at Greenville. While data-informed decisions are important, she contends relationships prove critical. Davis then concludes by discussing the qualities that define the academic vocation as exercised at Greenville and the ways those qualities foster relationships that prove transformative for students who call Greenville home.
Todd Ream: Welcome to Saturdays at Seven, Christian Scholar’s Review’s conversation series with thought leaders about the academic vocation and the relationship that vocation shares with the Church. My name is Todd Ream. I have the privilege of serving as the publisher for Christian Scholar’s Review and as the host for Saturdays at Seven. I also have the privilege of serving on the faculty and the administration at Indiana Wesleyan University.
—
Our guest is Suzanne Allison Davis, President of Greenville University. Thank you for joining us.
Suzanne Allison Davis: Thanks so much. Glad to be here.
Todd Ream: Shortly after you were appointed president, Greenville invested in what came to be known as Vision 2030: Rise Up, God’s Still Rolling Stones. Would you please begin by detailing the role you believe a president plays in preparing an academic community to invest in a strategic planning process?
Suzanne Allison Davis: I think it’s critical that you have the right mindset. So before there was Vision 2030, we had really worked on three words in our previous action plan, which was all surrounding immersive, experiential learning, and innovative approach to higher education in a very interconnected ethos. And so really leaning into our tradition obviously of empowering students for lives of Christ-like character and service that we have as our mission statement for over 130 years.
But also then just taking a little bit of time to reorient what was going to be relevant in, in Christian private liberal arts, higher education. And so before there was Vision 2030, there was this action plan that really focused on those words that would then play out in this, how God is using this community to still roll the stones away and just seeing all the miraculous things, the work of, of, of the Spirit on our campus.
Todd Ream: Thank you. Would you please then share what role you believe a president plays in framing the development of the strategic plan, as the process is beginning to emerge and, and move forward?
Suzanne Allison Davis: Well, clearly you have to bring everyone along, right? It’s not just the president’s vision, and so I have an unbelievable board that definitely set part of the plan, spoke into the plan with me and then cabinet members.
And then across the institution, we did not launch Vision 2030 without having the feedback sessions for an entire year to just speak into the plan from all different aspects, including students. And so many stakeholders that need to be aware of, of what the future holds and frankly, how we’re going to uniquely meet the needs of students in the future.
Todd Ream: Yeah. This is perhaps what most people see in terms of a president’s role in a strategic planning process, but may not know what necessarily goes through a president’s mind during this part, but would you please share what role you believe president plays in advancing efforts once they’ve been detailed?
Suzanne Allison Davis: So the president’s mind, I think is an interesting way to put it because I think that a president needs to think of themselves as a servant of all in executing the mission, but also have frankly the accountability for the institution mission continuing.
And so I guess my mindset was one of just the humility that I’m able to fill this role in this time. One of openness to, to other ideas. I mean, interconnected being a key part of this. And so I have a motto with many advisors, plan, succeed. Of course, that’s out of Scripture. But I think that you have to have this mindset if you’re going to listen, you’re going to follow along, you’re going to serve the interests of the community but most importantly, the mission.
And so keying off of that idea of mindset, it’s a very, you know, they talk about presidents having a heavy burden, and I think that is true. There is a little bit of a weight of leadership, of knowing those are the kinds of things that you need to be thinking about and how you’re going to move a community forward on a vision, because frankly, if it’s just a piece of paper, if your strategic plan sits on the shelf, it’s not a plan at all.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Yep. Thank you. I want to transition now to asking about this particular plan in greater detail then, and how did the Greenville community come to invest in a strategic plan framed by John 11:38 & 39?
Suzanne Allison Davis: You know, I don’t know that it’s necessarily just tied to a specific scripture, but rather, just the idea that we have seen remarkable strides that you wouldn’t think from a small institution in southern Illinois that you would see. It’s a come from behind kind of strategy. We didn’t have much going for us in terms of demographics.
I think Illinois is second in, in the nation of the worst states to, to be doing higher education and we export a lot of students outside of the state. Our birth rates are particularly horrific, and yet, we just started beating the trends in enrollment. We started beating trends in advancement. We began to see the culture shift to one of a growth mindset, and people come along and say, you know what? We have something to say in this space.
And, and I think that, that, that’s the concept of it. It’s not just still rolling stones. We also are thinking about this concept of you know, you get past one mountain and then you’ve got another to climb. And so I always say that necessity’s the mother of innovation because that’s why we have to be so innovative is because we don’t have everything going for us that perhaps other views in demographics or even in endowments or things like that.
So we’re very gritty. And that song Still Rolling Stones is Lauren Daigle’s song. And if you are familiar with the song, it actually starts, “Out of the shadows bound for the gallows dead man walking.” And that’s what a lot of people would’ve said about Greenville University. But yet, here we are and, and we’re thriving with setting a new record for enrollment numbers. Even yet this fall, our numbers are up for another record breaking year. So it’s just, it’s remarkable, right. So I would say that’s kind of the, the head nod to the things of God that we don’t understand.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Thank you. In what ways then does this framework call the community to focus its efforts and energies on specific priorities?
Suzanne Allison Davis: As much as I’d like to say something lofty or ideal priorities, but they obviously, obviously they’re in there, but we have focused and honed in on the data that tells us that we’re being successful. So I am a data, data-driven person. I’m a business person at heart, and so I always say, you know, if we’re relevant, we’re relevant, which means that if we see the deposits growing and we see we have a pathway to a much bigger number than what we have right now on campus, first to 1400, then to 2000 plus, which are big numbers for us.
That starts demanding certain focus points, right? Because although it sounds like a lot of, is it just about the dollars or the numbers? No. What it means is you’re relevant. You have an audience that wants to come to you. You have an audience that wants to stay with you. So your student satisfaction is key to all of that, right? They’re enjoying their experience, that more students want to come. You’re growing that number as well as you know, all of the numbers then that point to retention, persistence, graduation rates.
This is what I think it takes to be responsible in higher education right now, if you’re not seeing that kind of growth or interest in your campus, you have to ask the question if you’re focusing on the right things. So to your point, to bring focus, there’s real data and real numbers and you know, we’re even tracking through students’ cell phones, their engagement in certain events, their engagement in certain things. So also, you know, bringing focus is the data, the technology that it takes to prove your ideals, that you believe that you’re relevant because.
Todd Ream: Yeah. Flip side of that question then is in what ways does such a framework call the Greenville community to resist the temptation to focus its efforts and energies on other priorities, even priorities that may be right or good, but not part of the plan?
Suzanne Allison Davis: There’s always going to be distraction and you got to, you know, can’t see the forest for the trees kind of thing if you do get focused on too many things. But that’s why I do think that giving a call out to the data that we see is helpful and having it live.
I always say if I don’t have live data on my screen, then it’s not even relevant. And so if you have live data point streaming, and I mean, we have tickers of things we’re tracking that literally come up and, and if it doesn’t say timestamped on the bottom at a, at, in the last day or two, then you know it.
And so I think that just even keeping it in front of people, what we’re tracking, I mean, you do get what you measure and so if you’re not measuring it you probably are, are going to get off on a tangent of something that isn’t working towards the final goal. So that’s one thing.
But obviously it’s lots of discussion. I mean universities are like small cities in a way, right? It’s less like a business even though I use some business principles, it’s less like a business than it is a small city. So there’s lots of stakeholders and so you have to continue to, you know, beat the drum and make sure it’s the same drum.
And that’s why I said that there were three I words, not to be confused with. Three I’s like but three I words that formed the premise that we literally just kept saying and saying and saying. So that, you know, is it an immersive experiential learning modality? Are we, you know, working towards that? Is it innovative? Is it an interconnected strategy both internally and externally? And then, you know, once you ask yourself those questions, then hopefully you can see if you’re still on point.
Todd Ream: I want to transition now to asking you about your own vocational formation as an educator and as an educational administrator. You earned an undergraduate degrees in philosophy and political science from Greenville College, now University, and then earned a JD and an MBA from the University of Illinois.
At what point did you realize your sense of calling existed somewhere at the intersection of law and business?
Suzanne Allison Davis: I realized that pretty early on, just seeing my strengths and relations to others even at Greenville College at the time where I studied, I feel like I although I studied philosophy and political science I had some amazing advisors who really helped me see how that would play out in a career path and uniquely in the legal area.
So I started there first, but then I always knew I had kind of a knack for business. My dad was a businessman. He was an accountant. And, and so I knew I had that background. And so right as soon as I started practicing law, I realized that I ended up with a lot of business clients and could see a huge impact there. So I returned to get my MBA a little bit later after law school.
But just systems and processes and how they can be improved upon and how you maximize human effort, technology, all of the resources that you have, that seemed to be the, the interplay of where I’m uniquely gifted. And obviously you want to see where your gift meets a need in the world. And so I was uniquely motivated more for non-profit type clients and obviously now in a, in a nonprofit university setting. That’s where my motivations lie to put those, those unique talents and gifts to work.
Todd Ream: You mentioned advisors, that you had some very good advisors when you were a student. Any mentors in particular that you would want to name or identify who had a specific impact on you and how that formation took place?
Suzanne Allison Davis: Absolutely. I was going through a really difficult time when I came to Greenville University as a student. I lost both my brothers to a horrific genetic disease and my dad to cancer. And so it was a very difficult time that I was struggling with grief and my philosophy, philosophy professor at the time, Dr. Craig Boyd, studied ethics and had me kind of write about the things I was going through and that was transformative, just to think about my faith as opposed to just some of the things that I’d been exposed to in just Christian circles.
Being able to address things like how could a good God allow for this kind of suffering and how, you know, evil and the problem of evil and in the study and theology, and that really helped shape who I am today and my ability to work in really tough times and circumstances and with people who are struggling in different ways. So he was instrumental in really helping me think through those critical issues, as well as, Dr. Rick McPeak, who met with me for hours in the union.
Because I actually wasn’t a Christian when I came to Greenville University. I had walked away from any kind of faith tradition because of things that were said to me as a student, as I was, you know, in a line in a funeral when my brother wasn’t cured of this terrible genetic disease. And there was almost this sense that our family didn’t have enough faith to pray for him to survive. And things that were said that were very damaging.
So I’d walked away from Christians, ended up here because my dad gave me a business ultimatum of all things, and he said he would only pay for a college if it were a Christian college. And so I was smart enough to know I didn’t want to pay and my DI track scholarship fell through at the 11th hour, so I didn’t have a way to go to a public school. So I ended up at Greenville due to a track coach that recruited me here, who’s still here today, Brian Patton.
But Dr. Rick McPeak also spent just hours with me in the union, talking through a book that we were required to read as freshmen called Mere Christianity from C.S. Lewis, and I fought him every day in class about even having to read the book. And then of course, you know, in this bigger seminar class for freshmen, just arguing about the existence of a good God was kind of distracting as it turned out.
So he asked if we could take the conversation to the union after class and eat lunch. And so I took him up on that because I was an A student and I thought this couldn’t hurt to go one-on-one with the professor, but that time literally transformed from a healing perspective so I feel like Dr. Boyd really got through to my head and helped me like, deal with some of these issues from a logic thinking perspective. And Dr. Rick McPeak really helped me heal my heart in a time of, of deep grief, grief and wounds that I think I needed to talk through in a more personal level. And so the two of them were instrumental.
Obviously my coaches were also amazing because I was a student-athlete and two-sport athlete, volleyball and, and track. And so coaches spoke into my life at Greenville University really helped me understand my calling, wouldn’t trade that for the world.
And then, as a lawyer, I had a great mentor that actually helped me get back into higher ed because he said, you know, Suzanne if you take this job, I mean, he was going to be a circuit judge and he was appointing me to be his assistant in that role. And I was going to do that.
And then Greenville, my alma mater, was calling to see if I would come back. And I was like, I don’t intend on coming back. I’m going to be a circuit judge. And he actually said to me, you know, you could end up on the back end of people’s lives in the courtroom or you could impact the front end just like yours has been impacted by so many faculty and staff at Greenville. And so, you know, I think you gotta think about that, whether you want to be on the front end or the back end of people’s lives.
And that was transformative as well to understand my unique sense of calling because I am more motivated to be on the front end of people’s lives instead of as a lawyer after they’ve made a lot of, sometimes really bad decisions or just fighting over, you know, money and things of that nature. So it’s been amazing to come back to the university environment.
Todd Ream: Thank you. After practicing law and then teaching at Eastern Illinois University, you returned to Greenville. Would you describe the discernment process? Maybe say a little bit more about, you know, what you were thinking about as you decided to be on the front end of people’s lives and what you estimated your career then might look like when you returned?
Suzanne Allison Davis: Well, so I was given advice and I’m not saying this is Eastern’s M.O. by any stretch of the imagination, but a faculty mentor at the time at state school said, you know, you should set your office hours at a time when you won’t get that many students to come in. I was like, that seems opposite of what we’re, you know, going towards. But you know, I did have large sections. I had, you know, 200 students a semester when I started. And so it was a lot.
And as a lawyer, interestingly, I would get students who came in for office hours because I didn’t take that faculty member’s advice. I set the office hours when students would come, but oftentimes they were seeking legal advice, you know, on really rough areas of their lives. And I do feel like I was able to make an impact there, you know, to be salt and light and some of those really intense situations they found themselves in.
But through that, I realized I would much rather be at a Christian university where everybody’s kind of rowing in the same direction for student success and thriving, right? Instead of just dealing with, you know, students who need legal advice or dealing with faculty who, you know, aren’t there only for the students, but also, you know, research agenda and the other reasons that they might, you know, be in academics.
I really was in it to be in the front end of people’s lives and to help them through some of the challenges. I mean most of your big decisions in life happen, I mean, one way or the other, 18 to 22-year-old, it’s a really critical time in life to set the trajectory of where you’re going and who you’re going to be with on that journey and, and all of those things.
And so I think that’s what really solidified my call, was working at Eastern Illinois University. It was great from a standpoint of learning just what it took to be a faculty member and, and be in the classroom and and have the professional development that you need to have in your field. All of the things that that taught me, I wouldn’t trade it.
But at the same time, coming to a Christian university just felt like the right fit for the amount of care and, and total holistic personhood that we express on our campuses as Christian universities, seemed like a better fit.
Todd Ream: Prior to your appointment as president then, after you returned, you served in several roles, including chief of staff, the founding dean of the business school, and the chief Information officer the VP for university relations. What did your service in those various roles teach you about your sense of vocation and from where you derive the greatest vocational satisfaction?
Suzanne Allison Davis: Wow, that’s a tough question because I think what it really taught me is I’m a jack of all trades, master of none. I can thrive in a lot of different things. I love to learn new things in areas of the college. That’s why I was in various administrative roles mainly out of necessity and, and needing to fill a need for a period of time to do a certain thing. And usually it was involving kind of a turnaround of an area. So uniquely found myself equipped to adapt and start to set goals and, and start to bring accountability and a new thought around an area of the institution.
I definitely found a willingness to connect outside the university with this kind of interconnected thinking. I was not just talking about within the university, which sometimes we don’t talk well even amongst ourselves. And so there was the internal interconnectivity, but I also found that connecting externally was so super important. And so I did quite well in the advancement area of the institution.
Again, I think, you know, oftentimes we talk to our alums about money, and obviously it is important to have a culture of generosity and giving back to the institution, but I have found that if you ask for money, you get advice. And if you ask for advice, you get money. And so this whole idea with many advisors, plans succeed, worked out quite well.
Todd Ream: Thank you. Appointment as president then, can you talk about that discernment process after you’ve had this experience, these roles in a variety of different areas on campus, you knew that to which you’d be stepping into. And so talk a little bit about that discernment process, if you would.
Suzanne Allison Davis: You know, it really was just another opportunity to fill a need. It was obvious that we needed someone to pull some pieces together and, and that was what the board was asking me to do, and really just maximized all the positions that I had held to bring them all together.
I never set out to be a college president. Like I said, I’m a lawyer, right? I think like a business person at heart as well. And so when the question was posed by the board of trustees to step in the role, it felt like the fullness of time. I had held a lot of the key positions that you needed to have. I was in the board meetings from the start of my tenure here as general counsel, so I knew the issues. And it just seemed like the next step in my journey.
So it wasn’t something, you know, revolutionary that I, you know, set out to do or even necessarily felt uniquely called to be a university president. Just so happened that along the way, it seemed like all my experience, all my unique gifts and, and talents as an individual came together and the fullness of time for me to have this role.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. As a Greenville College graduate and as one who had the experience that you had, and have described to us, you know, and earlier in our conversation, in what ways, if any, is then serving as Greenville’s president personal to you?
Suzanne Allison Davis: Absolutely personal in that I believe that this institution has all of the right DNA to meet the world in need that we have all around us. I think our Wesleyan heritage is particularly relevant to the culture because it’s the messy middle. And I think we’re finding out that that’s where we are, right? Like there’s not many people treading through the middle ground because it is so messy.
And so we always, you know, pride ourselves in finding a third way through things. Through COVID, we found a through third way, you know that’s neither right nor left politically. It’s uniquely we feel like we have a path that God has laid before us. And so it’s very personal on a theological standpoint because as I told you, my whole life was transformed from a theological standpoint at Greenville. And so I see that being relevant in students’ lives today.
And so it’s also very personal because I think there’s just a lot of headwinds, and so anything that I can do to advance this institution. You know, I’m a survivor and, and so I find that I personally have an ability for even leading an institution to survive against the odds, just like I am.
Todd Ream: Thank you. In what ways having been a Greenville College student and graduate, in what ways did that make it easier then to step into the role as president? And in what ways, if any, perhaps was it a little bit more difficult?
Suzanne Allison Davis: Great question. I think I’ll start with what makes it more difficult. What makes it more difficult is the institution that served you, you’re now serving it in a new light and I tell everyone who comes back, that’s an alum, keep in mind, like you’re on the other side of this equation now, and it feels different. It’s not about you. It’s important to note it’s not about you anymore, right? And as a student, that’s what you experience. This is kind of all about you. And now it’s not right? It’s about them. It’s about serving the students who are here now.
And even from an alumni and advancement standpoint, I think a lot of alums think about the institution the way it was when they were there, and they’re not thinking about the way it is for the students who are here now and, and what has changed. And so I always tell alums as they come back to work for us or even as they give and get engaged through alumni networks, it’s not about you anymore. It’s just not. So that’s the first thing.
I think that’s hard and I don’t think we do a great job of telling our employees onboarding that come back, that our alums, that’s the case. And so that’s what’s difficult is you’re in a servant role.
And then the thing that makes it amazing though is, you know, the heartbeat, like it is, it’s in your DNA. You, you experienced it, so it’s not hard for you to describe. Whereas somebody who comes from the outside, I think there is a cultural, I call it an 18-month to two year onboarding for you to just kind of learn the unique language and ethos of what goes down. And so I think sometimes, especially in Christian circles, we have our own way of doing things and that takes, that takes other people a little longer to onboard.
Todd Ream: Thank you. You’ve served now for approximately five years. And in what ways has your leadership style developed over that particular course in time?
Suzanne Allison Davis: Well, I started in the spring of 2020 to give you a little context, So a lot has changed, right. Like I said, I felt uniquely called to the position because just a lot of things were on fire in, in the spring of 2020 with a global pandemic and, and all the things that would, would hit us operationally.
So I was able to be more of an operational president in the early years. We forged a partnership even with the University of Illinois, which felt like having a tiger by the tail for having a COVID testing system to be able to open up and play athletics by the fall. And it was we crushed COVID, which is using PCR testing with it. You know, and going back to this, it’s hard to even remember doing this, but we stood up a whole testing site and, and had to submit our results to the state of Illinois and all these things.
When I say we crushed COVID, we actually, with the statistics of testing three times a week with PCR testing, we had two straight weeks of zero by October of that year. So standing up a testing center being able to play games, we actually played a lot of Division I teams that year because we were the only ones that had the testing that was required by the NCAA. And we made money, instead of selling hot dogs at concessions, we made money by kind of trounced in Division I land.
But anyway, it was, you know, going from that which was like responding to an emergency and like powering through to becoming more of an externally facing president was a different role. You know, I now spend a lot of my days, I think, you know, on average about a hundred days on the road last year and the year before meeting with donors meeting with other stakeholders and, and groups. And so it’s definitely transitioned to more of an external relations role.
And even just this semester, I picked up a class because I just felt so dry in terms of getting to know this generation of students because I hadn’t taught for five years. And even, you know, before then, it had been just a class or two here and there, as I was in a lot of different layers of administration. So I’m teaching on Wednesday nights now, and that’s my, you know, life giving moment to be back on campus.
Todd Ream: When you mentioned that you’d picked up a class, initially, I thought you enrolled in a class and I wanted to see the looks on students’ faces on the Greenville campus when you came into class with them sitting out there leading the class.
Suzanne Allison Davis: No. No. Although I should do that too. I’m teaching. Yeah, I’m teaching a class this semester.
Todd Ream: So amidst these changes then from operations and, you know, that being sort of the immediate or most concentrated set of commitments to now adding more external relations, how, if at all, do you describe a typical day?
Suzanne Allison Davis: There’s not really a typical day. I feel like, you know, it’s got lots of variety. But I would say on average, a typical week is starting out with my senior leaders and through cabinet meetings or checking in with them one-on-one, making sure things are running smoothly in their areas.
And what I can do basically, and I start every meeting with what can I do to help, you know, reduce the barriers to your success. Like I just really try to focus on that, as their leader as what can I do both for them personally and professionally as they’re trying to advance the vision. What can I do to make that easier, make life easier? So I kind of start out the week a lot of times with that.
I try to always be on campus on Wednesdays for what we call the Wednesday experience, which is our all call chapel in the gym. We moved it to the gym during COVID to be able to spread out, but now it’s packed because our enrollment is much higher than it was back then. And that’s just a great time for an all call. All faculty and staff go as well as students. We close our offices, and so I try to be on campus for Wednesday mornings throughout the fall and spring semesters. And then teach on Wednesday nights.
And then typically I will travel to see donors or other events with presidents or connections Thursday, Friday, oftentimes, you know, sometimes take off Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. But I either start the week or end the week with the cabinet and try to stay around on Wednesdays and travel a lot in between. So that’s kind of a week in the life, I guess you would say.
Todd Ream: That sounds like my entire semester right there actually. Before we close our conversation, I want to ask about the academic vocation and how you understand it in terms of its qualities and or characteristics. And especially as someone who has served as a faculty member but has also served in a variety of administrative capacities, including now as president, how do you define the academic vocation or understand it?
Suzanne Allison Davis: I think we need to understand ourselves as wise guides that come alongside our students. I think for so many generations now, this concept of sage on a stage was adopted and it’s just not working. That’s why I go into experiential learning, and when I say immersive experiential learning, I mean that you’re immersing yourselves with the students in an experience that you are just like a facilitator in their learning process and walking alongside them in their learning and in their understanding of the topic that you, that you’re teaching.
And so that’s why we have a program, our curriculum in the core is called Experience First, because oftentimes you have to put students in an experience before they can really learn what they need to know about that experience and then reflect on it as well. And so there’s nothing quite like a business law class like you need to go to the courthouse and just spend some time and then we can talk about it, right? And then we can reflect on it. Or, you know, really pushing students to do a project in business for c-suite executives so that you understand the why behind what you’re learning in business curriculum. Obviously you can do that in a lot of different ways across all curricular areas.
And so I think as academics molds and shapes having an idea for stackable experiences. And, and that’s one thing we do even outside of Greenville. We have experiences that we narrate in Nashville around the music industry. That’s an experience you need to have. If you’re going to go into audio visual tech, you’re going to try to do performance, you’re going to try to do music business, this is all an experience, immersive experience in Nashville.
We do it in the Dominican Republic surrounding missions and nonprofit organizations and, and in Colorado, historically around you know, getting outside and being in nature and biology as well as other outdoor adventures that can be had there. So it’s part of our DNA that we’ve had for a long time to get out of the classroom and have these experiential learning opportunities.
But it’s not just the experience, it’s then how do you create your subject matter experts coming alongside and, and having that facilitation role, walking alongside with the students and all that they know, but also who they are. Just like I told you, the professors did for me, walking alongside, yes, my head, heart, and hands, right, in all sorts of ways to apply that to apply themselves. So that’s what I think.
You know, I think that’s kind of where academia started. People followed, they followed people around, right. That was what professors were. They followed them around and learned from them along the way, and I think we’re kind of coming back to where it all began in that regard.
Todd Ream: In terms of preparing faculty members to exercise this way of engaging with their areas of expertise, but then in turn also with students, how do you go about preparing them for those efforts at Greenville? And in what ways is it related to the Wesleyan/Free Methodist heritage of the institution?
Suzanne Allison Davis: Well, we do experiential learning training, and we have an institute that faculty engage in and I just got drawn up in one for the class I’m teaching. This semester, our chemistry professor’s doing an interdisciplinary escape room. I know that sounds kind of funny, but it is great because like the social work students are performing kind of an experiment on how people engage with each other in an escape room. I wouldn’t want them looking at me in an escape room because I’m trying to get out, you know.
But anyway, and you know, kind of taking it from, and so it’s fun to, you know, think about those as interdisciplinary experiences. So I think that’s unique to a small Christian liberal arts college. I know at a state school it’s even more siloed in terms of the majors and the disciplines. So I think what really we do well here is learn from each other across disciplines and obviously chemistry students looking at the escape room, different than law and business students and we have English students and social work students, you know, so it’s kind of a fun way to work together and, and learn from each other. But also more formal ways, like I said, through experiential learning certifications where you’re actually getting training on how this works best.
With regards to our Wesleyan heritage and the Free Methodist denomination, I think it provides a great structure for this because if you think about the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, it is Scripture, Reason, Tradition, and one of the key elements that was kind of added to the quadrilateral, the equation was Experience. And so that’s why I think the experience part, I think, at least for me, always touched my heart was we don’t have to work devoid of our experiences in life when we are dealing with something that the Lord can meet us in those experiences and even bad or good.
In my situation, a lot of grief as I was coming through college, that experience wasn’t discounted. It wasn’t just, you know, you didn’t pray enough or something. That was the, you know, some of the flippant comments that came through to me, but recognizing the experience and although not understanding why that experience had to happen, recognizing that the human experience is part of theology in general, I think is critical for students and that’s why we embrace it as a campus.
And that’s why we think experiential learning is uniquely Wesleyan in its application here. For a long time, we’ve done a trip called—well, it’s been called different things—but it’s a 100-level class where you experience different world religions because it’s super important to understand why you believe in a Christian faith. And have you ever gone to a mosque, to a temple?
And so having that experience, it’s a little different than just talking about Islam or Hindu or, you know, to meet the people and to go, yeah, to go to synagogue and understand our Jewish faith, heritage. I mean, all of these things are super imperative, I think, to learning in a uniquely Christian environment. And so we again, do it through experience.
Todd Ream: Thank you. As we close our conversation then, when you think about this model or understanding of the academic vocation as it’s exercised at Greenville University, in what ways can the university be of greater service to the Church moving forward? And in what ways can the Church be of greater service to the university?
Suzanne Allison Davis: I think we’re at the tip of the spear, right? That’s what I say to Free Methodist Bishops quite often is if you, you want to see the next generation of leadership or even congregation members well, you’re looking at them right here on our college campus, right? So the issues that are going to hit the church in 10, 20 years are already hitting at the college campuses, and those conversations are being had.
So I think not to say we’re the canary and the, the mine, but in some regards, if the Church wants to think of us that way, that’s kind of what it is, right? You’re going to see what’s surviving and what’s not. We are a great, you know, test environment of what’s to come.
And then I think we learn from the Church and the obvious ways of taking all of the rich theology that has been formed and has been engaged in, in our churches and, and getting the benefit of, of having that rich tradition. I mean, you know, I think about new universities could start up I suppose, but I do think it means something to students and their families that, you know, we’ve been around for over 130 years saying the same thing about truth and what it means to live as a human in this world and why we’re here.
I mean, we’re answering big questions that aren’t being reinvented every day, you know? So I, you know, I say that we have innovative as one of our words, but I always say, you know, we’re innovative in that we’re a 130-year-old startup. So we’re doing the same things that we’ve been doing and there’s nothing new under the sun.
But at the same time, we’re doing it in a different way and we’re meeting the needs in a little bit different way, every year as we learn and grow. And we, you know, adapt to society and the students that come to us.
—
Todd Ream: Thank you. Our guest has been Suzanne Allison Davis, President of Greenville University. Thank you for taking the time to share your insights and wisdom with us.
