The University of Lynchburg will start the new academic year Aug. 22, marking President Alison Morrison-Shetlar's third year in leadership.
Morrison-Shetlar said when she first visited campus nearly three years ago, she felt it was a place where she could grow and bring her expertise.
“As soon as I came onto campus, I had that feeling that this could be my next home,” Morrison-Shetlar said in a recent interview with The News & Advance.
Morrison-Shetlar was named president of UL in November 2019. Her term began in July 2020 after the retirement of Kenneth Garren, who had served as president since 2001.
She is the school's 11th president and the first woman in the role in UL's 116-year history.
One of the biggest obstacles she faced was navigating the college through the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. She said the nine months of preparation leading into the 2020 fall semester was important.
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“That to me was really, really helpful in transitioning into the president’s position,” Shetlar said. “In fact, for me and for a lot of other people, it was a very seamless transition.”
When many schools shut down in March 2020, she went online and talked with about 1,500 faculty, staff, students, parents, community members and graduates of the university.
The university managed to stay residential throughout those two years, according to Morrison-Shetlar.
“The students stepped forward and said, ‘President Alison, we’ll do anything, just don't send us home,' and they did,” Morrison-Shetlar said. “It’s because of the students that we were successful.”
She started the Lynchburg Tomorrow initiative — which originated from various meetings with local community members in her first few months as president — as a way to contribute to the city and position the college to be “Lynchburg’s university.”
In their first meeting, members of the initiative discussed different topics and ideas they can work on, collaboratively, to move the city forward and see if the university can be of service.
Three key areas identified to help the community were access to healthy food, access to affordable health care and leadership development.
In the meeting, they implemented an asset map outlining organizations, entities and leaders in the city and region who can help with those three areas.
An example of a program under the Lynchburg Tomorrow initiative is the Scholar Identity Institute. In June, rising sophomores, juniors and seniors at both E.C. Glass and Heritage high schools participated in a one week institute on campus. They worked closely with Vanderbilt Professor Gilman Whiting on team-building activities and identifying as a scholar.
Michael Jones, UL's vice president for enrollment, marketing and communications, said his two years of working with Morrison-Shetlar have been the hardest he's ever worked before.
“We have a hard time keeping up with her. She is full of ideas and they’re good ones,” Jones said.
Moving forward, Morrison-Shetlar wants undergraduate numbers to increase to 1,900 students and graduate numbers to increase to 1,000 students. There's currently 1,822 undergraduate students and 870 graduate students, according to the university website.
She wants the university to be known for leadership development; innovation; partnerships; and diversity, equity and inclusion.
“I want us all to be doing what we do best, which is to prepare students for the future so that they can be leaders and they can change the world,” Morrison-Shetlar said.
“I want us all to be doing what we do best, which is to prepare students for the future ...”
— Alison Morrison-Shetlar, University of Lynchburg president