Leland named president of GC&SU

The Board of Regents and the University System of Georgia Chancellor Thomas C. Meredith named Dr. Dorothy Leland, vice president of the Boca Raton campus of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla. and professor of philosophy, president of Georgia College & State University Tuesday.
According to Meredith, Leland was the first choice candidate for the position at GC&SU.
“We are fortunate to have secured our first-choice candidate,” Meredith said in a press release. “Dr. Leland has earned the esteem of her peers and colleagues for being an educator committed to the liberal arts experience. She is strongly supportive of educational access and diversity, and fosters a team-oriented approach in the organizations she leads. She has strong people skills and is well liked in her current position, as attested to by Florida Atlantic’s faculty, staff and students.”
Leland has held her current post since 2001. She has nearly 20 years of experience in a variety of college and university positions, six of them at Florida Atlantic. Her other faculty appointments have been at Purdue University, California State University, Northridge, California State University, Chico and at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
She holds a B.A. in English, an M.A. in American studies and a Ph.D. in philosophy, all earned at Purdue University.
According to Frank T. Brogan, president of Florida Atlantic University, this is an excellent opportunity for Leland.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to offer one of Florida Atlantic University’s best and brightest as the new president of Georgia College and State University,” Brogan said. “Dr. Dorothy Leland will make Georgia College & State University proud of its selection as she makes Florida Atlantic University very proud today.”
Dr. David Brown, interim president of GC&SU, said both Leland and GC&SU will benefit from the decision.

Leland firmly believes that GC&SU is a well-positioned school to take the next step for providing a more liberal arts education to its students. Her vision is to take the ideas that are already at this institution and help transform them into a meaningful plan of action.
“GC&SU is a university on the move,” she said. “It has earned statewide recognition as Georgia’s designated public liberal arts university and is well positioned to gain national prominence as well. The more I learned about GC&SU’s commitment to providing students with a superior liberal arts education, the more interested I became in joining the university community. During my visit to GC&SU, I met some extraordinary students and I was enormously impressed by the talent and dedication of faculty and staff.”
Leland is also very passionate about the students. She foresees her relationship with the students of GC&SU to be very important and meaningful to not only her, but to the students.
“I see having a strong and positive relationship with the students,” she said. “Students are what we are all about at GC&SU. I would like to be able to connect often and deeply with them.”
Leland is scheduled to begin her job as president officially on Jan. 1, 2004. She is very excited and her first order of business is to welcome people back to campus and to listen.
“The first order of business would be welcoming back everyone from the holidays,” she said. “I really need to go around and meet all the people that I need to meet to fully understand the college and the community. That is the most important thing. Listening to people, find out where they think the college is going, and what they think the vision is. I am thrilled at this opportunity.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 21 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry