Lipscomb Now Fall 2021

The Magazine for Alumni and Friends

fall 2021

Leading Lipscomb through

PURPOSEFUL GROWTH to a BOLD FUTURE

Vol. 16 No. 2

Senior Vice President of Strategy Susan Galbreath Editor Kim Chaudoin Senior Managing Editor Janel Shoun-Smith Writers Logan Butts Kim Chaudoin Janel Shoun-Smith Photography Kristi Jones Lauren Scott Lipscomb Athletics

Design Zach Bowen Hailey Speciale Will Mason Produced by the Office of Public Relations & Communications.

Lipscomb Now is published by Lipscomb University®. Go to lipscomb.edu/news to read more.

Postmaster: Send changes of address to Lipscomb Now, Alumni Relations Lipscomb University One University Park Drive Nashville, Tennessee 37204-3951 ©2021 Lipscomb University.

All Rights Reserved.

The Magazine for Alumni and Friends

fall 2021

Vol. 16 No. 2

Purposeful Growth. Bold Future.

For everything there is a season, and the time has come to mark a transition in leadership at Lipscomb University.

As L. Randolph Lowry steps down from his role as president and

transitions into the role of chancellor, we take this time to reflect on the firm foundation built through purposeful growth over the past 16 years and to celebrate Lipscomb’s bold future with new President Candice McQueen.

Throughout this publication, you will find many of the well-known and appreciated quotes that President L. Randolph Lowry has frequently used during his tenure at Lipscomb. Some are quotes he coined himself, some are quotes he loves and re-uses often, some are from his inaugural address. All are reflective of his leadership and the direction in which he has steered Lipscomb over the past 16 years.

In addition, Lipscomb Now asked friends and colleagues of President L. Randolph Lowry and Presidential Spouse Rhonda Lowry to comment on their impact on the Lipscomb community during his tenure. You will find many such comments within these pages, but to see more reflections on how the Lowrys impacted the lives of Bisons, Nashvillians and friends since 2005, log on to lipscomb.edu/now/chancellor-congrats.

Left: From bringing bagpipes to Allen Arena and Starbucks to the Bennett Campus Center, to serving pretzels in the food court and dancing with Malagasy students in Bison Square, L. Randolph Lowry (or RLo to many alums) was a personal presence in the lives of many students.

Cover: More than any Lipscomb presidential couple before, L. Randolph Lowry, Lipscomb’s 17th president, and Rhonda Lowry, presidential spouse and assistant professor of spiritual formation, served Lipscomb as a leadership team, both bringing their professional and spiritual strengths to lead the university through tumultuous decades.

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Candice McQueen: Launching into a Bold Future

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L. Randolph Lowry: Leading Lipscomb through Purposeful Growth

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Rhonda Lowry: Empowering others with Graceful Sincerity

Grounded in the spirit.

In the spring of 2006, at his inauguration, Lipscomb’s then-new President

L. Randolph Lowry described five spirits as encompassing Lipscomb’s purpose.

Now, in fall 2021, Lipscomb’s president of 16 years hands off the university with those five spirits renewed, grounded and transformed for the future.

16 A spirit of faith leads to a future grounded in spirituality 22 A spirit of inquiry leads to a future fueled by confidence 28 A spirit of community leads to a future embracing diversity 34 A spirit of connection leads to a future reinforced by deep relationships 40 A spirit of service leads to a future marked by caring

A firm foundation.

Randy Lowry reflects on how Lipscomb has formed him and how he has formed the Lipscomb of 2021, now a firm foundation for a national Christian university.

46 Reflecting on the past 16 years

Coming in the next edition of Lipscomb Now: More on new President Candice McQueen, the return of Bison Notes and additional news and features.

To see more of the Lipscomb Now features and the latest Lipscomb news, visit LIPSCOMB.EDU/NEWS.

Throughout the years of the Lowry administration, the Lipscomb community has built a firm foundation for the university’s future, most visibly through new brick-and-mortar construction, but also by building leaders, academic programs, the financial endowment and opportunities for students.

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From the Chairman of the Board

FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS… Celebrating purposeful growth.

Anticipating a bold future.

This edition of Lipscomb Now is a very special one, as it arrives to you at a time when Lipscomb is going through an important transition: a handoff of leadership from one trailblazer to its next chief guide. As a member of the board since 2000 and a member of the committee that chose President L. Randolph Lowry, it is both saddening and gratifying to see the next chapter in Lipscomb University begin.

President Lowry, and his partner in all things Rhonda Lowry, without a doubt, have poured their heart and soul into this work and have wholly served this place called Lipscomb!

I am confident that our new President, Candice McQueen, and her spouse, Andy McQueen, both alumni of Lipscomb University with deep roots in the Nashville community, will be equally invested.

Dr. McQueen has both statewide and national experience managing educational systems, and previously served as the dean of the College of Education and as a senior vice president at Lipscomb (See more on page 4).

I recall vividly the day in 2005 that Randy and Rhonda were announced to the Lipscomb community along with all of their children. Together they made Lipscomb and Nashville their home, and both our campus and city are blessed and improved by their investment.

Randy and Rhonda have encouraged students to look beyond the boundaries of Lipscomb to learn and interact. One of his quotes often heard is, “the city is our campus, and the world is our classroom.” They have created a safe environment for students to test and prove their foundational beliefs regarding a profession, relationships and faith in God. President Lowry knew how to dream and how to encourage others to dream, and we really did dream. Every corner of our campus has changed with new facilities and improvements, along with new schools and disciplines of study.

community in important ways. Whether sharing our facilities during a flood or hosting a multitude of graduations for public schools, the friendship shared between Lipscomb and Nashville has impacted many. Lipscomb’s collective leadership, vision and passion to benefit the Nashville community and the state of Tennessee is an affirmation of the commitment of President and Mrs. Lowry to making that community impact.

In his inaugural comments, President Lowry spoke of the Spirit: being grounded in the Spirit and empowered by the Spirit. Through

worship opportunities and Bible classes, students have been allowed to praise their God and seek the Spirit’s direction. Numerous service opportunities within our city have taught the joy of service and life in God’s kingdom. The example of walking out their faith will impact generations to come.

When the Lowrys arrived in 2005, God brought them here to meet the needs of these 16 years. It brings to mind the verse in the book of Esther, “And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” God called you and you listened.

And now in 2021, God is bringing a new president to Lipscomb, to face new challenges, to bring new opportunities and “to shine a light into the darkness,” as Dr. McQueen said at the announcement on August 5. I am confident that her vision, deep expertise, passion for faith-based education and love for Lipscomb will lead us boldly into a new season of greatness, exemplified by excellence, diversity and immersion in our community as together we work to transform the lives of our students.

Our gratitude to God overflows for all He has accomplished through all of these leaders, and we continue to be grateful that Dr. Lowry will remain with us as chancellor. Thank you, Randy and Rhonda, for reflecting the light and love of Jesus. Our prayers go with you as you enjoy those beautiful grandchildren and follow God’s next call.

With the Love of Jesus, David L. Solomon 14th Chair of the Lipscomb Board of Trustees (2017-present)

During these past 16 years, Lipscomb has impacted the Nashville

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EMPOWERING OTHERS WITH GRACEFUL SINCERITY

Lipscomb alumna Candice McQueen has garnered extensive education experience from the classroom to higher education administration, from teaching in local schools to operating a national education nonprofit organization.

Lipscomb’s own Candice McQueen appointed 18th president of Lipscomb University Alumna McQueen, former education dean and SVP, returns to Lipscomb after stints leading Tennessee education department and a national education nonprofit On Aug. 5, Lipscomb University announced the appointment of Candice McQueen (’96) as the 18th president and first female CEO of the 130-year-old faith-based institution. She began her duties on Sept. 7.

McQueen, who served as Tennessee commissioner of education under former Gov. Bill Haslam from 2015-2018, also previously served the institution as a teacher at Lipscomb Academy, chair of the education department, dean of the College of Education and a senior vice president.

“I am honored and humbled to be chosen to serve as the president of Lipscomb University,” said McQueen, 47, a member of Nashville’s Hillsboro Church of Christ and mother of two.

“Lipscomb is a truly remarkable place where students grow in their

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faith and character while building toward their careers—all in partnership with exceptional faculty and staff who are leaders in their field. I know firsthand how life changing this community can be, and I want to ensure that experience for countless others for many years to come.”

McQueen was unanimously elected president at a special meeting of the Lipscomb Board of Trustees in August after having been recommended to the board by a 14-member presidential search committee composed of representatives from the board of trustees, deans, faculty, staff, students and alumni, working in collaboration with Carter Baldwin, a national search firm, following a six-month national search involving more than 130 applications and nominations.

“Dr. Candice McQueen was uniquely qualified by her commitment to faith-based education, her extensive experience from

THE BOLD FUTURE OF LIPSCOMB

CANDICE MCQUEEN

IN HER OWN WORDS

classroom teacher to higher education executive and her proven leadership skills to keep Lipscomb moving forward in a strategic and excellent way,” said Mitch Edgeworth (’95), vice chair of the Lipscomb Board of Trustees and search committee chair.

“As commissioner of education she led 1,100 state employees and managed a $6 billion budget with vision, intelligence, skill and always with a smile on her face,” said Haslam. “Under her leadership, Tennessee experienced its highest graduation rates and highest average ACT scores in the state’s history while moving the state’s substantial K-12 and higher education reform agenda forward. She is an excellent choice for Lipscomb University.”

Most recently, McQueen was CEO of the National Institute of Excellence in Teaching (NIET), a national nonprofit founded by the Milken Education Foundation that increases educator capacity across K-12 and higher education partners in more than 21 states. As CEO, she has increased service revenue and partnerships by almost 40% in three years, receiving more than $50 million in new multiyear federal and state grants and significantly increasing NIET’s national profile and influence.

“As a faculty member, dean and executive at Lipscomb for 14 years before becoming commissioner, Dr. McQueen showed great leadership, judgement and character,” said L. Randolph Lowry, outgoing Lipscomb president, who will serve as chancellor and tenured faculty after a one-year sabbatical that began Sept. 7. “She is a very effective leader with great vision. It was bittersweet when Gov. Haslam recruited her to his cabinet. It’s exciting to welcome her back to Lipscomb as our next president.”

A native of Clarksville, Tennessee, McQueen and her husband, Andy (’95), a former member of the men’s basketball team, have two children, Abigail, who will be a freshman at Lipscomb University this fall, and Henry, a ninth grader at Lipscomb Academy.

McQueen has a bachelor’s from Lipscomb, a Master of Education in school administration from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, and a Ph.D. in curriculum studies from the University of Texas. Before coming to Lipscomb in August 2001, McQueen taught in both private and public elementary and middle schools in Texas and Nashville.

After joining Lipscomb’s education faculty and serving as chair of the undergraduate education department from 2004-2008, McQueen was appointed dean of the College of Education in July 2008.

Under her leadership as dean, the College of Education doubled its enrollment and giving, and expanded programming to include six new graduate programs, including the college’s doctoral program.

She was also the founding director of Lipscomb’s Ayers Institute for Teacher Learning and Innovation that launched in 2012.

McQueen was appointed senior vice president in November 2013. In that capacity, she also had the responsibility for oversight of Lipscomb Academy, the 1,300-student two-year-old through 12th grade college preparatory school and was a member of the president’s executive leadership team.

Inauguration ceremonies will take place during the spring semester.

Learn more about Lipscomb University’s 18th president at lipscomb.edu/president/18.

My conviction for this role, at this moment in time, comes directly from I John: ‘The light shines in darkness, and darkness has not overcome it.’ I fully believe Lipscomb’s 130-year history has been life-changing as we have continued to elevate the only light that overcomes darkness by revealing Christ to our students, from preschool to graduate school and even to lifelong learning programs. And we’ve done this in meaningful and life-changing ways.

Lipscomb, and the people in this Lipscomb community, have been the life for me, from my time as a student, and then as a teacher at the (Lipscomb) Academy to my time as a faculty member, and eventually as a dean.

I now turn again to you, the faculty and staff and leadership here at Lipscomb, because I want you to be partners in this work, to bring light to our students and continue to bring life as they prepare for their work, their families and their service. Our students deserve our best.

As we confidently help prepare them to pursue their careers, to think deeply and to increase their character and faith, when your light is passed to our students and our community, we illuminate hope, peace and show them the very best way to live. We also begin to fully embody one of my favorite verses from Micah 6:8: ‘He has shown us what is good: to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God.’ I look forward to partnering with you to shine the light for our students in our community. As I look ahead, the future is very bright.

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PURPOSEFUL GROWTH TO A BOLD FUTURE

“One of my greatest joys as president of Lipscomb is to simply set the direction, set the bar, and watch an entire campus far exceed it.”

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PURPOSEFUL GROW TH TO A BOLD FUTURE

GROWTH Leading Lipscomb through PURPOSEFUL GROWTH to a BOLD FUTURE. L. Randolph Lowry, Lipscomb University’s 17th president, came into the job in 2005 understanding that life is full of what he calls “unscripted events.”

Drawing from his background as a conflict management leader, Lowry arrived inherently knowing the way forward would involve conflict, adversarial relationships, challenges and turmoil.

But as they like to say in Lipscomb’s Institute for Conflict Management (the first of seven community-focused institutes he would establish): conflict is actually an opportunity for positive change, innovation and collaboration.

And so beginning in 2005, the Lipscomb Board of Trustees and its Chairman Hilton Dean set a bold tone when they set their sights on a different kind of leader, with skills different than those held by Lipscomb presidents before. Lowry, who came with a

juris doctorate and a career built at Pepperdine University, was chosen to steer Lipscomb in a new direction.

Throughout the 16 years he has led the

university, the Lipscomb community has

navigated through the deepest recession seen since the Great Depression in 2020 as well as the 2008 economic recession, political

polarization and social unrest while still taking bold steps forward amidst these headwinds to lead to unprecedented growth, new heights of academic excellence and a new level of community engagement.

The path ultimately led to a bolder future

for Lipscomb and for Nashville, today in 2021 and tomorrow.

“To say that the Lowrys have worked tirelessly since arriving in Nashville 16 years ago seems almost trite. They have worked so hard to bring about transformational change—for the better—to ensure that Lipscomb endures and thrives in an ever-changing and challenging world. All the while keeping Lipscomb centered on Christ, ultimately the most important aspect of their work.”

Hilton Dean, Chair of the Lipscomb Board of Trustees (2003-2011) lipscomb.edu/news

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“We took risks, but with deliberation. We stepped out, but toward a purpose. Moving forward in faith without all the answers led to a bolder future, it led to becoming more than we already were,” says Lowry, who will now become Lipscomb’s chancellor and tenured faculty for the College of Leadership & Public Service after a yearlong sabbatical.

A hallmark of Lowry’s leadership at Lipscomb has been his dedication to connecting the university to the Nashville community, and he and his wife and teammate Rhonda Lowry also made a point to personally work for the betterment of the community, not just Lipscomb.

“

Throughout his tenure, Lowry served on various local boards, including the Agenda for Nashville’s Future, and he co-chaired the Nashville Mayor’s Green Ribbon Committee on Environmental Sustainability. His service to the Gospel Music Association led to a revitalization of the organization including bringing the association offices and its annual Dove Awards (often called “the GRAMMY® of Christian Music”) to the university in 2013.

That service led to the GMA presenting him with a 2018 Honors award.

A key component to enriching the Nashville community, in his mind, was providing access to a faith-based education

to anyone and everyone who wants one.

During his administration, new programs were created for first generation students, students with intellectual disabilities and military veterans as well as competency-based and online programs for working adults.

His prowess as an executive leader was recognized in 2012 when the Nashville Business Journal named him one of Nashville’s Most Admired CEOs and in 2015 when the publication included him on its inaugural Power 100 list.

His skill as an educational leader has been recognized through invitations to the White House, and his comments were

With God’s blessing and the Lowrys’ leadership, Lipscomb has been transformed into an institution that more effectively serves the community, the world and the Kingdom of God. Lipscomb will forever be changed by the service of Randy and Rhonda Lowry.”

David Scobey, Chair of the Lipscomb Board of Trustees (2011-2017)

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PURPOSEFUL GROW TH TO A BOLD FUTURE

RANDY LOWRY From Left to Right: President L. Randolph Lowry interviewed various key national leaders, such as former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2016, at the annual Imagine event, a gathering to engage the Nashville and Lipscomb communities in topics of local and global importance.

The Lowrys established the Presidential Ambassadors Council as a leadership training program for undergraduate students.

Lowry has hosted presidents, governors and mayors, such as former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean (left), on campus throughout his tenure.

featured in a variety of national media outlets including on CNN, in Bloomberg Businessweek, the Huffington Post and Washington Monthly.

Despite relationships with these highly influential leaders and power brokers, however, Lowry says his favorite leadership moments come through personal moments with students: mentoring them, pastoring them, equipping them and then celebrating with them as they embark on their life’s journey, and with the

faculty and staff who help prepare them for this moment.

“The past 16 years are a result of the entire Lipscomb community engaging and working together to build this institution,” said Lowry.

“University presidents set the tone and enable a community to thrive, but it is faculty who teach the students and staff who serve students face-to-face.

I leave this post with a great sense of celebration of what Lipscomb, as a community, has accomplished.”

IN HIS OWN WORDS

It’s in that moment of graduation that I get to pause for five minutes, stand there in that tunnel watching the graduates march in and I get to appreciate the bigger picture.

I am the last to enter the arena, so I stand there as hundreds of graduates walk past me in one of the greatest moments of their lives.

I am humbled. Students are recognized for their achievement name-by-name, degree-bydegree as they move from student to graduate and go out to do some amazing worldchanging things.

We use the word ‘commencement’ and typically think about the beginning of something, but we also use it to describe the completion of something. At a university we are doing both of those as students are finishing this piece and then we send them to the beginning of something else.

I often use a quote by Max De Pree (Christian business leader) that says, ‘You can’t be who you need to be if you remain where you are.’ Commencement is the moment where we acknowledge that. We use that phrase to congratulate them on coming to Lipscomb four years earlier, and we’re using this phrase to send them off.

Commencement is Lowry’s favorite moment of the year.

“Dr. Lowry is a highly effective and strategic leader, generous with sharing his wisdom and expertise. He is a gifted problem-solver, able to navigate and explore the myriad of possible answers in order to secure the best result. He has been a courageous contributor to the broader Christian higher education community at a pivotal moment, as Christian colleges and universities face new challenges and uncharted territory.”

Shirley V. Hoogstra , President, Council for Christian Colleges and Universities

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EMPOWERING OTHERS WITH GRACEFUL SINCERITY

SINCERITY Empowering others with GRACEFUL SINCERITY When Lipscomb’s Board of Trustees decided to hire L. Randolph Lowry in 2005, they did more than hire an individual leader; they hired a leadership team.

In fact, upon meeting Rhonda Lowry for the first time, then Board of Trustees Chair Hilton Dean said, “She’s really impressive!

I think we may have hired the wrong Lowry!”

Lowry, an academic, professional fundraiser and genuine hostess arrived at Lipscomb as more than the wife of Lipscomb’s new leader, but as a true teammate (some would say the anchor) of a leadership duo that would change Lipscomb in profound ways.

Infusing her personal passions to care and to unify, Lowry has worked side-by-side with her husband to build relationships

“

within the Lipscomb and Nashville communities and to serve the needs of all those who come into the Lowrys’ orbit at any time or in any place.

At the university, Lowry served as a guiding force behind establishing the Institute for Christian Spirituality, which offers courses and retreats teaching contemplatives, methods to grow prayer life and spiritual disciplines to help both faith leaders and congregants open themselves up to God’s wisdom and love.

Spiritual disciplines are also a focus of the undergraduate and graduate courses she teaches in her home as a member of the College of Bible & Ministry faculty. Lowry strives to “truly give people the tools to

Rhonda truly has special gifts, but what animates and makes all those gifts work, is love...

Through all these years, she has reinforced that our work really matters... Her love is real.

It is who she is... The university has been imbued with that love, and that unbounded love glows in the very ground of this campus, in the buildings, the classrooms and the lives of professors and so many students.”

– Landon Saunders, President, Heartbeat Inc.

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EMPOWERING OTHERS WITH GRACEFUL SINCERITY

“As human beings we engage in spiritual formation to open ourselves up to an awareness of what God is doing in us and among us.”

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EMPOWERING OTHERS WITH GRACEFUL SINCERITY

have a deeper walk with God, so that when difficult moments happen, they have a well or depth to hold onto,” she said.

The Lowrys’ home, Clearview, also served as the headquarters for much of the couple’s Lipscomb and community ministry.

Potential supporters for the institution or for various community organizations are often invited to dinners where the couple hosts them together. In fact, Clearview has been specifically designed so that large groups of students, employees or Lipscomb supporters can comfortably fellowship within its walls.

Lowry also fueled the creation of the Presidential Ambassadors Council, a leadership program for a group of select students who volunteer to represent

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Lipscomb, and she is one of the coordinators of the Christian Scholars’ Conference, an annual gathering of Christian academics from across the nation to engage in dialogue, collaboration and share their research.

In addition to shepherding the Lipscomb community, the Lowrys work as a pair to tend to the surrounding community.

Lowry’s desire to promote unity among Christians and thus spread the Gospel led her to work on the boards of Heartbeat Inc., the Missions Resource Network, the Christian Scholarship Foundation and to serve for five years as president of the Operation Andrew Group, an organization that tears down barriers between Christian believers in Middle Tennessee.

She increasingly challenged me to go deeper in both my personal walk with the Father and in my education at Lipscomb... She has a calming wisdom and God-filled intelligence that she uses to challenge and empower others in their own faith journeys, yet all with a graceful sincerity.”

Savannah Royston, (’21) music graduate

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Her desire to care for hurting people led her to join the boards of Alive Hospice, the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation and to now serve as the chair of the Stephens Christian Trust, which funds nonprofit work in education, agra-missions, health care and evangelism.

While this one season of the Lowrys’ life may be coming to a close, it is a certainty that they will still be fully engaged in the lives of the Lipscomb community as they reach out to grieving families in the early hours of the morning, mentor students struggling with clouded futures, cheer on Lipscomb athletes and bring their own style of personal ministry to those in need.

EMPOWERING OTHERS WITH GRACEFUL SINCERITY

RHONDA LOWRY From Left to Right: Rhonda Lowry, who holds an M.Div. degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, speaking at Lipscomb’s Convocation, the formal beginning of the school year.

Both Rhonda and Randy Lowry hosted the Black and White Dinner, an annual event for graduating seniors, at their home to cap off each school year.

Lowry has been an active board member and participant of the Christian Scholars’ Conference, bringing hundreds of academics and theologians together annually.

“The university, the faith community of Nashville, and the city itself have all been blessed beyond measure by Rhonda.

Her distinct personality and skills were brilliantly expressed through her role in teaching, extending her hand of compassion and hospitality, and as president of Operation Andrew in convening the churches of the community to serve their city.”

– Turney Stevens, Dean Emeritus, College of Business; Chair of the Board, Operation Andrew Group

IN HER OWN WORDS The years that I have had the privilege of serving as Lipscomb’s Presidential Spouse have brought great joy and given me a front row seat to see God working among some of His dear people.

The joy of seeing couples such as Morgan and Sandy Davis, Mark and Becky Lanier, Tom and Cindy Ingram, Terry and Carole Koonce and others, join the Board of Trustees after being disconnected from Lipscomb for decades is surpassed only by the reaction of students in my class when they begin to experience the joy of reading scripture for transformation rather than information.

I will never forget the night Rodes Hart, after a dinner conversation between the two of us, told Randy he wanted to fund an endowed chair in piano in honor of Dr. Jerome Reed. That was quite a night!

It has been said that institutions are only as good as those who claim them. While Lipscomb’s future is in great hands, we invite you to join us as we continue to expand her special place in higher education and His kingdom.

Rhonda Lowry with trustees Morgan Davis (center) and Mark Lanier (right).

“No leader is too high, no human too small, to receive the very best from Rhonda Lowry. When a student has a threatening injury, Rhonda is often the first one there—either in the patient’s hospital room or at the parents’ side. When the governor comes to dinner, he is treated with the same dignity and refinement as the incoming freshman.”

Neika Stephens, Co-Founder of the Stephens Christian Trust lipscomb.edu/news

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“Nothing ever rose to touch the sky unless someone dreamed that it could, still others believed that it should and others willed that it would.”

— Charles F. Kettering from the Lowry Inaugural Address, March 29, 2006

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THE SPIRITS OF LIPSCOMB

LIPSCOMB

The Spirits of Lipscomb In the spring of 2006, Lipscomb University’s new President L. Randolph Lowry spoke of “Awakening the Spirit” at his inauguration. He described five spirits that encompassed Lipscomb’s purpose throughout its history and that he would strive to nurture throughout his tenure: spirits of faith, inquiry, community, connection and service.

Since that day, the nation and the world have seen economic recessions, historic growth in awareness of racial, social and environmental issues, political turmoil, leadership shifts and intense government regulation in higher education.

Through those 16 years, the Lipscomb community has held strong to the five spirits. Bible faculty and mission staff have worked to deepen our spiritual roots and to bring the connection of Christian love around the globe. In classrooms (inperson and virtually) every day, faculty guide students

to ask the big questions and to apply the answers they find in the surrounding community.

Lipscomb student life staff strive every day to display and nurture a welcoming attitude of respect to all students of every background and every ethnic and racial category. Both academics and spiritual formation have boosted opportunities for students to serve the community, both within their chosen major in Nashville and in locales across the globe.

Lipscomb’s senior leaders embraced the charge to nurture these five spirits through innovative new academic programs, an ambitious capital investment campaign and bold strategies, and Lipscomb’s valuable facilities, health care and technology staff devoted countless hours to keeping the university stable and thriving during a global pandemic and its consequences.

Now in 2021, the Lipscomb community is celebrating a new beginning again, with a new president, Candice McQueen, as it launches the university into the future with a firm foundation of five renewed, grounded and transformed spirits of spirituality, confidence, diversity, relationship and caring.

“You can’t be who you need to be, if you remain where you are.”

— inspired by Max De Pree from many commencement ceremonies through the years

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FAITH SPIRIT OF FAITH

A Spirit of Faith...

Faculty Perspective

Dr. Lowry likes to say ‘The university will be intentionally, courageously and graciously Christian’ Lee Camp, (’89) Lipscomb Professor of Theology and Ethics Host and Creator of Tokens Show

As a longtime Bible professor at Lipscomb, I know that studies of Christian higher education in the United States have made plain at least one thing: it’s a challenge to “stay Christian.” But it is not impossible; and it requires first intentionality.

Dr. Lowry has held that intentionality close to his heart and agenda. The Centering Core is one such example, now recited in faculty meetings and Board of Trustees meetings, a bold and beautiful confession of the liberating narrative of the Gospel. Our continued commitment to undergraduate Biblical and theological education is another. And attention to hiring, taking seriously an expectation of a committed personal faith another, among many.

Such commitments do indeed require courage. To be Christian—to exhibit, say, the radical hospitality of Christ, who welcomed all—requires a willingness to be misunderstood, or to

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be criticized, or to do the hard work of repentance and making progress. Welcoming DACA students, increasing student and faculty diversity, hosting conversations regarding the most pressing and volatile issues of our day while holding to our faith: all requires, indeed, much courage.

And always to be gracious: for it is grace, not merciless judgment, which is at the heart of the Gospel. To be a community in which difference may flourish within a common commitment is no simple task. Yet we have continued to find that it is in shared service to Christian education that we have a common humanity transcending our differences. And we have found this in all manner of ways and places: in the classroom, in the LIFE Program at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, in engineering missions in Central America.

And like Gospel living, the abundance of gifts out of such intentionality, courage, and graciousness have continued to flourish and overflow, and it has been and remains a joy.

FAITH

By awakening a spirit of faith, we have deepened and further defined our spirituality. lipscomb.edu/news

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SPIRIT OF FAITH

The Office of Spiritual Formation holds annual spiritual events for students such as Prayer in the Square and Resurrection Week.

‘WE WILL NOT BE DETERRED FROM ASKING AND SEEKING TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS OF ETERNAL IMPORTANCE.’ Integrating faith and learning has never been an easy task, Lowry noted in his inauguration message. Lipscomb’s founders, however, did not let that stop them from establishing an institution devoted to teaching “the Christian religion as presented in the Bible in its purity and fullness.”

As the world has raged around us for almost two decades of rapid change and much turmoil, Christian faith has become the grounding anchor for Lipscomb University, a defining linchpin for how we live and operate. Indeed, as political and racial division in America became deeper and more recognized over the years, it became important to define for others what spirituality meant within the Lipscomb community. In 2017-18 the College of Bible & Ministry and its Dean, Leonard Allen, were charged to initiate an intentional conversation about how Lipscomb defines itself as a Christian university today.

The Centering Core statement, developed through a year of conversations with faculty and staff, is now used to publicly profess the cornerstones of faith that guide the university. In the years since developing the Centering Core statement, Bible professors have led seminars for faculty and staff to discuss ways to be intentionally Christian as they engage in the classroom, and the Bible college hosted a week-long faith and learning seminar for full-time faculty in Christian colleges nationwide in 2018.

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Mission teams have brought Christian love around the globe since 2006.

Fully embracing Kingdom living, Lipscomb University has worked hard over the past decade and a half to make its spiritual mark on today’s world. One of the areas where it is having the most impact—not just in our community, but in the world—is international missions, which has opened the eyes of thousands of students to the fact that faith can and should be carried out as a vocation, not as a Sunday morning duty.

Additional mission opportunities tied to career fields have flourished during the Lowry administration, with the colleges of engineering, liberal arts and sciences, education and health sciences sending teams to far-flung nations. The College of Business in particular is leading the way in Christian mission through its Business As Mission program, which fuels sustaining business ventures in 11 nations around the globe.

In 2008, Lowry partnered with David Fleer, director of the Christian Scholars’ Conference to bring the annual meeting of scholars and theologians to the Lipscomb campus. Each year hundreds of faith-led academic experts from universities such as Yale, Vanderbilt and Emory gather to reflect on the intersection of faith, academics and the public square.

FAITH An expanded and thriving spiritual formation staff in the university’s student life office has been continually developing more and enhanced campuswide opportunities for spiritual worship and enrichment since the first campus minister was hired in 2004.

Today’s chapel service is called The Gathering and brings around 3,000 students together in Allen Arena weekly.

Besides increasing and diversifying chapel options, spiritual formation leads the First Day We Pray prayer vigil at the beginning of each school year, and when disaster strikes, this team has gathered students in force for prayers of supplication in Bison Square.

Spiritual formation staff at Lipscomb Academy, first added in 2010, have worked to enhance holistic spiritual education at the Lower School, coordinated international mission teams and service projects for hundreds of students and developed a chapel practicum program allowing upper-level students to develop leadership skills.

Lipscomb was founded in faith, with a vision that faith and learning belong together and enrich each other.

Now 130 years later, by awakening a spirit of faith, we have deepened and further defined our spirituality for the future.

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Weekly chapel opportunities offered for students

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We wanted missions to be at the heartbeat of the university, giving every student the opportunity to see themselves as active participants in the work of God. Throughout the Lowry administration, missions has grown tremendously, both in number of students participating and in faculty and staff leading mission efforts, involving every discipline of study and inviting all students to align their vocation with God’s purposes.”

– Earl Lavender, Director of Missional Studies, Professor of Bible

Lipscomb mission teams have traveled to as many as 24 nations around the world in any given year to spread the Word and show God’s love.

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RANDY LOWRY

IN HIS OWN WORDS

The LIFE program has graduated 30 “inside students.”

The intersection of education, transformation, joy, God’s love and forgiveness was unmistakably evident at the LIFE program graduation. It may be one of the most humbling and proudest moments of my time at Lipscomb.

In December (2013), Lipscomb University awarded its first associate degrees to nine inmates of the [then] Tennessee Prison for Women at a special graduation ceremony inside the prison. The ceremony looked much like other Lipscomb commencements, complete with robed faculty leading the ceremony and graduates in cap and gown walking across a stage to receive their diplomas. But for graduates of the LIFE program, the ceremony was more than an opportunity to celebrate their academic achievements (which were impressive with a collected GPA of 3.7). It was an acknowledgment of the God of second chances.

One graduate shared with me that all of her life she had been told that she would never amount to anything. And for the majority of her life she proved them right. She said that now she has something that proves her personal worth—a college diploma. Another graduate said of her diploma, ‘This says I am redeemed. It says I am restored and I’m forgiven.’

One inmate said that before the LIFE program she was bitter and self-absorbed, but the program encouraged her to give as she had been freely given.

Now she helps other inmates who are pursuing their GEDs. She said, ‘I feel love and I want to give love to people.’

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Campus ministers for the university, for Lipscomb Academy and athletics have been added to Lipscomb’s staff during the Lowry administration, allowing spiritual opportunities for students to increase in number and in impact.

Service is a major component of spiritual life on campus with opportunities to serve locally at the annual campuswide Service Day (pictured), global opportunities through missions and career-specific academic service opportunities.

FUTURE FAITH

Stepping into the future with a firm spiritual grounding

Photo by Laurel Wilson

Lipscomb trustee and donor Mark Lanier is the founder of the Lanier Theological Library in Houston, which has been host to Lipscomb students, faculty and administrators over the years.

—— A MESSAGE from MARK LANIER —— In his inaugural address, Dr. Lowry challenged Lipscomb with the theme of “Awakening the Spirit of Faith.” The challenge wisely pointed Lipscomb to three critical elements in a worthy pursuit— Awakening, Spirit and Faith.

In the Christian walk, a common malady is the fatigue of the familiar. As life unfolds, we fall into routines of waking, working, eating, playing and sleeping. In a metaphorical sense, if the Christian walk is to permeate each aspect of that life, we need to awaken from the mundane ways of life and infuse the ever fresh God into our moments, even our routine ones. Jesus explained that his followers see their life as new wine that can’t be held in old wineskins (Mk 2:18-22).

To capture that freshness in life, one must see the other words in Dr. Lowry’s challenge.

We are to awaken the “spirit” (and “Spirit”). “Spirit” envelops an inspiration, an inner attitude and, when capitalized, an indwelling presence of God. Life is about much more than externals. Jesus pointed out that even sin goes beyond the externals. Rather than focusing on murder, Jesus focused on hate. Adultery alone wasn’t to be avoided, but lust as well (Mt. 5:21-30). How we think, what we are internally becomes manifested in how we act and behave. We rightly focus on our spirit and the role that God’s Spirit plays within us.

Dr. Lowry went further in his challenge, however, specifying a specific “Spirit of Faith.” The most fervent spirit can be appreciated, but the spirit rooted firmly in the trust of faith, is the spirit we rightly pursue.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6).

While the challenge of Dr. Lowry from his inauguration remains the challenge to all at Lipscomb today, the university has met that challenge over the past 16 years with renewed focus and deeper spiritual roots.

That spiritual grounding in faith provides firm footing for reaching out in the future to the campus with spiritually focused events like Prayer in the Square, to the faith community with spiritual strengthening through the Institute for Christian Spirituality and faithbased guidance through the Office of Church Services, to academia through the Christian Scholars’ Conference and to the world through missions and humanitarian business concepts.

Let the words echo as Lipscomb University continues to seek to Awaken the Spirit of Faith!

Mark Lanier (’81) Founder and CEO, Lanier Law Firm Founder, Lanier Theological Library Lipscomb Trustee

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SPIRIT OF INQUIRY

INQUIRY A Spirit of inquiry...

Administrative Perspective

Dr. Lowry likes to say ‘Leap, don’t creep’* Quincy Byrdsong, Vice Provost of Health Affairs, Lipscomb University

How I would have loved to have been there on the day when Lipscomb’s Board of Trustees took that advice in November 2006 and voted to establish a College of Pharmacy, the first one established in Middle Tennessee, in fact.

The board embraced that nugget of an idea proposed by a Lipscomb faculty member, and the Lipscomb community built on it over the next few years to create Lipscomb Health, the area I now lead as vice provost of health affairs.

When Dr. Lowry came to Lipscomb in 2005, one of the first things he did was ask the faculty to dream. He likes to achieve dreams and knows that it takes not only strong wills and hard work, but a leap of faith. So when a faculty member suggested that the time was right for Lipscomb to fill a need in the health care community, Lowry wanted to leap, not creep.

Making big dreams come true requires taking action. They didn’t know how it would all turn out, but without a spirit of curiosity to wonder about the possibilities and without the willingness to take

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action before the path was completely clear, Lipscomb would not have had the confidence needed to make that dream into a successful reality.

Now 15 years later, the College of Pharmacy has evolved into Lipscomb Health, a comprehensive health affairs function with academic programs in pharmacy, nursing, physician assistant studies, nutrition and dietetics, kinesiology and most recently cardiovascular perfusion.

The mission of Lipscomb Health today is to: • Prepare health care professionals who exemplify a commitment to a Christian life of service.

• Collaborate across disciplines and professions to comprehensively enhance health outcomes.

• Honor human life through our students, our employees, our patients and our community.

The vision for Lipscomb Health is to be a national model for comprehensive and collaborative health care. It is about elevating the profession, enhancing partnerships and empowering people.

We are successfully on this path because we made a leap. We took a risk, but a risk grounded in faith in God, a risk intended to serve the good of all God’s children.

*A turn of phrase shared by Gordon Gee, long-time university president at institutions such as Vanderbilt, Ohio State and West Virginia universities, upon his first meeting with then-new President Lowry.

INQUIRY

Y By awakening a spirit of inquiry, we have become confident leaders, self-assured in our ability to adapt and meet challenges. lipscomb.edu/news

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A SPIRIT OF INQUIRY

As part of $250 million in capital improvements, six cutting-edge biology and chemistry labs were added in a 24,000-square-foot addition to McFarland Science Center.

‘USEFUL ANSWERS COME FROM INSIGHTFUL QUESTIONS.’ Every great discovery starts with a question. In fact, it’s at the very heart of the scientific process.

Awakening a spirit of inquiry can lead to necessary risks: buildings constructed before students enroll to fill them, academic programs created in disciplines never seen before on campus, funding goals set higher than ever before.

“

In higher education, investment most often means investment in brain power, brick-and-mortar facilities and cutting edge equipment to allow faculty and students to ask the big questions that lead to useful answers.

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Our partnership with Lipscomb’s College of Pharmacy has provided opportunities for faculty and students at both institutions to benefit.

Collaborative teaching and research efforts have strengthened both programs. Our innovative Pharm.D./Ph.D. pathway program has attracted national attention as a creative solution to meet the need for training biomedical scientists who bring a pharmacy perspective to research teams.

I look forward to continuing to work together.”

– Joey V. Barnett, Ph.D., Director of the Office of Medical Student Research, Assistant Dean of Physician-Researcher Training, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

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But it is through such bold questioning that “useful answers” come, and useful answers lead to the confidence to trek forward with a purposeful step. And a confident journey forward leads to leadership.

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Increase in the number of full-time faculty since 2005.

The Health Simulation Laboratory is used for nursing, pharmacy and physician assistant studies, all programs that were established or expanded during the Lowry administration.

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Lipscomb Athletics has earned the ASUN Conference AllAcademic Trophy six times during the Lowry Administration. students in biology and chemistry and for pharmacy students working toward their doctoral degrees. Arts venues allow students in theater, art and music to tell the meaningful stories of our lives in a creative way. Nursing students learn to care for patients with computerized patient simulators that mimic patients from premature babies to the aged.

New and renovated facilities have created space for doctoral programs in archaeology, Bible, education and pharmacy. New construction such as the Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center and the Fields Engineering Center have cleared the path for federal grants funding research, community engagement, human service and educational access to the tune of almost $6.9 million.

The Lanier Center for Archaeology offers Lipscomb’s first Ph.D. program.

In the 16 years of the Lowry administration, the university has grown to employ more than 1,000 faculty and staff, with various experts in their fields hired to bring the most rigorous academic scholarship and years of real-world experience into the classroom.

New hires over the years have included former Disney and Big Idea Production animators; entrepreneurs, filmmakers and military officers; a former director of the Office of Neighborhoods in the Nashville mayor’s office; a former press secretary for a U.S. presidential campaign; faculty who have worked at NASA and top aerospace engineering firms; and Fulbright Scholars.

Also over that time period, 15 new structures have been added as part of nearly $250 million in capital improvements made to the main university campus, the Lipscomb Academy campus and locations throughout Nashville.

This investment in brick-and-mortar is easy to see from the sidewalk, but the investment in students’ pursuits that these buildings represent is easy to see in the world.

Upgraded laboratory spaces have opened new paths for scientific discovery for undergraduate

Such facilities fueled the university’s designation as a doctoral research university by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and the continual growth in graduate programs offered, increasing from seven degrees in 2005 to 69 in 2021. Lipscomb’s graduate enrollment now ranks the university as the third largest private graduate program in the state.

In Dr. Lowry’s mind, investment in Lipscomb is an investment in a more positive future for Nashville and the world. We are already seeing the dividends:

• The university has experienced unprecedented growth with enrollment increasing by 94% from fall 2005 to nearly 7,000 students enrolled in fall 2020; • Lipscomb was named by the Chronicle of Higher Education as the eighth fastest-growing private doctoral university in the nation from fall 2008 to fall 2018; and • Job placement rates for students have remained consistently high, at an average of 95%, throughout Lowry’s tenure.

Finally, in this past school year, the university has boldly stepped into unchartered territory to establish the Lanier Center for Archaeology, a doctorate program directed by internationally renowned archaeology scholars and the university’s first Ph.D. program.

By awakening a spirit of inquiry, we have become confident leaders, self-assured in our ability to adapt and meet challenges.

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ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHTS OF THE LOWRY ADMINISTRATION: •

Since 2013, the National Council for Teacher Quality has consistently ranked College of Education programs among the top 25 in the nation, ranking them as high as No. 1 nationally in 2014.The college achieved a string of top scores on the Tennessee Preparation Report Card for eight years.

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The College of Business has consistently been ranked within the top 100 business schools in the nation by Poets & Quants for Undergrads and was named one of the 10 undergraduate schools in the nation to watch in 2020 by the publication.

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College of Pharmacy 2019 graduates achieved the fifthhighest first-time pass rate in the nation on the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination®.

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Lipscomb Academy has been named the National Primary School of the Year and Tennessee Primary School of the Year six times by the National Energy Education Development Project for the work of its lower school Green Team program in recycling, environmental research and restoration.

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The George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts boasts well-known professional artists on its faculty, including former Disney animators in its animation program.

Student athletes have earned 100 national academic awards during the Lowry administration.

Graduate programs such as counseling, accounting, education specialties (pictured), theology and pharmacy have boosted graduate enrollment to nearly 1,900 students, a new record, as of fall 2020.

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FUTURE INQUIRY

Stepping into the future with confidence

Environmental science and sustainability graduate programs were expanded with the creation of the Institute for Sustainable Practice.

—— A MESSAGE from MIKE KRAUSE —— In order to transform lives, higher education itself must transform.

Lipscomb University has tackled that transformation at both the macro and micro level of community impact. On the macro front, the university has consistently identified which programs can best address community workforce needs and sprinted towards solutions, ensuring degrees awarded at commencement have impact within the local economy. On the micro, this is an institution that also ensures the very personal, human impact of higher education isn’t lost, always seeking to enrich individual lives.

A prime example of this innovative spirit has been on display within the College of Leadership & Public Service. Even amid the pandemic, the college sought to expand the reach of the Master of Arts in leadership and public service beyond the campus, the county and even Middle Tennessee, building a wholly new approach to recruit and enroll rural leaders from across the state. As a result, a unique student cohort of mayors, chamber presidents and other government leaders came together in fall 2020 to gain the tangible skills embedded within the master’s program, learn from incredibly talented Lipscomb faculty and equally important in a cohort of

experienced leaders, learn from each other. That willingness to try something new will now pay dividends across the state, a tangible embodiment of the Lipscomb pillars of service and innovation.

The result of this relentless quest is that the institution has built “innovation muscle memory.” Professors know how to adapt their curriculum and how to tailor their instruction in the most difficult situations; staff members know how to administer seamlessly during operational shifts that would have been unthinkable in the past.

There will be more challenges in the post-pandemic world, and the need to innovate will likely intensify, rather than recede. But the Lipscomb community can move forward with confidence, knowing challenges ahead can be addressed from a foundation of experience, with joyful curiosity to try new approaches, and always, with a missional spirit.

Mike Krause Former Executive Director, Tennessee Higher Education Commission Senior Advisor for Government Affairs and Economic Development, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings Leader-in-Residence, Lipscomb’s College of Leadership & Public Service

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A SPIRIT OF COMMUNITY

COMMUNITY A Spirit of Community...

Alumni Perspective

Dr. Lowry likes to say ‘Respect Leads is not an initiative, it is a value’ Patricia “Pat” Bethel, (’72) Chair of the Lipscomb Black Alumni Council Project and Program Management Senior Principal Consultant, NTT Data As the chair of the Lipscomb Black Alumni Council, I have noted that any core value is part of the soul of an institution.

Lipscomb University’s five missional pillars include “community.” Lipscomb’s ideal vision of community is one welcoming to a diverse population. Respect is the most critical ingredient in building and maintaining a community.

Thus, Lipscomb’s ideal vision, restated, is that diversity is part of the soul of the university.

While Lipscomb shares America’s tragic history in regards to race, there have always been members of the Lipscomb community who have spoken out against racism.

While my experience as a student from 1969 to 1972 was quite painful at times, I also remember those who did their best to support and protect us minority students.

Those painful memories, rekindled four years ago, cemented my decision that it was time to go “back home” to help make Lipscomb a more welcoming environment for students of color. Those feelings—in my heart and in the hearts of others—were the genesis of what would become the Lipscomb Black Alumni Council.

While students of color still leave with some painful memories, Lipscomb’s efforts to build community through respect are working to overcome the university’s challenges through open and honest discussions. The core challenge

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for a diverse community is for the majority population to understand the importance of being intentionally inclusive and listening when people state that they are hurt or insulted. A community cares when any one member is hurt, regardless of whether you can personally understand why the person hurts. That caring should apply to all community members.

I have seen stumbles toward this goal of being intentionally inclusive on the Lipscomb campus, but there have also been advances. One need only look in the classrooms to see gains in the enrollment of students from underrepresented groups. Members of the LBAC now regularly provide mentoring events for students, and academic programs are shining a light on diversity of thought and cultures.

The establishment of Respect Leads, launched in 2016 to promote a culture of respectfulness on campus, was a milestone for the Lipscomb University campus. When the community merely lives out the value of respectfulness to all, that is when we will have reached the goal of creating a diverse campus with the hallmark of respect.

I applaud the Lowry administration for its bold vision over 16 years of what Lipscomb could become! No one can challenge the creation of amazing new Lipscomb academic and Nashville community programs, the growth of already established programs, as well as the physical transformation of the campus.

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By awakening a spirit of community, we are reaching out to include more people of differing ethnicity, of differing life experiences, of differing cultures, of differing capabilities, of differing opinions, but all committed to the same values. lipscomb.edu/news

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Part of the $24 million expansion of the Lipscomb Academy Lower School was specialized therapy space for the Solly School, an integrated education program for young children with special needs.

‘OUR UNITY WILL CREATE A MESSAGE OF IMPORTANCE TO THE WORLD.’ Unity does not mean uniformity.

Lowry has often noted that being unified does not mean we should all think exactly alike or share exactly the same experiences, but instead that we might be unified in purpose, mission and through mutual respect. Awakening a spirit of community at Lipscomb over the last 16 years has not meant conformity, it has meant throwing open the arms of the university to diversity of people, diversity of thought, diversity of life experience and age and gender.

As far back as 2009 Lipscomb was already striving to address society’s challenges head-on, by making a transforming higher education more accessible for all. In that year, now-retired Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander joined Lowry on campus to announce Access Lipscomb, a collection of scholarships and flexible course scheduling programs designed to make it easier to earn a bachelor’s degree.

Since then, various public and private grants have funded efforts to overcome economic, cultural and individual barriers to a higher education for: •

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Students with intellectual disabilities. The IDEAL program, Igniting the Dream of Education at Lipscomb, now celebrates 54 completers who have moved on to more independent adult lives. In January, Lipscomb Academy

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•

•

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completed a designated facility for its new Solly School, providing an integrated classroom education and specialized therapy space this fall for 13 young children with special needs;

First generation students. Over the years both Hispanic Achievers scholarships and the Pionero Scholars program, focused on students who want to go into the teaching field, have drawn to Lipscomb the children of immigrants who often have less personal experience with and family history of higher education;

Residents of the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center. Through the LIFE program, Lipscomb Initiative for Education, selected women earn associate’s, bachelor’s and masters degrees while studying alongside traditional students inside the prison; and Military veterans and their families. Since the inception of the university’s Yellow Ribbon scholarship program, the number of veteran students and their dependents has grown, reaching a record 882 members of the student body population in the 2021-22 school year.

51 46 world nations and

U.S. states were

represented within the fall 2020 student body

Racial boundaries are perhaps the toughest to break down on Lipscomb’s journey to a unified community living out mutual respect in the midst of wide diversity.

National Fall 2018-19 African American freshman retention rate*

The past 16 years have seen a concerted effort to draw a diversity of leading voices to campus to speak, including humanitarians Naomi Tutu and Terry Waite, the then-president of Madagascar and Hidden Figures author Margot Lee Shetterly.

From fall 2005 to fall 2020 minority student enrollment has grown from 9.5% to 24.2% of the student body population.

The fall 2021 incoming freshman class is more diverse than ever before, with 31% of students from underrepresented racial categories. The Lipscomb Black Alumni Council, established in 2018, serves the 889 known living African American alumni of Lipscomb.

These milestones led to a watershed year in 2016-17, when Lowry launched Respect Leads, an effort to emphasize respectfulness as a key ingredient in creating a diverse community living out a unified purpose.

By awakening a spirit of community, we are reaching out to include more people of differing ethnicity, of differing life experiences, of differing cultures, of differing capabilities, of differing opinions but all committed to the same values.

Within Student Life, the Office of Intercultural Development was expanded with additional staff and facilities intended to provide a more welcoming atmosphere.

In academic curriculum, the LIGHT program works to promote intercultural-competency efforts in the general curriculum, and the Fred. D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society nurtures students looking to use a legal career as a means of positive social change and racial equity.

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81.8%

Lipscomb Fall 2018-19 African American freshman retention rate

The Lipscomb of 2021 has traveled far down the road toward diversity with a culture of respectfulness but knows that journey continues today and into the future.

It is simply not the same university where I brought my daughter. It is different, and you have done this while not simply maintaining Lipscomb’s commitment to Christianity, but by deepening and expanding it… You’ve reached out to people across a broad spectrum and touched thousands of lives.”

– Greg Sterling, Dean of the Yale University Divinity School IDEAL (Igniting the Dream of Education at Lipscomb), a higher education program for students with intellectual disabilities, has graduated 54 students, with 23 enrolled for this fall.

*National Student Clearinghouse Research Center

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RANDY LOWRY

IN HIS OWN WORDS …we have led consistently in both good and difficult leadership challenges with our Christbased integrity and values. We have not shrunk back nor tried to avoid difficult moments.

For instance, several years ago there were those in our city who wanted to pass an ‘Englishonly’ requirement for city services as some sort of solution to a perceived immigration problem—despite the fact that many citizens speak a language other than English…

Following the lead of Jesus who extended love, not barriers, we were part of successfully defeating that effort,… Taking that stand was not easy, but it was right.

William Lofton Turner (center), special counsel to the president on equity, diversity and inclusion, leads Respect Leads: Lipscomb’s Council on Diversity and Inclusion, charged to further the culture of respectfulness at Lipscomb.

When Soul Force, a national organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered young people who profess Christianity, wanted to come to our campus to inform us on their perspective surrounding these issues, we invited them in the name of Jesus. We extended hospitality instead of slamming doors in their faces as they often experience. We extended grace as we respectfully listened to their positions but also insisting that they extend the same to us, which they did.

That was a very challenging couple of days on our campus,… We not only impacted our guests, but our community also saw us as people of intentional, courageous and gracious faith.

Over the years, Lowry (far left) has worked with civil rights era attorney Fred D. Gray (right), and Nashville African American leaders David Jones (far right) and Andrew Hairston (left) to address racial issues.

Scholarship programs have boosted the presence of Hispanic students on campus.

Enrollment of military veterans or their family members has increased from 13 in 2005 to a record 882 enrolled in fall of 2021.

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FUTURE Stepping into the future with diversity

—— A MESSAGE from DR. FRED D. GRAY —— My relationship with what is now Lipscomb University dates back to 1943-1948 when I was a student at the Nashville Christian Institute (NCI) in Nashville. NCI was a boarding school for African Americans affiliated with the Church of Christ. Lipscomb, likewise, is Church of Christ affiliated. I enrolled in NCI to become a preacher. My relationship with Lipscomb at that time was not positive; it is a lot different today. In my autobiography, Bus Ride to Justice, revised edition in 2013, I described our new affiliation as the “Grand Turnaround.” I then discussed all the details of Lipscomb conferring upon me an honorary doctorate degree.

That was indeed a “grand turnaround” for Lipscomb from being a defendant in a lawsuit that I filed on behalf of the alumni of NCI to conferring upon the alums’ lawyer, an honorary doctorate degree. Lipscomb publicly acknowledged my life’s work for racial reconciliation, equality and justice.

In 2016, a Memorandum of Understanding was executed between Lipscomb and I for the purpose of preparing a path that Lipscomb and I could embrace for a productive and long-lasting relationship, focusing on racial reconciliation, equality and justice in honor of the legacy of my career’s work: to “destroy everything segregated I could find.” It provided for the creation and endowment of the Fred D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society and provides for scholarships for students pursuing degrees through the institute. It also provides financial support for the institute and the Tuskegee Human & Civil Rights Multicultural Center and for assistance in the preservation of my papers.

As a result of these and other activities, Lipscomb has made substantial progress toward increasing diversity, reducing inequality and is working toward eliminating racism and inequality in all aspects

of Lipscomb and the community. Lipscomb students have been working to provide conflict management training for prisoners on Tennessee’s death row, and the institute works to prepare the next generation of Christian lawyers who will fight for social justice in the courts. When I visit Lipscomb’s campus each year, I am happy to see and speak to students who are batting for social justice.

I believe the heart and soul of Lipscomb have changed and its leaders are genuinely working to create a more inclusive environment at Lipscomb. Dr. Lowry’s administration has laid a solid foundation. I believe we will see great benefits to Lipscomb, the Church and the nation.

The seed has been planted. We pray that it will be watered, will germinate and bring forth fruits in the years to come. I look forward to it.

We have come a long way since I launched my efforts to destroy segregation; however, as a current racial reckoning shows, the struggle for equal justice, equality and the elimination of racism continues. Lipscomb is a faith-based community that is preparing its students to go forth and find new ways to make a better society. It should continue to strive to do the right thing while at the same time attempting to learn from the painful lessons of the past. We don’t know what lies ahead, but if all of us continue to work hard, we will be able someday to realize the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as demonstrated by the life of Jesus Christ and honestly say that all of God’s children are truly equal and free.

Dr. Fred D. Gray Civil Rights Era Attorney and Activist Namesake of Lipscomb’s Fred D. Gray Institute for Law, Justice & Society

lipscomb.edu/news

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CONNECTION A Spirit of Connection...

Alumni Perspective

Dr. Lowry likes to say ‘The city is our campus, the world is our classroom’ Linda Peek Schacht, (’72) Founding Director, Nelson & Sue Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership Former Senior Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School of Government Nowhere is the intention and innovation of that vision more evident than in the seven institutes launched in the first seven years of Dr. Lowry’s tenure.

As the founding director of the Nelson & Sue Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership, I know this well. The institutes, focused on conflict management, sustainable practice, law justice & society, civic leadership, innovation in teaching, corporate governance and integrity, and spiritual formation brought that vision to life.

Guided by the principle that “great communities are intentional, not accidental,” the institutes quickly built a reputation as respected conveners, creators and catalysts for community change.

From the beginning, the institutes were at the forefront of national and community leadership movements, establishing first of their kind programs, opening the campus for conversations on critical issues and requiring students to put theory into practice in their own cities and organizations.

The change leaders launched by the institutes include state and local elected officials, international Fulbright scholars, global NGO executives, leaders of regional

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economic and community development, corporate executives in sustainability and corporate social responsibility, faith leaders and dozens of social entrepreneurs.

Partnering with local, state and national groups, the institutes lead difficult community conversations across Tennessee; embodied the principles of a civil rights icon; brought business, government and nonprofits together in the collaborative spirit of a legendary Nashvillian; and built on the work of an innovative education philanthropist and the integrity of a global business leader.

They partnered with groups like Conexión Americas to create understanding and support for the region’s growing diversity. They convened regional and national leaders on sustainable business practice, faith and education, and created a year-long program for leaders statewide to build a flourishing Tennessee. They honored extraordinary local leaders and welcomed the public to insightful conversations with political and economic leaders.

With the institutes, Lowry transformed Lipscomb into a trusted resource where Tennessee turns for leadership. They have evolved to meet today’s most urgent challenges. Four of the Institutes became the foundation for the College of Leadership & Public Service. All seven continue to live out President Lowry’s promise to make the “city our campus and the world our classroom.”

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By awakening a spirit of connection, we have courageously stepped out of our comfort zone to build resilient relationships around the world.

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The ribbon-cutting for the Nelson & Sue Andrews Institute for Civic Leadership kicked off years of heightened community engagement through leadership programs for young women, business professionals and civic leaders statewide

‘…OUR WORLD IS A CONNECTED WORLD, AND WE NEED TO BE CONNECTED TO IT.’ From his first days on campus, Lowry rejected the traditional image of academia as an ivory tower, isolated from its surroundings. In order to fuel godly, Spirit-filled progress around the globe, Lipscomb needed first to strengthen its connections to the community, both near and far, he said.

“

Lipscomb is an integral part of Nashville and a part of Nashville’s brand… The work and support that you have provided to the young professionals of Nashville, sponsoring awards, hosting events and encouraging their rise in our economy is something they will always appreciate for a long time… Thank you for continuing to be a part of this community into the future.”

– Ralph Schulz, President and CEO, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce

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Today the connections he nurtured have blossomed into durable relationships, the true power needed for us all to work together for improvement in our community and betterment of the world.

Less than four months after Lowry set foot in the president’s office, the Lipscomb team pulled off its first major house-warming for the community: Lighting of the Green, a free holiday concert hosted by Grammy®-winning artist Amy Grant which still draws thousands of people to campus each December. That was just the first of many community-focused performances, professional development and educational events, athletic competitions and guest lectures that have been thrown open to bring benefit to the community at-large.

With Lipscomb’s athletics teams experiencing unprecedented on-field success in NCAA Division I, the university has worked hard to enhance the on-campus fan experience with upgrades to the softball, soccer and track-andfield facilities over the years. Several teams competing in NCAA national tournaments and the men’s basketball team’s appearance in the 2019 NIT championship game boosted the program’s profile across the nation, with the NIT game alone providing extensive media coverage and millions of online views.

Lipscomb reaches out to the community not only through extra-curricular activities, but through academic endeavors as well. Innovative faculty never tire of searching for paths to apply their academic discovery in ways that benefit the community, such as the marriage and family therapy program’s

resulting in 12 of Lipscomb’s 17 Fulbright fellowships being awarded since 2006. Lipscomb’s students have worked in Colombia, Spain, Austria, Indonesia and more to enhance relationships with the United States.

And so, today’s Lipscomb provides a welcoming home for Girl Scouts and youth basketball leagues, for Pencil Partners and Teach For America corps members, for Christian music artists and for robotics fanatics, for pre-school children and for lifelong learners.

By awakening a spirit of connection, we have courageously stepped out of our comfort zone to build resilient relationships around the world.

The annual Girls State program is one of hundreds of community organizations which have been welcomed to the Lipscomb campus in the last 16 years.

CONNECTION

Lipscomb Family Therapy Center and graduate-level leadership and management training for teachers looking to become principals in rural school districts.

Lipscomb’s one existing semester-long study abroad program to Vienna, Austria in 2005 has now become four global learning programs with the additions of London, England; Costa Rica; and Florence, Italy. Lipscomb Academy has added various global opportunities over the years, including a 10-day travel course in Shenzhen, China, and a threeweek study abroad in Florence, Italy, made possible by the Lipscomb-owned villa opened in 2016.

In addition, the Honors College and faculty campuswide have teamed up to nurture more Fulbright student fellows,

SPEAKERS OF SIGNIFICANCE Over the years, Lipscomb’s stages, classrooms and event halls have been filled with impactful thought leaders, power brokers and respected scholars to engage the Lipscomb community.

• Naomi Tutu, human rights advocate • Terry Waite, international negotiator and former hostage • Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot •

Former U.S. President George W. Bush

• Tim Tebow, former University of Florida and Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback • Thomas Rhett, Country music singer • Pete Doctor, Chief Creative Officer, Pixar • Scott Derrickson, Director, “Dr. Strange” • John Dean III, former White House Counsel and congressional witness in the Watergate scandal • Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University basketball coach • Francis Collins, Director, National Institutes of Health • Magic Johnson, former LA Lakers player, NBA Hall of Famer and entrepreneur • Tom Brokaw, former NBC Nightly News anchor • Fred D. Gray, personal lawyer of Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights activist • Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio legal affairs correspondent • Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of U.S. presidents • David Brooks, prominent political commentator and writer for the New York Times • Marilynne Robinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author • Jerry Mitchell, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient for investigative journalism into cold cases from the civil rights era • Natasha Tretheway, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and former U.S. Poet Laureate

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A SPIRIT OF CONNECTION

‘Universities reflect those who claim them.’

Lipscomb University can change the world. But not on its own. So while Lipscomb has spent the past decade and a half strengthening its connections to the community, it has also been inviting the community to claim its success story.

Lipscomb launched the public phase of LipscombLEADS, the largest, most extensive fundraising campaign in institution history, in January 2019 with a vision of reaching $250 million by the end of 2021. In March 2021, Lowry announced that the goal had been met nearly one year early through the investment of 47,000 donors, 35,000 of whom made financial gifts to the institution for the first time.

Over the course of the campaign, the university: •

Enjoyed four years where more than $30 million was raised each year;

•

Established the annual Day of Giving, which has raised more than $2.2 million in three years;

•

Garnered the top two single donations ever made in university history: $15 million in 2017 and $23 million in 2018; and

•

Raised $61 million in gifts and pledges for the endowment.

The Gospel Music Association’s annual Dove awards have been held in Lipscomb’s Allen Arena since 2012.

The Bisons appearance in the 2019 NIT championship game boosted the profile of Lipscomb Athletics nationwide.

The $250 million raised has benefitted countless areas of the university by supporting the development of a best-in-class academic program, a transformative student experience and a model for Lipscomb’s sustainable impact in the future.

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I had the feeling that Lipscomb has a great future ahead of it. I like what Lipscomb is doing, and I think it’s important for us to invest in the future of our young people and particularly young people who love the Lord.”

– George Shinn, Former Owner of the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, Namesake of the George Shinn College of Entertainment & the Arts

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CONNECTION

FUTURE Stepping into the future with relationships

A Nashville holiday tradition for the past 16 years, Lighting of the Green, hosted by Amy Grant, has drawn more than 48,000 guests to campus.

—— A MESSAGE from BILL HASLAM —— During our time in Nashville, Crissy and I were practically neighbors with Lipscomb University and we came to greatly appreciate the university. Among other kindnesses, the university allowed me to use its workout facilities. I was grateful for the opportunity to exercise in relative anonymity (students didn’t give much notice to the older guy lifting weights).

Lipscomb enthusiastically welcomed us into the community.

Unfortunately, in many places across the country we’ve lost those community relationships. If we want to heal our communities, I believe we need to start local, by looking after those people and institutions immediately around us.

Lipscomb has a long history of caring about the community.

Whether for a high school basketball league or a middle school music association in need of a location for a competition, or the Nashville Police Department or the women’s NCAA Final Four reaching out to Nashville residents, or when the Grand Ole’ Opry and Nashville Symphony needed performance space after the floods of 2010, in all those situations, Lipscomb was looking out for its neighbors.

When we launched the state’s Read to Be Ready Initiative in 2016, Lipscomb was there and provided a number of innovative, targeted programs for both students and literacy teachers throughout the state.

To look out for one another, we must be in relationships with one another, and with an eye toward bringing people together to work toward a common good. Lipscomb has established numerous programs such as Leadership Tennessee and the Transit Citizen Leadership Academy and has held countless gatherings of leaders in environmental sustainability, faith and reconciliation, integrity in business and effective education.

We’re best as a nation of communities, and the way Lipscomb has reached out to become a part of the community, I think, is helping to change Nashville and beyond for the better. The university is different, the city and the state are different, now and into the future as well, because of the leadership the Lowrys and Lipscomb have provided for us, and so many others, Lipscomb has led and served well and the Lowrys have become lifelong friends.

Bill Haslam Governor of Tennessee (2011-2019) Author of Faithful Presence

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A SPIRIT OF SERVICE

SERVICE A Spirit of Service

Administrative Perspective

Dr. Lowry likes to say ‘Serve before we sell’ Craig Bledsoe (’75) Provost, Lipscomb University

That’s a saying that came to be a major focus in my office over the first few years of the Lowry administration.

For well over a century, Lipscomb has always been an avenue for service, but Dr. Lowry saw selfless service as something that should be a defining factor of Lipscomb in the minds of prospective students, their families and community members. He saw Lipscomb’s serving heart as a foolproof way to draw even more students and partners to the university to achieve even greater things for our city and state.

The Serving and Learning Together program, or SALT, established in 2008, was a big part of formalizing service work at Lipscomb so it could be maximized and reinforced to students as not only an important part of a Christian’s daily life, but also as a crucial part of a college student’s education.

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Acting on the strong recommendation of our faculty, we in the provost’s office developed the SALT program as part of our 10-year accreditation process, and 13 years later, 330 students have graduated as SALT Scholars, the number of student volunteer hours carried out through Lipscomb has greatly increased and dozens of courses each year, 370 in all, were designed with service-learning components.

SALT is a service-learning program, not a service-only program, and that learning component was very important. Because just like Dr. Lowry’s goal for Lipscomb was to “serve before we sell,” thousands of graduates of Lipscomb in the business world, in ministry or the arts, or in education, now face their daily tasks with the same philosophy—to selflessly serve their customers, parishioners, patrons or students before they sell to them.

SERVICE

By awakening a spirit of service, we have become a force of selfless caring in the Nashville community and beyond. lipscomb.edu/news

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A SPIRIT OF SERVICE

As part of a service-learning course in their major, exercise science students worked on physical therapy exercises with Will Terry, the son of a Lipscomb alumna and employee, who suffered a traumatic brain injury.

‘THERE IS NOT MUCH THAT WILL BE BETTER THAN OUR WILLINGNESS TO SERVE.’ David Lipscomb was driven to establish what has become Lipscomb University not only because of his desire to educate a new generation of Christians, but also because of his selfless compassion and desire to care for others.

Whether students are building water distribution systems to villages in the mountains of Guatemala, providing business expertise and guidance in Jamaica or simply bringing smiles to the faces of children in Mexico, they walk away from the experience better informed for their future career and enriched in the Spirit for the rest of their lives.

Service has never been a difficult sell to Lipscomb students.

In 2003, it was students who coordinated the first campuswide Service Day, when afternoon classes are cancelled, with more than 100 participants showing up. Over the past 16 years, as many as 800 students have volunteered in a typical year to bring their helping hands to more than 50 organizations throughout the city, including public schools, youth enrichment programs, local parks and longterm care centers.

In addition, hardly a week goes by during the school year when at least a few students or faculty are not learning by serving others through their courses. Academic service-learning requirements and experiential requirements in professional programs send students throughout the city each week to care for others.

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60k

Volunteer hours students provide annually in the community

Through the university’s largest-ever federal grant, the mental health counseling program placed counseling interns in various medical clinics around Nashville, demonstrating the value of having counseling professionals immediately on-hand to serve disadvantaged populations.

College of Pharmacy students have been lauded as top in the nation for providing more than 7,000 flu vaccinations in one year.

In the College of Business accounting students have perfected their skills while assisting seniors with their income tax returns, and students in the Introduction to Business course develop and create various businesses that pop-up in Bison Square and sell wares to benefit local and international nonprofit organizations.

Law, justice and society majors have learned while assisting at clinics providing free legal advice to the community and engineering freshmen begin work in their first semester on real-world, service projects such as designing solutions for children with cerebral palsy in developing countries.

At his inauguration Lowry referred to 30 Lipscomb mission teams travelling to nine foreign countries. Since then, as many as 59 teams have travelled to more than 20 nations in just one year of the College of Bible & Ministry’s missions program.

A new branch of missions has been established to focus on lifechanging engineering projects in disadvantaged nations, and teams providing

SERVICE

Students in the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering participated in service days to wire a village of tiny homes for homeless individuals with electrical power.

mental health counseling, business development, medical care and education have spread out around the globe. Establishing its own missions program in 2012, the participation of student-athletes in mission work has grown to 72 participants serving alongside host partners in five countries: the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Malawi, Mexico and locally here in Nashville.

Many Lipscomb Bisons have come to the realization that missional service is needed not just internationally, but in our own backyard as well, with Nashville-focused missions developed and the Nashville All-Sports camp developed by athletics. During the Covid-19 pandemic, students, faculty and staff all stepped up to serve their nearby neighbor by manufacturing face shields, face masks and hand sanitizer and hosting teams of workers to help clean up storm damage after tornadoes ripped through Nashville in March 2020.

Such outpourings of care earned Lipscomb the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Community Engagement Classification held by just over 350 universities in the nation.

By awakening a spirit of service, we have become a force of selfless caring in the Nashville community and beyond.

$2.5 MILLION

“

Positive impact of student volunteer hours on the community each year The annual Martin Luther King Jr. service day brings students from several Nashville colleges together to serve the Nashville community.

When the Schermerhorn flooded in 2010, we immediately had to plan where else we could hold performances. Randy Lowry was one of the first people to call me directly and say, ‘How can we help the Symphony?’ We hosted two of our concert series at Lipscomb until the Schermerhorn was back open. They even went so far as to move an NCAA basketball game from Allen Arena so we wouldn’t have to cancel a show! So many people in the community helped us, but Lipscomb and Randy played a key role in helping the Nashville Symphony to survive this crisis.”

– Alan D. Valentine, President and CEO, The Nashville Symphony

Photo by Sam Simpkins

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RANDY LOWRY

IN HIS OWN WORDS There is a natural sense of service that has been ingrained into the Lipscomb community. We have a sense of service because God called us to do it.

I couldn’t have predicted 15 years ago how missions would become such a profound definition of the engineering college or that we’d have a pandemic during which pharmacy students would give vaccines to thousands of people to save their lives. I couldn’t have predicted all that, but I thank the Lord for gifting us in this way.

The Covid pandemic has brought unprecedented opportunities to serve our fellow man, and Lipscomb students stepped up to the task. Pharmacy students and faculty compounded hand sanitizer for the campus and the local community (above), and engineering faculty and students manufactured thousands of face shields for health care workers and educators (below).

Student prayer for Pepperdine University during the wildfires of 2018.

Probably one of the most well-known examples of this community involvement is Lipscomb’s role in what is now called the Great Flood of 2010 in Nashville.

The Red Cross asked us to open a shelter in our Student Activities Center. We put a call out to students on campus and employees around the city, and that shelter went from an empty gym to accepting its first guests with beds, food, hot showers and clothing within an hour.

We try to be responsive to the needs around us. It’s not often as dramatic as a hurricane or a tornado or a flood. But all that we do can be pretty important to those we serve. I think this is a reflection of our faith and our desire to serve, and we should continually be thinking about creative ways to continue to do this.

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FUTURE SER FA VIT CH E

Stepping into the future with an attitude of caring

Lipscomb opened the first Red Cross shelter in the city during the 2010 floods and housed the city’s homeless for weeks after the devastating event.

—— A MESSAGE from JOEL SULLIVAN —— It’s not uncommon to see universities today promoting the act of service within its student body, but it is less common to find a university that carries out service with an attitude of caring.

Even before the 2010 historic floods in Nashville, the Red Cross had partnered with Lipscomb University to open a shelter for the displaced on its campus. However, during the 2010 floods is when this institution’s caring attitude was really brought home to me.

Even with some of its top leadership out of town, Lipscomb pinpointed the need and acted quickly to set up the city’s first Red Cross shelter on the first day of the crisis. These partnerships with organizations, businesses and schools are so important to us, before during and after a disaster. Lipscomb University made it easy for us to quickly respond to our community by offering those who were in dire need a safe place to take shelter and by giving those citizens hope following the flooding.

Serving is meeting a need, but caring is recognizing a need that may otherwise go unmet. Lipscomb’s shelter was one of the few in the city to welcome pets. In addition, it stayed open for weeks, far longer than the city’s other shelters, to house and feed the homeless who also had been displaced by the rising waters.

It is common to see shelters stay open one to two weeks following a disaster. For the university to keep this shelter going longer helped us greatly with our humanitarian efforts throughout the city.

From students donating their T-shirts to flood survivors to the annual blood drives held in the Student Activities Center, from on-site shelters set up in the subsequent years to donations and work crews after the 2020 tornadoes, Lipscomb does more than volunteer muscle power or time. The caring heart of the Lipscomb Bisons recognizes specific unmet needs that they are uniquely qualified to fill.

Beyond the help with disaster sheltering, Lipscomb students and facilities have always stepped up to support blood drives and help us with volunteers. It is this servant’s heart leading the student body that is making such an impact across Nashville.

Students in accounting, health sciences, education, engineering, counseling and even computer technology spend time during their college careers serving the community by using their areas of expertise, the skills they are learning for their own future careers.

With so many young leaders entering today’s working world not only with firsthand service experience, but with the insight and motivation of a caring heart, the future can only be better for those in need during crisis, as well as for all.

Joel Sullivan Regional Chief Executive Officer, Tennessee Region of the Red Cross

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REFLECTIONS

“Every time I put on my academic regalia, I’m putting on the colors of this university.”

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REFLECTIONS

PRESIDENT L. RANDOLPH LOWRY Reflecting on 16 years of purposeful growth Sixteen years ago, President L. Randolph Lowry took on the colors of a new institution, committing to make the purple and gold of Lipscomb his own.

In his last official Lipscomb Now interview before transitioning to his role as chancellor, Lowry reflects on how he has formed the Lipscomb of 2021 and how Lipscomb has formed him.

What was going through your mind in July 2005 as you were preparing to move to Nashville, Tennessee, from Malibu?

It was a good time for us because our last child had gone to college. So that made it a whole lot easier for us to think about doing this—at least the way we chose to do it—as a couple. At that time there were some exciting things going on in the (Straus Institute) at Pepperdine and I had just started a new consulting firm that was doing work in health care. But also there was the thought that the next 15 years or so were going to be pretty much what I had done for 19 years.

I thought I still had enough in the gas tank that, you know, there was another stop on the career path. So it was exciting to think about something different.

Nashville was a bit of an adventure, too. We knew we were moving to a very different culture. In terms of the church, in terms of society ... I think we understood this was going to be a pretty substantial move. But we looked forward to it and were excited about it.

What did you see in the people and potential of the Lipscomb community 16 years ago?

As I was collecting information I surmised there was

tremendous potential, and I felt that Nashville was a very

different setting than most of our Christian colleges enjoy.

At Lipscomb I found a group of people who wanted to

do more and better things. So those were two pretty good

ingredients for us from the start.

Lipscomb had already made some impressive moves

forward. The (Steve) Flatt administration lobbied for the

Hope Scholarship to be applied to private schools, which is absolutely essential to private Christian education in

Tennessee…the nursing and engineering programs had

begun…we were still early in the ASUN Conference in

the NCAA Division 1 level in athletics.

At that moment in time, we essentially offered

primarily an undergraduate education that started

typically in the fall. Enrollment had been about the same for a number of years. We have been able to develop

and offer a depth and breadth of academic offerings to

more people and at starting points throughout the year.

That really is the primary difference when you look at

it from a business perspective. Revenue increased and

fundraising increased. In 2005 the budget was about $51 million. Today, it’s $159 million. In 2005 we were raising on average $6.5 million. In the last five years we have

raised on average $30 million. That’s pretty substantial.

Then the question for us, always has been, always

will be, can we sustain that? Can we build on that? The bottom line here is, when you have an operation that’s

producing two or three times as much revenue every year

it’s a more formidable, sustainable institution.

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REFLECTIONS

You have always said that the physical growth—bricks and mortar—are so much more than that. How has our physical growth benefited and equipped our students to be successful in the future?

First of all, I believe people are going to judge you by the look of the campus. It’s the first impression people often have of an institution. In the educational sector, you’re competing with whatever the next campus is down the street and across town, and in another state. And so there has been a remarkable investment in the infrastructure of higher education in terms of buildings and campuses over the last 50 years. But it’s not the end. It’s a means to an end.

I don’t apologize for the bricks and mortar, because I think they are a part of someone’s decision … the equipment, the laboratories. All of those things are a part of what allows us to educate our students.

But if we only had a beautiful campus and nothing else substantial, it would not be very satisfying for very long.

How satisfying is it to see where the university is now and what reflections do you have on how we, as an institution, got here?

There is a deep satisfaction in that we have been able to do substantially more than most people would have dreamed or envisioned that we could. So that’s very, very satisfying.

I think God has granted me a sense of some vision. A visionary is always seeing the next thing that could be done, so it is hard to say, “Okay, we got that done. I’m just going to sit here and bask in the joy of having done it.” I wish I was a little bit more that way because it would cause a lot less stress, but I’m not. So I’m always thinking: ‘Now where else can we go?’

I firmly believe this university can be one of the top 10 Christian universities in

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the nation. There’s no reason Lipscomb can’t be among that group. We’re in a vibrant city, we have a very diverse curriculum, great campus life, we play Division 1 athletics, we have built a relevant campus, we have a strong purpose with thousands of students... there’s just no reason that Lipscomb’s next phase can’t be to grow into that in a very tangible and appropriate way. So, as a visionary I’m looking forward to the vision that someone else will build on that foundation. The vision that can take us forward.

You have devoted your career to higher education and specifically to Christian higher education. Why? Education is something that can dramatically change the trajectory of one’s life in a relatively short period of time. In our culture, the life of someone who has an education will look very, very different than someone without an education. College is a relatively short period of time compared to one’s lifespan, but the trajectory that this education can set one on can be completely different than it would have been just a few years previously. So it’s pretty exciting to be involved in something that can have that much impact on someone’s life.

I think a lot of people work for their entire careers and never really have much passion for what they ended up doing.

Education is a place where we can work and have a lot of passion because we see the lives by the thousands who are affected.

How have Rhonda, the board of trustees and the senior leadership team been strong partners with you throughout your tenure?

I am greatly blessed, and the institution is greatly blessed, to have had an active, vital and engaged Presidential Spouse as Rhonda has been. She is a role model for women and is a great example of someone who takes her giftedness into the place where she finds herself and uses it wisely. She chose to invest

that at Lipscomb and for Lipscomb as opposed to investing it somewhere else. She was educated with a degree at a seminary, has been active in the Nashville community and has worked tirelessly for the university.

Now, she is chair of the Stephens Christian Trust Fund. She has chosen to invest her time and talent in the university, but she certainly could have invested that same energy elsewhere.

We both had as examples some colleagues and mentors in Christian education who, as couples, worked very closely together. I like to think of it as God’s plan that we, as a presidential couple, have had the opportunity to contribute to the university.

The board of an organization is far more significant in the lives of its constituents than most people understand. Lipscomb’s board is the best university board that I have ever worked for because it understands, clearly, its role as the policymaking body and understands that the administration’s job is to carry out those policies. So when these two pieces understand their roles they work better together.

You want individuals who are on your board to have a passion for the institution and be willing to be brought into a vision. The Lipscomb board has been extraordinarily supportive with their time and with resources. I’m very, very thankful because not all boards are like that.

What do you think you’ll miss the most about this role?

I love putting the pieces together to accomplish something, whether it’s an academic program, a new facility or rebuilding something. And I do worry that I’ll miss that a lot. I’ll miss the students, even though in this role you don’t always have the interaction with them that you would like. The students are the reason why we do this. Also, I love the faculty and staff—they are so dedicated and really want to be here as a part of this mission. I’m

REFLECTIONS Lowry’s grandchildren Deacon Lowry, age 7, (foreground) and Avery Raymond, age 3, (background), check out the Lipscomb presidential medallion as the Lowry family gathered on the Quad after May 2021 commencement, the last graduation ceremony Lowry presided over.

going to miss them and engaging with this

community as president. It has been one of

life’s greatest honors to be the president and

to represent this institution.

What does it mean for you to have been Lipscomb’s president?

There is a symbolic moment that I find

fascinating. Most professors with a doctoral degree have a hood which displays the

colors of the institution from which you

have earned that degree. When you become a college president, however, you exchange

them for the new colors of the institution of

which you are leading. It’s a very symbolic,

but seldom thought about, act. Through this action a president is saying, ‘Now I commit

to you.’ I think about that every time I put on my academic regalia… I’m putting on

the colors of this university.

As we try to deeply absorb this connection of leadership and service through this symbolic putting on of a school’s colors there is also this sense that we never quite get there… you never quite become the school… not as a faculty member or as a student. In many instances you have not graduated from the institution you lead and by the nature of this position, there is always some level of distance between you and those you lead.

So it seems we are always wrestling with this thing of saying symbolically, ‘I’m putting you on’ but at the same time you also realize that you’re a guest at someone else’s table. You hold in your hands not power, but stewardship. It’s a sense of: ‘How do I hold this institution? How do I guide it but it’s not really mine?’ After holding that role for a long time you get a little insecure because

you convince yourself that you’re holding it lightly. But I’m not sure emotionally, it is

held quite so lightly. So intellectually, I know

it’s not mine, but with 16 years of investment,

night and day, seven days a week… you can’t help it.

So I ask myself the question, ‘When I’m

no longer the president, how much of who

I was, and how much of who I will be, is left to be something else?’ This role is a pretty complex thing. I serve in the office of the

president, but I have also been formed by

the office of president. It has been a joy, an

adventure and I hope somewhat worthy of

God’s calling.

To see a longer version of this interview, go to lipscomb.edu/now/chancellor. lipscomb.edu/news

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