Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont recently announced the selection of Dr. Benjamin Ola. Akande as its ninth president. An economist originally from Nigeria, Akande is currently the Assistant Vice Chancellor for International Affairs-Africa and the Associate Director of the Global Health Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He previously served as president of Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. Dr. Akande tells WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley he is impressed by Champlain College’s commitment to student success.
The turning point for me was early on in our conversation with representatives of faculty, student, and staff from the search committee, I realized how committed this college was to their students success. And most importantly, the role that they play in the community that they serve. Whether it's in Burlington, or are online learning, the passion that I saw was really evident. And as our conversation went further, I began to learn more about the distinctiveness of this institution. And that attention led to wanting to be part of something that I felt was going to be exciting, but more importantly, was having a meaningful impact on the lives of so many people.
Champlain does have some unique programs, Forensic IT, Technology, things like that. Do you play to build on that, do you have some unique ideas to even move beyond those sorts of programs?
I think you've got it really well. It was one of the first in the country to establish a very robust Cybersecurity and Digital Forensic program. And of course, the nationally acclaimed Game Development curriculum, and their program is something special. And these areas are Champlain’s competitive advantage. And so what I would love to do as president is to build on this and to make sure that we create the kind of environment where we can continue to sync creativity and innovation.
Do you have a vision laid out for Champlain College at this point?
When I think of that question, I think about the fact that Champlain College has experienced incredible success over the years and my goal is to help keep that momentum. To continue innovation, to continue expanding our programs in strategic and smart ways that work for our students. At the same time, I believe that my past experience working in small, midsize, and large institutions of higher learning, as well as my work in Africa with international organizations, and business entities, has prepared me to help Champlain think differently and boldly about what the future holds. What my top priorities are right now are three things. First, I want to ensure the safety and well-being of our students, faculty, and staff. But then, also I want to focus on delivering on our commitment to our students, specific commitment and student success. That is a commitment that will never change. And lastly, I would like to build on our strengths, building our competitive advantage, and to position ourselves for new ideas for new possibilities and to emerge as a destination. A favorite destination for best educational experience.
Dr. Akande, when you take the seat as ninth president on July 1, we obviously have no idea what the status of the pandemic will be. But as you look at the situation right now, how daunting is it to think about leading the college, either in the wake of, or we could even be still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic?
You know, this pandemic it touches all of us. It impacts all of us in ways that we could have never imagined. And it is a pandemic that sort of changed everything about the way we've always done things. And what gives me confidence that my new college will have an opportunity to embrace this is that they've been strategically placed to deal with changes. I mean, when you look back at the story of history of Champlain College, what you will find is an institution that has consistently found ways to modify, to change, to adapt. And that is why it continues to prosper and to be relevant. When you look at this pandemic, and one of the challenges that was really evident was that we needed to distance ourselves from each other, social distance they call it, and essentially start delivering education virtually online. Well, this is an institution that was one of the first institutions in the United States that adopted online education as far back as 1992 and has spent significant amount of time and resources to be one of the best levers of higher education in online education. When we moved online, the college was able to seamlessly transition and also to do it in a way that they had behind them significant amount of expertise and experience. I think a lot of institutions in the United States today are grappling with that reality. And they'll quickly plan to adjust and they're going zoom as opposed to going online. And Zoom, what I call Zoom in, which is a new way of sort of communicating now for so many in the higher education realm is a small part of online. But I think the fact is that Champlain has adopted all these challenges and been able to come to the table with established experience and a way of understanding how to deliver this experience, not just in the classroom, but our engagement with students outside of the classroom. So you're looking at an institution here that has also been very nimble in terms of taking advantage of educational opportunities and finding ways of creating programs that are market ready. And I think for me, that phase two means that as we move forward in addressing the challenges that we face with COVID-19, we are ready, we are prepared, and we are very open to adapt and to do the things that this college has been known to do for many years. And that is to find a way to eat change for breakfast. And essentially that's what's going to happen.
