Leland’s legacy extends beyond Georgia College campus

MILLEDGEVILLE -- Before she formally interviewed for the job of becoming Georgia College & State University’s 10th president in 2003, Dorothy Leland drove through town on her way back from a vacation.

In the quaint downtown, she saw the dilapidated, nearly empty Campus Theatre building, which stopped showing movies in 1983. “I saw that abandoned theater and I said to myself, ‘If I decide to come here, I want to do something with that building.’ ”

In many ways, the Campus Theatre is an appropriate symbol for the legacy Leland is leaving behind eight years later as she heads to her native California to become chancellor of the University of California-Merced on July 1.

Thanks to Leland’s leadership, the historic theater was restored and now serves a meaningful role downtown, hosting the school’s bookstore and a coffee shop. It’s also home to Georgia College’s theater department.

One of the most remarkable things about the restoration was that Leland was able to pull it off during the height of the economic downturn, using public and private partnerships to open the theater in April 2010.

It’s hardly the only significant piece of the legacy that Leland will leave behind. Despite a recession and huge funding cuts by the state, Georgia College has not only managed to flourish, but also has expanded under her watch, adding tens of millions of dollars worth of building projects. Not only that, the university is the single-most important economic generator for Milledgeville and Baldwin County, having a $176 million impact on the city and county, according to a recently released report.

“She sustained the campus through the recession with remarkable skill,” said Georgia College historian Bob Wilson. “Her forte is planning and budgeting, and she did that very well. She was the right person (to lead the college) at the right time.”

Strengthening Georgia College’s position

Leland was hired in late 2003 to replace Rosemary DePaolo, who had left the presidency earlier that year to take the chancellorship at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. DePaolo was given a lot of credit for helping to make Georgia College a top public liberal arts college.

DePaolo helped lay the groundwork, several faculty members said, and Leland arrived and built upon that foundation.

“She consolidated the mission,” Wilson said. “She helped make the public liberal arts mission an enduring thing for the college. She pulled it all together in a very quiet way, doing the nuts and bolts of making it a public Ivy (League university) for students in Georgia.”

Lee Gillis, chairman of the university’s psychology department, said when Leland first met with the Faculty Senate and department heads, she was met with a slew of opinions about how to move Georgia College to the next level.

“People threw out various points of view, and she listened to all of it,” Gillis said. “She presented a gestalt with an action that made perfect sense, but that had not been presented before. She had a quality as a listener and a leader. But it was never her way or the highway. ... The previous president had gotten us into the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, but with Dorothy Leland, I feel like it deepened. She gave it a lot of substance, a lot of what it means to be the public liberal arts college in the state.”

Many on campus said Leland made Georgia College a first-choice destination among graduating high school seniors, yet also made it more accessible to a wider variety of students.

Nick Castagna, a just-graduated Georgia College senior from Peachtree City who will attend graduate school there in the fall, said he and many of his peers decided to attend the Milledgeville university because it had attained a national reputation for quality education.

“More students have been trying to get in here,” he said. “There’s a lot higher competition.”

Gillis gave Leland credit for making Georgia College more accessible in the admissions process to students, looking beyond just their SAT scores.

He recalled attending a meeting before Leland’s arrived on campus that emphasized looking at raising the SAT score requirement for the university’s incoming students. A colleague said to Gillis, “I guess they don’t want our kids here,” he recalled.

Leland, however, started the Bridge Scholars Program, which allowed high school students who weren’t admitted to Georgia College to take part in a summer program there. Students are interviewed and go through an intense preparation process before being admitted to the college in the fall.

“That’s the type of awareness she has,” Gillis said. “We’re now the first choice of schools for a lot of people. Admissions have gotten more selective, but they are not relying solely on SATs. They’re not just bringing in kids who hit the right numbers. The profiles of the students are really different.”

Dealing with crises

When the national economic crisis hit in 2008, Leland was ready.

Many colleges across the nation were required to make deep cuts to their budgets. Leland, however, already was planning for a rainy day in which the state might cut funding to the university.

When the state cut Georgia College’s budget by 20 percent, the college was able to move ahead with its primary mission without being crippled. Leland was able to make cuts and find alternative sources of funding through foundations and private partnerships.

“I don’t know if she had a crystal ball that showed her the crash after ’08, but she was prepared,” Gillis said. “When the state said she had to give up some money, she wasn’t caught off-guard. I’m still amazed at how we weathered that storm.”

Leland said making it through those times wasn’t easy.

“We lost 20 percent of the state-funded part of our budget,” she said. “That was millions and millions of dollars and a loss of resources. It was a significant challenge. I think we managed it in such a way that we’ve done no harm to our primary mission.”

Nor was harm done to many of the projects that Leland initiated, such as the Campus Theatre. In addition to that building, under Leland, construction or rehabilitation of several buildings is currently ongoing, including a new health center and restoration of the historic Ennis Hall, which will serve as the future home of the art department.

While not directly affecting the university, Georgia College also got caught up in a sexual assault investigation in 2010 that involved Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. A sophomore at the university alleged that Roethlisberger sexually assaulted her in a Milledgeville nightclub. After an extensive review by police, the district attorney announced the case would not be prosecuted.

The case drew national attention from major media outlets all across the country, including ESPN and TMZ.com. The university and Milledgeville came under a lot of scrutiny, and much of it was negative.

“What impressed me is how (Leland) handled that explosive situation,” said Larry Walker, a member of the state’s Board of Regents. “I thought she handled that very well. It had to be traumatic for her and the rest of the community. But as bad as it was, it could have been a lot worse without her.”

Leland said she would rather give credit to the college’s students and local residents, who decided on their own to close ranks against the media storm once the initial sense of being star struck wore off.

“I’m very proud of the students,” she said. “After the first two or three days dealing with the excitement of talking to national media, the students decided to close the circle around their peers. They refused to play in the sensationalism. They were concerned about the impression the events were having on Milledgeville and the school. My main concern was the students, but I saw the students take charge.”

Leland’s relationship with Milledgeville, Baldwin officials

A study by the Selig Center at the University of Georgia reported that Georgia College has an economic impact of $176 million on Milledgeville and Baldwin County. In addition, it provides nearly 2,300 jobs to the area for a $91 million impact.

Community leaders gave Leland’s proactive style the credit for much of that impact.

“She’s had a tremendous impact as far as the community is concerned,” said Milledgeville Mayor Richard Bentley, who honored Leland last Monday with “Dorothy Leland Day.”

Bentley pointed to a partnership between the city and the college to repurpose the empty part of Central State Hospital’s campus into a center for rural health care delivery. The project would mean jobs for the region, improved health care and a way for students in the university’s graduate student nurses program to train.

“She’s made sure her successor is going to continue with the project,” Bentley said. “It’s something she’s very passionate about.”

Another project on which Leland has left her stamp has been the restoration of the Sallie Ellis Davis house in Milledgeville. Davis was an educator who taught hundreds of black children from the 1890s to 1949. Leland partnered with Carolyn Thomas, chairwoman of the Sallie Ellis Davis Foundation, to restore the historic home and turn it into an African-American cultural center.

“It’s been a wonderful project,” Leland said. “Many local businesses volunteered labor and supplies. I have some regrets that I won’t be able to see it through its final stage.”

Perhaps the Leland idea with the biggest impact was a trip she organized with university and civic officials to India, to establish relations there for academic and business opportunities.

Baldwin County Development Authority Executive Director Angie Gheesling, who was part of that trip this past February and March, said it was Leland’s idea, which came in part because of the two years she spent in India in the Peace Corps.

“Once the economy turned (sour), we know exactly what the presence of having the university means,” Gheesling said. “A large part of that is a tribute to the work she’s done.”

Gheesling said Indian business and academic leaders are now aware of Milledgeville and Baldwin County and its proximity to Atlanta, leading to potential future partnerships that could have an enormous economic impact.

Going to California

Leland said she’s going to miss the students and the picturesque setting of Milledgeville, especially her home on Lake Oconee.

She wasn’t seeking the chancellorship on the West Coast, but she was quickly identified as a top candidate by a search firm. Leland said the campus is about a two-hour drive from her son and daughter-in-law, and that she has family all across that state.

What excites her about the position is that California-Merced is a research university, which presents a different set of challenges for her.

“It’s a new campus, and they are totally devoted to environmental sustainability,” she said, noting that every building on the six-year old campus has received LEEDS certification, a designation that notes the eco-friendliness of a building.

California is currently struggling through a budget crisis worse than Georgia’s. And so, Leland will have to once again be imaginative in raising money for the university.

“We’ll have to be creative and look for non-state sources of funding,” Leland said. “Frankly, I’m used to that.”

Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report. To contact writer Phillip Ramati, call 744-4334.

This story was originally published June 26, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Leland’s legacy extends beyond Georgia College campus."