Last week I attended a dinner of the Virginia Foundation for Independent
Colleges Board of Trustees to celebrate the announcement of Kenneth P.
Ruscio, the president of Washington and Lee University, as the next
president of VFIC on April 1, 2017. Dr. Ruscio is a long-time colleague
and friend who has had a distinguished 10-year record of success at W
& L. It was my pleasure, therefore, to deliver some remarks on
behalf of Dr. Ruscio to the banquet audience at the Country Club of
Virginia in Richmond.
Virginia Wesleyan has been a member of this
exclusive consortium of 15 private colleges since 1982, and has
benefited substantially from the visibility and joint fundraising
initiatives of the VFIC. Founded in 1952, the VFIC’s mission is to
advance the distinctive values and strengths of its smaller-enrollment,
undergraduate, residential Virginia member colleges. The group works to
secure financial support from the private sector, increase visibility
for independent higher education and its funders, facilitate innovative
and collaborative initiatives between the colleges, and support programs
that ensure that this personalized educational experience remains an
affordable choice for tomorrow’s citizen-leaders.
Over the years, several VWC trustees have served on the Foundation's board and, as noted in Dr. Stephen Mansfield's Wisdom Lights the Way,
our College has received important funding from the VFIC for "operating
support, student and faculty research, and technology enhancement."
Dr.
Ruscio is stepping down as Washington and Lee’s president at the end of
this calendar year and will be succeeded by William C. (Will) Dudley,
provost of Williams College, who was elected by the W & L Board of
Trustees on Feb. 12.
In his new assignment for the VFIC, Dr. Ruscio succeeds Tom Morris, who served from 2010 to 2016.
As
the 26th president of Washington and Lee, his alma mater, Dr. Ruscio
has led numerous major initiatives at the Lexington institution. Under
his leadership, W & L completed a historic $542.5 million capital
campaign that resulted in the renovation and restoration of the
Colonnade, which comprises the University’s signature campus buildings;
the creation of several new academic ventures; the development of the
Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity; and a significant expansion
of the financial aid program, which has resulted in the removal of
loans from all financial aid packages and the creation of the W & L
Promise to guarantee free tuition to any admitted undergraduate student
with family income of $75,000 or below.
It was an honor for
Virginia Wesleyan and for me personally to speak to Dr. Ruscio's success
and legacy as the president of one of the nation's most distinguished
universities, and to his continuing service on behalf of the vital
tradition of private higher education in Virginia. We wish him well in
his new position and look forward as a campus community to benefiting
from his leadership and the significant funding partnership we have with
the VFIC.
