VPAA candidate visits MC

Third candidate visits MC

By Julie Trac
News Editor

Gary Phillips, the third candidate for vice president for academic affairs (VPAA) and dean of the faculty, was on campus last week on Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 30-31.

Brief receptions and question and answer sessions were held in the Barnes Electronic Classroom in Hewes Library on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

The former VPAA, George Arnold, held the position from 1996 to 2004 when he left MC to assume the presidency at Silver Lake College in Manitowoc, Wis.

The position has been filled by Interim VPAA and dean of the faculty, Rajkumar Ambrose since 2004.

According to the College, the new VPAA will be expected to assume office on July 1, 2006.

Currently, the candidate serves as a professor and chair of the religion department at Sewanee: University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., where he has worked since 1998.

In 2000, he was appointed the director of Sewanee’s First Year Program (FYP).

Prior to his appointment at Sewanee, Phillips taught at several other institutions, including the College of Holy Cross, American Baptist College, the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University.

Phillips received a B.A. degree from Lynchburg College in English, philosophy and religion, and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in New Testament studies and linguistics.

In addition to those institutions, Phillips attended Vanderbilt Divinity School and the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, France for one year.

His curriculum vita (an academic resume) includes an extensive list of administrative experience, funded proposals, academic appointments, awards and publications.

The curricula vitae for all VPAA candidates are on reserve at Hewes Library and can be viewed by both faculty and students.

In the past, Phillips has served as a consultant to many higher education institutions such as Wake Forest University, Vanderbilt University, the University of Denver and the University of Dayton.

According to Phillips’ cover letter, his “teaching and administrative experience is at home in institutions dedicated to liberal arts education.”

He continues, “My teaching and administrative work is sustained by a commitment to the goals of liberal arts education, namely to help fashion communities where learning and living, scholarship and service, community and conscience are integrated and the pursuit of truth leads beyond ourselves in order to make a difference in the world.”

While at Holy Cross, Phillips was an integral part of its nationally recognized First Year Program (FYP) which helped many students transition from high school seniors to college freshmen.

Phillips said Holy Cross freshmen were “utterly divided” in the 1980s, since students either worked hard or played hard and there was a severe separation between the dorm room and the classroom. It was dubbed the “Holy Cross Condition.”

The faculty saw this disconnectedness and decided to do something about it. The FYP was offered to twenty to twenty-five percent of each incoming class and included a seminar for one full year.

Students picked a course, and from there all those students were housed in the same residence hall. Then, they were paired with a faculty member who became the group’s advisor for the year.

Holy Cross’s FYP was based around a theme, “How then shall we live?” from Tolstoy's “A Confession.”

Benefits of the FYP included a higher G.P.A. than students who did not participate in the program. In addition, close relationships with faculty members lead to majors developing out of those relationships.

In his free time, Phillips is an avid speed cyclist, the owner of a sandwich shop and lays tiles. His eldest daughter is a Broadway actress.