Breaking News (or not so breaking news to some of you)

First of all, I'm really sorry about the negativity of my last post, I might even delete it, but oh well...

I have been away from this blog for the past week due to work and the Virginia trip, so I received this news a bit late.

But apparently Methodist University will have new leadership come July, as President Elton Hendricks recently announced that he step down after running things at my alma mater for over 25 years. When I first heard the news, I admitted to feeling a large jolt of excitement in my body. I felt that the university needed a change at the top because Hendricks, in my view, was out of touch to the needs of 21st century college students. I thought that was more concerned with operating a business than keeping its students happy.

But after I read the Fayetteville Observer article Monday, I felt guilty about bashing him all these years. The Observer did a great job of painting the picture of an educated, intelligent individual. I gained a lot of respect for Hendricks simply for realizing that it would take a younger man to take Methodist to newer heights. I originally thought that he would never come to that conclusion.

I believed that Methodist University needed Dr. Hendricks to upgrade from survival mode to prosperity. He deserves to be acknowledged for that very reason. And I'm confident that the new president will have many positives to work with.

Methodist still has issues to deal with. The economy is still choking the life out of America, which means that less and less students will be able to afford Methodist. We still have the moral issue of athletics-being egged on by the higher ups-willingly embracing the "take it in the front end, lose it in the back end" approach to recruiting. (even though it would help the school financially, it hurts retention and it is dishonest). We still struggle with recruiting women as the shadow of Fort Bragg and other issues makes the school unbalanced by gender standards. Alumni still aren't giving to MU in large amounts by my calculation. And did I mention retention???? These are the challenges that I can come up with.

But I think a new voice, preferably NOT tied to MU currently, can lead Methodist past these challenges and into a new stratosphere. Thank you, Dr. Hendricks, and I'm sorry for the negative Facebook comments.