Roger Taylor (college president)

Last updated

Roger Taylor was the 18th president of Knox College, a nationally ranked liberal arts college located in Galesburg, Illinois. A native of Fulton County, Illinois, Taylor is a 1959 graduate of Cuba High School. He received his bachelor's degree in English from Knox College in 1963, and then served in the United States Navy for three and one-half years, including a year in Vietnam, before entering law Northwestern University School of Law in 1968. He graduated with honors from Northwestern in 1971 and served as an editor of the law review. After law school, he practiced law at the firm of Kirkland & Ellis in Chicago, ultimately becoming partner with the international firm. Taylor joined the Knox College Board of Trustees in 1998 and served as its chair from 1999-2001. He became interim president in 2001, after the departure of Knox's 17th president, Richard Millman, and was officially installed as president of Knox College in October 2002. He served in that role until retiring in 2011.

Contents

His wife, Anne Zweifel Taylor, is a 1963 alumna of Knox.

Work as president

At his installation, Taylor set three goals for his tenure as Knox's president: Nurturing Academic Excellence, Strengthening Institutional Self-Confidence, and Charting a Course Toward Financial Impregnability. [1] Taylor took personally the challenge to help the college attract high-achieving students, strengthen alumni relationships, and enhance the academic reputation of Knox among other national liberal arts colleges.

Taylor guided Knox through the restructuring of its educational program, the growth of student enrollment from nearly 1,000 to today's enrollment of 1,400, and an increase in alumni giving. [2] During his tenure as president, Taylor oversaw several capital improvements to Knox's campus, including a multi-year Fitness & Athletics Initiative; [3] the renovation of the student residence Hamblin Hall; the purchase and renovation of Borzello Hall, an academic and administrative building; and the renovation of a variety of campus facilities to enhance sustainability.

Challenges did arise during his tenure, including the need for increased student housing during a time of enrollment growth; [4] the Recession of 2008, which affected Knox's endowment value and operating costs; and questions regarding the handling by the administration of sexual misconduct cases. [5] Yet Taylor left office known for his enthusiasm for the college's students, faculty, and alumni and for his accessibility, regularly eating lunches with students in the student union and attending cultural and athletic events. The Knox College Student Senate honored his legacy at the college by naming a new student lounge the Roger Taylor Lounge in his name. [6] [7]

Retirement

Taylor announced plans to retire as president of Knox College on April 5, 2010, [8] and, after a national search for his successor, he officially stepped down on June 30, 2011. The Board of Trustees named Taylor professor emeritus in December 2011. When asked what he viewed as his greatest legacy at Knox, Taylor said "I fixed the Old Main bell." [9]

Taylor and his wife, Anne, both received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Knox College upon the celebration of their 50th Knox reunion in October 2013. [10] In February 2016, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner announced the appointment of Taylor to the Illinois State Museum Board. [11]

Successor

His successor as president is Teresa L. Amott, Ph.D., who was Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS), in Geneva, New York, having been in that post since 2005. Prior to that, she was Vice Provost of Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. She has a B.A. from Smith College and a Ph.D. from Boston College, and is an economist by training. Amott began her presidency in July 2011. [12]

Honors

In 2006, Roger Taylor was named one of the nation's ten "Most Attractive College Presidents," by "The Insider's Guide to the Colleges". [13]

Roger Taylor was elected president of the Associated Colleges of Illinois, succeeding Richard F. Giese, the president of Monmouth College. [14]

Related Research Articles

Upper Iowa University Private university in Fayette, Iowa

Upper Iowa University (UIU) is a private university in Fayette, Iowa. It enrolls around 600 students and offers distance education programs that include 15 centers in the U.S., an online program, an independent study program, and centers in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. UIU has a total student enrollment of more than 6,000 students.

Illinois State University Public university in Normal, Illinois, US

Illinois State University (ISU) is a public research university in Normal, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, it is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teaching and is recognized as one of the top ten largest producers of teachers in the US according to the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".

University of Oregon Public university in Eugene, Oregon

The University of Oregon is a public flagship research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution's 295-acre campus is situated along the Willamette River. Since July 2014, UO has been governed by the Board of Trustees of the University of Oregon. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and is a member of the Association of American Universities.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Public university in Illinois, U.S.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University of Illinois system and was founded in 1867. Enrolling over 56,000 undergraduate and graduate students, the University of Illinois is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the nation.

Gettysburg College Private liberal arts colleges in the United States

Gettysburg College is a private liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the 225-acre (91 ha) campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about 2,600 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women. Gettysburg students come from 41 states, Washington, D.C., and 39 countries.

DePaul University Private university in Chicago, Illinois, US

DePaul University is a private, Catholic research higher education institution in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Catholic university in terms of enrollment in North America. Following in the footsteps of its founders, DePaul places special emphasis on recruiting first-generation students and others from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Knoxville College Black liberal arts college in Tennessee, U.S.

Knoxville College is a historically black liberal arts college in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, which was founded in 1875 by the United Presbyterian Church of North America. It is a United Negro College Fund member school.

Eureka College United States historic place

Eureka College is a private liberal arts college in Eureka, Illinois, that is related by covenant to the Christian Church. Enrollment in 2018 was approximately 567 students.

Knox College is a private liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois. It was founded in 1837 and offers more than 60 courses of study.

Stillman College

Stillman College is a private historically black Presbyterian college in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It awards the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in 17 disciplines/majors housed within three academic schools. The college has an average enrollment of 650 students and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Missouri Southern State University

Missouri Southern State University is a public university in Joplin, Missouri, United States. It was established in 1937 as Joplin Junior College. It enrolled 4,346 students in Fall 2021.

Illinois College Liberal arts college in Jacksonville, Illinois

Illinois College is a private liberal arts college in Jacksonville, Illinois. It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (USA). It was the second college founded in Illinois, but the first to grant a degree. It was founded in 1829 by the Yale Band, students from Yale College who traveled westward to found new colleges. It briefly served as the state's first medical school, from 1843 to 1848.

University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts and Sciences College in Illinois, U.S.

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) is the largest college of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The college was established in 1913 through the merger of the College of Literature and Arts and the College of Science. The college offers seventy undergraduate majors, as well as master's and Ph.D. programs. As of 2020, there are nearly 12,000 undergraduate students and 2,500 graduate students attending the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

University of the Ozarks Private university in Clarksville, Arkansas

University of the Ozarks is a private university in Clarksville, Arkansas. Enrollment averages around 900 students, representing 25 countries. U of O is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Georgia Highlands College

Georgia Highlands College is a public college in northwest Georgia. It has locations in Rome, Cartersville, Marietta, and Dallas and serves the northwest parts of Georgia, as well as parts of east Alabama and southeast Tennessee. A member of the University System of Georgia, the college was originally a community college and has since expanded to also offer bachelor degrees in healthcare management, logistics and supply chain management, dental hygiene, criminal justice, and an RN-BSN program. Students are now being accepted into a bachelor's of health science degree launched in 2020 and an associate's entrepreneurship pathway launched in 2021. Between 5,700 and 6,100 students are enrolled at GHC in any given semester, representing 49 different countries. In 2020, the college had a record high number of graduates and an economic impact of over $181 million.

Walter Payton College Preparatory High School Public secondary magnet school in Chicago, Illinois, United States

Walter Payton College Preparatory High School is a top-rated public 4-year selective enrollment magnet high school located in the Old Town neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is currently ranked the No. 1 public high school in the State of Illinois, and No. 4 in the United States, by U.S. News & World Report.

Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College United States historic place

The Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College is an academic community at Louisiana State University. Housed in the heritage-listed French House, it was founded in 1992 as the LSU Honors College, and renamed in December 2014. The college primarily admits the top 10% of incoming LSU freshmen, and provides its students with a curriculum of seminar classes, mentoring relationships with faculty, and opportunities for undergraduate research, culminating in the Honors Thesis.

Missouri Baptist University (MBU) is a private Southern Baptist university in Creve Coeur, Missouri. It is one of three universities of the Missouri Baptist Convention. The main campus is located on a 68-acre site near Creve Coeur and Town and County in West St Louis County, off highway 64-40. There are currently 12 MBU locations including its regional learning centers throughout the St. Louis region and Illinois. The school enrolled 5,309 students in 2019.

History of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The history of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dates back to 1862. U of I is a public research-intensive university in the U.S. state of Illinois. A land-grant university, it is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign opened on March 2, 1868, and is the second oldest public university in the state, and is a founding member of the Big Ten Conference.

Teresa Amott is an American economist and academic administrator, who served as the 19th president of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.

References

  1. ↑ "Installation Address | President Roger Taylor". blog.knox.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  2. ↑ "History of Knox College Presidents - Knox College". www.knox.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  3. ↑ "Fitness Center & Athletics Initiatives Task Force". 2008-07-20. Archived from the original on July 20, 2008. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  4. ↑ "Freshmen, transfers struggle to find housing - The Knox Student". The Knox Student. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  5. ↑ "Victims challenge school on handling of sexual assaults - The Knox Student". The Knox Student. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  6. ↑ McCARTHY, ERIN. "Student lounge named for Knox president". The Register-Mail. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  7. ↑ "Student Lounge renovation complete - The Knox Student". The Knox Student. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  8. ↑ "Knox College President Roger Taylor announces plan to retire - Knox College". www.knox.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  9. ↑ MCCARTHY, ERIN. "Outgoing, incoming Knox College presidents discuss change". The Register-Mail. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  10. ↑ "Taylors Awarded Honorary Degrees at Knox Homecoming - Knox College". www.knox.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  11. ↑ Register-Mail, Marty Hobe The. "Politics as Usual: Rauner taps Knox College president for museum board". The Register-Mail. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  12. ↑ Archived April 13, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ Archived October 1, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  14. ↑ "Choir's fourth Spain tour features two firsts". Knox.edu. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.