President Mills reveals plans for presidential search, school at small dinner
Lower East Side, NEW YORK—Interim President Andy Mills told students that a “presidential profile” will be posted on The King’s College website within the next week that highlights characteristics the school is seeking in its new president. Mills addressed the students at SBP Samuel Tran’s home during an informal Question and Answer session and dinner Feb. 13. The Committee is not limiting the search to any particular types of candidates and should “search for God’s person for the role,” Mills said. Though he recognizes the economic need for a president who can promote King’s outside of the school, he primarily wants the president to love the students and maintain a presence at the physical school.
“The goal is to get a person who is going to be there ten-plus years,” Mills said, “someone who loves what’s happening at the college and really sees [the role of president] as the culmination of their life’s work to take [the college] to the next level.”
The college has solicited the services of the search firm Carter Baldwin, which led both Wheaton College and Gordon College in their presidential searches. The Presidential Search Committee comprises 12 individuals who each represent different constituencies of The King’s College community—students, faculty, staff, board members, alumni, donors and parents.
Topics at the Q&A ranged from the importance of the core-curriculum to the state of the presidential search and the spiritual direction of the school. All students of The King’s College were invited to the session, with around 15 attending.
Mills also shared his vision for King’s in the changing world of higher education. Because the classic “four-year college” plan has become an expensive option, students now receive their education in different ways, he explained.
The Board plans to enhance the school by programs like King’s Online and “Semester in the City,” in which students from other colleges study at King’s during the summer, expanding King’s reach while exposing students to “Kingsian” ideas and values.
From a student’s perspective, Mills believes that the two most urgent issues facing The King’s College presently concern community and spiritual life. In order to build community, the school is looking into moving its student housing to lower Manhattan. Super storm Sandy, which badly flooded the area in late October, has freed up apartment space near the Financial District where King’s is located.
In addition to strengthening the King’s community, Mills desires to make the spiritual life at King’s “more vibrant.” He challenged students to attend church regularly and to live their lives in mind of what “the Lord has for us.”
Mills sees the college’s main purpose is to develop leaders who serve the Lord wherever he takes them. He believes the college will have failed to do its job if it graduates students who are capable but are not “grounded in Christ.”