NEW PRESIDENT PLANS TO BRING CHANGE
Dr. Docking addresses students for first time at Convocation posted 9/1/05

When Dr. Jeffrey Docking addressed the College community at Convocation on Aug. 31, it was the first time many students had ever laid eyes on the College’s new president – or heard his enthusiastic message that Adrian College is a place that is changing.

“You have come at a wonderful time in the history of Adrian College,” Docking said. “It is a new era of vibrancy and energy.”

Ever since Docking took over on July 1, he has been actively discussing plans to increase enrollment, improve academic quality, and enhance the campus environment to be relevant to today’s sophisticated students.

Rather than wait and listen for a year as many college presidents do, Docking says he wants to accomplish things now. This was evident when he organized a two-day planning retreat for college employees just before the start of school.

Diane Henningfeld, a professor of English who attended the retreat, is optimistic about Docking.

“I think he’s going to bring vigor, vitality, and enthusiasm to the campus,” she said in an article in the Toledo Blade.

Some of the plans Henningfeld and others discussed at the retreat included upgraded academic buildings, better athletic facilities and a swimming pool. In addition, there was discussion on enhancing academic programs, to make Adrian a liberal arts college that celebrates the “life of the mind,” as Docking put it at Convocation.

It is not completely without significance that Docking gave his first address in the Adrian College Chapel. While his top priorities will shake out in time, he has expressed an interest in increasing the College’s connection to its religious heritage. Adrian, which is beginning its 147th academic year, was founded by Methodist Protestants who were abolitionists and social activists.

Docking earned a master of divinity degree from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., and a doctorate in social ethics from Boston University. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University, and grew up in East Lansing. Prior to coming to Adrian, he was vice president and special assistant to the president at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa.

He replaced Dr. Stanley Caine, who served Adrian with distinction for 16 years.

In his speech, Docking invited students to help him make Adrian a new college “worthy of the gifts God has given us.”

“Let’s make Adrian College a place of love, and a place of hope.”