“Higher education institutions across the country are contending with significant headwinds. However, with a shared sense of purpose, a creative spirit, and sustained focus, PC can emerge stronger than ever and build a tremendous foundation for the next 140 years.”

That was a part of the inauguration speech that Matthew vandenBerg gave at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina in Fall 2021. His vision for Presbyterian is slowly taking shape, but it has come with both highs and lows. Taking office in February 2021 (in the middle of the pandemic), I wanted to ask Matt to take us behind the scenes of a first time president with a terrific track record in both fundraising and friend raising at his previous stops.

Like so many presidents, he was confronted by challenges from the moment he walked on campus, and, like so many times, athletics is a part of that. In our conversation, he walks us through a very delicate situation that emerged on campus in Spring 2022, when the Howard University women's lacrosse team arrived on campus and was verbally mistreated by a few members of the student population. It gravitated into a national story, and it was clearly a moment that many presidents face in putting espoused values into action. 

We talk about Presbyterian as a very small Division I campus, with non-scholarship football, trying to manage success and expectations for athletes, coaches and administrators in the fast changing world of NCAA Division I sports. It's a great conversation for anyone who has ever thought about becoming a small college president.