FOCUS on Education
The Next Millennium:
Lee University and the Legacy of Paul Conn
S CHRISTIN HUFF walked new School of Religion building and the Church of God as sponsoring denomina-
A
across the graduation 2009 completion of the Science and Math tion,” Conn said. “But those needs had
platform at Lee Universi- Complex, facilities at Lee University will begun to evolve.” The denomination had
ty last May, she had no soon provide a million square feet of grown and prospered, moving far beyond
idea she was about to space. And the operating budget is now its Appalachian roots to a national and
receive a one-of-a-kind distinction. The $60 million. even global scale. The socioeconomic pro-
vice president for Academic Affairs, Dr. To Paul Conn, however, the real story file of its members had also spread far
Carolyn Dirksen, announced the health is about providing and sustaining an edu- beyond its original base and included
science major’s name as usual. But as cational opportunity not quite like any congregants from all walks of life. The
Christin started across the stage, Dr. other in the country. Much of that story aspirations of many of its adherents had
Dirksen added, “Christin is the 10,000th is mirrored in Dr. Conn’s own time at Lee. come to include traditionally secular
graduate since In the mid-’60s, Lee College was firm- trades and vocations.
by J. MATTHEW MELTON
Dr. Paul Conn ly entrenched as a small sectarian institu- The college was playing catch-up,
became president of Lee University.” The tion that emphasized Bible education according to Dr. Conn. “At that time, the
crowd in the Paul Dana Walker Arena over other disciplines. As a college, Lee school really didn’t have a lot to offer in
greeted the news with cheers and thunder- was emerging from its 1918 origins as the comparison to others,” Conn said. But Lee
ous applause. Bible Training School for ministers and did have something special, something dif-
The number 10,000 may seem like lit- church workers. The school was still try- ferent, something that Paul Conn felt very
tle more than a footnote, a mile marker ing to figure out what it meant to be a strongly while a student at Lee College. He
in the history of an institution, but to Dr. four-year college with a modest but grow- believes that what he felt at Lee is still at the
Paul Conn, the significance could not be ing menu of degree programs. In 1968, core of what makes Lee different.
greater. “People make a big deal out of the school would stamp its new identity “The faculty at Lee, people like Don
the growth of the campus and the build- by gaining accreditation with the South- Bowdle, Bob O’Bannon, Lois Beach, and
ings over these 23 years,” Dr. Conn said. ern Association of Colleges and Schools. Delton Alford, had a way of instilling in
“But the 10,000th graduate means a lot The Lee College that Paul Conn attended their students a belief that we were going to
more to me because all those graduates in the mid-’60s faced significant chal- make our mark, that we were going to
represent the future. For me, Lee has been lenges. “The primary purpose of the come out of nowhere and not only surprise
worth the investment.” school was to serve the needs of the other people, but even surprise ourselves.”
When Paul Conn assumed the presi-
dency of Lee College in 1986, the student
body had dipped to 960, with a faculty
and staff of about 100. The total operat-
ing budget of the school was about $5.5
million. The campus covered about 22
acres of a small town in southeastern
Tennessee. The academic and residential
buildings provided about 300,000 square
feet of space.
What occurred in the next two
decades was, as Conn has publicly stated
several times, “God’s favor.” The campus
acreage has quintupled. The faculty, staff,
and student body have more than
quadrupled. With the construction of the
20 EVANGEL • MAY 2009
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