President Doug Hicks graduated from Davidson College at a time not too far separated from when the small private liberal arts college still capped enrollment of women. A 1990 alumnus, Hicks recalls when the town surrounding the North Carolina campus was just one main street, populated by students who looked just like him: young, white and male.
When he returned to the campus in 2022 as its newly appointed president, he was greeted by a microcosm of the modern American experience. More than a quarter of Davidson’s students are Black, Hispanic, Asian or Hispanic/Latino, and Davidson’s community and economy are more closely connected to the Charlotte metro region.
“People are meeting a far more diverse set of human beings and are thus prepared for lives of service and careers in the workplace with people who are very different than them,” President Hicks says.
What’s not changing is support from Davidson’s alumni. Alumni giving percentages and engagement consistently rank in the top five among all colleges and universities. Annual donations are coming from 41% of its base. During its last fundraising campaign, more than 1,200 who graduated in the last decade made a gift, and 75% of Davidson families with current students served as volunteers, mentors and donors, according to a school statement.
Hicks believes the community has been inspired to support the college’s mission of connecting students to a quickly developing workforce.
“We’re not giving people specific skills for that first job, we’re giving them skills and capacities for a lifetime of meaningful work,” he says. “Developing humane instincts and expanding creative and disciplined minds for lives of leadership and service—this is a wonderful statement of purpose, and it means different things now than it meant 20 years ago. It means different things now than when the college was founded.”
Managing the cost of higher education
Alumni are most enthusiastic about supporting students with financial aid, Hicks attests. Davidson is a need-blind institution that strives to meet 100% of students’ demonstrated needs without requiring them to take out loans.
“That still means that [affording higher ed] is an expensive proposition for any family anywhere on the socioeconomic distribution. The main thing we can do is make sure that the quality of our teaching, the quality of the experience is truly world-class,” Hick says. “So the challenge to continue to be honest about our costs and to continue to raise the funds to be able to make an affordable education are always paramount for me.”
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Managing costs for students is only half the battle. Most higher ed employees are dealing with debt while struggling to meet short- and long-term financial goals, such as saving enough money for retirement. Without an enormous budget surplus, a continuing challenge for Hicks is ensuring faculty and staff are satisfied with their work, wages and prospects.
The president found it particularly important to support admissions and financial aid staff through the turbulent FAFSA rollout. “The FAFSA challenges didn’t affect our class, but they did affect our staff. It’s a problem that continues, but at the same time, we have the people to get the work done. I’ve spent a fair amount of time saying ‘thank you.'”
Reconciling with the past
Alumni are increasingly interested in donating to Davidson’s diversity and inclusion initiatives. As a result, a pillar of Davidson’s strategic plan published in August was reconciling with the campus’ early ties to slavery. “We have made a lot of strides based on many efforts to name our history dating back to 1837,” Hicks says. “We’ve tried to do that as carefully as possible.”
Davidson’s Commission on Race and Slavery, tasked with examining these uncomfortable ties to the college’s early founders, has proposed partnering with communities harmed by the legacies of slavery and racism and expanding reconciliation efforts. The commission built upon the work of its Commemoration and Acknowledgement and Naming Committees.
