Celebrating a Decade of Accomplishment: Dr. Tom Bogart

 *This story originally appeared in the Winter/Spring 2020 issue of FOCUS magazine

Maryville College President Dr. Tom Bogart will depart from Maryville College in June 2020, concluding a 10-year tenure marked by financial growth, campus improvements and new academic programs.

“College leadership is like a relay race, and commemorating 200 years certainly puts one presidential term in perspective,” Bogart said on July 25, 2019, when he announced his departure. “Unlike at a track meet, though, there is not a predetermined time to pass the baton. We have a strong leadership team, an inspiring strategic plan, and the enthusiasm of the Bicentennial celebration uniting the entire community. This is a perfect moment to bring a new person on board to lead Maryville College into the next 200 years.

“The opportunity to serve Maryville College has been fulfilling both personally and professionally,” the College’s 11th president continued. “I am proud of our many accomplishments since 2010.”

And the Bogart years will be remembered as ones of accomplishment, said Dr. Mary Kay Sullivan, chairwoman of the College’s Board of Directors.

These include:

Academic Changes

“Under his leadership, Maryville College Works was introduced, as was a new core curriculum that supports this career-focused initiative,” Sullivan said. “Dr. Bogart oversaw the introduction of new academic programs and made dramatic improvements in the scope and scale of community partnerships.”

Campus Improvements

Three campus buildings received complete renovations. Anderson Hall, MC’s oldest and most iconic building – and the largest academic building on campus – underwent a $7.6 million interior renovation that created a state-of-the-art, 21st-century educational environment. A $9 million renovation was completed in Pearsons Hall to provide an updated dining facility and new living spaces for residential students, and the Alumni Gym underwent a $3.5 million renovation to provide a new home for student intramurals and student fitness and wellness.

Substantial improvements to campus were made, including foundation work on Thaw Hall, upgrade of the campus wireless network, steam lines, HVAC systems, central heating plant and 13 roofs replaced. Additionally, athletic facilities saw improvements, including a major renovation of the softball field and the construction of a baseball locker facility.

Financial Growth

Sullivan said that Bogart and the Advancement team set new records for donations made to the Maryville Fund and received the largest gift ever given to Maryville College – $15 million from the estate of Dan and Elaine McGill to support student scholarships and the renovation of Anderson Hall. He also helped secure a $3 million gift for the Clayton Center for the Arts.

“Since 2010, we have seen net assets almost double, we have had positive net unrestricted operating results every year, and the College’s long-term investments – endowment plus funds held in trust – have increased to over $96 million,” she said, noting that net assets increased from about $77 million in 2010 to about $142 million in 2019.

Diversity & Inclusion

Also during his tenure, Bogart worked to build on Maryville College’s history of inclusion by expanding its efforts to serve more populations of prospective students, including veterans, transfer students and non-traditional students. A partnership with Equal Chance for Education (ECE) provides scholarships to young undocumented students living in East Tennessee. Additionally, the College expanded employee benefits in 2012 to include same-gender partners.

National Recognition for MC

Over the past 10 years, Maryville College has been recognized annually by several national publications, including Washington Monthly, Forbes, The Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report (which ranked MC as third overall in the “Best Regional Colleges – South” category and No. 1 in the “Best Colleges for Veterans” in the South category).

Most recently, Maryville College received the prestigious Carnegie Community Engagement classification, an elective designation that indicates institutional commitment to community engagement.

“A keystone of my approach to leading Maryville College has been to emphasize the importance of working together with others,” Bogart said. “It has been inspiring to see not only the value of individual partnerships, but also the way that they have helped create further opportunities to work with businesses, nonprofit organizations and governments to advance our mission.”

Maryville College is a nationally-ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges. For more than 200 years we’ve educated students to be giving citizens and gifted leaders, to study everything, so that they are prepared for anything — to address any problem, engage with any audience and launch successful careers right away. Located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville, Maryville College offers nearly 1,200  students from around the world both the beauty of a rural setting and the advantages of an urban center, as well as more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last. Today, our 10,000 alumni are living life strong of mind and brave of heart and are prepared, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”