THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2023
MARYVILLE, MISSOURI
VOL. 111, NO. 22
NWMISSOURINEWS.COM
@THEMISSOURIAN
Northwest to hold one graduation ceremony HANNAH CLAYWELL Asst. News Editor | @Hannah_9504
SEE GRADUATION | A4 IN NEWS
A new scholarship will be offered to students pursuing a career in law in memory of late political science professor Daniel Smith.
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This is not just a job for me. This is a real calling. Higher education, for me, about is something that I’m passionate about, ents. ents. and I’m passionate about students.
-LANCE TATUM
Lance Tatum looks to build connections with students SIDNEY LOWRY Managing Editor | @sidney_lowry
“There’s a story that goes, the person that plants the tree doesn’t benefit from the shade that goes to come after it,” Northwest presidential candidate Lance Tatum said. That story serves as an analogy to how Tatum sees leadership at a university: plant seeds of improvement to make an institution better, even if he’s not there to see it. Tatum was the final of four candidates to visit campus during the month on Feb. 16, and despite the ice and snow, participated in multiple forums and toured campus buildings throughout the day. Tatum said he and his wife, Jill, were excited to see the cold weather, coming all the way from Alabama for the visit. Tatum is the senior vice chancellor at Troy University in Troy, Alabama. He has spent the majority of his life in the South, earning his bachelor’s and master’s from Troy State University and his doctorate in sport management from Florida State University. Since then, the last 28 years of his life have been dedicated to enhancing the education experience for others. The first 10 of those years he spent teaching sports and fitness management. “My life changed because of education,” Tatum said. “I was on a trajectory that would have never
A3 Memorial scholarship
IN SPORTS
Northwest men’s basketball return to Bearcat Arena to end regular season against Central Oklahoma and Missouri Southern. A8 Season finale
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It was announced to Northwest students graduating in the spring there will only be one commencement ceremony Feb. 9, in contrast to last spring where there were four across two days. In a normal spring graduation, there are anywhere from four to six ceremonies. The ceremonies normally last about an hour, and Provost Jamie Hooyman said with the one ceremony, it is not expected to last more than two hours. This is not the first time there would be only one commencement ceremony. During COVID, the ceremony was pushed back to August and was held outside. Hooyman said it was very successful during that time and that is why the team thought to bring it back. “We have done it before, and it was very successful,” Hooyman said. “We got good feedback from the students (and) good feedback from the parents.” The reasoning behind this decision results from the Spring 2023 graduating class being very large. Hooyman said they do not want to limit the amount of family that is able to come, so having one ceremony outside is the best way to go about it. “So this year we have, which is a great problem to have, a lot of students being successful and graduating,” Hooyman said. “Since we have such a large class, we were trying to look at do you do multiple ceremonies? Or do we try it again and see how it works with the one ceremony?” There are not many concerns from faculty surrounding the decision to have one ceremony. Department of Language, Literature and Writing Chair Robin Gallaher said she trusts the decisions the leadership team makes about these kinds of things.
led to this moment and because I was able to connect with faculty at a university, it changed the way in which I’ve lived my life. ” His passion for sports sparked when he was young, but he said the first time he was really noticed by a teacher outside of athletics was in his 10th grade English class. “I will forever remember Barbara Hicks,” he said. “She changed my life. She saw something in me that had nothing to do with my ability to participate in athletics, but she saw something in me that had to do with leadership.” That may have been the first time he was noticed for his leadership, but not the last, as he’s held many different administrative positions in his career. Starting as a teacher and moving to a faculty athletics representative, he has since climbed the ladder to the vice chancellor position and is looking to take the next step in his career as president of a university. In his previous positions, his main goal was to make an impact on student’s lives. “What I’d like to be able to bring … into Northwest is a deep passion for student success and a deep understanding of what it takes to create that type of connection to students,” he said.
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