Middleton embraces new role at Lincoln University

Says LU has unique ability to foster diversity

Michael Middleton speaks at the Missouri Capitol. (News Tribune file photo, March 2, 2016)
Michael Middleton speaks at the Missouri Capitol. (News Tribune file photo, March 2, 2016)

When Michael Middleton takes over the reins of Lincoln University's administration Thursday morning, he'll be coming in with more than a little administrative experience at the college level.

Almost three months ago, he finished a 15-month stint as the University of Missouri system's interim president, serving between Tim Wolfe, who resigned in November 2015, and Mun Choi, who became MU's new president March 1.

But running Lincoln for the next few months will be a different experience, he told the News Tribune.

"As system president, I had four campuses and about 75,000 students all around the state - and a hospital," he said. "So I was not that involved on the ground, with the students - that was the chancellor's job on each campus.

"The presidency here is more like the chancellor of (an MU) campus - an experience I really don't have."

Lincoln has one main campus, with some other locations around the state, including a nursing program at Fort Leonard Wood and facilities in St. Louis, Kansas City and Sikeston.

LU had 3,583 students when the official headcount was made last fall.

Still, because he was deputy chancellor at UMC for 17 years, Middleton says he thinks he understands the president's job at a small school like Lincoln.

"The notion of attending a lot of events - student parties or football games - that's kind of new to me," he said. "So, in that sense, the role is a bit different.

"But administering the university - working with the budget, working with the faculty, that kind of thing - I think my experience is going to be very helpful to me."

The Faculty Senate and Staff Council welcomed Middleton's appointment.

"We look forward to working together in the coming months to guarantee the success for our current and future LU students," math teacher Stephanie Clark, incoming Faculty Senate chair, told the News Tribune.

Staff Council Chair Cole Abbott added, "Our Blue Tiger family (looks) forward to working with him, and our colleagues, to help guide Lincoln to a successful future."

Middleton's hiring was announced at a news conference last Thursday.

He told the reporters, curators, faculty, staff and students gathered in the curators' conference room next to the president's office that all colleges "have been cutting 'waste' for 20, 25 years, and there's only so much waste that can be cut" - but that all still need to find new ways to operate more efficiently, "very quickly, to continue to advance the important mission that we have."

That includes, he said, "shared services with other institutions, perhaps, (and) partnerships with local business communities on some issues. We've got to be looking for innovative, new, creative ways to get the same outcomes that we have been getting, at a lesser cost" - including collaborations with other schools, like the University of Missouri.

Middleton noted the federal land-grant Extension programs at Lincoln and MU already have a collaborative relationship, "that could help both institutions perform their functions more efficiently and effectively.

"It's not out of the question to think that the kind of relationship (the two Extension programs) have can't be expanded beyond Extension to other academic programs, student services programs and the back-office activities that keep universities running."

However, Middleton said, he's not thinking of a merger between the two schools - a proposal that, over the years, has been offered and rejected by lawmakers and both schools' supporters.

"That is not what I said and, hopefully, not what I implied," he said, "but a partnership of equals, improving the function of both institutions. Lincoln has a lot to offer that MU does not have. And MU has some things to offer that, I believe, Lincoln does not have."

LU Curators President Marvin Teer, a 1986 Lincoln graduate who then attended MU's Law School and had Middleton as a teacher, said last week: "I think our role is very unique that we serve, and complements the role that the MUs of this world have. Especially in times where, as state-supported institutions we're having to do more with less, there's so much room for collaboration, where we still can maintain our own identities and the missions that we serve. It's a perfect partnership."

Lincoln's original mission as a historically black college "is the same as it has been since 1866," Middleton said Thursday, "primarily to educate African American students in the state of Missouri and elsewhere."

"Obviously, that mission has changed with changes in our culture over the years - but there is a clear need to address the education needs of African American students, low-income students from rural areas in Missouri, and to provide the highest quality of education to that population as it can - which I believe it's been doing very well for a long, long time."

He later told the News Tribune in an interview: "I think historically black colleges face the problem of a sort of confused identity. When African Americans could not attend predominately white institutions, the mission of the historically black college was clear - that is why they were formed - to provide education to African American citizens, because (they) could not attend other colleges."

But the U.S. Supreme Court, in the 1954 Brown v. Topeka Board of Education case, ruled the national segregation policy in education was unconstitutional.

"Most HBCUs (now) have got a significant population of non-minority students," Middleton said. "Talking about that historic mission is somewhat confusing to people.

"I think you can do both. I think you focus on educating African American students while at the same time educating your entire student body."

Lincoln's current student population mix is close to 50-50 between Caucasians and African Americans.

A quarter century ago, LU was a historically black college with an almost 75 percent white student population.

"Knowledge has no race," Middleton said, "so the question is the social relationships among the students and the faculty - and we can handle that."

When reminded that former Lincoln University President Wendell Rayburn, who died last December, had said about 25 years ago that Lincoln offered all students a more diverse experience and social mix than they would find in the "real world," Middleton said, "I think that's a great selling point."

He noted the current UMC Law School interim dean, Kenneth D. Dean, is a white man - and a 1969 Lincoln graduate.

"He's proud of his experience here," Middleton said. "He loves Lincoln, and he had a great experience here. I think if more people had this kind of diverse student body - which no predominately white institution has - this is a great place to do some significant things in terms of the culture and social relationships."