Lane College: traditional values and the 'power of potential' in the New South

Ebony, Sept, 2005 by Kimberly Davis

PASSION. Pride. Promise. For Lane College in Jackson, Tenn., those three words epitomize the feeling of most people who choose to call the HBCU home--from the president to the students, from the coaches to the athletes themselves. For them, Lane is everything and more--the promise and "power of potential."

In a time when many colleges and universities focus on selectivity--getting the best and the brightest--Lane College focuses on that and more, developing the best and the brightest, President Wesley McClure says from his office on the third floor of the recently renovated administration building.

"There's something about Lane that just stands out. It's a special place" says McClure, who grew up two blocks from Lane College, graduated from there in 1964 and became president of the college in 1992. "The power of potential says that you can meet a person and he or she is in one place or in another. But you know that if this person had gotten this or that break, he or she could be somewhere else. Potential is very important to us.

It's who we are."

The phrase, "power of potential," has become a mantra for the Red and Blue. It's on college literature, on banners around campus and rolls off the tongues of college administrators, seemingly without thought. It's as if they believe in the brand and concept so much, the power of potential becomes second nature.

Nestled on roughly 25 acres of rolling farmland in western Tennessee (90 miles from Memphis), Lane College was founded in 1882 by Bishop Isaac Lane, a former slave and bishop in what was then the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (it's now the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church). Lane College is a private, coed, liberal arts college with an enrollment of about 1,100 students, the highest enrollment in its 123-year history. A closer look reveals an even more astonishing trend: At Lane, the number of male students actually outpaces the number of female students, which is virtually unheard of on a college campus, particularly at historically Black colleges and universities.

That enrollment growth--students come from across Tennessee, and cities such as Chicago and Detroit--reflects an upward swing for Lane, which this year also received more than $2 million in capital funds for its Center for Entrepreneurial Growth and Technology Innovation (CEGTI), which will house a mass communications center, serve as a business incubator for small business owners, and, administrators say, increase the college's reputation in a region where growth has been marked by manufacturing plants and businesses over the years. It's a center that will serve the people of east Jackson and provide an opportunity to test their creativity and potential when it comes to owning a business.

"We feel that by CEGTI being here, it will broaden our horizon and will assist Lane in our mission to aid the people of our community," says Richard Hulon Donnell, vice president for institutional advancement and a Jackson native. "It will enhance our reputation, and those who participate can learn skills they can use immediately."

For its students, Lane College offers a wealth of opportunity. Despite its size, the college has a football team (the late Fred Lane, a top running back for the Carolina Panthers, was a Lane graduate), and its men's basketball team won the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship this past season. Campus organizations also provide chances for students to develop leadership skills and to work on the "whole student," from academics to social life and beyond. And when you talk to Lane students, what you hear most often is fierce loyalty and pride in being a Laneite.

Shazetta A. Thompson, a senior majoring in mass communications, is president of the Student Government Association. She discovered Lane College through the Upward Bound program during 10th grade and just fell in love with the school. She loves the intimacy, the staff and faculty members who are "compassionate and caring."

"My impressions were reinforced once I arrived at Lane," says Thompson, a Jackson resident who plans to attend graduate school for divinity and public policy. "From being at Lane, I've learned how to be a good leader, how to work hard for what I want. Everything's not going to be handed to you ... You have to learn how to access the world around you and make the most and best of your educational experience."

Helping to make the most of Lane, for the students, at least, falls to two women who came to the college from different directions. Vicki Vernon Lott, vice president for academic affairs, is originally from Milwaukee, but has been at Lane College for 12 years. Sherrill Berry Scott, vice president for student affairs, is a Lane College graduate and has worked at the college for nearly 30 years.

"We're--in one sense--a traditional liberal arts college," says Lott, who worked for McClure when he was president of Virginia State University. "The difference is that the students here, because they really feel that this is a place where they can grow and that we are in their corner, there's a visible change in the students--right before your eyes. Not to say that it doesn't happen at other schools, but the difference is that we're small and have a hands-on approach."