Andrew Westmoreland nominated to lead Samford University

After a six-month national search, Samford University’s potential president has a face, a name — and many prayers for the future of the Alabama Baptist school.
   
Andrew Westmoreland, president of Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., emerged in late November as the leading presidential candidate from more than 140 nominees.
   
“When we got down to the last seven or eight candidates, all had wonderful qualifications and were committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ,” said search committee co-chairman Albert Brewer, former Alabama governor and retired Samford law professor. “It was pretty dramatic the way the committee and the process seemed to coalesce around Dr. Westmoreland.”
   
Following his Dec. 6 visit to the campus, Westmoreland was recommended by the committee for the Samford presidency. 
   
If elected during the Jan. 10 special-called meeting of Samford’s board of trustees, he will succeed current President Thomas E. Corts as the university’s 18th president, stepping into position June 1.
   
Corts, Samford’s president since 1983, announced in April his plans to retire by the end of the 2005–2006 academic year.
   
“From the outset, the committee sensed that God had a person for Samford,” Brewer said. “Dr. Westmoreland is a fit for Samford. He is just what is needed at this point in our history. He has an engaging personality and strong people skills as reflected in his relationships with the faculty, students and constituents of his university.”
   
Westmoreland’s relationships at Ouachita were so strong that he nominated two other individuals for the position before finally agreeing to be interviewed, Brewer noted. 
   
The 48-year-old Westmoreland, an Arkansas native and graduate of Ouachita, has served as president there since 1998, as well as in other administrative positions for 19 years prior to his presidency.
   
“He is pleased and happy where he is — he was really reluctant to consider a move,” Brewer said.
   
The stirring of Christ and the subsequent openness of the Baptists of Alabama were what eventually led Westmoreland and his family to surrender to considering the call. 
   
“I really could not get away from it,” Westmoreland said. “Over a period of time, we realized that this truly was God’s will for us.”
   
During his presidency, Ouachita consistently received high marks from U.S. News & World Report magazine, landing in the top five among regional comprehensive colleges and universities in the South for five consecutive years.
   
Westmoreland is best known for his successful fund raising for the school, including two campaigns that raised more than $60 million each.
   
“He’s a wonderful combination of an educator who has a grasp for academics and fund raising, people skills and, at the same time, a sincere, deep Christian commitment,” said search committee co-chairman Hobart Grooms, a Birmingham attorney and Samford trustee. “He’s also a relationship kind of guy. He has a real concern for the students and their spiritual welfare.”
   
Grooms said Westmoreland established strong relationships with students at Ouachita, inviting groups of them to his home and writing notes every day to each student celebrating a birthday.
   
“He doesn’t put himself on a pedestal — he engages everyone around him,” Grooms said.
   
In coming to Samford, Westmoreland will inherit a larger school. Ouachita enrolls about 1,500 students annually in its undergraduate programs, while Samford enrolls more than 4,500 undergraduate and graduate students.
   
He said if elected, his first order of business will be to “meet everybody I can.” “I know building relationships will take time, but I want to take time to help reassure the Samford community that the transition will be smooth,” Westmoreland said.
   
He added that the openness of faculty, staff, students, alumni and other Alabama Baptists was one of the main factors that encouraged him to make the decision to accept the recommendation.
   
“I have been very blessed at Ouachita with positive relationships with Arkansas Baptists,” Westmoreland said. “My prayer in moving toward coming to Samford is that I can build great relationships with the folks in the Baptist churches in Alabama.”
   
He; his wife, Jeanna; and 15-year-old daughter, Riley, are active members of Second Baptist Church, Arkadelphia. Westmoreland said his family looks forward to the new friends they will make among Alabama Baptists.
   
Jeanna Westmoreland, who serves as associate professor of education, dean of Ouachita’s school of education and chair of the Arkansas State Board of Education, has relationships — like her husband’s — that run deep in Arkansas. “But she (Jeanna) is already planning on helping me with entertaining new friends at Samford,” Westmoreland said with a laugh.
   
Prior to his Dec. 6 visit, Westmoreland had visited the Samford campus three times, the last of which was with his family.
   
“My wife and daughter came with me to Birmingham the day after Thanksgiving so that we could take a look at the area without drawing attention to ourselves,” he said in an interview with The Samford Crimson. “Without a doubt, the Samford campus is one of the most attractive college settings in the nation.”
   
Westmoreland said he is looking forward to jumping in and moving forward with the school. “Dr. Corts is the best hope I have for settling in. His willingness to make this as smooth a transition as possible has been wonderful,” Westmoreland said. “I have tremendous respect for him and what he has done at Samford.”
   
Grooms said he believes Westmoreland can and will make Samford even better than it already is each week he is there.
   
“Don’t look for another Tom Corts because he (Westmoreland) is a different person,” Grooms said. “He wants to build on what Tom has established, and I believe he’s going to do it.”
   
Corts said he hopes the Samford community will recognize, like the search committee, Westmoreland’s appeal.
   
“As a president of a quality institution, he has demonstrated an irenic spirit, a calm self-confidence, intellectual humility, a quick mind, sufficient humor and wit — yet he doesn’t take himself too seriously,” he said.
   
So far, it appears the Samford community is taking Corts’ advice. During Westmoreland’s last campus visit when he met with three review panels — students, alumni and friends and then faculty and staff — as well as other key leadership, the response was favorable.
   
“The feedback received from the review panels was overwhelmingly positive and affirmed what the search committee discovered about Dr. Westmoreland,” Grooms said. “Respondents stated that they felt Dr. Westmoreland was a wonderful and more than capable candidate to lead Samford into the future.”
   
Brewer said he, too, was overwhelmed at how Samford welcomed the presidential candidate.
   
“The response was unbelievably strong. We did not receive a negative comment from any reference panel. That is remarkable given the diversity of the groups,” he said.
   
At Ouachita, in addition to his duties as president, Westmoreland serves as professor of political science and education, teaching a course in political science each semester. He is also the author of “Leading by Design,” a book he published this year.
   
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in political science from Ouachita in 1979, Westmoreland earned a master’s degree in political science from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and a doctorate in higher-education administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. (SU, ABP, TAB)