A Nigerian, Dr. Benjamin Ola Akande, has been installed as the 21st President of Westminster College, which was founded 165 years ago.
During the installation which took place on Saturday, it was announced that a new academic partnership had been arranged between Westminster College and the Oyo State government, which opens doors for students and faculty from Westminster and colleges and universities in Oyo State.
Following his installation, Akande became the college’s
first African-American president and the first Nigerian-born president of a
liberal arts college in America. He succeeds Dr. George B. Forsythe, who
recently retired after serving 10 years at Westminster.
The inaugural ceremonies which took place at Champ
Auditorium on campus had in attendance, the Executive Governor of Oyo State, Senator
Isiaka Abiola Ajimobi, Akande’s parents, the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. S.T. Ola Akande,
among many others.
In his inaugural remarks, Akande, who formerly served as the
dean of the George
Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology at Webster
University in St.
Louis, hinted that change will be coming to Westminster College by challenging
the status quo.
“This is no easy task because ‘status quo’ has a large
constituency,” he said. “Yet, we cannot let the chains of ‘status quo’ prevent us
from fulfilling our future; to embrace a broad spectrum of possibilities and to
create a truly exceptional place, one that doesn’t forsake the past, but builds
on it.”
Akande encouraged students, faculty, staff, and the Board of
Trustees to be open to new ideas that are “bold and forward-looking,” to focus
on what he called “next practices” instead of “best practices,” and to move
beyond their comfort zones.
“Westminster College will achieve greater significance by
empowering learning communities, creating landmark academic programs, and
embracing global opportunities, thereby truly demonstrating the courage of our
convictions,” he told the audience.
One change that will favorably impact Westminster College’s
global reputation and reach is a unique public-private partnership that was
announced by the Executive Governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, who
represented the Nigerian government at the event.
Ajimobi announced an academic partnership between
Westminster College and tertiary institutions in Oyo State, including the
Samuel Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso. Calling it a
“win-win” for Westminster College and the Oyo State Government,” he said the
new partnership – a first for both – will enable the college and university to
exchange students and faculty. The educational focus will be on information
technology, cybersecurity, and the sciences.
“This agreement will give Nigeria’s finest and most talented
college students the opportunity to study at Westminster, and in turn,
Westminster students and faculty will have the opportunity to study and teach
at Samuel Ladoke Akintola University of Technology and potentially other local
Oyo State universities,” he said. “This partnership will help our students
become globally competitive, and enable them to improve their communities in
Nigeria. Such partnerships are vital for academic institutions and for
governments in this increasingly globalized era.”
The academic partnership – Westminster College’s first
exchange program in Africa and its first ever with an international state
government – will become effective in September 2016, Ajimobi said.
Ajimobi also praised Akande, saying his inauguration as
Westminster College’s new president “is a proud moment for those of us from Oyo
State, from Awe, Dr. Akande’s ancestral hometown, and, it is a proud moment for
all Nigerians.
“Throughout Nigeria, Dr. Benjamin Olayinka Akande is
becoming a household name, a symbol of excellence, an emblem of the endurance
of the American Dream, and its willingness to embrace and reward anyone who is
willing to work hard and excel,” he said.
Other speakers included Washington
University Chancellor,
Mark S. Wrighton, and Dr. William H. Danforth, chancellor emeritus of
Washington University, now chairman of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, MO (USA), and
chair of the BioStL
Coalition.
