At his inauguration in May 2022, Knox College’s 20th president, C. Andrew McGadney, pledged to dedicate his presidency to making a great institution even better and noted three ways the College can move forward: “acknowledge who we are, double down on our strengths, and dream big.” President McGadney and his leadership team immediately got to work to fulfill this pledge. Moving at an intentionally rapid pace, they spoke to as many members of the Knox and Galesburg communities as possible and launched a Strategic Planning Framework, approved by the Board of Trustees in October 2022, that built upon Knox’s strong foundation and outlined bold ideas and ambitious plans for Knox’s future. 

As President McGadney completed his first five years leading our historic prairie college, he sat down with Emmy award-winning Dorothy Tucker, CBS News Chicago Investigative Reporter and 2026 recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, to discuss lessons learned, accomplishments to date, and hopes for the future of Knox. What follows are excerpts of their in-depth conversation, as well as highlights of President McGadney’s first years at Knox. 

I want to start with just setting the stage of five years ago. What was your mission then and how has it changed given the state of the country today?

Five years ago, as you will all remember, we were in the midst of COVID, and I would say that the higher education industry was still at a point where it was really dealing with some significant headwinds. The number of students coming out of high school and going into college was declining. Many small liberal arts colleges were struggling financially. We were seeing some schools closing and some schools merging in 2021, and you’re still seeing these things today. I think for Knox at that time, their prospectus for the new president was really about how do you create a financially sustainable institution. And it listed a series of things that Knox was looking for a new leader to do, and at the top of the list was to grow enrollment. I was really concerned about deferred maintenance, increasing fundraising, and, ultimately, how to stabilize the institution, and I coined the phrase “how do you take a great institution and make it better?” Those were significant challenges back then and, now, I would say those challenges are even greater. I knew about the kind of  difficulties with running and leading a small liberal arts college, but I wasn’t expecting the kind of global assault on whether or not getting a college education was the right thing to do. And the last piece I’ll just add is the change in the international student market. Two years ago, we had the largest international class in our history—around 150 international students were coming to the College. With all of the various changes and challenges with students getting visas and the political environment, we went from a high of 150 to slightly under a 100 international students the following year. And I’m hopeful that we’ll hit 50 for this incoming cycle. So that’s a pretty dramatic change to an industry and to a College that depends on enrollment as one of the key drivers for success. 

What is the enrollment today? How much has it dropped, and what’s the percentage of international students?

We’re approximately 1,100 students. Prior to 2021, we were seeing a fairly steady decline in the number of enrolling students. We were at 250 or so new students each year. We saw growth where the high-water mark for us in that five-year period was close to 400 incoming students [in fall 2024], and the breakout was somewhere in the high 30 percent range for international students. One of the things I love about looking at the stats for the College is that roughly 30 percent of our students are Pell Grant eligible, and it’s about the same percentage for our first-generation [college] students. What makes me excited about that is when you go back and you look at the history of the College founded in 1837, it was really focusing on access for all students regardless of their backgrounds, their financial circumstances. And here we are almost 200 years later still making significant inroads on that very topic of access.

Let’s go back to the student population dropping because you say Knox depends on enrollment. So when you have a drop like that, especially international students, who at some colleges tend to pay higher tuition. So that’s got to impact the bottom line financially.

There was a time in higher ed where institutions were really focusing on recruiting international students for a variety of reasons, one of them being that international students were typically full pay. Today, especially for small liberal arts colleges, that’s not the case. In fact, at Knox, our international students tend to require greater financial support than our domestic students. So when we talk about the importance of access, regardless of financial circumstances or where people are coming from, we are leaning into how do you create global members of our society and not necessarily thinking about the financial standpoint.

Read more about driving demand for a Knox education.

So what keeps you up at night? What do you feel like might be that one thing that you know you want to accomplish and are concerned you just might not get there?

Well, this is why I think I’m an optimistic person. I think when you ask about what the other leaders in the field are doing or thinking or saying, you’ve got to believe that great things can happen. And so my mantra from the very first day that I met the search committee was that if you’re wanting to actually move the needle, you’re going to have to attack every lever. You’re going to have to move all of these things, and you’re going to need to do them all at once. You’ve got to be nimble, you’ve got to be willing to adjust. You’ve got to be able to see beyond or around the curve and to not be afraid to take risks. So I don’t stay up at night or can’t sleep because of a lack of belief that we can do great things. I’m the one saying, are we thinking big enough? Are we moving strong enough? Are we moving fast enough? Are the ideas bold enough? Are we ambitious enough to actually not just move the needle, but truly outrun the competition to be able to show that this place in Galesburg, Illinois, is the best place for young people to get a great education to change the world?

All right, so what’s the plan? 

In my early days, I spent time meeting with every single academic department on this campus. I spoke with hundreds of current trustees, past trustees, alumni, and Galesburg community members. I mean, just literally. You hear people saying, or presidents say, “Well, I took one year to do these listening tours.” I was hired to start July 1, but I was announced in February. From February to the time that I started officially, I must have met hundreds of people. And through those conversations, I started to begin to see what a framework for a strategy for the College could be. And we were testing those ideas very early on and then moved to actually launching a strategy document, which is not a plan, but it’s a framework for growth.

It serves in many ways as a strategic planning document, highlighting the strategies that we think are important—things like growing enrollment, using arts and athletics as two drivers of that growth. So it’s as much about strategy as it is about fundraising. A lot of the ideas we talk about in the document that we believe can be transformational for the institution require significant support. So for instance, we talk about the importance of student experiences. So we know here at Knox that students that participate in immersive terms, we have several of them like Green Oaks, Repertory Theatre Term, Startup Term, or Japan Term. These are 10-week courses with intense work for and with faculty, and students love them. We know that students that participate in them graduate at higher levels than others. So if we’re thinking about retention, you want to double down on those areas. And one of the fundraising initiatives that came out of this document was our brand new facility out at Green Oaks, which actually is spurring greater interest in Green Oaks Term. So the strategic planning framework is serving as the guiding force, and our job internally as a staff is to be prepared to execute quickly at a high level when the funding comes. And when we think about scholarships, fellowships, additional support for the Bastian Family Center for Career Services or the Etz Family Institute for Civic Engagement & Dialogue—all of these were concepts featured in the framework.

Read more about investing $40 million in campus facilities.

What would you say is the one thing, or maybe a couple of things, that you have done that perhaps the Knox family didn’t see?

One of the things that makes me smile is a project that we completed under the umbrella of accessibility. We added an elevator to George Davis Hall a few years ago, and that got an amount of praise and attention that you would never imagine. There was an elevator there years ago, and through funding, we were able to restore it. I use a phrase, “the little things are not little,” and [the GDH elevator] was a little thing that was really not little because it provided accessibility to all floors in the building. When you talk about students and wanting to encourage students from all walks of life and all abilities to be able to comfortably be educated here, the elevator was a gift. 

As you walk around the campus, you’re seeing what I mentioned in the very beginning of our conversation about one task that the presidential search committee was asking for the new president—how do you address deferred maintenance? And so we started looking at it from a student perspective, making sure that we’re enhancing the residential halls, replacing outdated HVAC systems to the Ford Center for the Fine Arts. Things that on paper don’t sound all that, excuse me, sexy, but they’re the things that for the community really are super important. 

One of the things I heard by going around to all of the various departments on campus was faculty members talk about the fact that they’re losing their research because of a ventilation system in the science area, and now today we’re working on replacing those ventilation systems and improving the labs and improving the spaces for students and faculty, thanks to a $10 million renovation of our science facility. We’re making a difference and an impact. 

So to your earlier question, I’m not trying to keep anything silent or quiet. I want everyone to know that these are great things that are happening, like the $175 million goal for the Venture Boldly comprehensive campaign, the first comprehensive campaign in 20 years. [We’ve raised] $150 million to date, so we’re ahead of schedule. Imagine that the last campaign was over 20 years ago, and in five years and change, we’ve brought in $150 million. By the time we finish this, it will be the largest comprehensive campaign total in the College’s history.

Read more about launching the Venture Boldly comprehensive campaign.

Can you share a short list of those areas that you would love someone to fund?

I believe that having an endowment to provide funding for every student to have the opportunity to have an internship, fellowship or global experience multiple times during their time at Knox would be tremendous. We provide some of that, but as I said, I would love that to be an opportunity for students to not just do once or twice, but to do multiple times during their time at Knox.

I think we mentioned the idea around immersive terms. We have some that are already really phenomenal—Repertory Theatre Term, Green Oaks Term—but I think we could probably offer more of these types of immersive terms for students where they partner with faculty over a 10-week period of time, immersing themselves in a particular topic. Imagine if we had immersive terms aligned with industries.

Being able to endow more faculty positions would be tremendous. If we endowed 10 or 20 faculty positions, [we could] bring in talented people from all around the country to fill those positions or to offer them to some of our existing faculty and provide them with additional funds to enhance their research. That would be amazing.

Read more about supporting academic innovation.

Let’s talk about Venture Boldly.

Yes, these projects are all part of Venture  Boldly. We launched it last year, visiting 10 different cities in the country and talking about the power of a Knox education and  possibilities for the future. We had our director of Seymour Library, Anne Thomason, speak at a few of our cities, talking about the possibilities of an extension to the library, and that got some of the greatest buzz and excitement from our Knox community members. Sharing what’s possible gets people excited. So if we can continue to build [excitement] through the campaign—we’ve raised close to $150 million to date—money will drive  innovation. I have no issue about asking for small and large dollars, every dollar counts, and I know it’s going to great use.

How do you reach me? How do you reach the alumni body? How do you go about letting them know that they can fund their desire, their passions?

What we are doing right now is educating prospective and current donors through the Venture Boldly comprehensive campaign. The more opportunities that we have to talk about the power of giving and why philanthropy is so important the better. Sharing what’s possible gets people excited. To be frank, the reason why higher education is what it is in our country and why the U.S. is the greatest country for education is largely because of philanthropy. Many colleges across the country have been sources of innovation through the support of donors. Endowed scholarships, faculty, opportunities, fellowships, internships—all of these funds help to move institutions and give them the ability to support new initiatives, ideas, and industries. 

What can alumni offer? What would you say to alumni out there that are like, “okay, I’m going to raise my hand.”

We’ve spent some time talking about Venture Boldly from a financial standpoint and the benefit of giving. That’s important, whether it’s a dollar or $10 million, but there are other things that are equally as important that I think every single alumnus or alumna, every parent, every member of the community can help us with. What if every single alum offered an internship, a fellowship, a job opportunity, a mentorship? I’ve got on Knox socks today, but if you’ve got a sweatshirt, you got a hat, wear the Knox gear when you’re in the airport or when you’re going to the grocery store. People see those things. Talk about your Knox experience. Talk it up. I mean, I know so many of our [high school] counselors, when they come to visit Knox, they see the community. They go into Galesburg, they spend time with our faculty and students. They start sending students here. So the more that we can have that conversation, the better. 

The last thing I’ll say is support Galesburg. Our Galesburg community helps to strengthen the College, and the College helps to strengthen Galesburg. The two were founded by the same person, George Washington Gale, so the history of the two has been tied together since the founding. And so the greater support, the better our economy is. When you’re talking to your congressmen and congresswomen, talk about support for Galesburg, talk about support for the College. These are things that anyone and everyone can do, and I hope they will.

What’s the plan for the next five years? 

In the four years since the Strategic Planning Framework was approved and shared with the Knox community, the College has made significant strides in enrollment and fundraising growth, capital improvements, and academic initiatives. But our work continues. The College’s senior leadership is working on the next iteration of the planning framework, gathering comments and insights from the Knox and Galesburg communities and updating our strategic goals and priorities in response to the rapidly evolving environment. Our goal is to share this new framework with the community by the end of this calendar year. 

Read more about strengthening community partnerships.

Exclusive Video Highlights

Dig deeper into Dorothy Tucker’s interview with President McGadney in these exclusive video clips.

Leading a 21st-Century Liberal Arts College
President McGadney shares his thoughts on the challenges and opportunities for leaders of liberal arts institutions today.

A Liberal Arts Approach to AI
With AI at the forefront of discussion within the higher education community and public alike, President McGadney shares thoughts on Knox’s approach to AI, rooted in its approach to liberal arts education.

Greatest Hope for Knox
President McGadney leans into his continuing optimism about the power of a liberal arts education as he shares his greatest hope for the future of Knox.