NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The 13th president of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts was formally installed on Saturday and challenged the college community to "love your students to success."

 

Diana Rogers-Adkinson, now nicknamed "President R.A.," was lauded by new and old friends colleagues who filled the Amsler Campus Center before giving her address: "A Shared Voice — A Bright Future."

 

"Thank you all for loving me to success," she said. "A life isn't rich without people like you to hold me tight. So finally, feel friends traveled in here today, and we almost all started as colleagues. We all believed in what education can do for people, and somewhere in all that work, we became something more. We lifted up our students, and we lifted up each other. Thank you for lifting me up today."

 

Rogers-Adkinson started in her post in July, succeeding the retiring James Birge. She was most recently senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs and chief academic officer for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, which oversees 10 universities serving approximately 80,000 students.

 

She and other speakers touched on the issues impacting higher education today — the loss of faith in a college education and the challenges faced by students. 

 

"If people have lost confidence in higher education because they believe institutions intentionally keep our students enrolled longer for our financial reasons, then we have failed to tell the real story," she said. "Our students are not statistics; they are people navigating complex lives while pursuing an education and a better future."

 

Rogers-Adkinson pointed to a 78 percent retention rate at MCLA and comparable institutions, and flipped it by looking at the 22 percent who left. It's a figure she said she wasn't comfortable with and declared a goal of 100 percent retention.