Blog Post (Side I)

Blog Post on Roger Taylor

Roger Taylor’s retirement is the current Hot Topic at Knox College. After ten years of dedicated service to Knox College, on April 2010, Taylor announced that he would finally call it quits. We chose to cover this topic because it was one that everyone kept talking about. As freshmen, we were astonished by how much we got to know about the president of our school in such a short period of time. Everyone we had encountered praised Taylor’s administration and we were curious to know why, and the history of how he brought Knox to where it is today.

The interview we had with Taylor was more than we hoped for. He seemed like a friendly man when we met him around campus but interviewing him was totally different. I [Ema Bassey] was very excited, all that was going through my mind was “I can’t believe I’m interviewing the president of Knox College!” One thing that we admired about Roger was his modesty. He talked about how the college was going through a financial crisis, low enrollment and low endowment and most importantly, the lack of “institutional self-confidence.” In Taylor’s administration, Knox regained its self-confidence and both endowment and enrollment increased significantly. Roger refused to take all the credit for Knox’s advancement during his ten years he noted that it was because an excellent senior staff and C.F.O. It was a joint effort. I [Alex Uzarowicz] found Roger’s humility too big to describe. When I asked him what kind of legacy he was going to leave he responded, “Legacy is too big of a word for a farm boy.” Even though he is a wealthy partner of the important Kirkland & Ellis law firm and dramatically changed Knox College for the better he barely talks about what “I did” but what “we did.” For Roger the successes are shared with faculty and staff.

Taylor had a huge impact on students, faculty and staff of the college. Most people remember him for his famous saying, “when someone asks you where you went to college, do you look down at your shoes and say ‘small school, probably haven’t heard of it?” As freshmen, we have already heard him say it about four times and it doesn’t get old. Taylor constantly reminds Knox students to be proud of their alma mater because we are receiving top-notch education. This statement actually made me [Ema] more confident when telling friends and family about my school. They didn’t need to have heard about it; all they needed to know was that it was a great school.

To me [Alex] Roger’s informality was paramount. When I visited Knox for the first time, I walked with my tour guide in Old Main and Roger popped out of his room. He shook my hand and started a friendly conversation. My eyes became wide open once I found out that he was the president of the college. I knew that Knox was a friendly place from the moment I met Roger.

After hearing lots of positive comments about Taylor, the subject piqued our curiosity even more and we wanted to know more about the college’s history and how the other Presidents contributed to the campus that we am currently studying. From what we found out, Roger’s predecessor (Richard Millman) left the college in the worst condition it had ever been. We admire Taylor even more for his ability to lift Knox from the poor condition he met it, to the prestigious institution it is now.

Knox is still struggling but we can say we are better than we could have hoped for, thanks to Roger Taylor’s administration.