The LeMoyne-Owen College governing board removed the interim label and named Johnnie B. Watson president of the college last week. Jerome Heard, Mr. LOC and Mr. HBCU 2007-08, congratulates Watson as administrative assistant, Velma J. Gray, looks on.  (Photos by Earl Stanback)

Johnnie B. Watson was named president of LeMoyne-Owen College on Sept. 19 after serving on an interim basis for two years. In this interview with Tri-State Defender Executive Editor Dr. Karanja A. Ajanaku, Watson talks about his new status, his goals, the college’s goals and the long road that led to the president’s office.

While some may have thought that Watson was not interested in the president’s position, Watson said his position had been that he would not apply for the job. Indeed, he says that his contract is structured to allow him to step aside if the board finds a candidate as qualified as “Johnny B. Watson” after it jumpstarts the search process in December with the goal of hiring a new president by June 2009.

Defender: Is your appointment effective immediately?

Watson: Yes. I’ve asked the board to approve a contract through the remainder of this school term, and that it will automatically renew each semester until they find a president. . .

As you know, I have un-retired three times before. I was deputy superintendent of (Memphis City) schools and retired; I worked at Rhodes College for 8 years and retired; did nothing for a couple years and at that time I primarily took care of an ill daughter who is now deceased; and then they later asked me to return to be superintendent of schools, and I retired from that. Once they find a person it will be time for me to go home. But I’m truly enjoying myself now.

Defender: How does this (removing the interim status) help the college in some of the things it wants to do?

The new president gets a congratulatory hug from Phyllis Terry, director of Student Financial Services.

Watson: The board has just approved a strategic transformation plan that we are in the process of implementing. I was intimately involved with all of the subgroups that helped to pull the plan together. I am pleased to be able to provide the leadership during this the first year of the plan.

Another reason it is important is that a lot of time just to have the term interim on the title people tend to want to wait and see who the present is going to be. I am not interim president. I am president of the college. . . .

Defender: Were there some other things decided at the board meeting that will impact how you go forward?

Watson: Not in this meeting. I think another positive (move by the board) is that Robert Lipscomb, the current chairman, will serve until 2010. Another positive is that the leadership of the college – the chairman of the board of trustees and the president – are both alums of the college.

 Defender: Is the implementation of the transformation plan your number one goal?

Watson: The number one goal. I will build that into my contract and the board will hold me accountable.

Defender: Are there a couple of things (in the plan) that you will focus on initially?

Watson: I am pleased to report that two of the major initiatives have already received funding. One is the Center for Active Student Support. We have received a $650,000 grant from the Plough Foundation. We have also received a $600,000 grant to implement the Center for Urban Education. Certainly that is close to my heart having come from the public school system, and that we can train urban teachers to be able to leave LeMoyne-Owen College and go into blighted areas.

Defender: How is the enrollment situation going?

Deidra Davis, a sophomore majoring in vocal music, lets Watson know that she approves of the choice the board of trustees made Sept. 19.

Watson: I am pleased to report that we actually have 626 full time program students. I’ve found we actually have enrolled over 700 students on the campus. One of the problems that most historically black colleges have is getting students validated, meaning get all the tuition money that they need whether it be grants, scholarships or loans. . . That (626) is the figure we have to use for fiscal purposes.

Defender: Is that number relative to some goal that you had? How do you get to being pleased with it?

Watson: I am extremely pleased. I think we have right at 100 more (full time enrollment) students than a year ago. Our enrollment is up, but that didn’t surprise any of us. We knew last year that our enrollment would be down because we were on probation. We had students who called wondering if the college would be open. Some were afraid to return not knowing if the college would be open. Last December at the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools we were reaffirmed.

Defender: What would you want people to know now about the college’s financial status?

Watson: That the college is stable. I am pleased that this is one of the few times in recent history that we can report that there is a small surplus at the college. Right now our books are being audited and after the audit I would gladly say what that number is. The fact that any historically black college can say that we have a surplus, even if it is $10, is major.

Defender: The naming of you as president has got to be a high point for you.

Watson: I like to tell people that I grew up across the street (from the college) in the LeMoyne Gardens housing project; grew up with five sisters and poverty. But I grew up with parents who wanted more for their children. And when I speak, I tell people that I don’t know of a parent anywhere who doesn’t want more for their children.

When I interact with students on the college campus I let them know what I did. If I can come out of poverty and attend this college and become superintendent of one of the largest school systems in the country, and then to return and become president of the college, that speaks volumes.

Defender: I have heard people say that the poverty today is somehow different than it was before and so they wonder if people can still make that trek from across the street.

Watson: My reaction to that is I doubt that any student on this campus – even though my dad worked with six children and that was a big family – had a bedroom situation like I had. In LeMoyne Gardens, there were three bedrooms and all of them were upstairs. When mother and dad went to bed, they closed their doors. When my three younger sisters went to bed they closed their doors. When my two older sisters, went to bed they closed their doors. When all the doors were closed, I pulled out a rollaway bed and that hallway became my room.

I would plug up a light to do my studying. At 1:30 at night my dad would wake up and say, ‘son, it’s time to go to bed.’ In those days, when daddy spoke you listened. When he spoke the first time, I turned off the light and went to sleep until he called me and told me it was time to get up and go to school.

So I am a living testament that you can be born in poverty, but you don’t have stay in it.