Georgetown College President Bill Crouch is profiled on the front page of today’s Louisville Courier-Journal. In “Georgetown College head has a vision of diversity,” writer Chris Kenning looks at the college’s diversity efforts and their ties to Crouch’s upbringing in the segregated South. Crouch is spearheading efforts to increase minority enrollment at the Baptist college from 6 to 17 percent through a number of initiatives, including new scholarships, new efforts to recruit minority faculty, and an innovative partnership with Bishop College alumni to serve as the “foster home” of the historically black Dallas college that closed in 1988.

GEORGETOWN, Ky. — Growing up as a white pastor’s son in 1950s Mississippi, William Crouch came to loathe segregated restaurants, bathrooms and schools.

As a teen, he witnessed forced busing in Charlotte, N.C. As a young country preacher, he battled the belief that black families should remain separate from whites.

Today, Crouch is in his 17th year as president of Georgetown College, gaining notice for his push to expand the enrollment of African Americans, and hoping to change the face of the mostly white, 1,300-student Baptist college near Lexington.

“I used to tell my parents that one day I wanted to do something about what I saw, but, before, I was never in a position where I could,” said Crouch, who cultivates relationships with black students, and even sought instruction to broaden his understanding of black culture.

Continue reading the complete article at Courier-Journal.com

Georgetown’s diversity efforts have previously been covered in the Courier-Journal and Inside Higher Ed.