Lane interim president shares goals, hopes for college’s future
JACKSON, Tenn. — One organization lent their ears as one newly appointed president shared their goals for bettering a local college.
“I’m focused in on the first one, which is community engagement, the second one is academic excellence, experiential learning, financial vitality, differentiation,” said Lane College Interim President Donald Comer. “We want to make sure that Lane has something that makes something, makes it different from everybody else, and then strategic enrollment growth.”
On August 1, Comer was announced as President after retiring from his previous job.
On Monday afternoon, he spoke with the Old Hickory Rotary Club at the DoubleTree Hotel.
“We’re specifically targeting differentiating among the 38 member schools of the UNCF, which all have a very similar profile to us in terms of size and the demographics of students,” Comer said. “So, we’re looking for a career program or an academic program that we can be excellent in.”
With his goal experiential learning, he hopes that students will have the opportunity to earn internships with leaders across the Hub City.
“Lane college is uniquely positioned to offer a pipeline of employees that can help to contribute to what Jackson has already been doing,” said Comer. “To continue to bring in students from all over the country and to help them find Jackson is the place that they might want to make home.”
He also mentioned he plans to work with Dr. Marlon King with JMCSS to have more students in the Hub City apply to Lane.
Overall, he has enjoyed learning more about the city that he was raised in.
“I love the opportunity to really get to know Jackson all over again, it’s been a long time since I lived here and truly called it home. So I am excited to be back here and to meet those individuals who are leading our city and to become a part of the fabric of Jackson, Tennessee,” Comer said.
In the future, he hopes to welcome other city leaders onto Lane’s campus to learn what makes Lane, Lane.
Since having this position, he says he has enjoyed learning and meeting the students across the campus.
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