JCSU News Release

JCSU President Reflects on Tenure as it Reaches a Close

April 21, 2008 – Johnson C. Smith president Dr. Dorothy Cowser Yancy was interviewed by local Charlotte CBS affiliate WBTV, taking a moment to reflect on her life and legacy at JCSU.

Dr. Yancy spoke to WBTV about her term as president as she prepares to leave in July. The station talked to her about her campaign to build and renovate the campus, how she has increased the school’s endowment and how the JCSU athletics program has risen under her watch.

In 1994 Dr. Yancy came home to her alma mater as the university’s first female president. She has led the institution for the past 14 years, but it was not a job she consciously sought out.

“The presidency was never on my agenda, I never planned to be president of anything,” she told WBTV.

Dr. Yancy also said she has continued the work of those that have come before her and she expects that her successes will stand as a foundation for those that follow her.

“Every president builds upon the legacy of the previous president, but no president ever finishes the job,” she said.

She also reflected on how she wants to be remembered by the institution that she has served and led for almost a decade and a half.

“I always wanted to be remembered as the teacher, that’s what I see myself as, the teacher-professor, and I am an administrator, I guess, as a sideline in many ways,” she explained.

Click here to watch the full interview and read the story on WBTV’s website.