“We’re Going to Get to Zion”
A look at the faith-based vision beneath the changes happening at Southern Virginia.
By John Gaughan and Anna Bowers
Special thanks Michelle Najarian
Soon after he became president, Reed Wilcox told the Southern Virginia community to buckle up.
“This is a special place, and we are going someplace. You’re on the front row, and the train is leaving today,” he told a gathering of students, faculty, and staff in November 2014. “Actually, it’s the trek that’s leaving today. We’re going to get to Zion.”
As he spoke at convocation in early April, the physical surroundings testified of Southern Virginia’s development since the Wilcox family arrived three and a half years ago: the arena filled with students, the floor-to-ceiling screen behind him, and the crimson Knight logo on the covered court.
But in the larger vision that Wilcox continued to build throughout his presentation, all of these developments — remarkable in their own right — are clearly minor pieces of something much more cohesive: creating a self-sustaining, dynamic model of higher education for Latter-day Saint students and those who hold similar values.
If you had asked Reed and Diane Wilcox about their plans leading up to September 2014, neither would have given an indication that they’d be leading a university. Reed was in the innovation business. When he accepted the position as president of Southern Virginia, he was developing nanomedicines as an executive and co-founder of Clene Nanotechnology, his third and most recent venture. Before Clene, he had worked as a worldwide partner at the Boston Consulting Group, a global leader in business development. He’s not just a big-picture innovator and strategist; he also holds 23 United States patents.
The offer from Southern Virginia and the decision to accept it happened quickly. According to President Wilcox, it wasn’t set in stone until two weeks before they started in September 2014.
“It felt very, very much like when we were called to go serve as mission president,” Wilcox told Deseret News. “…I’m not the only person like that. Just about everyone who is [at SVU] could be making more money, having a higher profile role in the business world or the academic world. Virtually everyone who is there is there because they feel something that says, ‘This is special and important’ and that they should be there. And it’s because, I believe, of the sacrifice and the consecration of the people who are here that makes this a special place.”
Shortly after arriving on campus, the Wilcox’s started listening — and kept listening. During the 2014–2015 academic year they hosted hundreds of students, staff, and faculty in their home to ask question and get to know Southern Virginia’s community. In the meetings, dubbed “Listen and Learn” sessions, they started conversations to better understand the people, identity, and needs of the school.
Since then, Wilcox has articulated a vision for Southern Virginia unapologetically rooted in faith. In one of his first addresses to the University, a “Friday Forum” held on November 14, 2014, he spoke about the scriptural concept of Zion — something he continues to speak about today.
When universities are growing, many adopt “aspirational peers”: a list of model institutions after which they want to pattern themselves. Wilcox has said in the past that he wants Southern Virginia to be for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints what Yale was to the United Church of Christ, and what Notre Dame currently is to the Catholic Church — aligned, but not owned. But that doesn’t mean he wants Southern Virginia to be a Mormon Yale or Notre Dame. “Our aspirational peer is Zion. That’s what we’re about,” he said in a recent interview.
During the Fall 2017 Welcoming Convocation, Wilcox used another phrase to describe this vision. After unveiling the LaunchPad Initiative that provides an iPad to every student and faculty member, he explained the motivation behind the program. “The reason we do this, the reason for everything we’re doing here can be summarized in three words: gather, lift, launch.”
No matter the language being used, the vision remains consistent: Southern Virginia is to be a gathering place for LDS students and those of similar values, built on spiritual devotion where people love and provide for one another — and excel as they do so.
According to Brett Garcia, Chief of Staff and Vice President of Strategy at Southern Virginia, Wilcox really means it when he says the vision is “the reason for everything we’re doing here.” Wilcox often refers to this approach as “resonance” — unifying all of the University’s decisions and organizations to move towards the same ideal.
The Wilcox’s spent their first year on campus doing a lot of listening, and a cascade of changes both large and small have arrived as a product of that listening. Enrollment growth, iPads for everyone, smart TVs, rebranding with a new school color and logo, new majors and concentrations, and a host of other developments have come to campus in the last two years alone. Invariably, Wilcox hopes the University will see these changes as part of a larger spiritual vision.
For Wilcox, two of the most important changes occurring in the near future are integrating the LDS institute with the University’s curriculum and establishing a system for subsidized weekly temple trips for students.
His faith is also manifest in the way he approaches problems. In his April 6 convocation address, Wilcox projected an enrollment number far beyond previous estimates. In the next 25 years, he said, the student body could reach 32,000.
The number caused a stir among students and faculty, but for Wilcox, whether that many students can fit on the hill at 1 University Hill Drive isn’t the right question.
“It’s an idea, not a place,” he said. Wilcox sees the University answering the need for an LDS-aligned college education for the tens of thousands of students who want that experience and haven’t received it. “It won’t stop at 30,000,” he said an interview Friday.
He compared the University’s situation to a story in The Book of Mormon. When the ancient prophet Lehi and his family were commanded to build a boat and leave a land so abundant they named it Bountiful, some of the family members weren’t keen on the idea. Lehi insisted that there was a promised land waiting for them across the ocean, so they worked hard, showed faith, and did the near-impossible by building a boat and successfully sailing to the Americas.
Wilcox emphasized that regardless of the growth, the core Southern Virginia experience will remain the same. Small classes and low professor-to-student ratios aren’t going anywhere.
Wilcox closed his April 6 address with some major announcements and a long-term vision for the University, emphasizing that the progress and success of Southern Virginia was conditional. Nothing would happen without continual faith and righteous living. The lifestyle he’s talking about, Wilcox said, isn’t fundamentally about religious doctrine. “It’s about spirituality and character. It’s about being nice.”
The point he was making was clear: Southern Virginia’s current situation is not the destination. There is much more in store, but precisely how that plays out isn’t as immediately important as embracing the destination and working towards it.
Richard George, a longtime business associate and friend of Wilcox and a Vice President and Advancement officer at Southern Virginia, said this is a common attitude displayed by Wilcox. “Reed has a tremendous amount of faith that things will work out. The fundamental grounding aspect is his relationship with His Savior Jesus Christ.”
