Name: Joe Bagnoli
Position:
Associate Provost
Institution/Organization: Berea College
In a nutshell, what is your current role?
I provide administrative oversight and coordination for the offices of Admissions, Student Financial Aid Services, Academic Services, and Student Accounts.
How and why did you become involved in this (higher education/enrollment management) profession?
I attended Berea College where all successful applicants must demonstrate academic promise as well as financial need. Berea provides a four-year tuition scholarship to every student, making it possible for those with great ambition but limited resources to attend a high quality, residential liberal arts college. Upon graduation, I could think of no cause that would be nobler than sharing the College’s message and resources with young men and women worth more than the tuition they could afford. That was 25 years ago. I’m still thinking.
What sustains you professionally?
Watching the transformation of low income, first generation college students as they beat the odds of graduating from college and with considerably lower debt than their contemporaries nationally. I’m also inspired by the capacity of our African American students to graduate at rates comparable to and often better than their peers. Finally, I am sustained by the possibility that if I work hard enough, one day I might deserve the gift of education given to me by Berea College.
What is the most interesting policy initiative or research project with which you have been involved? Why?
The development of a comprehensive and holistic admissions process which seeks to identify students most likely to benefit from enrollment at Berea. We have recently introduced a required interview of all applicants and we’re studying the range and predictive value of non-cognitive variables in the assessment of admissions qualifications and their capacity to predict student engagement and success outcomes.
From an enrollment perspective, what can we improve within our profession?
In spite of federal and state need-based financial aid programs, Pell eligible students graduate with average indebtedness $2,000 greater than those without financial need. Our merit based financial aid and scholarship programs often come at the expense of our capacity to support the very population of students most disadvantaged who would most benefit from our support. High achieving affluent students are bound for success. Without greater support, high achieving low income students are sentenced to the fate into which they are born.
What is the most interesting place you have visited?
Cinque Terra, Italy
What is your favorite movie?
Braveheart- I’ve rarely observed such profound loyalty and courage.
What is the last book you read?
Reviving Ophelia
You get to meet any historical figure. Who do you choose and why?
John G. Fee, ardent abolitionist and founder of Berea College, the first coeducational and interracial college in Kentucky and the South. He was not a man of his time. I’d like to meet someone who was able to develop and relentlessly pursue a vision that transcends conventional wisdom and societal constraints. I’d like to ask him if his resolve to educate blacks and whites and men and women in the pre-Civil War slaveholding state of Kentucky was purely a manifestation of his faith in the gospel of impartial love or if he was otherwise sustained.
Coke or Pepsi?
Whatever’s cold
Do you have a message you would like to share with your colleagues?
Henry Ford once said, “If I had asked them what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Sometimes it’s important to give your boss (and your students) something they don’t know to request.