Davidson College’s new president talks returning to campus, its future, Steph Curry and ... waffles?

It’s Doug Hicks’ party, so maybe now he’ll finally get a waffle.

The religion scholar loves waffles. Davidson College’s Vail Commons, the primary dining facility on campus and open since 1981, is the place to get a delicious self-serve waffle, Hicks says. But since he took office Aug. 1 as his alma mater’s 19th president he has yet to treat himself to a waffle from the famed waffle machine.

“They’re the best waffles on any campus,” Hicks says.

Roughly eight months since taking the helm of the place he says changed his life, Davidson is celebrating Hicks’ inauguration with a series of community events this week. The ceremony Friday in the John M. Belk Arena will be livestreamed and include music from students, delegates from colleges and universities across the country and Hicks’ inaugural address.

There will be food trucks and drinks in a festive spring celebration. “Doug Mugs” are the official inauguration souvenirs.

“We’re going to have a lot of waffle-cone filled things,” says Hicks, who peppers his conversation with his dry sense of humor, “because we know people like to eat things in waffle cones.”

Hicks, 55, earned a bachelor’s degree from Davidson in 1990, a master of divinity degree from Duke University and master’s and doctorate degrees from Harvard University. He’s written or edited nine books. The thesis he wrote at Davidson on poverty in Charlotte sits on his office bookshelf. His wife, Catherine L. Bagwell, is a psychology professor at Davidson specializing in child and adolescent development. They have two children, Noah and Ada.

He’s also an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church.

His first months at Davidson have been busy — from playing tennis with faculty every week and walking campus to meet students to presenting Davidson alum and NBA MVP Stephen Curry his diploma and being a part of the Smith Davidson Leadership Initiative, a program designed to recruit, select and teach Johnson C. Smith University and Davidson students how to become leaders and make an impact.

Hicks sat down with The Charlotte Observer for an interview — and provided a glimpse of a Doug Mug. Some responses are edited for clarity and brevity.

Anna Maria Della Costa: Is there a moment from when you were a student at Davidson that stuck with you?

Doug Hicks: I was in the chaplain’s office talking about my work on inequality and poverty and the chaplain asked me what I was going to do with that education, and how I was going to be responsible with that education. I was taken aback. I hadn’t thought as much about my responsibility as I had about learning and growing as a person. His message: you grow as a person when you’re serving and committed to your society. That’s something that stayed with me.

AMDC: What was behind the decision to come back to Davidson as its president?

DH: I love Davidson so much. I spent my career in national liberal arts colleges, and for most of the work I’ve done, I’ve had Davidson as a kind of model. I still get a special feeling when I walk around campus, especially at night, especially walking by myself. I get a sense of nostalgia for what campus felt like when I was really learning about myself in the world. But I didn’t come back to Davidson to be nostalgic about the late 1980s. I’m fully focused on the future. It’s a message I can share with fellow alumni — we are all content with the experiences we had and now we need to look together to the future.

AMDC: You’re an ordained minister. How does that translate to your job now?

DH: I was a chaplain in Duke Hospital. I’ve held the hands of people who were about to die, and I’ve been present just after birth. It’s a privilege and honor to be clergy and to see those key moments of peoples’ lives. It helps me to be more effective as a leader by asking what’s really going on? What is this person thinking and feeling right now? Sometimes it’s not what they say. I try to be supportive of people, and the ministerial background has helped me with that. Living as a person of faith means being willing to serve others and to fight for a society that’s fair and good.

AMDC: What was it like, within weeks into your presidency, handing Steph Curry his degree?

DH: I was totally energized by the whole moment. It was a great moment for Davidson. I’ve always admired his incredible skill on the court and the way he lives his life outside of basketball. He’s committed to the most important values. The fact that he showed perseverance and 12 years after his graduating class he was able to finish (his degree) was amazing. He’d made a promise to his mother, his professors and his coach to finish. And he did.

AMDC: People associate Davidson with Curry. What else do you want people to associate Davidson with?

DH: Excellence. Mentoring. Leadership. Service. Those are the first things that come to mind. We’re a Top 15 national liberal arts college. Our students do great furthering their education, and many employers want to hire our students. We could be better known. That’s one of my goals — to raise our identity.

AMDC: How do you preserve the Davidson College tradition while still moving it forward?

DH: My field is religious studies and we talk a lot about tradition. In my inauguration address, I’ll talk a lot about tradition. Traditions that are dynamic, that are lively, they never stand still. There are new people every year that come into this community, so we’re always fresh. I’m going to talk about continuity and change. What has made Davidson great is every year it has prepared students for the future. And to prepare students for the future now means we have to understand a diverse workforce, a faster moving economy, the mobility of the workforce and the ability to work from far. All of those changes have to be incorporated into what we teach, so tradition is always about innovation.

AMDC: For 2022-23, about 33% of Davidson’s first-year students are students of color. How do you grow diversity at Davidson?

DH: Strategically and carefully. It’s far more diverse than when I was here. In fact, if you go back to the 1960s, we were all white men. It was an all-male school officially until 1973. For me, diversity is a progression of who we are and we are far more diverse than we’ve been, and yet we still have room to grow to reflect society, to reflect the world. This year, we have added new curricular fields (African and Latin American studies, global dance and global theater) and the faculty who teach in those fields are quite diverse. Excellence and diversity go together. It’s also one thing to recruit students of diverse background. It’s another thing to make sure the campus has a culture of belonging, where everyone is contributing and feels a part of things.

AMDC: How does can Davidson be more involved in greater Charlotte?

DH: We need to be more engaged in our community than we’ve been in any other era. The Charlotte economy and population has moved north. Davidson, itself, is one of the highest real estate value towns in the entire state. It’s no longer that we need to go to Charlotte to build connections, it’s that greater Charlotte has come to us. Davidson’s reach into Charlotte has expanded so it’s much more natural now than even a decade ago. I would love to be a part of building bridges. I hope business leaders and nonprofits see Davidson as a vital partner.

AMDC: During your inauguration week, there will be opportunities for you to hang out with students and play ping pong and chess. Which do you prefer: ping pong or chess?

DH: Ping pong. Although, people wouldn’t know this but I was the captain of the baseball team and chess team at Park Tudor School in Indiana.