EMPATHY AND EXUBERANCE

ALWAYS QUESTIONING

Barnett was born near small-town Harrodsburg, Kentucky (population then about 7,000), one of four high-achieving siblings. Her father, Bill, was a commonwealth attorney (an elected prosecutor of felony crimes) while maintaining a private law practice. Her mother, Norma, was a first-grade teacher who became a homemaker (and a part-time substitute teacher) as the family grew.

“My father is the most honest person,” recalls Barnett. “We joke that he would go an hour out of his way to return any extra change he was given. My mother created the conditions for each of her four children to explore our passions and interests and to be ourselves.” 

The Barnett family attended church three times a week (Wednesday evenings and twice on Sunday) and were, like most of their peers, conservative Christians. “I really didn’t know anyone who was of a different [faith] tradition until I was an adult,” recalls Barnett, who came to embrace interfaith work and to seek “ways in which we can work together toward common goals across our backgrounds, identities and experiences.”

Barnett’s most intense interests were reading and writing. An admittedly mediocre high school student, she was “a voracious reader” who considered a career in politics or literature—or perhaps opinion-writing since she had no shortage of opinions to share and was a fan of Anna Quindlen, a an acclaimed columnist for The New York Times.

As an undergraduate, Barnett attended Georgetown College in nearby Georgetown, Kentucky, where she majored in English and later added communications with an emphasis on theater. She was also editor of The Georgetonian, the campus newspaper, where she raised eyebrows after penning an editorial in support of gay rights in a place where such views were not widely shared.

“Mainly I just questioned everything,” recalls Barnett, who as an undergraduate was introduced to the Sunshine State during a summer internship at the Bradenton Herald. “I’m sure I was so annoying. But this was a crucial learning time for me. I was a young editor and a budding journalist who was trying to make my own way.” 

After graduation from Georgetown, she taught as a long-term substitute at middle schools and high schools and conducted playwriting workshops for high school and middle school students before enrolling in graduate school at Indiana University-Bloomington. 

There, Barnett earned a master’s degree in journalism while working as a reporter for WTIU, the university-owned affiliate of PBS. Following completion of her degree in 1995, she became the station’s news director and taught at the internationally renowned Indiana University School of Journalism (now The Media School).

During her management stint at WTIU, Barnett met Tom Mould, a graduate student who was finishing his doctoral degree in folklore. “We kept seeing each other at talks and films and realized that we had a lot in common,” says Barnett. “Plus, he had written a fiction book that was hilarious. He never published that book, but I loved it and in turn loved him.”

As collaborators at WTIU, the pair of kindred spirits—who married in 1998—produced seven documentaries for the series Indiana Folklife on an array of topics that included quilting, covered bridges, limestone carving and morel mushroom hunting.

Other collaborations explored African American stepping (a form of percussive dance) and the Miami Nation of Indiana Pow Wow (an intertribal gathering hosted by the Miami Indians in Columbia City, Indiana). Barnett individually produced other documentaries on eco-homes, holistic health practices and the AIDS crisis in rural America.

Barnett’s doctoral degree, also from Indiana University (and funded by a fellowship from the Knight Foundation) was in mass communication with concentrations in law and visual communication. In 2001, she completed her studies and was off to Elon, where Mould—the so-called “trailing spouse”—became a full professor who held an endowed chair as director of the college’s department of sociology and anthropology.

During Barnett’s time at the ambitious (and strategic) college, she earned promotions through the professorial ranks and was named a full professor in 2012. She was also founding director of the highly regarded Elon Program for Documentary Production, where most notably she produced with her students an award-winning film about native Southern journalists who covered the civil rights movement.

As she moved into senior administrative roles, Barnett created or headed an array of committees and working groups and completed the Institute for Educational Management program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She also earned both the Elon Service Learning Scholar award and the School of Communications Distinguished Scholar award.

“There was a goal [at Elon] to grow in size and quality and to maintain what was special,” says Barnett. “Every person on campus worked toward those shared goals. It was a wonderful time in my career. Elon has launched leadership careers for many people. And I count those folks, and those still at Elon, among my closest friends.”

Once Barnett moved to Butler, her accomplishments multiplied even more quickly. She was a key player in the effort to implement a Founder’s College that offered two-year degrees and a pathway to four-year degrees—a function that community colleges already serve in Florida. 

She also created such instructional support initiatives as a Center for Faculty Excellence and joined the board of the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U). In addition, she became a board member of HERS (Higher Education Resource Services), a leadership development and research organization dedicated to supporting women and gender-diverse leaders in higher education. 

Mould, in the meantime, built his own national reputation in academia, becoming director of the college’s department of history, anthropology and classics. His research encompasses folklore, language and culture with specific expertise in the oral storytelling traditions of the Choctaw Indians.

His 2020 book Overthrowing the Queen: Telling Stories of Welfare in America won the Chicago Folklore Prize and the Brian McConnell Book Award from the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research. Clearly, both were thriving at Butler.

“We launched a number of new academic programs and have more in the pipeline,” says Barnett of her days at the institution in Indianapolis. “Plus, we hired some amazing faculty and staff. Nothing can happen without colleagues who are focused on serving students.” 

CHALLENGES LOOM

Barnett comes to the college at a pernicious time. President Donald Trump has frozen or withdrawn tens of billions of dollars in federal grants primarily from flagship research-oriented institutions, public and private, in an effort to stamp out alleged antisemitism, DEI initiatives that he describes as “divisive” and so-called “woke” policies in general.

More recently, the administration has also revoked the visas of thousands of international students nationwide often without clear explanations (or, for that matter, due process). It also has upped the ante in its battle with Harvard by halting certification of the university’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program over what it describes as noncitizen “pro-terrorist” activism on campus sparked by Israel’s war with Gaza.

That revocation was temporarily blocked by a federal judge, but if ultimately upheld, it would mean that the university could no longer accept any international students—and that those currently enrolled would lose their legal status unless they immediately transferred. 

These and other administration edicts—which target institutions, their students, their faculties, their policies and even their curriculums—are now wending their way through the legal system and the final outcomes are unknown. But U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said the actions, taken as a whole, “should serve as a warning to other universities to get your act together.”

Are there risks for Rollins? Certainly, to some degree. Although not a research institution, the college does receive federal funds through direct student loans and Pell Grants (a combined $14 million this academic year). Trump’s proposed budget bill would eliminate some kinds of federal student loans and tighten eligibility requirements for Pell Grants.

As for international students—who now account for about 10 percent of the college’s undergraduates—none have had their visas threatened as of early June, according to a campus spokesperson. Political debates have been lively, but civility has been paramount. One would expect no less at a place where the ethos of tolerance was inspired by Fred Rogers.

So, while most small liberal arts colleges appear likely to suffer only collateral damage for now, Cornwell—who previously avoided debates tinged by politics—has become a leading voice against “coercive use of public research funding” and “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” in higher education.

In February, the college and the Institute for Citizens & Scholars hosted “John Dewey, 90 Years Later: How the Liberal Arts Strengthen Democracy,” a two-day conference that focused on the most pressing challenges faced by colleges and universities. (Dewey himself chaired the college’s first such conference on the liberal arts in 1931.)  

Among the dozen or so luminaries in attendance were leaders of the AAC&U and the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), as well as other prominent scholars and administrators who pushed for a joint statement affirming their commitment to academic freedom. Cornwell agreed and helped to draft “A Call for Constructive Engagement.” 

But, if the resulting document’s title seemed innocuous—more conciliatory than confrontational—its message was an unambiguous defense of college classrooms as “centers of open inquiry where, in pursuit of truth, faculty, students and staff are free to exchange ideas and opinions across a full range of viewpoints without fear of retribution, censorship or deportation.” 

Cornwell told the Orlando Sentinel: “The [governmental] intervention is an erosion of our integrity, and we can’t stand for that.” Signatories, as of early June, included some 655 college presidents, including those representing private liberal arts colleges, sprawling public universities and previously targeted Ivy League institutions such as Brown, Columbia, Northwestern, Princeton and, of course, Harvard. 

Now it will be Barnett’s job to navigate whatever is still to come—if anything at all—for Rollins. But her values and those of her predecessor seem to be aligned. In fact, according to Barnett, she was attracted to the college in part because of its strong commitment to DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging).

Far from being discriminatory, she views such programs as crucial to supporting diverse staff and student populations. Her needle-threading goal will be to protect the institution from political headwinds while preserving the attributes for which it has earned renown—such as the long-standing campus tradition of critical questioning and free expression that’s reflected in its motto, “fiat lux” (let there be light).

“We are all about fairness, supporting our students, hiring the brightest and best, and creating the ideal conditions to work and learn,” says Barnett. “Those are sound business and educational principles anywhere, but really important for a learning-focused organization such as a college. We care that our students and colleagues belong, matter and feel welcomed.” 

Speaking of welcomes (and temporarily setting aside the dark clouds gathering over academia), Barnett will likely be embraced warmly by both woke and less-woke Winter Parkers who, like members of the selection committee, will be disarmed by her approachability and her congenial charisma. 

“I’m really excited to get to know the people of the community,” she says. “Expanding my interactions will be really exciting to me—and then just listening and understanding a little bit where people are.”

Mould will also be a major civic presence. He’ll be a half-time faculty member while pursuing as-yet unspecified projects that will being his expertise to bear on community-related issues. Rollins, in fact, has something of a heritage in the field of folklore, with several professors having mentored Eatonville’s Zora Neale Hurston in the 1930s. 

Barnett and Mould, who have an adult daughter and an adult son who live out of state, enjoy hiking, swimming and travel as well as visiting museums and attending theatrical performances. Most of these activities can be enjoyed just steps away from the Barker House, the president’s official residence on Lake Virginia. 

“I was immediately drawn to [the college’s] mission to educate students for global citizenship and responsible leadership and to prepare them for meaningful lives and careers,” says Barnett. “Engaging with students and working alongside faculty and staff to help students flourish brings me joy.”