Since its founding in 1880, Presbyterian College has witnessed many historical events, including the passing of the nineteenth amendment granting women’s suffrage and advances for racial and gender equality in the workforce.
But this academic year, PC is making some of its own history.
On August 1, 2023, Dr. Anita Gustafson began her tenure as PC’s twentieth president and the first woman to hold this office in the college’s history.
Gustafson holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and Swedish from North Park University in Chicago, Illinois and master’s and doctorate degrees in history from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She previously served on PC’s faculty as a professor of history for nineteen years before serving as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a professor of history at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
But her job as president is quite different from her previous position at PC.
“The job is very different because now I deal with the whole package,” Gustafson said. “What I love about it is it’s a very multifaceted job, and it’s connecting with people throughout the college.”
At PC, Gustafson also served on the president’s cabinet, as interim provost, interim dean of academic programs, history department chair, chair of the Senior Faculty Council, and chair of the PC Launch Program for Vocation, Leadership and Service. These positions, combined with serving as the dean at Mercer University for seven years, helped prepare Gustafson for the position she now holds.
“It gave me an idea of what it was like to be in administration,” Gustafson said. “I really feel that having an academic background as a president [is] a real strength.”
After leaving PC in 2016, Gustafson did not expect to be back just seven years later.
“I left to have the next step of my career, and I didn’t know that it would circle back here,” Gustafson said. “[But] once I was back, it just made complete sense.”
As a professor of women’s history, Gustafson has seen the progression for women’s rights and the increasing roles for women in higher education.
“[It’s] been a slow progress over a long period of time,” Gustafson said. “There were a lot of changes for women in the twentieth century, and I think coming of age in the 1970s like I did really helped give me a larger vision of what’s possible for women and their careers.
“I think sometimes it’s easy to forget that it hasn’t been that long that women have been in leadership, and we’re coming up on 150 years of the college in another 6 years, so it’s taken a while.”
The change for PC has been especially noticeable in the last fifty years. In the early 1960s, the only women were secretaries or worked in the food service. By the 1970s, PC had a few women faculty but none in administration.
Gustafson appreciates how welcoming PC, especially the women of PC, have been since her arrival and values the significance of her position in PC’s history.
“I’m really honored to be the first woman, and I don’t want to take that for granted because that’s a big step for the college. But it’s also one that I believe I’ve earned,” Gustafson said. “About a third of college presidents now are women, so the number of women in leadership is growing every year.”
During her time as PC’s president, Gustafson has several goals that she hopes to achieve.
“One of the things I want to do is to continue to work on the strategic plan that I inherited, modifying and augmenting it as needed,” Gustafson said. “I want to really try to do everything I can to make the academic offerings to be those that draw students in.
“What I also want to do is help articulate all the kinds of things you can do with a PC degree.”
In addition to continuing the strategic plan, Gustafson has some other goals in mind.
“I know that I really want to continue the idea of our motto, ‘While we live, we serve,’ and I’ve been talking to some faculty members about really expanding service learning opportunities,” Gustafson said. “I want to build the academic program to be as strong as it can be and to grow the school incrementally.”
