Dr. Kirk Nooks, Gordon State College’s new president, spent his first 100 days in office not teaching, but learning as much as he can about the institution and the student body it serves.
Nooks, who assumed his role on June 1, spent the first three weeks of classes living among students in a first-floor room in the Commons B dormitory.
“That gave me an opportunity in an informal setting to meet with students from time-to-time,” he said. “They provided unfiltered feedback; whether it was 8 o’clock in the morning as I’m walking out to meetings or whether it was at 10:30 or 11 o’clock at night when they’re just coming alive to hang out and relax.”
Nooks’ decision to take up residence in the dormitory will inevitably make the students’ overall experience more impactful, said Dr. Jeffery Knighton, Gordon State’s provost and vice president of academic affairs.
“For faculty and staff, this action on the president’s part showed his words were not empty, but he is truly committed to the students’ experience,” Knighton said. “I have personally heard from students how ‘cool’ it was that the president was actually in a room on their floor and they could simply knock on his door and he would invite them in,” Knighton said of Nooks, who is the fourth president of Gordon—a public college that joined the University System of Georgia in 1972.
Nooks’ new role at the Barnesville, Georgia school brings him back to the university system. Earlier in his career, he served as campus dean and executive liaison for diversity at Georgia Highlands College before assuming teaching and administrative posts at Northern Virginia Community College and Prince George’s Community College.
From 2013 until his appointment earlier this year, Nooks was president of Metropolitan Community College (MCC)-Longview in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
