Veteran educators return to lead their embattled alma mater, Central State University.
In the 1960s, in the midst of Vietnam War protests and the emergence of the Black power movement, students John Garland and James Renick worked as campus advocates to change the environment and curricula at Central State University.
“We were trying to make the institution relevant to our time,” Garland says. “We had many hours of thoughtful conversation. We talked about what we believed in and the direction society was taking.”
Today, Garland, president of Central State, and his college friend Renick, who began serving as senior adviser to Garland in May, spend time brainstorming ways to strengthen and expand their alma mater, whose main campus is located in Wilberforce, Ohio.
The duo are working to address serious challenges, such as securing more funding and improving student retention at Ohio’s only public HBCU. They are also devising ways to boost graduation rates as Ohio has started linking school funding to institutions’ ability to graduate students. A significant expansion is in the works, which includes a recently opened Dayton campus.
Troubled Times
Garland, a New York native who dropped out of high school at 17 to join the U.S. Marine Corps, enrolled at Central State after earning a high school equivalency diploma. He graduated from The Ohio State University School of Law in 1974.
