Click to enlarge Dr. Marjorie Hass

BY JERRIE WHITELEY

HERALD DEMOCRAT

SHERMAN -- Dr. Marjorie Hass has "hit the ground running" as Austin College's first woman president and says her family is delighted to be in Grayson County after months of anticipating the move.

The Austin College Board of Trustees selected Hass, then provost at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., for the president's position in November 2008. She took over the position from Oscar Page at the end of June.

Hass said the weather that greeted her family when they arrived in Sherman is certainly different from the weather they were experiencing in Pennsylvania, but it isn't scaring them away.

Laughing about the heat-related questions she repeatedly gets, Hass said it is actually less humid in Grayson County than some of the heat the family has experienced in other areas of the country. However, she knows Texans like to think of the heat here with a special kind of reverence.

"Folks (seem to) think it is something of a test to see if you can be a part of the community," Hass said, again noting that she, her husband Larry, and their two children, Cameron, a junior at Muhlenberg College, and Jessica, who will be a sophomore at Sherman High School in the fall, are all up to the challenge of the heat.

She said the warm reception her family is getting from the Austin College family of employees and students and Sherman community at large is the good kind of warmth that helps them feel at home.

Their new physical home is coming along as well, Hass said. The Hass' moved into the Wood House, a two-story red brick home across the street from the college, and are delighted with the residence.

"The house is beautiful," Hass said, noting that a college president's home has to be both a family home and a place where the president can welcome the community and college faculty and students.

"This house does that. It is a nurturing and warm home for our family, but also has facilities to help us welcome people in to show them an Austin College welcome."

AC's Web site states that the home was designed specifically for entertaining, especially the garden party the college president hosts each August for college faculty and staff to usher in another school year.

While she works to get her family settled into a new home in a new part of the country, Hass has also been working hard with her new colleagues.

"The work of the college never stops. There is a lot of planning and thinking to do, even when students are away," she said.

"I have really had to just jump in with both feet and do a lot of listening and learning. I have a lot to learn about AC, and about Sherman," she said.

One of the things she counts as an advantage in that process of learning is the fact that she comes in on the heels of Dr. Oscar Page. "Dr. Page has done so many tremendous things (to provide) the college a firm and strong platform from which to launch the next phase of college development."

She said that part of that development will be to continue the facilities renewal that has been ongoing at the college the past few years.

Hass' easy laugh and welcoming personality is liable to make her an instant hit with the new crop of Austin College students, due to arrive this August.

When asked if she were looking forward to meeting the students who would only ever think of her as the president of AC, Hass put the focus back on the students, saying the first meeting will really be "all about them." She said she wants to give them the same warm greeting that she has gotten and help them feel at ease in their new home.

"I feel this is such an opportunity to spend time on this campus to learn and grow here and I want them to take advantage of every opportunity it affords them. We're all going to be having our freshman year together."

Hass said she also is looking forward to meeting as many people in the community outside of AC as possible. When asked about how her position of a woman president at a major liberal arts college will impact her perception as a role model and if young women really need such role models anymore, Hass again deflected any credit on her part to focus on the service needed for others.

She said she thinks everyone needs good role models these days and young women need them just as much as young men. She said young people today see too much of the wrong kind of models about what it means to be an adult, and it is up to everyone to try to be the best role model they can for the young people around them.

That is something that does not change, she said, as the world continues to change.

One thing that is changing is the way people perceive and get an education. While colleges across the nation are focusing on varying ways to allow their students to access their education, she said, AC is staying the course with the tried and true.

"There will also be a place for the kind of high quality, face-to-face education that Austin College provides," she said.

When asked if there were anything she wanted to address that none of the myriad of press people hadn't asked her about, Hass again laughed and took a deep breath.

"There has been a really strong bond with the college and the community," she said. She is eager to see that continue and grow. "That is one of the things that drew me to the college. I am so delighted with the way our students are welcomed into the community as they seek to learn how to be community leaders."