This piece is the second of two, spotlighting the trajectory of Periclean Faculty Leaders who have become college presidents. You can check out the first profile of Milton Moreland on our website.
Allegheny College President Ron Cole, who also serves as Project Pericles’ Board Chair, has always viewed the geosciences as an “applied science.” After graduating from Allegheny himself, and while earning his PhD, he worked as an environmental consultant in small towns across Western New York. He joined a team that examined landfills and underground storage tanks, ensuring that local bodies of water and municipal resources remained protected from contaminant leaks.
“That also instilled in me some parts of my toolkit that I brought to the classroom,” President Cole says. When he joined the faculty of Allegheny College, he sought to demonstrate to students the relevance of Earth processes. “I always had an interest in showing application.”
As a faculty member, he felt some tension between producing traditional scholarship and facilitating community-based learning. On the one hand, being a tenure-track Professor demanded strong contributions to the field through peer-reviewed work. On the other hand, “I wanted the work that I did as a scholar in geology to mean something to a broader audience,” he says.
As he continued his disciplinary work, he sought opportunities to further engage his students beyond the classroom. In 2007, he and three other colleagues—Caryl Waggett (Environmental Science), Melissa Comer (Political Science), and Vesta Silva (Communication Arts)—engaged in collaborative thinking about water resources and environmental health.
The four of them wound up working on a semester-long experiment in which they took each of their courses and examined the common theme of water resources while giving “students the opportunity for real hands-on interdisciplinary learning.” With support from a Project Pericles Grant, then-Professor Cole evolved Environmental Geology to include greater hands-on learning.
The course included field trips, engaged students in guest lectures during and outside of class, explored community issues related to water and health, and concluded with an evening symposium and presentation of team projects.
“Not only did I want students in the course to gain fundamental knowledge of Earth processes—the physical and chemical properties of our planet, how to think in geologic time, and how that shapes the planet and our evolution, I also wanted to demonstrate the connections of those to human development, society impacts, socioeconomic conditions, and the like.”
The course landed well with the students. Their feedback indicated that the approach helped them “understand how to connect their learning in the classroom to issues that communities are facing locally, nationally, and globally.”
A few years later, Professor Cole was appointed Provost and Dean of the College. In this new role, he continued to think about ways to continue community-based learning. “That work as a faculty member informed my thinking as an administrator.”
One of the first things he began working on as Provost was partnering with faculty to implement revised tenure and promotion guidelines. In 2014, the faculty approved new guidelines supporting service learning. “Faculty need space, support, and recognition for this work,” he reflected. “It’s work that should count in a faculty member’s professional portfolio for those who invest and do it well.”
As faculty work in community-engaged learning expanded, the benefits to students accrued. The impact on students became even more paramount when then-Provost Cole was appointed President of Allegheny College in 2022 because he recognized that community-based learning plays an important role in recruitment and retention.
“When students are engaged in meaningful ways with civic-engaged learning, whether it’s community-based research or other forms, the students gain in their education. It prepares them with competencies that they take with them when they graduate. That helps them succeed no matter what career they pursue.”
Community-based learning also provides a meaningful pathway for local community development. “As goes Meadville, so goes Allegheny College. I want us to be part of a vibrant town and community. What role can we play in providing capacity for that outcome?”
Under President Cole’s leadership, Allegheny College received $15 million from an anonymous donor to launch and endow a Community Impact Hub: a nexus for nonprofit and government agencies to connect with students, faculty, and staff. He credits others at Allegheny and in Meadville for pulling together the facets that would become the vision for the Hub which was years in the making with a broad range of stakeholders.
Today, the Hub grants approximately $100,000 annually to non-profit organizations and impact teams. Faculty and staff work in conjunction with community partners to mentor students on community-based research projects. Ultimately, the hope is that experience with community practitioners and faculty empowers students “to apply their knowledge in practical settings” and “cultivate a more profound commitment to engaged citizenship.”
“My experience with the PFL program, and the opportunity to be part of it while I was a faculty member, informed my understanding of why what we now call the Community Impact Hub could be of value,” President Cole says.