HANNIBAL – Hannibal-LaGrange University (HLGU) is working toward a long-term, strategic plan with the help of the president emeritus of Oklahoma Baptist University, Bob Agee.
Trustees unanimously voted to bring Agee on as a consultant at their meeting Sept. 14. The HLGU board last year asked Agee to aid in their search for a new president that ultimately landed on Anthony Allen. He is the retired executive director of the International Association of Baptist Colleges and Universities and is known for helping Christian colleges develop long-term, strategic vision for the future.
“This is not about my vision,” Allen told trustees. “This isn’t about the faculty’s vision or the trustees’ vision; this is about discovering God’s vision. “We will look at every aspect of the life of this institution and analyze it,” Agee
said.
Agee will assist the planning committee as it gathers data, and refines the school’s mission and vision statements. He will help identify the school’s core values, and analyze HLGU’s strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats. He said the information gathering period will probably last through May.
“The best way to do anything hasn’t been found yet,” Agee said. “You are not yet where God wants you to be as an institution. I believe God wants you to grow, progress and achieve.”
Allen said he is very growth-minded in his approach to running the institution.
“To remain the same mean’s we’re going backwards,” he said. “Our mission is critical in the world today. We need that crop of students each year with a biblical worldview who can engage the culture and speak a word for Christ wherever God places them.”
That will likely mean expanding beyond HLGU’s traditional student hunting grounds, Allen said.
“Little by little, we’re making even more connections outside of Missouri “We’re looking at trying to bring Super Summer in Illinois to our campus either next summer or the summer after. Eighteen percent of our students come from Illinois, and we want that number to grow.”