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this fall. “Our enrollment, candidly, is being artificially held down because we are out of living space on this campus,” he added. “We’ve had to implement waiting lists because we couldn’t manage the demand of students who want to attend the college.” educator, Bob Mong. “Dr. Sorrell saved Paul Quinn,” said Mong, president of the University of North Texas at Dallas, a university less than four miles away from Paul Quinn. “You walk around the campus and you ask the kids where they’re from and you hear, ‘I’m from D.C., I’m from south-central LA, I’m from Brooklyn.’ That’s Dr. Sorrell. He’s captured their imagination,” Mong added. Dr. Sorrell credits the success to those around him, but his office is full of awards and honors that prove he’s the reason why. Of course, he’s great company regarding the Fortune magazine list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders “Bill and Melinda Gates, Oprah Winfrey,” he joked. Sorrell came in at number 34, right above actress Reese Witherspoon. “It’s a pretty humbling list to be a part of,” Sorrell added. “You want to know what motivates me,” he asked. “When I was 17-years-old, my high school basketball coach at our banquet said some things that were really hurtful. He said we’ll look It’s nothing short of remarkable, said fellow
at this guy’s career and we’ll think woulda, coulda, shoulda. He never will become the player that he should have been. I decided at that moment in time, that no one would ever be able to look at me again and think that I didn’t give the most out of my ability that was possible.” The majority of the students at Paul Quinn College understand hardship. “When you visit the high schools that your students go to and some of them don’t have heat, or you recruit students and they’re homeless, so you have no idea where to send the admissions letter,” he said. “When you see these things, it changes you.” Among the school’s numerous accomplishments during President Sorrell’s eleven-year tenure have been the following:
winning the HBCU of the Year, the HBCU Student Government Association of the Year, and the HBCU Business Program of the Year awards; achieving recognition as a member of the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll; creating the New Urban College Model; demolishing 15 abandoned campus buildings; partnering with PepsiCo to transform the football field into the “WE over Me Farm”; achieving full-accreditation from the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS); creating the College’s first faculty-led study abroad program; and rewriting all institutional fundraising records. Brother Sorrell received his J.D. and M.A. in Public Policy from Duke University and his Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania
(where his dissertation defense was awarded “with Distinction”). While in law school, he was one of the founding members of the Journal of Gender Law & Policy and served as the Vice President of the Duke Bar Association. He was a recipient of a Sloan Foundation Graduate Fellowship, which funded his studies at both Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (as a graduate fellow) and Duke University. He graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in Government, served as Secretary-Treasurer of his senior class, was a two- time Captain of the men’s varsity basketball team, and graduated as the school’s fifth all-time leading scorer. Dr. Sorrell also received an honorary degree from Austin (TX) College.
Publishing achievement for 105 years
THE JOURNAL 84 TH GRAND CHAPTER MEETING ISSUE | 51
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