|
|
|
|
|
President Elect Hardy K. Dorsey
Lincoln University (MO)
National Alumni Association
Campaign Committee
Join the Journey to Excellence
|
|
KJLU RADIO INTERVIEW, SUNDAY OCTOBER 13, 2002
HEART TO HEART 0800-0830 | (UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT)
JOHN A. KEY & HARDY K. DORSEY
|
|
|
John Key: Thank you for tuning in to a special live edition of Sunday Morning’s Heart to Heart. Today we are having a heart to heart discussion with Mr. Hardy Dorsey. We’ll proceed, as I introduce Mr. Dorsey; let me tell you a little bit about our guest. Hardy Dorsey earned his B.S. degree in education from Lincoln University in 1969 and he also earned a Masters of Science degree in Education Administration from Southern Illinois University. He has also done post-graduate work in business administration at St. Louis University. Mr. Dorsey has been a public school teacher and administrator in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, and he has also been the assistant director of the St. Louis office of "Inroads, Inc.", which is, of course, a non-profit organization focusing on providing minority talent for corporate America. Mr. Dorsey is a Lincoln alum. He is married to Mrs. Wanda Harrison Dorsey, a Lincoln alumnae and a Gary, Indiana native.
Without further ado, please welcome to the program, Mr. Hardy Dorsey. Good Morning, Mr. Dorsey. How are you?
Hardy Dorsey: Good Morning, John. I’m really delighted to be here on an exciting Homecoming weekend for Lincoln University.
John Key: Well great! It’s a pleasure to have you this morning and we’re eager to talk about the business at hand. … And you have decided to throw your hat into the campaign as a candidate for the office of President with the Lincoln University National Alumni Association. And I just want to be out front with you and if I can ask some questions of you, I’m sure that our audience would like to hear from you.
First, let me begin by saying … if I’m correct, I believe you have never held a previous national alumni office. So why do you think Mr. Dorsey someone should vote for you over someone who has held a national alumni office?
Hardy Dorsey: Well John, I have been very active in my career. I have had a very exciting career, not only in education, but also in working for a major corporation, IBM, where I‘ve spent almost 18 years as a manager and executive with that company. In the last 8 years I’ve really been growing a management community -… management-consulting business in Atlanta, Georgia and I have been very involved in many volunteerism there; Inroads, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and also working with the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, Georgia. But as of the last couple of years, I’ve gotten pretty involved with Lincoln University. We have an Atlanta chapter there and we had an incredible convention here (sic) in July and I was very much involved in working with some wonderful, wonderful people, under the leadership of Lovelle Lemons and Patricia Tyler, and we had … Dr. Sherman Bonds. And we had such a wonderful time doing that. I was asked, "You know what Hardy, Can you do a little bit more for us?" And this school has done so much for me, I decided to put my name in the hat and run. I know I have not been very active as maybe others have over 10, 20, 30 years that I’ve been away from school. But I still love this University. I appreciate what it has done for me and
this is my chance to give back.
If you look at companies today, companies are not necessarily … taking the leadership from its root, any more. You’ve got now … you don’t hear much the (unclear) fall too far from the tree. What we find is we’ve got to get new vision and thinking. In any major business today, you will see they are bringing in new Presidents and CEO’s who had nothing to do with the business. IBM for almost 60 years brought in individuals who had worked 25 to 30 years in IBM. But 10 years ago IBM brought in a guy named Louis Gerstner who had nothing to do with IBM, nothing to do with computers. He came actually from Nabisco and American Express. But when Louis Gerstner came to that company … he was not very well received. He had to make an awful lot of changes, and those changes have been very, very significant to the IBM Company. When Louis Gerstner came aboard, we all wore white shirts and … that’s just the way it was. Our first board meeting in 1993, for the IBM annual board meeting we have …Lewis Gerstner shows up in a blue shirt. To show you the impact of that blue shirt, we had e-mails all over the country … to close to 400 thousand IBMers all over the world. And the question was, "How could Lewis Gerstner come …show up at our IBM board meeting in a blue shirt." Nothing about what he talked about. Lew Gerstner has turned IBM around and it is now the formidable business it was a long time ago. What I am hoping to do, with the leadership and support from an awful lot of people. Ruth Newton who is working very closely with me. …I’ve had chapters throughout the country that are saying, "Let’s see if we can look at and get some new ideas, some new approaches, …not that the other approaches have not been so good, but our historically black colleges today are in trouble and we have to have some new thinking. And I hope John; I’m going to bring some of that kind of exciting new vision to this responsibility that I’m seeking.
John Key: Well thank you very much Mr. Dorsey. We’re talking, if you just tuned in, to Hardy Dorsey on KJLU. Mr. Dorsey is a candidate for the presidency of the Lincoln University National Alumni Association. Now Hardy Dorsey, your campaign recently sent out a national mass mailing and in that mailing, you outlined four points that you thought were critical for bringing more prestige and success to Lincoln University. Can you expand on your points about what you really plan to do and what your platform for the office of presidency of the national alumni association is?
Hardy Dorsey: For one thing John, I’d like to do is try to model what we did in Atlanta. And what we did in Atlanta was, we reached out to the Atlanta community and a lot of people, who hadn’t been involved with Lincoln University for years, … got involved. I want to bring that energy to the table … to bring in those legacies that are throughout the United States that are legacies of Lincoln University. You may not know it, but Lincoln University probably has 16 to 18 thousand, and it may be as high as 20 thousand alumni, around the country. As you know, what, …they have time, they have talent, and they have resources to bring to bear on Lincoln University. And I think what we have to do is to have a compelling story to encourage their participation and to encourage their dollars to come back to this very fine institution. I think a way of doing that is by improving our communication…by letting our alumni know that we really have something to say and there is a reason to come back. I don’t think that many of our listening audience would desire to spend thousands of dollars if they weren’t sure where those dollars were going. We have to talk about issues. We have to talk about how Lincoln University can be even more competitive than it is today. So I think that if we can have some compelling stories, and improve our communication and have a broader outreach to those 18 to 20 thousand legacies around our country, I think we can bring in some alumni that can do incredible … incredible things for this institution. So it has got to be some "out of the box" thinking. I think … I consider myself certainly a leader, and in that, what that means is that, you identify talented, resourceful individuals and you encourage their participation. We had that kind of participation in Atlanta, Georgia. We had individuals from the class of 1940 with a wonderful legacy of Walter Sanderson out of Fulton, Missouri who was one of our co-chairs. Jessie Hill, I think the class of 1947, was also a co-chair, a very successful businessman, an entrepreneur out of Atlanta, Georgia who was President of Atlanta Life Insurance. Bernard Porsche, class of 1964 and Bernard has a successful management health care company that he is the President of in Atlanta…they co-chaired. But we also had at a luncheon that we had… we had a young lady who actually was of the class of 2000 to tell her story about "open enrollment", how Lincoln allowed her admission with a 1.9 grade point average when nobody else did, but she was able to graduate with a 3.5 average in the year 2000, and is now teaching in the public school system of St. Louis, Missouri. Very, very proud of that. We also in Atlanta…We are a chapter of only 3 years of age, but we were able at our convention to raise for that convention in Atlanta where we’ve got lots of historically black universities, …Morehouse, Spellman, Morris Brown, Clark Atlanta, Fort Valley State, Albany State, but we raised $54,000 for that convention. And Lovell Lemons, President of our chapter provided a check for $40,000 to Dr. Henson and the University this Friday afternoon at Homecoming. We are very proud of that. But what would happen if we had hundreds of chapters that could do that? What would happen if we had legacies out here who said, "You know what, I’m going to give my hundred dollars or five hundred dollars, or whatever it might be." But you know what happens if we had 15 or 16 or 18 thousand persons to start participating, …not only with their time and talent, but also with their finances, what we could do for this very fine University.
John Key: Yes, Let me remind our listening audience. …thank you for that fine answer. We’re talking with Hardy Dorsey this morning on Heart to Heart a Sunday morning live special edition here on KJLU and we’re discussing the election …the upcoming election in February 2003 of the Lincoln University National Alumni Association.
Now, Hardy Dorsey, you talked about fund raising. And you were someone that is known for your fund raising prowess. You have been involved, as you mentioned with the 100 Black Men of Atlanta and I believe that you are also involved in a football classic or some type of similar classic that we are familiar with here in the Missouri area and many people have hoped for and talked about the possibility of Lincoln University participating in such classics. So I know that many people who support your campaign are optimistic that with your experience and your leadership in other organizations and other events, that you will be able to bring that type, those type of event to Lincoln University.
Could you just share with our audience, some of your involvement in the past in ventures such as those?
Hardy Dorsey: Well, let me tell you, the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, we’ve just completed our 14th annual football classic. And we’ve been changing teams a bit, but basically, we’ve been staying with two of our historically black colleges, and those two are Tennessee State University and Florida A&M. And on September 28th, we had 67,100 individuals who paid for this classic and it was absolutely "off the charts". It was a great football game. It was incredibly festival. Keith Sweat sang the national anthem. But we had, probably many of you have heard of, Judge Glenda Hatcher, or the movie star, Samuel Jackson, they were in attendance and participating in the festivities that went for an entire week. But we raised quite a bit of money. What we have is a project called "Project Success" where we have been mentoring and working with young people that we’ve identified from the 4th grade and these youngsters now, we’ve sent some 35 off to college, we have 32 by the way who have graduated. But today we have 30 students that are in college and we have another hundred from the 9th grade to the 12th grades that we work with, we mentor, and we try to act as role models as we try to give back to our community. That’s fund raising. And I’m hoping John that I can bring some of those experiences and successes to the Lincoln University Alumni. I’m very, very willing, and I’ve got an incredible team, who have been far closer over the last 10, 15, 20 years to the University, but I think collectively, cooperatively, we can work at putting our heads together, putting together some very formidable strategies to see how we can seek funding, funding not only from our State and how appropriations are provided, but I also think we can seek corporate funding, foundation and grant funding. I think that Dr. Henson, who is I think, a very, very solid and fine leader. I’ve seen leadership. I think I know what it looks like. Dr. Henson represents that kind of leadership. And I think he’s putting together the kind of formidable team that collectively, with the Lincoln University Alumni working cooperatively with our Lincoln University Foundation, under the capable leadership of Dr. Roy Cheatham, with the capable leadership of Dr. Will McCarther who is our President of our Board of Curators, and with our esteemed Dr. Henson, that we can really have a four pronged, if you will, approach at doing the right thing for Lincoln University. I’m excited about those kinds of prospects.
John Key: Great, great. Again, we’re talking with Hardy Dorsey, a candidate for President of the Lincoln University Alumni Association. Now, Mr. Dorsey, you have also trained, you’re also are a trained educator in education administration with a Masters Degree in that field. Do you feel that, that will enable you to be of assistance to the University as it attempts to increase its prestige in educational and academic circles? Do you feel that you bring the requisite career training and educational knowledge to this office that you’re seeking.
Hardy Dorsey: Excellent question, John. I think that even though I’ve had more of a formal education, in Education, certainly education administration, I’ve spent now almost 30 years in Corporate America, working with particularly major businesses, about how can, …one I was in marketing and I think that’s a strength I’ll bring to the table. But the last 8 years, of running the Dorsey Management Group, out of Atlanta, Georgia, is where I’m putting my educational experiences, my business experiences, and along with my entrepreneurial experiences, to earn a living. And what I do with major businesses around this country is work with them on how they can work better with each other. We sometimes have difficulty in communicating effectively with each other. If I have a problem with you, instead of articulating the problem, we have a tendency to just tell everyone else about my problem. I try to work with businesses as to how to create an atmosphere of trust. And in doing so, what we’re doing is, now how do we improve communication, we build respect. And that has to be modeled from the leadership. So I work with leadership from around the country to do that. Some of the businesses that I’ve been working with, AT&T, GTE, in terms of TV, many of you have heard of the Home and Garden TV station (HGTV). I’ve been working with HGTVnow, probably 5 years. Most recently, I’ve just finished training about an entire 1200 person plant relocation in Pasaquella, Mississippi, with the Chevron Corporation. Other businesses that I am planning on working with shortly are UPS and Bell South in Atlanta, Georgia. But I do think that I have experience in working with …how can we work better with each other. I’ve taken those skills, John and utilized them with running a couple of political campaigns. And if you can imagine this, you try and energize 30 or 40 people, and you’re not going to pay them any real money, and you make them work 12 hours and longer for some 4 or 5 months, and how you do that, is you treat them with respect; you give them a compelling story, that you know what, it is about a bigger cause; It’s about something to, and in this case, I’ve run a couple of campaign for the Atlanta school board…and for the President of the Atlanta school board. I ran it twice, and we won it twice. But I think that I can bring those kinds of skills and I want to energize the alumni in the same way. I want to say to them, you know what, in the spirit of Lincoln University and what Lincoln University has done for us, and in behalf of all those legacies, while we have wonderful legacies up here today…We have individuals from the classes of 1930’s, 1940’s, 1950’s, as well as the 60’s and 70s and. And we’ve got to reach out to our even younger people who have just come of school in the last 10, 15, 20 years. We’ve got to have them working along with the classes of the 1940’s and 1950’s in the spirit of knowing that what we are doing is that we are serving a greater good. And I want to hopefully bring a compelling story as to how 18 thousand individuals who are alumni are going to get active in this regard.
John Key: Great, great. That’s a great answer. That’s a lot for Lincoln University to look forward to. In case you just tuned in, we’re talking with Hardy K. Dorsey. Hardy K. Dorsey is a candidate for the presidency of the Lincoln University Alumni Association.
Now, on the subject of, Mr. Dorsey, energizing the alumni, you have made a promise during your campaign, that you intend to reach out to all alumni and the fact that you would work diligently to bring non-African American alumni into involvement with the alumni association as well. Can you share with our audience why you think that is important and what you can do to make sure that we maximize our potential in bringing in all alumni?
Hardy Dorsey: Well, I’ll tell you. …The one thing I do around the country, when I talk about "building relationships" is talk about this thing called "Diversity". And far too often, by the time you start looking at building relationships, what you find is we have difficulty, for a whole variety of reasons, talking with each other. The older people have difficulty talking with the young people. The men have difficulty talking with women. And blacks have difficulty talking with the white. We’ve got to have a spirit of inclusion. And I would say that, if we did our homework and looked at some of our demographics, we would probably find that most of our legacies, maybe 60 to 70 percent of the graduates out of Lincoln University are whites. And you know what, they are certainly appreciative of the education they’ve realized as well. And we’ve got to reach out and make sure that we get their participation as well. And I think we can do that. I like the effort that Alphonso Buie, who is your SGA President here, and the dialogue he is beginning to have realized with the Jefferson City community. We’ve got to reach out to all individuals. Not only do we have to work with our legacies that are white, throughout the country, and reach out to them as well as our other constituents. We also have to do the same thing with our legislators. I am sure that if you look at the legislators, we’ve got lots of Democrats and lots of Republicans. And I don’t care what side they are on; I just want to make sure that they are serving the greater good for Lincoln University. So I think this spirit of inclusion is very important and I hope to have lots of folks who are representing the other communities at our homecomings in the future.
John Key: Great. Thank you. Again, we’re talking with Hardy Dorsey. Hardy Dorsey is from the Atlanta, Georgia area and he is a candidate for the Lincoln University Alumni Association office of President.
Mr. Dorsey, there is an obviously identified need to bring everyone who is a part of the Lincoln University family into greater involvement. Likewise, do you see a role that the community, …the local community, can play in working with the University? Obviously, you are aware that the University contributes significantly to the local economy. And there is just a tremendous opportunity that exists between Lincoln University and for the mid-Missouri area to realize the benefit of working together. As president of the alumni association, are there some things that you think the alumni association can do to help foster better relationships locally and nationally? And you’ve talked about it somewhat. Can you expand a little further, please?
Hardy Dorsey: All right. In terms of expanding our outreach, John, help me with this. Clarify exactly how you would see the outreach here in Jefferson City.
John Key: Well, let’s say for example, there have been some studies that Lincoln University contributes about 200 million dollars to the local economy. So it’s a major institutional player from an economical standpoint. Almost all events that occur in the Jefferson City area are either sponsored directly or are co-sponsored by Lincoln University. So I think that some fell that there needs to be greater appreciation for the University, …here in the local community and perhaps, it is just a matter of telling our story. And you’ve talked about the need to tell our story. And that’s something we were talking about.
Hardy Dorsey: Okay, I appreciate that. Well you know, there is some work that needs to be done, to really quantify the economic impact that Lincoln University has, in middle Missouri. And I think that work still needs to be done. And so we’ve got to work with the Chamber of Commerce and others. I think though, that if we do our homework, …quantify our efforts of saying what is the economic impact that Lincoln University has on this community, I think that we can have a compelling story to take to the legislature. I’m not sure how appropriations are made, but I do think that we can probably look a little closer to see and make sure that Lincoln is very well represented with our legislative body. And I think that the alumni…the Lincoln University Alumni Association can be an additional voice on behalf of Lincoln University.
John Key: Okay. Great. Again we’re talking with Hardy K. Dorsey, candidate for national alumni association President for the upcoming election at Lincoln University. Mr. Dorsey, I believe its true…Is it true that for persons that want to participate in the upcoming election, they must be registered …or they must be members in good standing, good financial standing with the national alumni association. And I believe that fee is forty dollars for all alums. Would you say anything to encourage everyone to make sure that they are able to participate in this upcoming election?
Hardy Dorsey: Well. We have an exciting upcoming election, and the only way one will be able to vote, is by ballot, those individuals who paid their forty dollars for their National Alumni Association dues. Who can pay the $40, obviously those individuals who graduated? But anyone who attended the University and anyone – anyone can vote, Anyone who has decided that they are a "friend of Lincoln University" and would desire to pay the $40 to the national alumni association by December 31st, they will be provided a ballot in January and in February (sic) these ballots are going to be counted for the Vice President and the President of the national alumni association. So I encourage everyone to pay the $40 if they would so like to get involved.
John Key: Okay. We’re talking with Hardy K. Dorsey, a candidate for the Lincoln University Alumni Association presidency. Mr. Dorsey, you also have a web site for your campaign and I believe that website is www.members.tripod.com/votedorsey
And in our final minutes, could you say to the listening audience and to the members of the Lincoln University family that are listening, again, why should they elect you as our next president of the Lincoln University National Alumni Association, Mr. Hardy Dorsey?
Hardy Dorsey: All right John. And remember that ‘s "m-e-m-b-e-r-s- t-r-i-p-o-d .com/votedorsey. John, I don’t know …where my, …I’m sure I would have had an enjoyable life without Lincoln University. But Lincoln University reached out to me and accepted me when I was told as a high school senior that "Dorsey, you may have a chance to play professional baseball, but if you don’t, …just get a good job, because I don’t think college is in the cards for you." That was a very powerful statement when no one in my family had gone to college. So to go off to Lincoln University and to be embraced and to be encouraged and to be supported and to realized that, you know what, if you really believe, you can. And you’ve got to have people who are out there supporting you. Lincoln University did that for me. They’ve given me the opportunity to be an educator, to be a business …corporate business manager and executive and to be an entrepreneur. And so, I owe Lincoln a lot. And even this small effort that I’m doing here is not going to be enough. But I think that I can bring leadership. I am bringing a new insight in terms of how, maybe some things that we hadn’t done in the past, can be done. And I think that I would like really many, many alumni around some very compelling ways in which we can be of greater services to Lincoln University. So I’d really appreciate your voting for Hardy K. Dorsey in the elections for national alumni president.
John Key: Thank you Mr. Dorsey for joining us this morning on Sunday Morning live Heart to Heart.
Hardy Dorsey: Thanks so much, John.
back to top
|
|
|
