Lawrence Schall
{{Short description|American academic administrator}}
Lawrence M. "Larry" Schall is the president of the New England Commission of Higher Education and the former and sixteenth president of Oglethorpe University, a private liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia.{{cite web |url=http://president.oglethorpe.edu/biography/ | title=Lawrence M. Schall Biography | publisher=Oglethorpe University | accessdate=6 August 2015}}
Early life and education
Career
After receiving his J.D., Schall practiced law in Philadelphia before returning to Swarthmore College, where he worked for fifteen years. Prior to becoming president of Oglethorpe University, he was the vice president for administration at Swarthmore. In March 2005, he was elected president of Oglethorpe University; he assumed the position of president on June 23, 2005. As president, Schall faced financial challenges as the university was spending $4 million more than it received in revenue when he assumed the presidency.{{cite web | url=http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/print-edition/2011/12/16/oglethorpe-makes-amazing-turnaround.html | title=Oglethorpe makes 'amazing' turnaround | work=Atlanta Business Chronicle | date=16 December 2011 | accessdate=6 August 2015 | author=Saporta, Maria}} With respect to Oglethorpe, Jack Guynn, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, has said that "Every indicator of success has moved in the right direction under [Schall's] leadership — enrollment, markers of academic strength such as SAT scores, philanthropic giving and on and on." Under his presidency, as of 2009, annual applications to Oglethorpe have more than quadrupled, revenue has increased by 40 percent, and annual fund-raising has doubled.{{cite web | url=http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local/oglethorpe-president-takes-hands-on-approach-to-se/nQGbL/ | title=Oglethorpe president takes hands-on approach to sell college, city | work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution | date=27 May 2009 | accessdate=6 August 2015}} Schall was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa as a faculty/staff initiate in 2017 at Oglethorp.
Advocacy
Schall is a signatory of the Amethyst Initiative, which calls for "informed and unimpeded debate" regarding the United States' legal drinking age of 21.{{cite web | url=http://www.theamethystinitiative.org/signatories/ | title=Signatories | publisher=Amethyst Initiative | accessdate=6 August 2015}} In 2013, he joined with Elizabeth Kiss, the president of Agnes Scott College, to start a letter urging reform of gun safety laws. Schall has said he had the idea to start this letter, which more than 300 college presidents have signed, in "a fit of sleeplessness" after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.{{cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/01/10/169037364/300-college-presidents-call-for-guns-to-be-banned-on-campuses-other-steps | title=More Than 300 College Presidents Push For Changes In Gun Laws | work=NPR | date=10 January 2013 | accessdate=6 August 2015 | author=Brody, Rachel}}
Personal life
Schall began working as an Uber driver in the summer of 2015.{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/29/i-run-a-university-im-also-an-uber-driver/ | title=I run a university. I'm also an Uber driver. | newspaper=Washington Post | date=29 July 2015 | accessdate=6 August 2015 | author=Schall, Lawrence M.}}{{cite web | url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2015/07/21/university-presidents-summer-job-driver-uber | title=University President's Summer Job: Driver for Uber | work=Inside Higher Education | date=21 July 2015 | accessdate=6 August 2015}} He and his wife, Betty Londergan, have four children.
References
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Category:Swarthmore College alumni
Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni
Category:Presidents of Oglethorpe University
Category:Oglethorpe University faculty
Category:American gun control activists
Category:Educators from Manhattan