Community Profile

Right: The architecturally-striking Center 
for the Environment at Catawba College.

Catawba College's New President
Sees Knowledge in Small Places

When Dr. Robert Knott took office as Catawba College’s 19th president on June 1, he accepted the challenge of running a private, diversified college rich in history yet geared for the future.

Nowhere is that vision more evident than in the school’s Center for the Environment, a 21,000-square-foot building that reflects the spirit of Catawba’s Environmental Science/Studies Program and has emerged as an exciting teaching tool as well as an environmentally sound project.

Nestled on the edge of the college’s 189-acre preserve, the center merges seamlessly with the natural environment. Catawba’s news services office proudly notes that everything about the facility — from the site design to the environmentally friendly building materials, from energy and water conservation issues to recycling and waste management — is grounded in principles of sustainability. As an example, Catawba students implemented a waste reduction plan that recycled more than 86 percent of the construction waste.

Such forward thinking isn’t a surprise on a campus that draws a mix of students from all over the East Coast and more than 20 foreign countries. This fall, the campus welcomed about 400 new students, bringing total enrollment to roughly 1,600.

A question that needs to be answered, says Knott, is to determine the optimum size for Catawba. “There is always a temptation to grow a little bit,” he says, while noting that the campus is bounded by an ecological preserve and residential neighborhoods.

He oversees a faculty of 78 full-time instructors and 35 part-time instructors. Including staff, the college employs about 250 people. Knott, who was provost at Catawba from 1982-89, succeeded Fred Corriher, who retired after serving as president for 10 years. A Wake Forest University graduate, Knott came to Salisbury from Mars Hill College, where he had been chancellor since 1999. Prior to that, he served 10 years as president of Tusculum College in Tennessee..

Knott says he enjoys being on small campuses where he can get to know students as well as faculty and staff. He wants to meet with everyone, he says, from the Alpha Chi honor society members to the maintenance and custodial staff. “They are part of educating students, too,” he says. Resident advisers in particular, he says, have a difficult task. “They represent the campus, yet they are still students,” he says.

The Winston-Salem native is teaching a class this fall, something he has tried to do throughout his career.

His dedication to education is evident in a large jar of pebbles that he keeps on his desk. They represent pebbles of knowledge, he says, and a professor cannot give these pebbles to a student; rather, the student must earn them through his or her attitude and desire to learn.   — Susan Shinn

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