ASU’s Fedrick shows leadership in eye of storm

Heavy, as the saying goes, lies the head that wears the crown.

Marion Fedrick, who was named president of Albany State University only two months ago, faced one of those career-defining moments that leaders face last week when Hurricane Michael left a lasting impression on the ASU campus. The storm uprooted trees, left structural damage to some of the university’s facilities and, most importantly, left the university and its students without power.

With Michael’s track imminent and its potential for destruction likely, Fedrick sent ASU students home well ahead of the hurricane’s arrival. The students who had no transportation home or for whom travel was not an option were bused to Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus in Savannah, well out of the path of the storm.

As fate would have it, Michael’s destruction came at perhaps the most inopportune time for Albany State — not, of course, that there is an opportune time for a natural disaster — just as plans were coming together for the university’s annual Homecoming Week. Homecoming at Albany State is an event unmatched in our community, for pageantry and for economic impact. The thousands of alumni who come back “home” to ASU annually fill local hotels, restaurants and businesses to the tune of around $6 million.

More importantly, though, homecoming at Albany State is an opportunity for alumni to rekindle the relationship they developed during their time at ASU and to mark the changes that have taken place at their alma mater. Many of the stories that make up the university’s dynamic legacy are tales of bravery, of perseverance, of conquering societal ills. That those stories typically surface during Homecoming Week enhances the impact and importance of the annual celebration.

When the region woke up to the devastation of Michael’s fury Thursday morning, Oct. 11, the immediate concern for everyone impacted became recovery. But even as city officials like Mayor Dorothy Hubbard took to the task of planning for the restoration of power, securing damaged businesses, maintaining a water supply that was initially in jeopardy and seeing to the well-being of the citizens, the issue of Albany State’s homecoming remained a vital part of the conversation.

On Sunday, Oct. 14, the official start of Homecoming Week, Hubbard announced at the Albany/Dougherty County Emergency Operations Center that Fedrick remained optimistic that a scaled-down homecoming would go on as planned. “This community needs for Albany State’s homecoming to happen,” Hubbard said.

Under intense pressure from city officials, students, alumni and retailers in the region to somehow miraculously save homecoming, however, Fedrick made the bold — and right — decision to turn the university’s focus toward recovery. She said in an open letter to alumni and supporters, “Despite all the efforts currently under way, we regret to inform you that we must significantly scale back our planned homecoming activities.”

Fedrick pointed out, among other realities, the massive damage wrought by Michael, the fact that many remain without power in the community, that hotel reservations that were made by alumni who planned to make the pilgrimage home would be cancelled because rooms were being used by the hundreds of linemen and others who had come to the city to help with the recovery process — people the ASU president called “heroes.”

“As president of ASU, I back these (hotel reservation) cancellations 100 percent,” she wrote. “We must get our community back in shape. We are one Albany, and we support this community, which is the ASU community.”

Fedrick will no doubt draw criticism for the cancellation of a fundraising gala, a downtown street party and, perhaps most significantly, the immensely popular homecoming parade, among other planned events. That, she must know, comes with the territory. But as local leaders work with the university to assure that it takes its rightful place as a true educational and economic partner with Albany and all of southwest Georgia, they must be struck with the decisive and courageous action Fedrick took in placing the well-being of Albany State’s students and the community that the university calls home over the dictates of tradition.

True leadership is forged in the face of adversity. Marion Fedrick made the tough right decision in choosing to scale back ASU’s homecoming, and in doing so she proved herself a leader of conviction. And she gave alumni, supporters and the community reason to believe the Board of Regents chose wisely in placing her in the position she now holds.

— The Albany Herald Editorial Board