{"id":55008,"date":"2018-12-31T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/12\/31\/navy-vets-new-mission-building-a-vet-friendly-school\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:44:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:44:46","slug":"navy-vets-new-mission-building-a-vet-friendly-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/newsletters\/daily-news-roundup\/2018\/12\/31\/navy-vets-new-mission-building-a-vet-friendly-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Navy vet\u2019s new mission: Building a vet-friendly school"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There aren\u2019t a lot of black college presidents in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Possibly even rarer? Veterans who have climbed to the highest ranks of academia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miles Davis is both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new president of Linfield College is a former Navy aviator, who used to scan oceans for hidden submarines during the Cold War. These days, he\u2019s settling into campus, getting to know his students and learning about all the perks that living in Oregon\u2019s Willamette Valley has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Davis didn\u2019t set out to break barriers as Linfield\u2019s first black president and first veteran president, and he prefers not to dwell on it. But he\u2019s not blind to the significance of his accomplishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt means something, quite frankly, for students to see somebody who looks like me in the position that I\u2019m in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of college presidents in the U.S. are white; only 8 percent are black, according to a recent analysis<\/a> by the American Council on Education. At predominantly white institutions, such as Linfield, Davis knows of only seven. He said they all reached out to him when he became president last July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former sailor is also using his military background to break precedent. Before his arrival, Linfield had never celebrated Veterans\u2019 Day, so he arranged for F-15s to fly over campus during a military-themed football game and invited the school\u2019s two-dozen or so student veterans to his home for the holiday. He\u2019s already started plans to open a veterans center in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing a veteran, there are things that I think about differently than my friends and colleagues that haven\u2019t been part of that experience and don\u2019t have the same identity. It\u2019s more than about \u2018thank you for your service,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Linfield College President Miles Davis says many of the lessons he learned in the military have shaped his leadership style. (Linfield College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Linfield is a small liberal arts college in McMinnville, Oregon, which, Davis said proudly, has the only interdisciplinary wine studies program in the country. The school was recognized last year as the top small-town school in the West<\/a> by The Wall Street Journal and is also ranked in the top half of liberal arts schools by U.S. News and World Report<\/a> and Washington Monthly<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Davis\u2019 goals as president is to recruit more veterans to the school, where he promises to make them feel at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After leaving the military as a petty officer second class in 1992, Davis held a variety of positions in federal government, military contracting and the private sector. In 2001, he changed course again, joining academia so that he could spend more time with his children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is the first college president to come out of The PhD Project, an organization that helps minorities attain doctorates in business and become professors, according to Linfield\u2019s website. His doctorate from George Washington University is in organizational behavior with a specialty in chaos theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Davis\u2019 passions is researching faith-based business practices, interviewing entrepreneurs, which have included prominent figures such as Chick-Fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy and Jim Sinegal of Costco, about how religion influences their work, and writing and presenting on his findings all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His own entrepreneurship skills have helped him bond with students along the way \u2014 a favorite part of his job. Even in his short tenure at Linfield, he\u2019s already begun mentoring future entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get those college presidents who don\u2019t interact with students. I mean what the heck are you doing?\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same thing in the military. A general has to go out and get to know the troops.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s one of the main takeaways from his time in service \u2014 that and the fact that he\u2019s never had to use an alarm clock to wake up.<\/p>\n\n\n\t