Focus on the Presidency: The Democratic Value of Time and Patience

Early in my tenure as president of William & Mary, I faced a major decision.

For years, our university led a national effort for colleges and universities to research, understand, and begin reckoning with their pasts. The Lemon Project, commissioned by the W&M Board of Visitors in 2009, had emerged as a model for universities studying slavery. In addition, discussions about a permanent memorial installation were well underway when I arrived in 2018.

From the board and across campus I heard the strong sense of urgency about moving this project of reconciliation forward. I was eager to respond. Yet substantive questions remained. How should we memorialize individuals enslaved at William & Mary and honor their legacies? How might we arrive at a fitting design? How could we alter a beloved, historic part of campus—what we call “Ancient Campus”—founded more than 300 years ago at the nation’s first university?

Despite the urgency to launch, I pressed pause. We needed to establish a design process and raise private funds. A highly sensitive capital project required broad buy-in from stakeholders with widely divergent views. Getting this right would take time.

Leaders are often called on to respond swiftly. Yet learning when and how to pause is essential. Especially when the work at hand is novel, calling a pause enables a leader to establish principles, gather fuller information, and ground decisions in institutional values.

At William & Mary, we call this “second-day responding.” Because the idea is counter to today’s rapid-response world, we socialize it widely and reinforce it deliberately. We pause to listen, gather information, process multiple viewpoints, and reflect. We seek to understand the totality of a challenge or opportunity. This mode requires patience, and importantly, trust among a president, the community, leadership team, and governing board.

The benefits of going slow are especially evident in the arena of civic engagement on college campuses. Deliberation is an essential skill for citizenship in a pluralistic democracy, where free expression fuels positive change. As a practice, deliberation entails the pursuit of facts and the weighing of evidence in constructive debate. To cultivate such capacities and commitments is the essential work of a university, especially at times of national division. These public goods should be explicitly a part of institutional culture.

In 2026, the United States will commemorate its quarter-millennium. Few institutions are better positioned than William & Mary to tell the story of our nation’s first 250 years. For this reason, “democracy” is a key focus for our Vision 2026 strategic plan. With our partners in the region, W&M aims to make Williamsburg the national destination for understanding the complex history of the United States. As our close neighbors at Colonial Williamsburg put it, we must ensure “that our nation’s origin story is every American’s shared story.”

Interwoven in these efforts are the lessons learned through projects like our memorial. Thanks to the deliberate work and commitment of so many on campus, led by our Lemon Project colleagues, we dedicated Hearth: Memorial to the Enslaved in May 2022. This was nearly four years after my arrival and our initial pause.

By taking our time, we got it right: Hearth has been embraced by the campus, our neighbors, and alumni from all generations. Located steps away from our Wren Building—the oldest university building in the country—it has become a space of sacred memory and reflection. New students take their community values pledge here; graduates don the Kente; neighbors gather for Juneteenth. Frequent visitors from other institutions come to study and learn. The design is uplifting—as inviting on social media as it is in person.

I cherish the times when I can tour the monument with colleagues and hear them respond to its invitation to reflect. Last semester, as we were completing the project, Virginia’s Gov. Glenn Youngkin and First Lady Suzanne S. Youngkin visited. Mrs. Youngkin stopped me as I was explaining where an illuminating vessel was to be installed to share a powerful insight: “This is William & Mary’s eternal flame.”

Her words served as a true reminder to leaders: Time and patience are on our side because they foster shared insight.

Katherine A. Rowe, Ph.D., is the president of William & Mary University.