Dr. Marcheta P. Evans Talks Life and History-Making Presidency with Bloomfield College Radio Station

Dr. Marcheta P. Evans, Bloomfield College President, was interviewed by Doug Doyle, News Director of WBGO studios at the College on Thursday, September 26.

The 32-minute radio interview covers a myriad of topics ranging from the changing landscape of higher education, and the rising cost of tuition across the country, to Dr. Evans being raised by her grandparents in the south during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Doyle, an adjunct professor and faculty advisor at the College, shaped many of his questions around the students of Bloomfield College and their flourishing connection with Dr. Evans. Last week she was on the quad encouraging students to register to vote.

“My passion has always been working with students,” said Dr. Evans. “Everything is relational. I go to games, I’m out the quad, I eat in the cafeteria and sit with students. I ask them how things are going. I think they see my sincerity in my actions, by showing up.”

“I have an open-door policy,” she later continued. “I don’t say things for fluff. I know why I am here, and I am here for the students. I will do everything in my power for them to be successful. I know that this is my purpose on earth.”

The interview shifted seamlessly from Dr. Evans discussing her own mentors (one being her first-grade teacher), to what sports team she supports (the Spurs), to how she and her husband, Ed, are adjusting to New Jersey, to more complex topics like diversity and representation.

“Working together with our faculty, I am hoping to infuse service-learning more into the curriculum,” said Dr. Evans. “We must reach back and help others as we move forward. Once we build in the global perspective more, we can expand our students’ reach.”

Women make up less than 30% of college presidents when you take into account women of color, the percentage drops further (American College President Study, 2017). Her passion to blaze a trail of access to others is what inspired Dr. Evans to begin the road to a college presidency.

“It became my mission to purposely check the boxes so I could eventually be in a position to apply for a presidential job,” shared Dr. Evans. “It was mainly being done because there’s a scarcity of women – and women of color – that are presidents. I wanted to be that role model. If I can come from my background, being raised and legally adopted by my grandparents, that hopefully students can look at me and say, ‘If Marcheta can do this, I can as well.’”

You can read Doyle’s original write up and listen to the interview, in full, here.