Former Kennesaw State President Dr. Betty Siegel died Tuesday, Feb. 11 at age 89.
“The KSU community is mourning the loss of one of its most beloved leaders,” KSU President Dr. Pamela Whitten said in a statement, according to KSU News. “Betty Siegel has been described affectionately by many as a force of nature, and her energy, enthusiasm and passion for KSU will be long remembered. Without her leadership, vision and commitment to excellence, KSU would not be what it is today.”
Siegel served as KSU president from 1981 to her retirement in 2006, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
Siegel began her tenure as president in September 1981, when KSU was still known as Kennesaw Junior College and had 3,500 students enrolled at the school, according to the AJC. Fifteen degrees were offered at the time and master’s programs did not yet exist.
Siegel helped expand the college into a university during her tenure. By the time she retired, 55 undergraduate and graduate programs existed with 18,000 students enrolled, according to KSU News. Currently, KSU has the third-highest number of students enrolled in Georgia, with about 38,000 students attending the university.
In addition to added courses, Siegel believed in expanding KSU to include on-campus housing and sports teams. In 1982, she helped create KSU’s first intercollegiate athletic teams.
“We used to have the term, ‘parking lot, classroom, parking lot,’” Siegel once said, according to KSU News. “I didn’t want our students to come and just have an in-class experience. I wanted them to have a total experience. I wanted them to have a life-changing experience.”
Although she played an instrumental role in expanding KSU, Siegel was criticized for not hiring enough women and people of color as professors, according to the AJC.
“I’ve learned from any obstacles that we’ve had,” Siegel said, according to the AJC after her retirement. “A number of people here have been an inspiration to me. [I hope] I’ve done a good job. All I can hope is that what I’ve done was perceived as a positive experience. I don’t have any regrets.”
KSU’s Dr. Betty L. Siegel Student Recreation and Activities Center was named in her honor.
Siegel was also president emeritus and the Endowed Chair of the Siegel Institute of Leadership, Ethics and Character, according to KSU News. In addition to acting as an adviser and consultant in the public, private and nonprofit sectors, she started a nonprofit organization for global ethical leadership.
Before coming to KSU, Siegel served as dean of the University of Florida, academic dean at Western Carolina University and then became the first woman in the University System of Georgia to become president of a school with her appointment as KSU president, according to KSU News.
Siegel once had the opportunity to describe what she would write as her epitaph, according to the AJC.
“I would like to be known as ‘A minister for education,'” Siegel said.
