Cousins inaugurated as KWC’s 36th president
May 1, 2025
This article originally appeared in the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer on Friday, April 25, 2025.
Cousins inaugurated as KWC’s 36th president
By Scott Hagerman, Messenger-Inquirer
Dr. James P. Cousins was inaugurated as Kentucky Wesleyan College’s 36th president on Friday during a ceremony at Settle Memorial United Methodist Church.
Cousins has served as Kentucky Wesleyan’s president since July 1, 2024. He had previously served as the college’s provost and vice president of academic affairs since 2021.
“I stand before you today humbled, humbled by the trust you’ve placed in me, humbled by the legacy inherited … humbled by the incredible potential of KWC,” Cousins said. “Inaugurations are special because they are touch points in a college’s history. They give us time to come together and reflect on our past as we think about the road ahead.”
Fred Wright, a 1980 graduate of KWC and chairman of the school’s board of trustees, gave the welcoming statement.
“Dr. Cousins, the presence of everyone here today is an expression of our confidence in you,” he said, “and reflects our commitment to support you as you lead us into the next chapter of the life of Kentucky Wesleyan College.”
The Kentucky Wesleyan Singers performed “It Is Well with My Soul” before Wright led Cousins through the Ceremony of Investiture.
Cousins thanked his family for their support, and he noted that some of KWC’s first classes were taught at Settle Memorial.
Cousins said some people have lost confidence in higher education or small colleges, but that inauguration is a time to focus its core purpose.
“This is a day to remember the significance of our charge, the durability of our mission and the special place Kentucky Wesleyan has here in Owensboro,” Cousins said. “It’s also a time to reflect and reconnect on our core purpose, to remember why we’re here.
“You may have doubts about the future of higher education or about small colleges in particular, but I hope that by the end of this you’ll have no doubt about our purpose or our direction.”
Cousins said the emphasis of the college must be on human flourishing.
“Without an emphasis on human flourishing, colleges are lost in the wilderness,” he said. “In that wilderness, students share common spaces but not values, the search for individual purpose wanes, collective responsibility atrophies, and the formative parts of student life erode…
“Without commitment to human flourishing, colleges are, at their best, ornamentation.”
Cousins said it’s not hard to see the impact Kentucky Wesleyan has on students and the Owensboro community.
“The evidence of our impact is everywhere,” he said. “It lies in the hearts of our students, who remember the legacies of those who made their success possible, it’s in the practical benchmark of our record enrollment, our record donor support, and our enormous economic impact … .”
Cousins cited flourishing partnerships with having helped move the school forward, and he only sees bigger and brighter moments for the school and its students in the future.
“In the months and years ahead, we’ll take bold steps to enhance this work,” he said. “New undergraduate programs will expand and support work already underway in city offices and nonprofits, offering students not only pathways to careers, but opportunities to participate meaningfully in policy creation.
“And graduate programs, the first in our modern history, will extend our mission by helping working adults upscale and advance while growing personally, strengthening their families, their communities and their churches.”