With a Twitter following of a little more than 4,400 and a year of presidency under his belt, Dr. Bruce McLarty is enjoying a slower year and no longer being a freshman on the job.
“It was an unsustainable pace, but we knew that going into it,” McLarty said. “If I had to pick one word (to describe the year) it would probably be the word fast and very busy, but it was very good.”
For many connected with Harding, the best way to keep up with McLarty is through his Twitter and Instagram. Although he has become fairly active on those social media platforms, he did not use either before becoming president and said that he still does not have a Facebook account.
“My first day on Twitter was the day before I became president of Harding,” McLarty said. “My initial plunge into Twitter was so that I could take people on the journey with me: when I go places, when I meet people, when I experience just happy things about Harding, I can share that with people.”
McLarty’s Twitter rules are to never be negative and to never be sarcastic. He said he reads through everything that is tweeted at him but sometimes has to ask his wife or students to help him interpret what certain tweets mean. The most activity that his Twitter feed has gotten was last December when McLarty tweeted about deciding the finals schedule.
“That’s the one where the hashtag ‘optional finals’ went crazy,” McLarty said laughing. “That night when we announced the revised schedule and the bad news that we are going to have finals, my phone just blew up, and so I finally just turned it off and went to bed … I couldn’t walk (students) through the feelings they were having.”
Students notice and appreciate McLarty’s social media presence.
“I follow him on Instagram and Twitter, and it’s cool to see him trying to be a part of our community at Harding,” senior Hailey Gower said. “He’s really trying to be involved with the students in a way that’s relevant to us. I think he’s done a really great job connecting with the students and finding ways to get them involved in stuff and getting personal with them.”
Before he became president, McLarty worked at Harding for nine years, which he said helped prepare him for this role. With Chancellor Emeritus Dr. Clifton Ganus and Chancellor Dr. David Burks both still on campus, McLarty said he can look to them for help when he needs it. He said he views Ganus as a model and Burks as a mentor.
“They are both wonderful to give me counsel when I ask for it and and they are wonderful not to give me counsel until I ask for it and that’s a real treasure,” McLarty said.
He views his leadership role not only as a guiding force for the university, but as something everyone must work together on. He compared his role to that of a song leader.
“Dr. Warren Casey said the key to great song leading is you start them on pitch and you take them where they want to go, and I feel like there’s something about that that’s a part of the presidency,” McLarty said. “You keep them on pitch and you take them where together we decide to go. My job as president is to keep us on pitch.”
Going into the presidency, McLarty said that he feared it might be a lonely job. Based on books he had read by university presidents, he had worries that when he made difficult decisions it could alienate him from others.
But he has found it to be completely the opposite.
“The most difficult things I have faced in my first year there have been people who walked with me through those difficult decisions, and so at the end of it all I had deeper relationships rather than fewer relationships,” McLarty said. “That was my biggest surprise because I was really prepared for this island that people talk about.”
