The Decree
since 1960 “of, by, andfor the Wesleyan community. ”
March 31, 2023
NORTH CAROLINA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, ROCKY MOUNT, NORTH CAROLINA 27804
Profile: Dr. Joe Lane—Scholar, Cyclist, Family Man
Dr. Joe Lane joined the Wes
leyan community last summer as
the university’s new provost.
The Tennessee native, a political
scientist by training, succeeded Dr.
Molly Wyatt, who returned to her
position as associate provost.
Dr. Lane, 54, graduated from
Hampden-Sydney College in Vir
ginia with a degree in classics and
political science, and he earned a
Ph.D. in political science from Bos
ton College, writing a dissertation ti
tled “The Political Life and Virtue,”
which he described as an argument
about the structure and purpose in
Plutarch’s “Parallel Lives.”
He’s the author of many scholarly
works, including three co-authored
books: “The Deconstitutionalization
of America” (with Roger Barrus,
John Eastby. David Marion, and Jim
Pontuso, 2004), “Engaging Nature:
Environmental Theory and the
Political Theory Canon” (with Peter
Cannavo, 2014), and “A Political
Companion to Marilynne Robin
son” (with Shannon Mariotti, 2016).
After graduate school he taught
for many years at Emory & Henry
College (Virginia). Prior to coming
to Wesleyan he served as provost at
Bethany College (West Virginia).
He was interviewed earlier in the
semester for the following profile:
Early Life
Q: Describe the neighborhood
where you were raised.
A: grew up in eastern Tennessee near
the border with North Carolina. Nearby
cities included Kingsport and Johnson
City. From age 12 till my high school
graduation, we were in a subdivision,
but out the back door was forest and
farmland. I spent a great deal of time ex
ploring the woods with friends. At some
point my mother got a coach’s whistle
that she would blow when she wanted
us to come home. As I remember it,
the rule was that we had 10 minutes to
get home once the whistle was blown. I
remember hearing it faintly sometimes
and having to run to make it on time.
Q: Tell us about your family.
A: My father was a pulp and paper
engineer who rose to head of mainte
nance and production for a paper mill
in Kingsport. After I was at college,
he moved to a plant in Wisconsin and
retired there. My mother taught elemen
tary school for 30 years in Georgia,
Tennessee, and Wisconsin. My younger
sister, Lee, serves as program director
for a Big Brothers Big Sisters program
in West Virginia and Kentucky, and my
younger brother, John, is a creative mar
keting executive at Red Hat in Raleigh.
I taught at Lee’s alma mater, Emory
& Henry College, for 17 years. When
I first got there, many people noted
“so you’re Lee’s brother?” But I think
at some point she got tired of coming
to her "homecoming" only to have
people ask, “so you’re Joe’s sister?”
Q: Describe a favorite place from
your youth.
A: We traveled many places in my
childhood. When I was 15, we made a
trip across the country to the national
parks of the Southwest and West; that
made a strong impression on me. A
family ritual was spending at least one
week each summer at Holston Camp in
the North Carolina mountains between
Banner Elk and Newland. My siblings
and I were summer camp regulars
from age 8 until we were old enough to
work at the camp. We all were on the
staff there at least four summers. Our
children have gone to camp there as
well, but the next generation was less
Dr. Joe Lane
impressed with two weeks of living in
the backcountry without showers or dry
clothes. So much for tradition!
Q: What’s one lasting memory of
childhood?
A: When we visited the national
parks out West, it really shifted my per
spective in many ways. For years I had
been active in rock climbing, backpack
ing, and canoeing in Western North
Carolina and the areas around the Blue
Ridge and Smokies. The West trans
formed my thinking. Since that trip, I’ve
traveled out West when possible to scale
higher mountains and reach wilder
spaces than we have in the East.
Q: What did you enjoy doing
through your high school years?
A: I was active in soccer and
played brass instruments in band and
orchestra. I also hiked and skied a lot.
College Years
Q: Describe Hampden-Sydney. What
kind of student were you in college?
A: Hampden-Sydney is a small,
private liberal arts college for men.
I didn’t choose it because it was all-
male, but I liked its classical focus,
small classes, and emphasis on citizen
ship and civic engagement. Hamp
den-Sydney offered me its highest
scholarship and I thought it was too
good a deal to pass up. I majored in
classical languages and added political
science as a second major in my junior
year as I prepared for graduate school.
I had expected to attend law school
or go into writing/journalism. Then I
resolved to apply to Ph.D. programs
and when I was accepted into several,
an academic career came into focus.
I think the best way to describe
me as a student was “always busy.”
That was positive insofar as I pushed
myself to take challenging classes
and make good grades. But I tended
to over-commit myself and always
delayed assignments till the last min
ute. I was active in a fraternity, the
school newspaper, and task forces on
many projects, and I led tours for the
admissions office. It was wonderful
to be at a small institution where I got
such wide experiences. But some
times I got into trouble because of
my penchant for committing myself
to projects (and my procrastination),
though I did complete my work.
Q: Talk about a time you strug
gled in college.
A: A low point occurred at the end of
the first semester in my sophomore year.
I had pledged a fraternity that semester
and didn’t keep up with my work the
way I should have done. I capped off the
semester with a bout of food poisoning
that made taking my Greek final a ter
rible experience. It did not end well, and
I made my lowest grade of my college
career. I’ll always remember the drive
home after that final exam as torture.
I handled it by writing my profes
sors a letter from home (no email!),
explaining what I thought I had done
wrong as well as what my last week
was like in terms of my physical ill
ness. Two instructors gave me more
time over the break to make correc
tions and improve my standing; two
told me to accept the consequences
of my actions. Because of my frank
acknowledgment that my choices
were to blame as much as the illness,
I retained the scholarship and showed
improvement in the spring semester.
Looking back, I learned that if I
owned my behavior and demon
strated concrete plans for change,
many mistakes were correctible. I try
to remind students of this.
Q: How did you decide on your major?
A: I’ve always been fascinated with
the classical world. I was assigned my
first-year Latin professor for a first-
year' advisor; he persuaded me to learn
Greek. He then pulled the “If you
have three years’ credit of classical
languages, you’re well on your way to
a major” argument on me. I fell for it.
He didn’t mention that the hard parts-
-upper-level literature courses in the
original languages-were still to come.
I added the political science ma
jor in my junior year because I liked
politics and thought I might go to
law school or become a journalist.
When I decided to pursue a doctor
ate, my classics advisor was the one
who insisted that it would be easier
to find a job in political science, so I
applied to poli sci programs.
Professor &Provost
Q: Talk about your teaching career.
A: Between my graduate teaching
fellowship (1992-1993) and the year
my job description tipped more toward
administration (2012-2013), I taught
about 20 different courses-from
introductory politics of the U.S. to the
political theory sequence, as well as
Ethics Bowl Team Claims Impressive Wins
Wesleyan’s four-member Ethics
Bowl Team recorded three wins
in a recent competition sponsored
by the North Carolina Indepen
dent Colleges & Universities.
Coached by Drs. Jason Buel and
Shane Thompson, the team is com
prised of students Fabio Felli, Noah
Larkin, Amanda Modlin, and
Elizabeth Peny. The February 10-
11 competition, taking place in the
state legislative center in Raleigh,
saw Wesleyan debate and defeat
Barton, Catawba, and Livingstone
colleges. The team lost to Johnson
C. Smith in a split decision.
“The team was outstanding. I
was very proud of their accomplish
ment,” Dr. Thompson said, noting
that while students do earn one
credit for participating in Ethics
Bowl, they must dedicate many
hours of their free time to research
ing and preparing for the debates.
Modlin, a sophomore criminal
justice major, was pleased with the
results as well. “I thought we did very
well overall, considering it was our
first in-person contest as a team."
The Ethics Bowl Team (l-r): Noah Larkin, Fabio Felli, Elizabeth Perry
and Amanda Modlin.
Photo courtesy of S. Thompson.
upper-level courses on constitutional
law, environmental politics, the presi
dency, and congress. I taught many
different interdisciplinary seminars for
the Emory & Henry College core cur
riculum and honors program, including
seminars on “The Iliad," “Genesis,”
“International Public Health,” “Water,”
“Wilderness,” and “Eden.”
I’m now teaching Politics of tire United
States (POL 112) at Wesleyan and hope
to teach some other classes in the future. I
do enjoy my time in the classroom.
Q: What prompted you to move
from an academic to administrator?
A: It just happened. I became a
department chair in my first tenured
semester because the other members
of the department didn’t want to do it.
A couple of years later, while serving
as chair of the faculty admissions com
mittee, I wrote the memo recommend
ing the creation of what would become
the Emory & Henry College Honors
Program, and I was assigned to serve
as the first director. When that program
grew, I was assigned lots of academic
management, fund-raising, and student
recruitment jobs, and I became more
focused on ways to improve academic
curricula and advising models as well
as on student recruitment and retention.
There are two types of academic
administrators-people who love tire
power, pay, and prestige of administra
tion; and people who recognize that
solid and conscientious administration
is necessary to make it possible for
others to deliver great teaching and
transformative student learning experi
ences. I try to make sure I’m one of the
second group of administrators by stay
ing focused on how I can give commit-
Larkin, a religious studies major,
admitted that he was a little surprised
by the team’s success. Like Modlin,
the sophomore liked that it was held
face-to-face rather than in a virtual
format. “It was a lot of fun,” he said.
Excited about her team’s perfor
mance, Peny noted that Wesleyan
came close to advancing to the
semi-finals. “I wish we had won
our fourth round. I think we would
have done well in the finals," said
the psychology major, set to gradu
ate in May, adding that she enjoyed
making friends at the competition.
Team members began prepara
tions last fall, meeting once a week
for an hour and then doing research
on their own. In October each
school was sent 10-12 cases in areas
such as biotechnology and artificial
intelligence. “That gave us time to
research the cases and discuss the
ethical dilemmas associated with
them," explained Dr. Thompson,
who stressed that the students were
not presented with a specific ques-
tion-or debate topic-related to each
case. “We make our best guess.”
, Phish Fan
ted professors the tools, professional
development, and encouragement that
they need to be their best professional
selves as teachers and advisors.
I loved teaching and advising.
Some of my best days were those
when I helped students realize their
potential. Early in my career I couldn’t
have been a successful teacher without
the patience of senior administra
tors who allowed me to experiment
and work out the kinks. I relied on
them to help me in so many ways.
Sometimes I needed a budget for an
unproven concept, while other times
I just needed an encouraging word to
try a project a second time and hope
for better results. Now I see myself as
paying forward the confidence that
my administrators placed in me.
Q: What drew you to the job at NCWU?
A: There was several reasons.
Wesleyan is an interesting institution. It’s
younger than my past schools, but it’s
always been an innovator. Having started
its adult degree program 40 years ago,
Wesleyan has long offered different types
of education while always exhibiting a
commitment to meeting the needs of dif
ferent constituencies in the community.
Today you need to be innovative to
thrive; if you stagnate, you’ll straggle.
Wesleyan’s entrepreneurial creativity
made it an intriguing next step for me.
With its record of accomplishments
and energetic faculty, I knew Wes
leyan would be a great opportunity.
What’s more, my family and in-laws
all live in the Raleigh area. My wife and
I have never lived close to our extended
family, but now almost everyone lives
right here. Julie and I can help take care
of aging parents. That was a major draw.
See LANE pg 3
When the Wesleyan team ar
rived at the competition in Raleigh,
it was handed a case with a ques
tion for each of the four debates.
For example, in the debate titled
“Artificial Intelligence and Our
Changing World," the Wesleyan
team took up the question “What
are the ethical issues in regulating
AI algorithms?”
Teams got five minutes to discuss
the case among themselves. Each
team then made an opening state
ment, asked and answered a ques
tion from the opposing team, and
gave a concluding statement. Each
school took part in four matches; in
one of the four, the team debated an
issue that was not among the cases
it received back in October.
Three judges scored each team’s
performance. Among many criteria,
judges considered a team’s ability to
provide clear answers, support their
answers with evidence, and articu
late the relevant ethical framework.
It was also critical, according to
Dr. Thompson, that teams divided
the speaking responsibilities evenly
among all four team members.
For Modlin, the AI debate was
the highlight of the competition.
“My team argued that AI should
be regulated because eventually a
problem will come up,” she said.
“We used examples of bias to ar
gue our point, saying that AI is de
signed to mimic the intelligence of
humans and the biases of humans
can show up in the algorithms.
With government regulation,
we can ensure that biases don’t
appear, making AI safe and more
likely to be used in the future.”
See ETHICS pg 3