The Power of Giving Bach

I did not begin my career with the intention of becoming a leader in higher education. It was the selfless act of a Miami University cello professor, Elizabeth Potteiger, who’d heard me perform at a competition on her campus, that opened that door of possibilities for me. I was fifteen years old and had played the cello for only a year when I performed two movements of Bach’s Suite No. 1 in G Major. Professor Potteiger was impressed and offered to teach me free of charge if my parents would agree to get me from Cincinnati to Oxford, Ohio, every week. My father drove me for the first two lessons; after that I took the bus at 7:40 a.m. every Saturday. The ride was ninety minutes each way. Although I did not think about it at the time, it is now clear to me that it took a tremendous amount of effort and commitment from both Professor Potteiger and me for this mentoring relationship to be successful.

My time with Professor Potteiger changed the trajectory of my life. While I had thought about becoming a minister or a teacher and had an interest in doing something to help young people grow and develop, becoming a university professor had never occurred to me. Neither of my parents had graduated from high school. However, in working with and observing Professor Potteiger, I decided that I wanted to be like her: to teach cello at a university and perform in a chamber ensemble. And because I learned firsthand from Professor Potteiger that mentoring can change a life, throughout my career as an educator and leader, I have tried to pay it forward. I learned from Professor Potteiger that mentors demonstrate their support for their mentees through their words and actions. This is important for developing a sense of belonging for students, particularly underrepresented students on a predominantly White campus.  

My wife, Betty Neal Crutcher, has been my partner in this mentoring endeavor since 1999. Our path began when I was appointed the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Miami University and continued through both of my presidencies, at Wheaton College in Massachusetts and then at the University of Richmond. We share the goals of all mentors: acting as guides and supports for students or other less experienced persons; providing advice and insight based on our experiences to assist our mentees in their personal and professional growth and development; and making useful connections for our mentees. Surveys have shown that students with mentors experience enhanced academic performance. Mentoring fosters a sense of belonging, provides valuable emotional support, and can lead to greater success in future endeavors, according to the nonprofit resource agency MENTOR National. In addition, a 2023 National Bureau of Economic Research study showed that mentored students have a 9.4 percentage point increase in college attendance and that the effects are largest for students of lower socioeconomic status.

While our mentees have come from a variety of backgrounds, my wife and I have dedicated ourselves, in particular, to mentoring students from underrepresented communities, acts of mentoring of incredible importance in these times where difference is so fraught. In our experience, the most important attribute of a mentor is high emotional intelligence—the ability to understand, use, and manage your emotions in positive ways and to engage in interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. Mentors also have to be active listeners. 

If you, too, have an interest in becoming a mentor, particularly for students confronting racial or class challenges, it is necessary to ask yourself a few questions. Are you able to manage both your own emotions and the emotions of others? Are you able to listen—truly listen—for understanding and be objective and focused when you hear information that is emotionally jarring? For instance, can you hear a student share with you that they perceived a professor treating them differently because of their race or gender and not try to convince the student that they possibly misrepresented the situation? Being well meaning isn’t enough. Not being equipped to deal with the difficult issues can do more harm than good, especially when mentoring underrepresented students.

Although mentoring is certainly rewarding for both parties involved, it is not always easy or immediately fruitful. When we began mentoring students in 1999, I asked the admissions office to identify undergraduates with different backgrounds and needs. I took on all men and Betty all women, in groups of up to ten. We met with each mentoring group separately, once each month for one hour at our home. We’ve continued this setup since. 

Around 2010, Betty and I noticed that even though we had developed a community of trust among our mentees, many of them showed a reluctance to openly discuss controversial issues. We began to observe hesitancy around the topics of race, class, and politics. This behavior initially surprised us. We had assumed that our students would be comfortable discussing almost any subject, as had been the case in the past. We realized that we needed to prompt the students to engage in difficult discussions—and we needed to give them guidance about how to have conversations that elicited differences of opinion.

We focused on having the students learn to listen for understanding. We broke students into pairs and had them take turns opining on a topic such as “Does racial discrimination still exist in the United States?” Each had five uninterrupted minutes to speak. Afterward, we conducted a group discussion with the goal of demonstrating that there is no right or wrong answer to the topic questions. In other words, we sought to plant the seed that difficult conversations are not easily resolved, if at all.

Is it possible for a young person to be successful without the support of one or more mentors? I suppose so. However, the advice and insight provided by a trusted mentor is truly invaluable and, to some extent, irreplaceable—perhaps even more so today. Giving students the skills to have difficult conversations across difference has never been more important. This is especially the case for students of color as well as for first-generation and low-income students at highly selective universities. Mentors can provide the connective tissue that is essential to making students feel they belong at the institution rather than like a guest in someone else’s home. 

Had Professor Potteiger not come to the competition that Saturday morning, the path of my life would likely have been very different. But I already had a stable home situation, where my brothers and I knew that our parents loved us unconditionally. Over the years, Betty and I have had mentees who were homeless, emancipated, or raised under horrible and emotionally scarring circumstances. Betty and I became sources of stability. This is our charge as mentors. However, we expect our mentees to work hard as well—the mentor cannot do it alone. The growth, development, and change that we continue to see in our mentees has been incredibly rewarding. One of our emancipated mentees went on to become a translator of Middle Eastern languages. One of our mentees who had been homeless developed an international travel business after living in France for several years. And one of our mentees who entered university as a very angry young man has gone on to have his own international development consulting business after having studied and lived in China for many years. I could give many more examples. While my mentees’ work is not done, neither is mine. Though I think that Professor Potteiger would be proud of the work she began. 

Illustration by Brian Rea