Archive
September 11, 2009
Dear Members of the Mount Holyoke Community:
It is an honor to write you again on behalf of the Presidential Search Committee, which has been working hard on your behalf over the past six months. A list of Committee members, together with our charge, the presidential profile, and all previous communications may be found in the archive.
It might be helpful to offer a brief recap for the benefit of new members of our community and those returning from study abroad, sabbaticals, and other leaves. Last spring we had two rounds of campus conversations, involving fifteen open meetings spread across several full days and evenings, about Mount Holyoke’s next presidency. Several hundred members of the faculty, staff, and student body generously gave us their wise counsel on the directions our College should take over the coming years. We solicited and gratefully received over 1400 surveys from individuals on campus and off. It has also been an immense pleasure to reach out and draw wisdom from loyal alumnae across the country and numerous friends of Mount Holyoke at home and around the world. Building on from these insightful contributions, we wrote a presidential profile which has guided search committee members and our search consultants as we began this summer to review a number of strikingly impressive candidates. We thank those of you who sent us thoughtful and exciting nominations.
The full Search Committee has now met, in person or by conference call, ten times, and we have additional gatherings scheduled into the fall. We intend to continue our work as long as it takes to find the person we will wholeheartedly recommend to the Board of Trustees as our community’s next leader.
The Search Committee continues to be guided by our charge, which commits us to openness about our process coupled with strict confidentiality, now and forever, about our candidates and our deliberations. We thank you for your understanding of the silence to which search committee members and staff are pledged.
We will continue to report as we go forward.
Respectfully,
Jeanne E. Amster, 1977
Chair, Presidential Search Committee
May 18, 2009
Dear members of the Mount Holyoke community:
It is a privilege to write you again on behalf of the Presidential Search Committee. Since our report on the early March conversations on campus and the late March first meeting of the Search Committee, we have continued to consult with members of the worldwide MHC community and, based upon the foundation laid by those discussions, build a profile of the College’s next president.
Vice Chair Barbara Baumann joined campus members of the Search Committee in mid-April for a second round of conversations with students, faculty, and staff. The thoughtful discussions at each forum, and in many hallway exchanges in between, were enormously helpful to our work on your behalf. Other members of the Search Committee have gratefully received comments and suggestions from alumnae and friends encountered in travel on behalf of the College. So far we have talked face to face with over 600 Mount Holyoke constituents, both on campus and off. More conversations are scheduled over the summer and into the fall.
The Search Committee also thanks the over 1300 individuals—students, faculty, staff, alumnae, and friends—who took the time to fill out the survey. Our search consultants from the firm of Spencer Stuart tell us that this is the highest number of surveys completed at any college or university they have served, including some very large institutions. You and I know, of course, that such a response is characteristic of Mount Holyoke and its graduates: you have things to say about the College’s future, and you trust that what you say will be given serious consideration. We have been reading your individual comments—one hundred pages and still growing--and we thank you for them. If you have not yet had a chance to send us your thoughts, please do.
The Committee met again last week (our fourth meeting and our second on campus) to receive and discuss a progress report from our consultants, to interview Mount Holyoke’s current President, Joanne Creighton and her predecessor, Elizabeth Kennan, and to finish work on the presidential profile.
That profile—the Position Specification—is now posted on our web site. Please read through it, thinking deeply about the opportunities and challenges described within it. Then, if you are willing, please send us your nominations for Mount Holyoke’s 18th president. We have ideas already, but remain eager to hear of anyone you believe to be a gifted leader who might be exactly right for these times and this College. Send an email to mhc@spencerstuart.com or a letter to Presidential Search, Mount Holyoke College, 50 College Street, South Hadley MA 01075.
We will continue to report regularly. Thank you for your continued interest and help in this great undertaking.
Respectfully and gratefully,
Jeanne E. Amster, 1977
Chair, Presidential Search Committee
April 6, 2009 - Letter from Jeanne E. Amster
Dear members of the Mount Holyoke community:
It is an honor to write to you on behalf of the Presidential Search Committee. The committee is established, has met, and is now reaching out to the entire extended community in an effort to galvanize your best thinking about the needs of the College in building a profile for the 18th President of Mount Holyoke College.
Initial conversations about Mount Holyoke’s next Presidency took place on campus on March 2nd and 3rd during a dramatic blizzard. Faculty, students, and staff skied, snowshoed, hiked, and otherwise struggled to attend a variety of meetings designed to engage the priorities and aspirations of the College as well as the desirable qualities and experience for our next President. Over 400 people participated in these meetings. These conversations began to lay the framework for our initial discussions.
The newly formed committee met on March 26th and 27th in South Hadley. The Chair of the Board of Trustees, Leslie Anne Miller ‘73, delivered the Board’s charge to the committee. We encourage all members of the community to review the charge. Please note especially the provisions for transparency of process, confidentiality of deliberations, and the fact that committee members represent not particular constituencies but the College as a whole.
The Committee accepted the charge in full and then reviewed and organized our work, committed ourselves to a culture of candor and trust, and began planning additional ways of inviting community input. We were joined at this meeting by the consultants from the firm Spencer Stuart who bring experience, wisdom, and broad educational, national, and international connections to our work.
The Committee turned next to ways of soliciting the Mount Holyoke community for its views. We offer two methods: a web-based survey, and a second set of meetings for those on campus.
- We invite everyone, on campus and off, to take a brief survey on the leadership challenges and opportunities ahead for Mount Holyoke. The survey should take no more than ten minutes. While we expect to establish a few critical competencies from it, we are interested in both your ranking and narrative responses.
- For current students, faculty, and staff—particularly those who missed the March conversations because of the snowstorm, and those whose voices have not yet been heard—we encourage you to come to one of the meetings we are holding on Thursday, April 16th on campus. Barb Baumann, the committee vice-Chair, will be joined at these campus meetings by other members of the Search Committee. See above for times and locations.
Finally, we encourage each of you, one of many thousands who care passionately about the future of our college, to share your comments and nominate gifted leaders from across the globe – at presidentialsearch@mtholyoke.edu and mhc@spencerstuart.com.
Respectfully and with gratitude,
Jeanne E. Amster, 1977
Chair, Presidential Search Committee
Conversations About Mount Holyoke's Next Presidency
Round Two
Thursday, April 16
with members of the Presidential Search Committee
Members of the Mount Holyoke community are invited to join members of the Presidential Search Committee in conversations about the College's future. We especially encourage those who missed the March conversations to join us. We plan to focus on three questions:
- What do you think the priorities and aspirations of the College should be over the next several years?
- What qualities and experience are you looking for in the next president?
- What else would you like the search committee to know?
| 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. | Staff Forum | Blanchard Great Room |
| 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. | Student Forum | Gamble |
| 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. | Faculty Forum | New York Room |
Light refreshments at each forum.
March 25, 2009
Dear Members of the Mount Holyoke Community,
In the month since Joanne Creighton announced her plan to step down as president in June, 2010, the Mount Holyoke community has been engaged in a very deliberative and inclusive process of selecting representatives for the Presidential Search Committee. That process has now concluded, and I am very pleased to name the sixteen members of the Presidential Search Committee:
| Jeanne Amster '77 | Chair of the Presidential Search Committee, Trustee |
| Barbara Baumann '77 | Vice Chair of the Presidential Search Committee, Co-Chair of the Campaign for Mount Holyoke, Trustee |
| Robin Blaetz, P'11 | Associate Professor of Film Studies |
| Katherine (Kiki) Boyles '12, D'77 | Student |
| Michael Buckley S'75 | Superintendent of General Services, Facilities Management |
| Mary Beth Daniel '82 | Trustee |
| Mary Graham Davis '65 | President of the Alumnae Association |
| Katherine Duceman '11 | Student |
| Frederick Kass | Network and Systems Manager, LITS |
| Mindy Lewis '75, P'05 | Co-Chair of the Legacy of Diversity, Trustee |
| Chau Ly '97 | Co-Chair of the Legacy of Diversity |
| Leslie Anne Miller '73 | Chair of the Board of Trustees, ex officio |
| Karen Remmler | Professor of German Studies, Critical Social thought, and Gender Studies |
| H. Jay Sarles S'67 | Trustee |
| Lucas Wilson | Associate Professor of African American Studies and Economics |
| Margaret Wolff '76 | Trustee |
The Committee, which is charged with identifying and recommending to the Board of Trustees the best candidate to lead Mount Holyoke in the future, will solicit input from the Mount Holyoke community, develop a summary of the attributes we desire in our next President, and identify and screen candidates. Members of the Search Committee gather on March 26 in South Hadley to begin their work.
The Search Committee will be inviting your help in a number of ways, beginning soon with a short survey seeking views from the extended MHC community on the leadership challenges and opportunities ahead. We welcome your nominations and recommendations at any time. If you would like to nominate a candidate or share your view on the qualities most essential for Mount Holyoke's next president, please write to presidentialsearch@mtholyoke.edu.
My thanks to all who have agreed to serve in this crucial task, and particularly to Jeanne Amster, Chair of the Search Committee, who will be communicating with you on a regular basis as the Committee's work proceeds.
Leslie Anne Miller '73
Chair, Board of Trustees
Februrary 18, 2009 - Conversations About Mount Holyoke's Next Presidency
On March 2 and 3 members of the MHC community are warmly invited to join the Chair and Vice Chair of the Presidential Search Committee and two Consultants from the search firm Spencer Stuart in a first round of conversations about the College's future.
February 25, 2009 - From the President
Dear Members of the Mount Holyoke Community and Friends,
It is a great privilege and pleasure to serve as president of Mount Holyoke College and so it is with mixed feelings that I announce that I plan to step down from the presidency of the College at the end of June 2010, a date that seems to me a natural transition point as it coincides with the completion of the Plan for Mount Holyoke 2010. I am very proud of what we have together accomplished during my tenure as president. While we continue to face challenges, to be sure, especially in today's economic climate, I believe that the College is stronger than it has ever been, thanks to the commitment to excellence and the engagement, passion, loyalty, and support among all of the College's constituencies--faculty, students, staff, trustees, alumnae, and parents.
An extraordinary and palpable esprit de corps emanates out of the College's inspiring history and mission; that spirit has been the engine of our collective success during the past dozen plus years. I will do all I can in the next 16 months to keep that engine running strong and to make the transition to a new president as seamless and productive as possible. Indeed, there is much work left to do in realizing the ambitious goals of the Plan for 2010 and the Campaign for Mount Holyoke and in navigating budgetary challenges. In addition to my work on campus, I'll be out and about a great deal meeting with alumnae and friends to garner their continuing support.
I am confident that the Board of Trustees--in conjunction with administrative, faculty, staff, and student leadership--will have a steady hand in the transition and will tap into the collective wisdom of the institution as it seeks out a new president. I look forward to welcoming my successor.
In July 2010 I shall take a sabbatical and continue the leadership role I have played in Women's Education Worldwide, an alliance of women's colleges from around the world, and as a sabbatical project I shall try to synthesize and articulate what I have learned through my experience with this network.
My Mount Holyoke education has been an incredible learning experience: indeed, a transformative one. While it has taken me longer than most students, I expect to "graduate" after completing 14 and one-half years in residence and to take my place among the proud band of Mount Holyoke women. I know it is an affiliation and connection that will enrich and last a lifetime.
My very best to you all,
Joanne V. Creighton
February 25, 2009 - From the Board Chair
Dear Members of the Mount Holyoke Community,
It will not surprise you to know that Joanne's announcement of her intention to step down from the presidency of the College at the end of June 2010 is, like everything about her tenure, the result of a very thoughtful plan. She and the Board of Trustees have been engaged in a succession planning process designed to ensure that the College will have a smooth transition of leadership.
A search committee will be formed immediately to find the strongest possible successor to Joanne. It will include representatives from the Board of Trustees, the faculty, the staff, and the student body. There will be ample opportunity for input from every segment of the College as we work to select our next leader.
Just as important, though, is focusing on the vital work to be done over the next 16 months--work that will require all of our continued best efforts. Joanne will continue to lead the way: on the completion of the Plan for 2010; on the $300 million Campaign for Mount Holyoke; and in steering the College through this challenging economic environment. This is a critical period in the College's history. We are fortunate to have Joanne at the helm.
Having acknowledged that her work is far from complete, I would like to take a moment to recognize that Joanne has brought the College to a position of strength surpassing any period in our 172-year history. Under her leadership, we have seen renewed investment in the academic program and the campus, as well as an all-time high in admissions, fundraising, and endowment. The College's superlative faculty and academic core place it today among the very finest liberal arts colleges in the nation, sought out by young women around the country and the globe.
Deserved celebration of Joanne's presidency will come at the appropriate time. For now, the work of the College continues.
Leslie Anne Miller '73
Chair, Board of Trustees
February 25, 2009 - Mount Holyoke's Joanne V. Creighton Announces End Date to Her Presidency
South Hadley, MA---Joanne V. Creighton, president of Mount Holyoke College, announced today that she will step down at the end of the 2009-2010 academic year after nearly 15 years of service. In a communication to members of the Mount Holyoke community, Creighton praised the collective effort of the College's many supporters throughout her presidency.
"I believe that the College is stronger than it has ever been, thanks to the commitment to excellence and the engagement, passion, loyalty, and support among all of the College's constituencies--faculty, students, staff, trustees, alumnae, and parents," she said.
The 17th president of the world's oldest women's college, Creighton was joined by Leslie Anne Miller, chair of the Board of Trustees and a 1973 MHC graduate, as she informed the College's faculty of her decision at a special meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
Miller commended Creighton's leadership, noting,"Joanne has brought the College to a position of strength surpassing any period in our 172-year history. Under her leadership, we have seen renewed investment in the academic program and the campus, as well as an all-time high in admissions, fundraising, and endowment. The College's superlative faculty and academic core place it today among the very finest liberal arts colleges in the nation, sought out by young women around the country and the globe."
Miller's statement was also sent electronically to the global Mount Holyoke community and was posted on the school's Web site along with President Creighton's.
With an end date still nearly a year and a half away, Creighton's work as president is far from complete. Board Chair Miller hastened to remind the community that there is "vital work to be done over the next 16 months," including the completion of the College's current strategic plan, a $300 million fundraising campaign, and responding to the ongoing financial crisis. Miller also discussed the search process for a successor, which she said would start immediately and will invite the participation of all community members.
Former Bryn Mawr president and champion of liberal education Mary Patterson McPherson hailed Creighton's influential role in advancing both women's education and Mount Holyoke.
"Joanne Creighton is much admired by her fellow presidents for her intelligent, creative, and steadfast leadership of Mount Holyoke College," said the former vice president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and current chief of the American Philosophical Society. "A most effective advocate for liberal arts education and the continuing importance of women's colleges, Joanne has strengthened her institution with superb faculty appointments, well-supported curricular innovation, and a courageous questioning of the role of SAT and ACT test scores in student admissions. Few presidents have given as wise and loyal service to their college as has Joanne."
A penchant for planning, and implementing
Since Creighton assumed the presidency in 1996, Mount Holyoke has seen a surge of more than 50 percent in its applications for admission, 90 new tenure-track faculty hires, and 81 percent of alumnae participating in two fundraising campaigns. Creighton's success in enhancing Mount Holyoke's stature has been rooted in her commitment to planning--and to fostering broad engagement in the community to execute those plans.
During her first 15 months at Mount Holyoke, Creighton led a comprehensive planning process resulting in The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003, which, among its many achievements, most notably reinvigorated the school's admission and communication operations and markedly improved the school's fiscal health. In identifying and meeting these first challenges of her presidency, she helped the school rediscover and celebrate its many strengths by drawing together all constituents, articulating the school's mission, developing ambitious goals, and working together with the College community to realize them.
In 2002, she led the development of a second plan, The Plan for 2010, which built on the school's pioneering tradition of academic excellence for women, dating back to 1837.
"An extraordinary and palpable esprit de corps emanates out of the College's inspiring history and mission; that spirit has been the engine of our collective success during the past dozen plus years," Creighton wrote in her message to the community.
"Joanne has a remarkable ability to bring out people's best selves in service of the greater good," said Mary Graham Davis '65, president of the Alumnae Association of Mount Holyoke College. "The constructive agenda she has set for the extended Mount Holyoke community has kept alumnae informed and engaged. We have seen we really can make a positive difference in the life of our alma mater. The strong partnership we enjoy between the Association and the College is no doubt one of Joanne's most important legacies."
The Creighton years
In addition to seeing dramatic increases in applications for admission under Creighton's leadership, the College has also had unprecedented success in attracting a global student body. With 18 percent of the student body from outside the United States, Mount Holyoke is now the most international of any leading liberal arts college in the country. At the same time, the College has retained its leadership in enrolling students from low-income backgrounds and first-generation college students, with almost 70 percent of its students receiving financial aid and some 20 percent of domestic Mount Holyoke students eligible for Pell Grants. In 2002 Mount Holyoke became SAT-optional, and Creighton has remained a staunch advocate for deemphasizing the role of testing in college admissions.
Creighton has overseen the hiring of a new generation of talented young scholars across the liberal arts disciplines as faculty of the baby boom generation begin to close in on retirement nationwide. Through this process, Mount Holyoke has significantly expanded the diversity of its faculty to include 27 percent faculty of color and 50 percent female faculty, placing the College in the lead among national liberal arts colleges in both categories.
The Creighton years have also seen the launch of three academic centers that represent the meeting points of academic inquiry and the College's commitment to "purposeful engagement with the world." The Center for the Environment, the Weissman Center for Leadership, and the McCulloch Center for Global Initiatives, along with a fourth Center for the Sciences, have shaped the College's engagement with key currents in contemporary life.
As the "fundraiser-in-chief," Creighton has also led the school to the successful completion of a $250 million campaign in 2003, and in significant progress towards the $300 million Campaign for Mount Holyoke, now underway. The College's endowment grew from $247 million in 1996 to a high of $656 million before the recent financial crisis.
Renewing the campus: uncommon common grounds
The fruits of Creighton's planning can be seen across the Mount Holyoke campus, where she has led one of the most significant building periods in the school's history. With funding from its two campaigns, and an aesthetic that marries "the venerable and the hip," as she puts it, Creighton's underlying vision has been to create new spaces--indoor and outdoor--that draw people together and to make one of the nation's most beautiful campuses even more attractive, functional, and collegial.
The new Kendade Science Center, a renovated Blanchard Campus Center, and a new 180-bed residence hall--all LEED-certified green buildings--are striking additions to the 172-year-old campus. The art museum, art building, music building, and admissions center have all undergone extensive renovations as well. A new track and synthetic turf field opened last year, and will soon be joined by an expanded Kendall Hall, which houses the College's athletic and dance facilities. Meanwhile, the College has undertaken a systematic renovation and renewal of its residence halls, the library, and its classrooms, infusing technology across the campus and creating spaces that work for today's undergraduates and the faculty who teach them.
In all, Mount Holyoke has invested some $225 million in facilities and technology during Creighton's presidency, resulting in some 150,000 square feet of new space for the College's academic, co-curricular, residential, and support programs.
A strong voice for women's education
Creighton has been a vocal champion of the education of girls and women around the world while leading Mount Holyoke, the founding member of the original Seven Sister colleges, into the new century.
"President Creighton is a tireless champion of women's education in the United States and across the globe," said Katherine L. Kraschel, a 2006 graduate who now serves on the College's Board of Trustees.
Throughout her time at Mount Holyoke, Creighton has been an outspoken advocate for educational and women's issues. In 2004 she co-founded Women's Education Worldwide, a global alliance of women's colleges, which has gained widespread attention as countries around the world pay new attention to the links between women's education and social and economic development.
Creighton has also gained prominence for her public stances on domestic educational policy issues, including affirmative action, standardized testing, and college rankings.
"She is a strong role model. She inspires Mount Holyoke students to see the power of our education and to take a stand for what we believe in. Students get to know her in a genuine way, whether at campus events or just out and about with Maisie," said Kraschel, referring to Creighton's beagle and iconic companion on her regular campus walks.
Before coming to Mount Holyoke, Creighton was provost and acting president at Wesleyan University. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and holds a master of arts in teaching from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Michigan. She has held faculty and administrative positions at Wayne State University and the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The author of four books, Creighton has concentrated much of her scholarly work and teaching on the authors William Faulkner, Margaret Drabble, and Joyce Carol Oates. Even with the demands of the presidency, Creighton has been able to keep a hand in her literary scholarship; she recently co-authored a journal article on Joyce Carol Oates with a Mount Holyoke undergraduate and had book reviews appear in the Chicago Tribune.
In July 2010, Creighton plans to take a sabbatical and continue her leadership role in Women's Education Worldwide, while trying to "synthesize and articulate" what she has learned from developing and working with this growing network.
"My Mount Holyoke education," Creighton reflected in her message, "has been an incredible learning experience: indeed, a transformative one. While it has taken me longer than most students, I expect to 'graduate' after completing 14 and one-half years in residence and to take my place among the proud band of Mount Holyoke women."
Founded in 1837, and the first of the Seven Sisters--the female equivalent of the once predominantly male Ivy League--Mount Holyoke was the model upon which many other women's colleges were patterned. Throughout its long history, the College has been known for brilliant teaching and academic excellence, and it has a longstanding record as one of the most successful producers of women in the sciences in all of U.S. higher education. In recent years, the school has radically expanded its international reach, and now features the most internationally diverse student body of any American college of its kind.