The Search Is On

From Bates magazine

The job — president of Bates College — has been held by only six people since 1855. In January, the Board of Trustees appointed a 15-member committee charged with managing the search for the seventh president in Bates' 146-year history.

"Bates is in a great position to begin the search for a new president," said Trustee Karen A. Harris '74, who is co-chairing the Presidential Search Committee with Trustee James F. Orr P'94. "The College is stronger in every respect it has ever been."

James F. Orr

Karen Harris

The committee begins its work this spring and, with the assistance of an executive search consultant, expects to consider specific candidates in the fall. Finalists would be invited to campus in the winter, and the committee intends to make a recommendation to the full Board of Trustees for its approval no later than May 2002. The new president would take office in the following months.

Between now and this fall, the committee's first job is to "define the profile and characteristics of what we — alumni, faculty, staff, and students — want in the next Bates president," Harris said. In a letter to the campus community, the co-chairs said that advice, views, and nominations from all areas of the Bates community will be "essential to our identification of candidates of intellectual distinction and accomplishment." The highly confidential nature of the process, the co-chairs noted, will ensure a successful search for "proven leaders who can support the needs and values of the College and the resource initiatives so critical to our success."

Joining Orr and Harris on the search committee are Trustees David O. Boone '62, Ann E. Bushmiller '79, J. Michael Chu '80, Burton M. Harris '59, Bruce E. Stangle '70, and Catharine R. Stimpson H'90. Also on the search committee are Christopher Lee, the College's director of human resources; Jason Surdukowski '02 of Concord, N.H., president of the student Representative Assembly; Michael R. Bosse '93, vice president of the Alumni Council; and faculty members Lillian R. Nayder, associate professor of English; Joseph G. Pelliccia, associate professor of biology; Kirk D. Read, associate professor of French; Mary T. Rice-DeFosse, professor of French.

Adam J. Garcia '92, assistant dean of admissions, will serve as the search committee's executive secretary and liaison to the Bates community.

For committee member and Trustee Burton Harris (who is no relation to Karen Harris), this is the second tour of presidential-search duty. Fourteen years ago, he chaired the search committee that yielded President Harward's nomination. He remembers that "it was wonderful to see not only the number of people who sought the presidency, but also to see how talented and well-respected they were. The process verified our optimism about Bates. I expect the same this time — perhaps to an even greater degree."

Harris noted that "in a pretty unique way, a presidential search lets you work with all College constituencies: faculty, staff, alumni, and students. There aren't many other opportunities to focus the College's energy to such a degree: identifying institutional strengths and weaknesses, and then identifying a person who will improve on the weaknesses and support the strengths. The president is the person who can do that more than any other."

If history is any indication, a new president will follow the Bates tradition of principled, hard-working leaders, doggedly devotion to the College's mission. The Rev. Oren Cheney, of course, founded Bates. Maine native George Colby Chase, his first teaching in a one-room Thorndike schoolhouse filled with 60 children, rose to the presidency from the Bates faculty. Clifton Daggett Gray was a Baptist preacher, author, and editor. Charles Franklin Phillips, a Colgate economics professor, championed entrepreneurial spirit vs. "big business" at his 1944 inauguration. Thomas Hedley Reynolds, a World War II tank commander, was a history professor and later dean at Middlebury.

Philosopher Donald West Harward, who took office in 1989, founded the honors program at Delaware and came to Bates from the College of Wooster. President Harward steps down in June 2002.

• Presidential search main page
• Position specification
• Search advertisement
• Contact the Presidential Search Committee
• Committee members
• "The Search Is On," article from Bates magazine

• Press releases:
  "Harward retiring from Bates College presidency in 2002"
  "Bates presidential search committee named"
• History of Bates and Mission Statement
• About Bates