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Bates embarks on its presidential search
PHYLLIS GRABER JENSEN
The search is under way for the successor to President Elaine Tuttle Hansen, who departed June 30 to become executive director of the Center for Talented Youth at The Johns Hopkins University. Nancy Cable, Bates’ vice president and dean of enrollment and external affairs since February 2010, was appointed interim president through June 30, 2012, by a unanimous trustee vote. Bates bylaws confer the power of presidential selection to the Board of Trustees, and trustees Valerie Smith ’75 and Michael Chu ’80 now co-chair a 14-member presidential search committee. The task at hand is a “great honor and responsibility,” they say, and one that carries equally great opportunity. “A presidential search brings attention to any national institution like Bates, and anyone who looks at our college will come away deeply impressed,” said Chu, a founder and managing partner at the venture capital firm Catterton Partners. “Bates is well-positioned and has an enviable reputation and standing among the most elite colleges,” said Smith, who became dean of the college at Princeton in July. The college search process is a deliberate and familiar one. Open listening sessions on campus in the spring preceded the publication of the traditional presidential prospectus, a
document that “fully reflects the key issues of the college,” Smith and Chu say, and lays out expectations for presidential contenders. Come fall, the committee will review the status of outreach efforts and begin to evaluate the candidate pool. By winter, the committee could be considering a final candidate. Summarized, the expectations of the next president are to increase the college’s fiscal capacity through fundraising; articulate a longrange plan for the college; enhance academic excellence; increase diversity and inclusion; strengthen leadership and governance structures; manage operations; and strengthen Bates’ relationship with Lewiston and Auburn. Also on the search committee are trustees Michael Bonney ’80, board chair; Alison Bernstein P’09, board vice chair; Darrell Crate ’89; Steve Fuller ’82; and Lena Sene ’00. Also, faculty members Marcus Bruce ’77, religious studies; Matt Côté, a chemist and associate dean of the faculty; Emily Kane, sociologist; John Kelsey, psychologist; and Gene Wiemers, college librarian. The student rep is Jacquelyn Holmes ’13 of Harvard, Mass. Eight staff members constitute an advisory panel. Trustee Emerita Catharine Stimpson of New York University’s Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education is advising the committee, and Shelly Storbeck, principal with the executive search firm Storbeck/Pimentel & Associ-
ates, is assisting with the search — she worked with Bates on the President Hansen search. The goal is for Bates’ new chief executive to move into Lane Hall 204 by July 2012. It’s an auspicious time for candidates to consider Bates, says Mike Bonney.
Trustees Michael Chu ’80 and Valerie Smith ’75 are co-chairing the presidential search committee.
“Bates just met an extremely ambitious annual fund goal,” he says. “Bates achieved great admission numbers for the Class of 2015. We have doubled the percentage of students from underrepresented backgrounds in just five years. “Bates has always been known for the strength of our values, but now we’re known more and more for the value of our strengths.”
View the prospectus and contribute ideas to the search www.bates.edu/presidentialsearch
ELDER CARE Akinyele Akinruntan ’12 of Memphis, Tenn., conducts a health survey with Somali elders, part of a project to evaluate the mental-health needs of the immigrant Somali population in Lewiston and Auburn. Akinruntan did the survey in his role as a Bates community-based research fellow, a program of the college’s Harward Center for Community Partnerships. Akinruntan’s Lewiston partner is Community Clinical Services, affiliated with St. Mary’s Health System. The project, says Akinruntan, seeks both to evaluate needs and to “uncover what and where the healthcare gaps are, helping to come up with new ways to help the immigrant population access healthcare and other important services.”
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