Amherst Searches for a President

WOULD YOU WANT A THIS JOB?

Arare moment in the academy: a job has come open at a senior level. The President of Amherst College offered his resignation last November, and, for the sake of avoiding a crippling interregnum, a search was begun at once to name a successor who could start in July. The job attracted more candidates than the New Hampshire primary, and with good reason, for it remains one of the “glamor” positions in American education. Consider briefly the assets: The College is one of the most selective in the country (it admitted last year only 14 per cent of the applicants—reportedly the lowest figure in the country—and these selections were made from a pool of talented students). The graduates of the College go on, at an uncommonly high rate, to prestigious careers in business and the professions, and they have generally preserved their attachment to the school. By one unofficial survey the alumni contributed to the College last year in proportions that were exceeded only —and only slightly—by the alumni of Dartmouth, Princeton, and Williams. The result is that Amherst, with 150 faculty and about 1,500 students, has an endowment of $79 million, which gives it one of the highest figures of endowment per student in the country. As for the faculty, it has a long tradition of cultivating teaching as a craft, but it has also managed to make itself visible to a larger public through its writings.

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WOULD YOU WANT A THIS JOB?

Arare moment in the academy: a job has come open at a senior level. The President of Amherst College offered his resignation last November, and, for the sake of avoiding a crippling interregnum, a search was begun at once to name a successor who could start in July. The job attracted more candidates than the New Hampshire primary, and with good reason, for it remains one of the “glamor” positions in American education. Consider briefly the assets: The College is one of the most selective in the country (it admitted last year only 14 per cent of the applicants—reportedly the lowest figure in the country—and these selections were made from a pool of talented students). The graduates of the College go on, at an uncommonly high rate, to prestigious careers in business and the professions, and they have generally preserved their attachment to the school. By one unofficial survey the alumni contributed to the College last year in proportions that were exceeded only —and only slightly—by the alumni of Dartmouth, Princeton, and Williams. The result is that Amherst, with 150 faculty and about 1,500 students, has an endowment of $79 million, which gives it one of the highest figures of endowment per student in the country. As for the faculty, it has a long tradition of cultivating teaching as a craft, but it has also managed to make itself visible to a larger public through its writings.