Good afternoon. I'm Michael Eisenson Chair of the Board of Trustees and I'm
truly delighted to be here with all of you this afternoon to introduce to you
Maud Mandel, who will shortly become the 18th president in the 225 year history
of Williams College.
Apparently along with all of you, I couldn't be any happier with this
assignment or any more excited about the future of our college. Before we
introduce our president-elect, however, I have two very important thank-yous to
offer on behalf of all of us here. First, I want to thank our interim president
Tiku Majumder.
Tiku has done a simply fabulous job of keeping the college fully on track and,
indeed, moving actively forward these past several months. When Adam Falk told
us last June that he would leave Williams after eight years as president,
one of our first concerns was finding someone who could steward the college
through the transition period. After careful deliberation, the board asked
Tiku to assume the presidency and he graciously accepted. Despite having been
a deeply engaged and widely acclaimed member of the faculty here for more than
20 years, I believe Tiku will tell you in a candid moment, that he had not realized
the full scope of what he'd signed up for. Nevertheless, he has addressed the
challenges more than ably as we all knew he would.
Tiku has led the college with great intelligence and compassion, and with a
deep and abiding affection for the place and for its people. We're all profoundly
indebted to him for his critical role in the transition from our 17th president
to our 18th. Of course, his job isn't over, so please, in addition to thanking him,
please wish him success and smooth seas during his remaining months in office.
I also want to thank the Presidential Search Committee, many of whose members
are here today. The second essential task on learning of Adam's pending departure
was to assemble a committee of people who reflected the many different
constituencies that together make up the college, but who also keenly understood
that the task was to work as one group representing the college as a whole to
find the very best president to lead this place into the future. Nor was good
judgment and variety of experience and perspective enough. We needed people
willing to do the serious work of gathering input from throughout our
community, spending countless hours meeting with potential candidates and
refining our sense of the guiding priorities, and then narrowing the pool
and intensively engaging with a number of prospects whom we felt best reflected
those priorities. Most importantly, we needed a committee willing to stay hard
at it for as long as it took, until we had identified and thoroughly vetted a
set of the truly exceptional candidates whom we could present to the Board of
Trustees. Williams was incredibly well served by the energy, commitment and
skill of the 16 faculty, staff, students, alumni and trustees who worked together as
the search committee, as well as the extraordinary dedication of Keli Gail,
who served as Secretary to the committee, while continuing with her many other
duties. Let me ask that group to stand for a
moment, so you can please join me in thanking them all for working so hard to
place the future of our college in the best possible hands.
While the search process was exhaustive and at times exhausting, I have to admit
that it was also fun, at least much of the time, and deeply
rewarding. It was fun largely because we had a great committee whose members
respected one another and enjoyed sharing views and enjoyed working
together toward a common purpose. And also because we had the chance to meet a
number of remarkably interesting and accomplished candidates along the way. It
was rewarding because the search had a wonderful outcome. As I expect you will
all come to know in the months and years ahead, Maud Mandel is a truly exceptional
person, and a worthy next torchbearer in a long line of remarkable college
leaders. It's not possible to summarize in the 30 seconds I have remaining the
depth of our collective conviction about this choice gained through 13 hours of
interviews with Maud, and the 14 references we spoke with over a period
of 10 weeks. Instead, I'd like simply to share a comment from Christina Paxson,
the president of Brown. I did tell her comments would be confidential so if you
could just keep that . . .
This was her comment in response to my question about what might truly
distinguish Maud Mandel as a college president. In president Paxson's words,
Maud has, quote, impeccable judgment and she loves, loves, loves students, faculty
and everything having to do with education. Those 16 words capture pretty
nicely the person we were looking for to be the 18th president of Williams College
and they perfectly described the person to whom Tiku will now introduce you.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Michael, for your kind words,
for your leadership of the board, as well as of the Presidential Search Committee.
And for all the search committee members, all this work will have profound and
lasting impact on the college. And thank you to all of you for joining us today.
I'm pleased to have the privilege, as w ell, of welcoming to Williams Maud S.
Mandel, who will soon be our 18th president. Before I do that, I didn't want
to forget to invite all of you to an all-campus reception and gathering next
door and press key immediately following president-elect Mandel's, Maud's, remarks.
Unlike the hard-working members of the search committee, I am, along with you,
just getting to know Maud. So I thought it would be helpful to share a few
highlights from her career that, I believe, help us understand why the
search committee was so excited about her candidacy and why she's
such a terrific choice for our next president.
The first is her scholarship. Maud's historical research on the experiences
of Jewish, Armenian and North African communities in modern France is widely
read and cited. Furthermore, Maud's particular research focus, which looks at
how social policies influence the inclusion or exclusion of religious and
ethnic minorities, has a deep resonance with both the world we live in today and
with campus communities, like our own. As I am learning, it is a challenge for a
college president to find a lot of time for scholarly work or teaching, but it is
essential for that leader to have a deep love of teaching and an understanding of
its central role in our community. At the same time, we desire a leader who
celebrates and nurtures the life of the mind.
A leader who represents a faculty that bring the excitement of their scholarly
work to the classroom, just as they bring their students to the exciting world of
their scholarly pursuits. In Maud, I believe we have exactly the leader who
will lead us in that work at a notable time in our history, when our faculty is
undergoing a great renewal. Indeed, Maud will be joining us not only as the 18th
president, but also as a member of the history department and the program in
Jewish studies. She shared with me last night that
though perhaps not in her first year, she would love to do some teaching while
serving as president, which is wonderful. And Maud is someone who's not only
focused on topics of inclusion and representation in her academic work,
she's also put them into practice. Now you can read her full bio on our website,
so let me just say that as Brown's Dean of Students, she demonstrated a very
concrete commitment to supporting a diverse community, including
first-generation students and undergraduates of all backgrounds and
interests. As I fully realize, a job such as hers requires partnering with
wide-ranging groups of students, staff and faculty in deep and important ways—
something that she has obviously been very committed to and successful at.
In these recent weeks, I've run into many faculty colleagues around campus and had
a conversation that goes like this: Colleague: Have you met Maud Mandel yet?
Me: No, not yet. Looking forward to it. Have you? Colleague: No, but I've been in touch
with Close Professional Colleague who works at Brown, and they say she's
awesome. You guys are so lucky. So these are some of the many reasons I think the
search committee and the board's choice for our 18th president reflects how well
they were attuned to Williams needs. Having graduated from a distinguished
liberal arts college, and both taught and played a key administrative role
centered on the undergraduate experience at Brown, Maud is by her resume and
disposition wonderfully well prepared to lead Williams. Our families enjoyed a
lovely dinner last night together. Over 23 years at Williams I've marveled at
the passion and skill that Williams colleagues bring to their work,
and at dinner last night, I saw the same spark in Maud. Her genuine warmth,
curiosity and enthusiasm for the challenge ahead were immediately
apparent. My family and I also enjoyed meeting Maud's husband Steve and their
son Lev, daughter Ava, last night. They're also here with us today and will be at
the reception, and I hope we'll do everything we can to welcome them as
well and help the whole family quickly become part of the Williams and
Williamstown community. Before I invite Maud up to the podium, I just wanted to note that
during my time as interim, I've enjoyed the privilege of working with faculty,
students and staff on important issues of community at Williams.
Our remarkable alumni and our committed Board of Trustees continue to be
wonderful partners, as well. I want to thank all of the many groups of folks
who have made time to contribute to these important conversations.
I think the work we've done, at which we'll keep doing between
now and July, is building a wonderful foundation on which Maud can begin her
presidency. And now comes the time, your chance to hear from our next president
directly Maud, welcome to Williams.
Wow. It's, it's hard to capture just really
how thrilling it is for me to finally have the opportunity to say hello to the
Williams community, after so many weeks and weeks of wandering and then
beginning to think and dream about joining you here today. My family, my
husband Steve and my children Lev and Ava, are extraordinarily touched, excited
and really overwhelmed by the warm welcome that we've received via many,
many, many, many emails and other forms of outreach, including several packages of
purple paraphernalia.
All of which, some of which they are decked out in by the way, just duly noted.
All of which has made clear to us the character of the community that we're
joining. It's tight-knit nature; its intellectual vigor, and really its
whimsical sense of humor, which has really been wonderful. And as you can
imagine it's been really gratifying for us and enticing to discover Williams
through the eyes of the people who call it home. And I know I really speak for my
family when I say we look forward to many, many years of discovery of this
community, with it with you and through your eyes. Before going a moment further,
I really must also add to the chorus of thanks that have been taking place today,
and to thank the search committee for finding me and the Board of Trustees for
their trust in offering me the tremendous honor and privilege of
becoming Williams' 18th president. The work that goes into a presidential
search is intense and it is highly charged. Everyone has an opinion.
Everyone is nervous about the outcome, but, despite the intensity, the members of
the search committee and the board somehow managed to keep the atmosphere pleasant,
welcoming and, I would echo Michael, even fun. And I'm really so grateful for that.
I'm also intensely and immensely grateful to Tiku for steering the
college through this intermediary period, wisely and with good humor and before
Tiku, Adam Falk, whose commitment to the health and vitality of Williams and its
people will enable me to focus on making a great school even better. I know well
how much commitment, care, dedication and time both have put into this institution,
and I really want to assure both that I'm committed to carrying this good work
going forward. So most of you may not know that I received the call from
Michael Eisenson offering me the presidency while I was standing at a gas
pump in Providence on a freezing February day. I actually had to climb
back into the car just to be warm enough to think about accepting the offer as we
engaged in the conversation. So some of life's most pivotal moments,
of course, occur in the most banal settings.
And as this is Williams, I, of course, would have preferred that this had
happened as I was charging an electric vehicle at a solar powered station.
That's something we can work on together. But on a metaphorical level,
I took the experience as a sign of the energy that will propel the next period
in my in my family's life with you. Indeed, few institutions are as vital as
Williams. With a notable commitment to liberal arts excellence, this college
unites a stellar student body with a faculty that is exceptional, both for its
commitment to undergraduate education and its scholarly research profile, as
well as an enormously talented administrative and support staff. And I
just, I want to pause there for a moment, I had the opportunity to have lunch
today with a handful of students, I'm looking forward to getting to know many,
many, many more in the weeks and months ahead, but I was struck when I asked them
what they will miss most, a number of them were seniors, what they will miss
most about this experience, how many of them spoke about the faculty, and the
intense connections and relationships they had built with faculty over their
time here. I thought that was tremendous— a tremendous testament to the
institution and to the hard work of many of the people in this room, and I found
it quite moving. This combination of students and faculty and administrative
and support staff by itself would make Williams an extraordinary institution.
But, remarkably and laudably, the college strives for something more. Guided by a
cotable commitment to diversity and access, the college has used its
resources to open up its educational community, seeking to bring in
the very most talented students to campus no matter what their background,
place of origin, and to help them succeed once they're here and beyond. And this
diverse and talented community makes its marks in so many domains. So much
of the experience of getting to know Williams over the last few weeks has
been an experience of eye-popping wow, as I learned more and more about the ways
in which this institution excels. From athletics to the arts, from the
interdisciplinary strengths to the passionate commitment of its alumni, and,
of course, its partnerships and investments in the local community and
region. As many of you may know, I began my own educational journey at a small
liberal arts institution in northern Ohio, Oberlin College. And I credit that
institution with making me a curious person, with forcing me to challenge my
assumptions, and to ground all of my opinions in evidence. And over the course
of the last 20 years at Brown, I have committed myself to instilling in our
students that same appreciation for the power of inquiry and evidence.
And providing them with as many opportunities as
possible to question, to investigate, to test their own hypotheses and most
importantly to explore. Schools like Oberlin and Brown and Williams have long
provided undergraduates with opportunities to develop conceptual and
analytic frameworks that will serve them well, no matter what they do after
graduation. In the moment in which we live, these skills have become even more
important. In the face of competing truths and an overabundance of input,
it is and has been, I think, tempting to retreat into politicized corners, to talk
only to those with whom we agree, and to narrow the influx of information.
We simply cannot afford to allow that to happen.
Schools like Williams must equip students to sift through information,
analyze data, form ideas and opinions, and develop the communication skills and
moral courage to engage thoughtfully across many kinds of human difference.
Students, some of you here in the room who I see, you are privileged to spend
four years on the Williams campus, where you will hone the habits of mind that
will equip you to confront these complex problems of our times. And you're doing
so in an environment that is a hundred percent committed to cultivating your
intellectual, civic and social engagement. By inspiring your curiosity and lifelong
commitment to learning in a diverse community that seeks to elevate all of
its members, this institution can model the very best of American higher education.
Williams is an institution that celebrates learning, both for its
own sake and for a greater purpose, and which revels in both endeavors.
My choice of the word revel is no accident. I hear a few of you laughing.
In my final interview with the Board of Trustees, Michael Eisenson noted that
Williams was, in fact, looking for a president who reveled in the job.
Was I that someone, he asked. I had to pause for a moment actually on that question,
because I thought of many college presidents I know, who would not say that
they revel in their jobs, on most days. Having said that, and as I hope you will see,
I am, I think, that person. I experience tremendous joy living and
working in a learning community. And Williams
really seems to me to be that community par excellence. I cannot wait to begin
that journey together. I'm not going to be permanently on campus until July but
I do plan to return periodically over the next three and a half . . . over the
next several weeks. And I anticipate those visits will bring many more
opportunities to learn about Williams from all of you— those of you who've
chosen to study here, who've committed your professional and personal lives to
this community, or who were shaped by Williams and represent the college to
the world. I look forward to beginning those conversations and to engaging in
them for many, many years, but to begin them today, during the reception.
Thank you so much from myself and from my family. We are incredibly excited and
moved to join this community. Thank you.
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