PRESIDENT

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

President

Geneva, New York

Hobart and William Smith Colleges (“HWS”) seek their next President to provide clear, strong, and visionary leadership at an important moment in its development. Located on 320 acres in the Finger Lakes region of New York, on beautiful Seneca Lake, Hobart and William Smith Colleges offer a transformational educational experience that cultivates student and faculty engagement and provides worlds of experience.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges is a private residential liberal arts college serving 2,237 undergraduate students. HWS students share an intellectual curiosity, a desire for engagement, and an interest in the broader world that is palpable on campus. Students and alumni/ae frequently describe their experience at the Colleges as one of intellectual and personal awakening. Students are urged at every turn to discern their interests, and to test their emergent skills on campus and in the world of practice. The strong mentorship of faculty is the foundation of students’ success. The 2019 Princeton Review ranked the HWS faculty #7 for best student-rated professors, reflecting the faculty commitment to their scholarly pursuits while creating a learning environment where academics are top priority.

The Colleges’ academic mission emphasizes student-centered learning and a commitment to the liberal arts in a highly interactive environment where excellence in teaching and scholarship are equally valued. The curriculum itself is highly interdisciplinary in both breadth and depth and most faculty teach both within and across traditional divisional lines. Many students pursue double majors or graduate with more than one concentration. The Colleges have been recognized as one of the nation’s top colleges and universities with the most recipients of U.S. Fulbright Student Awards.

The Colleges combine an attractive rural location with a notably global perspective and strong innovative experiential programs. Approximately 60 percent of the Colleges’ students participate in study-abroad programs. Princeton Review has ranked the Colleges’ study abroad program #1 in the nation for the last two years. In addition, virtually every student participates in one of the most highly developed community service programs in the country, deeply linking town and gown in a shared endeavor of civic pride and accomplishment which has earned HWS Washington Monthly’s #1 ranking for Service in their 2018 College Guide and Rankings.

Hobart and William Smith have done well in a challenging environment. With a long track record of successful innovation that has only gained momentum in the past two decades, HWS provides the next President with the opportunity to make a significant difference. The next President has a rare opportunity: to engage all members of the Colleges’ community in envisioning and enacting a bold plan for the future. Building on the many strengths of HWS, the next President will be called upon to help establish a vivid identity in the academic marketplace, continue to build even more success in retaining a consistently strong student body, and engage in robust fundraising efforts. HWS needs to nurture its academic programs, build essential science facilities, and reinvigorate critical initiatives around diversity, equity, and inclusion. Financial stewardship around fundraising and growth of the endowment will be critical to the fulfillment of these goals.

The Colleges seek an innovative, creative leader and strategic thinker with excellent communication skills, whose leadership style demonstrates energy, character, intellect, and passion. HWS values its vibrant intellectual community and expects the next President to forge positive relationships with students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni/ae, and the campus community in meaningful ways. The Colleges have all the essential assets of a great liberal arts college. It seeks a President equal to its future.

A Presidential Search Committee composed of trustees, faculty, students, staff and alumni/ae is working with Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist with this recruitment. All inquiries, nominations/referrals, and resumes with cover letters should be sent electronically and in confidence to:

John Isaacson, Kate Barry, Micah Pierce, or Karen McPhedran

Isaacson, Miller

263 Summer Street, 7th Floor

Boston, MA 02210

www.imsearch.com/6734

Hobart and William Smith Colleges are an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer with a strong commitment to the principles of diversity and inclusion.