Elaine Tuttle Hansen, former provost and professor of English at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, assumed office July 1 as the college’s seventh president since its founding in 1855.

During a Lane Hall intervew  her first day on the job, Hansen told Lewiston Sun Journal reporter Lisa Chmelecki: “I’ve been at liberal arts colleges forever. It’s a world I’m very familiar with. And I’ve come to appreciate places, like Bates, where every individual matters, but there is a sense of community.”

The Bates College Board of Trustees unanimously approved Hansen’s selection at its January meeting. She succeeds Donald W. Harward, who retired June 30 after 13 years as president.

Trustee Chair Burton M. Harris called Hansen “first and foremost an educator who throughout a distinguished career has demonstrated her deep understanding and commitment to liberal arts education and the important role it plays in our society.”

Hansen was the unanimous choice of a 16-member search committee, which trustees organized after Harward announced his plans to retire in June 2002

Winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, University of Texas theoretical physicist Weinberg has researched a broad range of topics in quantum field theory, elementary particle physics, and cosmology. His writing on physics for the general reader has been honored with the Andrew Gemant Award of the American Institute of Physics. In 1999, Weinberg received Rockefeller University’s Lewis Thomas Prize, awarded to the researcher who best embodies “the scientist as poet.” Weinberg is the author of the best-selling books The First Three Minutes (1977), about the very early universe, and Dreams of a Final Theory (1993), about the quest for a unified theory of physics. His other books include Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of Relativity (1972); Discovery of Subatomic Particles (1983); and Science and Its Cultural Adversaries (2002). Weinberg has written more than 200 scientific articles, one of which is the most cited paper on particle physics of the past 50 years. He also writes for The New York Review of Books and other periodicals. Weinberg has been honored with numerous prizes and awards, including the 1991 National Medal of Science. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Astronomical Union and the American Philosophical Society. Weinberg was educated at Cornell, Copenhagen and Princeton, and has taught at Columbia, Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. At the University of Texas at Austin since 1982, he holds the Josey Regental Chair of Science.

Best known for his epic television documentaries, including The Civil War, Jazz and Baseball, Ken Burns has been making internationally acclaimed documentary films for more than 25 years. Burns was the director, producer, co-writer, chief cinematographer, music director and executive producer of the landmark 1990 series The Civil War. That nine-part documentary was the highest-rated series in the history of American public television and attracted an audience of 40 million. The New York Times said Ken Burns “takes his place as the most accomplished documentary filmmaker of his generation,” while Tom Shales of The Washington Post said, “This is not just good television, nor even just great television. This is heroic television.” The columnist George Will said, “If better use has ever been made of television, I have not seen it and do not expect to see better until Ken Burns turns his prodigious talents to his next project.” In 2001, Burns produced and directed Jazz, a 10-part documentary that follows this most American of art forms from its origins in blues and ragtime through swing, bebop and fusion. Other documentaries by Burns include Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony (1999); Frank Lloyd Wright (1998); Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997); Thomas Jefferson (1997); The West (1996); and Baseball (1996). Burns has been awarded the top honors in his field, including the Emmy, Peabody and Television Critics awards, and he has received “Best of the Year” citations in Time, People and TV Guide magazines. Burns was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1953 and grew up in Newark, Delaware and Ann Arbor, Mich. He graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., in 1975. Burns lives in Walpole, N.H.

A pediatric endocrinologist and the first African American to hold the position of Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders is an outspoken advocate for the young, the poor and the powerless on such issues as abortion, AIDS and sex education. Elders began her college career at the age of 15 when she was awarded a scholarship to Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark. The eldest of eight daughters, she never saw a physician before her first year of college. Elders graduated at age 18 and entered the U.S. Army as an officer, where she received training as a physical therapist. She attended the University of Arkansas Medical School on the GI Bill and interned at the University of Minnesota Hospital. Elders completed a pediatric residency and an endocrinology fellowship at UAMS and received board certification as a pediatric endocrinologist. She also earned an M.S. degree in biochemistry. Elders joined the UAMS faculty as a professor of pediatrics in 1978, and in 1987 was appointed director of the Arkansas Department of Health, where she championed early childhood immunizations and supported school-based clinics to cope with teenage pregnancy. Confirmed as Surgeon General of the Public Health Service in 1993, she argued for universal health coverage, was a spokesperson for President Clinton’s health reform effort and argued for comprehensive health education, especially sex education in schools. Elders resigned from her federal post in 1995 and resumed her professional career at UAMS. She retired in 1998. Her studies of growth in children and the treatment of hormone-related illnesses have been published in numerous medical research journals. Elders continues to lecture about and lobby for health care reform, openness in sex education and rehabilitation rather than incarceration in the war against drugs.

Seen by many as the voice of a generation, Wendy Wasserstein has used her art to chronicle the staggering social changes that have transformed modern life. From her days at Yale Drama School to her debut as a Broadway playwright, she has successfully balanced the funny, the serious and the inspirational. The first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize as the author of an original play, Wasserstein won the 1989 Pulitzer, as well as a Tony Award for best play, for The Heidi Chronicles. Other plays by Wasserstein include Isn’t It Romantic and Uncommon Women and Others, one of the most frequently performed plays on college campuses. She received a Tony nomination for her major Broadway hit, The Sisters Rosensweig. Her most recent Broadway play, An American Daughter, received several Tony nominations. The story of a prominent female professor awaiting confirmation as Surgeon General who is shattered by media investigations of her family, the production demonstrates Wasserstein’s ability to examine contemporary life with an unflinching eye. Her recently completed play about money and class, Old Money, will be produced this fall at Lincoln Center. Wasserstein’s talents extend beyond the stage. The author of the children’s book Pamela’s First Musical, about a young girl’s first theater experience, and Bachelor Girls, a collection of her New York Woman essays, she also wrote the screenplay for The Object of My Affection, starring Jennifer Aniston. Stretching further, Wasserstein has assumed the role of a librettist. For New York City Opera, she wrote The Festival of Regrets, part of the Central Park trilogy that included works by A.R. Gurney and Terrence McNally. She is currently working on a new libretto for The Merry Widow for the San Francisco Opera. A passionate advocate for the arts, Wasserstein serves on the board of the Council of the Dramatists Guild. She has taught at New York, Princeton and Columbia universities.

Under the charter of the college, it is the responsibility of the trustees to select a president. The full board has selected a special 16-member committee composed of Bates College trustees, members of faculty, two students, one member from alumni and one from staff employees. The committee will conduct the search and make a recommendation to the full board.

The committee is co-chaired by trustees Karen A. Harris of South Portland, Maine, and James F. Orr III of Boston. Harris is a management consultant and 1974 Bates graduate who once served as a member of the Bates Office of Admissions. Orr is the parent of a 1994 Bates graduate and is president and CEO of United Asset Management Corp. of Boston.

“Bates is in a great position to begin the search for a new president,” Harris said. “The college is stronger in every respect than it ever has been.”

In a joint letter to the Bates community, Harris and Orr said President Harward “has provided extraordinary leadership for Bates.” To build on the results of that leadership, they said that the committee will be asked to “identify the very best candidates, persons of intellectual distinction and accomplishment, proven leaders with a clear sense of the needs and values of a residential college of the liberal arts and sciences.”

Other trustees on the committee are: David O. Boone ’62 of Westlake, Ohio, retired chairman of LaGrange Products Inc.; Ann Bushmiller ’79, former associate counsel to the president of the United States, Washington, D.C.; J. Michael Chu ’80, managing general partner of Catterton Partners, Corp., in Greenwich, Conn.; Burton M. Harris ’59, a business management consultant in Swampscott, Mass.; Bruce E. Stangle ’70, chairman of Analysis Group, Inc., in Cambridge, Mass.; and Catharine R. Stimpson, honorary graduate of the Bates class of 1990 and dean of the New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science.

Faculty members on the committee are: Lillian R. Nayder, associate professor of English; Joseph Pelliccia, associate professor of biology; Kirk D. Read, associate professor of classical and romance languages and literatures, and Mary Rice-DeFosse, professor of classical and romance languages and literatures.

Other members of the Bates community on the search committee are students Tahsin I. Alam ’04 of Cambridge, Mass., and Graham F. Veysey ’04, of Shaker Heights, Ohio; Michael R. Bosse ’93, an attorney with Thompson & Bowie of Portland, Maine, and incoming vice president of the Alumni Council; and Christopher D. Lee, director of human resources.

Assistant Dean of Admissions Adam Garcia will take on an additional assignment as executive secretary to the search committee and liaison to the Bates community. Garcia has been a member of Bates admissions and financial aid offices for five years and is a 1992 Bates graduate.

The search committee held an organizational meeting March 10 and selected A.T. Kearney Executive Search of Alexandria, Va., to assist with procedural issues and in developing a candidate pool. The committee will continue to meet throughout the spring and summer. Finalists will be invited to campus in fall 2001. The committee will make periodic reports to the full board of trustees, and ultimately will make a recommendation to the full board. The new president is expected to take office in summer 2002.

Since its founding in 1855, Bates College has had just six presidents: founder Oren B. Cheney (1855–1894); George Colby Chase (1894–1920); Clifton Daggett Gray (1920–1944); Charles Franklin Phillips (1944–1967); Thomas Hedley Reynolds (1967–1989); and Donald West Harward (1989–2002).

Harward has served as Bates president since October 1989, creating an uncommonly close link between campus and community, strengthening qualities of the college, its faculty and its programs, presiding over the most successful fund-raising campaigns in the college’s history and a building program for the college that has included its most extensive facility development. During Harward’s tenure, the college consistently has been considered among the top 25 liberal arts colleges in the nation, attracting the most talented study body any time in its history.

Harward stressed that the announcement two years prior to retirement is intended to allow for the most effective and productive planning for the college: “We have achieved much and we have planned much to accomplish at the College and in the community during the next two years — and we are going to do it,” Harward said. “There will be no pause and there will be no backing away.”

In a letter this week to Bates faculty and staff, Harward said “it is with great respect for you, and for the work of the College, that I write to inform you that the Board of Trustees has graciously supported my decision to complete my service as president of Bates in June 2002.”

“While I was sorry to hear that there is now a set retirement date, Bates is a measurably greater institution for Don Harward’s years of service,” said James L. Moody Jr., chairman of the Bates College Board of Trustees. “It is stronger in every respect: academically, financially and in its ties to the Lewiston-Auburn community.”

Jill N. Reich, Bates vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, said the two-year lead time will be appreciated by the Bates College community.

“Don has made this decision in a thoughtful and wise way,” Reich said. “It ensures that this transition will be smooth, effective and worthy of the talent and accomplishments so characteristic of his tenure at Bates. We are committed to moving forward his plans for the College. In this time when college presidents serve four to five years at most, we are especially grateful that Bates has enjoyed the fruits of Don’s long tenure, wisdom and untiring effort.”

In the local community, Harward is the founding member and chair of LA Excels, a strategic team that includes the political, civic, business, educational, health services, social and cultural leadership of Lewiston and Auburn, Maine.

Ronald Lebel, an Auburn attorney and board member of Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce, earlier this year presented Harward with the 2000 Chamber of Commerce Public Service Leadership Award. In his remarks, he said that Harward “has done something no one before him has ever accomplished: He has transformed how this community sees itself and, in so doing, has permanently altered the course of its history and its destiny.”

Harward said Bates College has also benefitted by renewing its community links. “We are distinctly proud of the progress recently made in discovering and confirming our own sense of place in Lewiston-Auburn, and in Maine,” Harward said. “We are of the community and not merely in it. We have responsibilities and opportunities that are linked to the broader community and its citizens. LA Excels and other manifestations of those responsibilities and collaborative opportunities have put us in a different position than we were as an institution just a few years ago. Confirming our ‘rootedness,’ we are actualizing the promise of assisting the community in its own realization of its potential. Together, the College and the Lewiston-Auburn community are on a roll,” he said. We have much to build upon and our successes will continue.”

Before taking office at Bates, Harward was vice-president for academic affairs at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Prior to his tenure at the College of Wooster, he served as chair of the department of philosophy, then director of the University Honors Program at the University of Delaware.

Harward holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Maryland. Among his areas of scholarly interest and published research are the foundations of mathematics, analytic philosophy, epistemology, and logic.

He serves on the board of national and area education, business and social service organizations. He is a published contributor to professional discussions regarding institutional planning, research and liberal education, and the development of service learning. He also serves on the board of directors of corporations, and social and public service organizations. He serves on the national executive committee of Campus Compact, a national program that assists colleges with academically oriented community service initiatives.

At our annual winter meeting on December 16, we, the eleven college presidents, reaffirmed our strong commitment to the Conference and to its principles of academic and athletic balance. We considered the appropriateness of post-season play and affirmed it. Continued team and individual competition in NCAA championships is still under active consideration.

We established four task forces that will report to the NESCAC presidents’ meeting in late April. Each group will include presidents, athletic directors, faculty and students. The responsibilities of the four task forces are as follows:

1. To reexamine and reaffirm the mission and purposes of NESCAC, to make recommendations to continue the effectiveness and collaborative spirit of the Conference;
2. To consider and recommend a modest administrative structure, in a conference now 25 years old, to collect and analyze data, provide reports and surveys, and preserve minutes and conference memory;
3. To model and consider the organizational implications of proposed options for post-season competition, on the assumption that the Conference will select a single option for each sport;
4. To consider boundaries and balances between academic programs and athletics, so as to minimize conflicts between classes and examinations and athletic travel, practices, competitions and post-season play.

President Tom Gerety, Amherst College
President Donald W. Harward, Bates College
President Robert H. Edwards, Bowdoin College
President William R. Cotter, Colby College
President Claire L. Gaudiani, Connecticut College
President Eugene M. Tobin, Hamilton College
President John M. McCardell Jr., Middlebury College
President Evan S. Dobelle, Trinity College
President John A. DiBiaggio, Tufts University
President Douglas J. Bennett, Jr., Wesleyan University
President Harry C. Payne, Williams College

“From the day in 1932 when he first set foot on the Bates campus, Ed Muskie projected the intelligence and dignity the nation later was to know and respect so well. The death of Senator Muskie robs the world of an eloquent speaker for the dispossessed, for a clean environment and for decency in public life. His legacy is everywhere we look; and, as former President Jimmy Carter said during the dedication of the Muskie Archives in 1985, Ed Muskie should have been president of the United States. Although he fell short of that goal, Senator Muskie never lost the respect of all who knew him, including his political adversaries. Not to be forgotten as we contemplate the public man is his devotion to his family and his college. On behalf of the Bates community I convey condolences to Jane Muskie and their children. We have lost one of the giants of our time.”