Media contact: Gregory Shook, director of media relations, tele: 413-597-3401; email: [email protected]
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., August 31, 2018—Williams College will induct Maud S. Mandel as its 18th president on Saturday, Sept. 8, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in Chapin Hall. Michael R. Eisenson ’77, chair of the board of trustees, will offer remarks and formally present her with a copy of the college’s charter. Brown University President Christina H. Paxson will deliver a welcoming address.
Due to limited seating in Chapin Hall, the induction ceremony is a ticketed event. A simulcast will be available in the MainStage at the ’62 Center for Theatre and Dance and in Brooks-Rogers Recital Hall, Bernhard Music Center. In addition, the ceremony will be viewable online by livestream. A community barbeque and live music by Soul Sensations, with performances by special guests Homebrew, Ritmo Latino, Nothing But Cuties (NBC), and Sankofa, will immediately follow the ceremony.
Mandel, who will provide an Induction Address at the ceremony, joins a long and distinguished line of Williams College presidents that includes James Phinney Baxter III (1893-1975); Franklin Carter (1837-1919); Dr. Paul Ansel Chadbourne (1823-1883); John Wesley Chandler (1923- ); Tyler Dennett (1882-1949); Adam Falk (1965- ); Ebenezer Fitch (1756-1833); Harry Augustus Garfield (1863-1942); Edward Dorr Griffin (1770-1837); John Haskell Hewitt (1835-1920); Henry Hopkins (1837-1908); Mark Hopkins (1802-1887); Protik Majumder (1960- ); Zephaniah Swift Moore (1770-1823); Francis Christopher Oakley (1931- ); Harry Charles Payne (1947-2008); John Edward Sawyer (1917-1995); Morton Owen Schapiro (1953- ); Carl W. Vogt (1936- ); and William G. Wagner (1950- ).
Formal greetings to President Mandel will be offered on behalf of the following groups:
The Undergraduates: College Council Co-Presidents Elizabeth Hibbard ’19 and Moisés Roman Mendoza ’19
The Staff: Center for Development Economics Assistant Director Rachel J. Louis
The Faculty: Dean of the Faculty and Cluett Professor of Religion Denise K. Buel
The Alumni: Society of Alumni Vice President Kate Boyle Ramsdell ’97
The Delegates: Peter B. Ritzma Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History at Northwestern University Deborah Cohen
The Community: Williamstown Select Board Chair Anne C. O’Connor ’86
Maud S. Mandel became the 18th President of Williams in March 2018. She comes to Williams from Brown University, where she had served as a faculty member and Dean of the College, the university’s senior undergraduate academic officer since 2014.
As Brown’s Dean, Mandel was deeply involved in efforts to advance diversity and inclusion, leading a collaborative process with students and staff to open the First-Generation College and Low-Income Student Center (FLi Center), the first center at any Ivy League school to be dedicated to first-generation students. She had also led numerous efforts to enhance Brown’s curriculum, seeking to strengthen student learning in the core competencies of a liberal arts education, including writing, reading, research, data analysis, problem-solving and public speaking.
In her scholarship, which has been recognized with fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies and the American Philosophical Society, among others, Mandel examines the ways policies and practices of inclusion and exclusion in 20th-century France have affected ethnic and religious minorities, most notably Jews, Armenians, and Muslim North Africans. Mandel earned a B.A. from Oberlin College in 1989 and completed a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1998.
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Founded in 1793, Williams College is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in Massachusetts. The college’s 2,000 students are taught by a faculty noted for the quality of their teaching and research, and the achievement of academic goals includes active participation of students with faculty in their research. Students’ educational experience is enriched by the residential campus environment in Williamstown, Mass., which provides a host of opportunities for interaction with one another and with faculty beyond the classroom. Admission decisions on U.S. applicants are made regardless of a student’s financial ability, and the college provides grants and other assistance to meet the demonstrated needs of all who are admitted.
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Published August 31, 2018
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