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BY MARY PRAGER

In print | Published February 21, 2008

Starting on July 30, the presidency of Bryn Mawr College will change hands from current President Nancy J. Vickers to Dr. Jane Dammen McAuliffe.

In Feb. 2007 Vickers announced her intent to retire, and since then a 15-member committee has been guiding the search for a new president. The leading candidate identified by that search was McAuliffe, currently serving as acting Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgetown University. On Feb. 8, 2008, Bryn Mawr presented a press release announcing McAuliffe’s appointment as the eighth president of the college. McAuliffe brings with her an impressive academic reputation and a mandate for change.

Arlene Joy Gibson, a Bryn Mawr College trustee who chaired the Presidential Search Committee, described the search process as exhaustive. “Over the past year we canvassed a very diverse field of extraordinary candidates across all areas of professional accomplishment, both within and beyond the academy,” she said in a press release. “[McAuliffe] rose to the top of that field because her vision, intellect and commitment to women’s education are a perfect fit for the Bryn Mawr community.”

Internationally recognized as a preeminent scholar of Islamic studies, McAuliffe has focused her academic work on interpretation of the Qur’an. One of her major recent accomplishments has been editing a six-volume Encyclopedia of the Qur’an.

She said, however, it is her overall experience with interracial and interreligious relations rather than specifically her specialization in Islamic studies that will inform her future at Bryn Mawr.

In her time at Georgetown since 1999, McAuliffe was responsible for many improvements and advancements, including the construction of a university performing arts center, the enactment of a curricular revisions and the enhancement of the science program at Georgetown in terms of faculty and students.

“I think I can bring a strong track record of academic leadership, of scholarly productivity, of great enthusiasm, and I’ve also done a great deal of fundraising at Georgetown University and those are skills I’ll bring to Bryn Mawr College,” McAuliffe said.

McAuliffe became interested in the administrative position at Bryn Mawr College as a result of Bryn Mawr’s reputation and her own personal experience. “It’s a college that I’ve known about and admired since I was a young person,” she said. “It has continued to be one of the best colleges in North America.”

Having completed her undergraduate studies at Trinity University, McAuliffe said she feels personally responsible for ensuring the success of women’s colleges in the future.

Her first move at Bryn Mawr will be to meet as many people as possible and to become a part of the community. As an outsider, she hopes to get to know people and places within the first weeks and months. “I hope to be able to continue what has been a tremendous amount of achievement under Nancy Vickers,” McAuliffe said, citing Bryn Mawr’s high quality students, superb faculty and its structures of governance in her anticipation of what she hopes will be a strong foundation upon which to take her next steps — some of which will include strengthening the Tri-College community.

“I think the Tri-Co relationship is such a huge asset for all three institutions that I’m sure the presidents of all three would like to do nothing more than strengthen it. Anything we can do to strengthen the vitality … of all three will benefit all three institutions,” McAuliffe said.

Vickers, the outgoing president, has served Bryn Mawr since 1997 as the seventh president of the college. “It has been a profound privilege and pleasure to have been a part of the Bryn Mawr — and indeed the Tri-College community — for the past eleven years,” she said in an e-mail.

“I have worked hard during that time to encourage and cultivate an intellectual environment that is open to new areas of study, to interdisciplinarity and to diversity of all kinds. Being part of the team that raised more than $232 million for our Challenging Women campaign is also an accomplishment of which I am very proud.”

Bryn Mawr sophomore Neha Agarwal is both sad to see Vickers leave and excited for McAuliffe’s imminent presidency. “I think Nancy Vickers has done a lot of great things for our school,” she said.

Agarwal had the opportunity to meet McAuliffe.

“She was well-spoken and genuinely interested in listening to students and what their goals are for Bryn Mawr, and trying to help realize those goals,” Agarwal said. “She’s coming to Mayday, a tradition at Bryn Mawr at the end of class when students get together and bond. I think it’s really great that she’s making an appearance at the event.”

Vice President Maurice Eldridge ’61 said that the three presidents of the Tri-Co schools, as well as the provosts, deans and various faculty, have mutually supportive relationships as part of the Tri-Co community.

“I am certain that the new president [at Bryn Mawr] will forge a productive working relationship with the Haverford and Swarthmore presidents,” Eldridge said. “The current, now departing, president at Bryn Mawr was an integral and welcomed member of this tri-partite relationship.”

Additional reporting by Yingjia Wang.

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