LEWISTON — Bates College President Elaine Tuttle Hansen on Wednesday announced she would step down effective July 2011, after nine years with the college.
Hansen will assume a leadership position elsewhere to be announced within the next two weeks, according to a news release.
On Wednesday night, Hansen waxed nostalgic about the community in which she has both lived and worked over the past decade.
“The deep and historic ties between Bates College and the Lewiston-Auburn community are remarkable,” she said. “And the work of our current faculty and students with many facets of that community, especially through the Harward Center, maintains and extends that vitality. I am deeply grateful for the support of the many citizens of Lewiston-Auburn and central Maine communities who have partnered in our work over the last nine years.”
Nancy J. Cable, vice president and dean of Enrollment and External Affairs, has been appointed interim president. She will return to her position once a new president is selected.
In a prepared statement, Trustee Chairman Mike Bonney praised the number of goals Hansen was able to meet in her nine years as president.
“Elaine’s capable dedication to Bates,” Bonney wrote, “began with a tall order of requests from the 2002 Board of Trustees: Provide strong support for our faculty and academic life, broaden the reach of Bates to a more diverse array of talented students and secure philanthropy that will assure the college’s fiscal strength. We also asked her to consider improvements to the college’s buildings and grounds and to provide strong financial and organizational leadership to the college as a whole.”
Bonney wrote that Hansen strengthened the college “in many significant ways. Working energetically with the Board of Trustees, as well as our outstanding Bates faculty, staff, students and alumni, she achieved many key institutional goals in academic and student life, fundraising, faculty support and innovation, facilities planning, fiscal management and collaboration in college-wide strategic initiatives.”
In 2009, Hansen received Mount Holyoke College’s Elizabeth Topham Kennan Award, presented periodically to an outstanding alumna educator. She lives in Lewiston with her husband and two daughters.
Hansen will assume a leadership position elsewhere to be announced within the next two weeks, according to a news release.
“I am so proud of how Bates has met the challenges of being a liberal arts college in the world today,” Hansen said in a message to the Bates community. “In our highly virtual and transient society, we have preserved the idea that living and learning in a stable, physical community represents unique and golden opportunities for the next generation of thinkers and leaders.
“With most of the goals of my administration accomplished,” she said, “and the time for our next comprehensive fundraising campaign on the horizon, it is the right moment for the trustees to find the next leader of this very important college.”
Nancy J. Cable, vice president and dean of Enrollment and External Affairs, has been appointed interim president. She will return to her position once a new president is selected.
In a prepared statement, Trustee Chairman Mike Bonney praised the number of goals Hansen was able to meet in her nine years as president.
“Elaine’s capable dedication to Bates,” Bonney wrote, “began with a tall order of requests from the 2002 Board of Trustees: Provide strong support for our faculty and academic life, broaden the reach of Bates to a more diverse array of talented students and secure philanthropy that will assure the college’s fiscal strength. We also asked her to consider improvements to the college’s buildings and grounds and to provide strong financial and organizational leadership to the college as a whole.”
Bonney wrote that Hansen strengthened the college “in many significant ways. Working energetically with the Board of Trustees, as well as our outstanding Bates faculty, staff, students and alumni, she achieved many key institutional goals in academic and student life, fundraising, faculty support and innovation, facilities planning, fiscal management and collaboration in college-wide strategic initiatives.”
In 2009, Hansen received Mount Holyoke College’s Elizabeth Topham Kennan Award, presented periodically to an outstanding alumna educator. She lives in Lewiston with her husband and two daughters.
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