Greg Avis ’80
Greg Avis ’80

Following President Schapiro’s announcement in December that he would move to the presidency of Northwestern University this summer, the Williams Board of Trustees has formed a Presidential Search Committee. Its 16 members (trustees, faculty, staff, students and alumni) are charged with recommending a short list of finalists to the board, which will make the appointment.

To support the process, the committee retained the services of the well-known international search firm Isaacson, Miller.

“The first step has been to hear from as broad a cross-section as possible of faculty, staff, students, alumni and parents,” says Greg Avis ’80, who chairs both the search committee and the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees. “In addition to focus group meetings and open forums for those on campus, we have reached out to all alumni and parents, asking them to identify the issues they think Williams will have to deal with in the short and long run, the attributes they believe we should stress in evaluating nominees and the individuals they recommend we consider.”

This input guided the writing of a prospectus to describe the College at this point in its history and articulate the attributes the committee will value most in candidates.

The committee is operating on the possibility of having a new president in place by this summer. If at some point that seems unlikely, the board will make interim arrangements.

You can follow the progress of the search at www.williams.edu/admin/ president/search.