Byerly To Become Lafayette President

On July 1, 2013 Former Provost and Executive Vice President Alison Byerly will leave the College after 23 years of service to begin her term as the first female president of Lafayette College in Easton, Penn.

“People want to see [Lafayette] balance a need to innovate and change and move into the 21st century, with a desire to still have it be the place they love,” said Byerly of one of her main challenges ahead as president. Many colleges face the demand of integrating the past and the future, and Byerly is ready to conquer that challenge at Lafayette. “I feel ready for a new challenge at this stage in my career,” she continued.

She will also face the additional challenge of learning the ins and outs of a new community. Although Lafayette and Middlebury are both small, residential colleges, they are very different in terms of location, specialization and character. After spending the entirety of her career at Middlebury, this will be the first time Byerly will have to completely integrate herself into a new community.

Byerely’s move to Lafayette is a return to her roots. She grew up in Pennsylvania and completed her degree in Victorian literature at the University of Pennsylvania before joining the faculty at Middlebury. Although Byerly was not initially searching for a post in administration, she became drawn to it by leading faculty committee work at the College, eventually securing a post as provost. She has also served as executive vice president, amongst other positions.

This past academic year, Byerly has been on leave, serving as a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her work there has involved setting up and participating on panels about digital scholarship. Her work at MIT, in addition to her liberal arts background at Middlebury, helped set her apart from the other presidential candidates during the six-month vetting process.

“As president you have to lead an institution that consists of many parts that are not your specialization,” said Byerly. “You have to be a generalist. You have to understand enough to support the people that do know the details that you don’t.”

Although she has no degree in engineering, the exposure through work at MIT will help her administer to the needs of Lafayette’s engineering school that accompanies its traditional liberal arts college.

“A thoughtful, energetic explorer of the many new possibilities technology offered to teachers, researchers and students in our colleges and universities, [Byerly] is widely recognized in American higher education as an important voice for forward-looking change and effective consensus-building,” said Philip E. Lewis, vice president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in Lafayette College’s press release.

Although excited to start her new post at Lafayette, Byerly admits that she is sad to leave Middlebury, a place she has called home for over two decades.

“What I’ve loved  most about Middlebury is that it is an ambitious place,” said Byerly, adding that this quality is shared with Lafayette.

“Whether as professor or provost, I never lost sight of the feeling I had when I came here my first interview,” added Byerly. “I walk across campus and say, ‘I would be lucky to be a professor here.’ I thought that the day I first stepped on campus, and I think that now.”