After almost ten years at the helm of Middlebury College, President Laurie Patton has announced her intention to leave her post in January 2025. As the 17th president and first woman to ever hold the position, Patton leaves a legacy of leadership and expansion at an institution that has faced unprecedented challenges in recent years.
“I’ve been able to accomplish the dreams that I had, with and for Middlebury,” Patton told The Campus on Thursday morning.
Patton will leave Middlebury to take on the position of President of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She was elected to the Academy in 2018 in two categories: philosophy/religion as well as educational and academic leadership.
The college’s announcement comes at a moment of uncertainty in Middlebury’s community and higher education at large, something that both Board of Trustees Chair Ted Truscott and Patton acknowledged in interviews with The Campus on Thursday.
“I was and have been all in at Middlebury and would have been happy to stay several more years. This opportunity was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so it has nothing really to do with politics of campuses. If anything, these kinds of conversations energize me, and I feel like even though they’re hard, Middlebury has been dealing with them really constructively, and I’m all in,” Patton told The Campus.
Truscott described Patton’s departure as bittersweet for the college.
“The Board is very happy for Laurie, very supportive of Laurie,” Truscott told The Campus on Thursday morning. “We’re all sad to see her go, quite frankly. It’s a tremendous honor for Laurie, and it reflects well on Middlebury that she’s achieved this honor.”
Truscott said the search committee for the new president hopes they will have found a replacement by July 2025, which is the start of the new fiscal year. He added that the process for finding a new president will be expedited in hopes of accomplishing this goal quickly and ensuring continuity with her accomplishments.
“At the end of the day, I think that means we can perform this search probably a little bit more expeditiously than the last search. We’re going to take our time with this, but it’s going to be more expeditious,” Truscott stated.
Truscott distinguished the plans for this upcoming search from the presidential search 10 years ago, which resulted in Patton’s appointment as president. That search process included more of what he described as constituent dialogues about the future of the college.
“So when I think about that, I don’t think we need to have tons of constituent discussions. I think people have been very vocal about what they expect from Middlebury, and I think Laurie has delivered on a lot of that,” he said. “It’s really about continuity.”
Before coming to Middlebury, Patton served as Dean of Trinity College of Arts and Sciences at Duke University, and taught religion at Emory University and Bard College. She was inaugurated as president of Middlebury on October 11, 2015.
As Patton stepped into office, she inherited a structural deficit in Middlebury’s finances. Throughout her term, Patton returned $38 million to the institution’s budget. This past fall, she launched the For Every Future campaign, which has raised $444 million of its $600 million goal thus far. In the past three years, the college has received the largest fundraising totals in Middlebury’s history, according to the press release from May 2 announcing Patton’s departure.
Patton also made efforts to increase general financial transparency. In 2019, she unveiled Energy2028, in which the college pledged to divest from fossil fuels and put the institution on a path toward renewable energy by 2028.
Another key component of Patton’s presidency was her emphasis on the college’s relationship to the town of Middlebury. During her tenure, the college has subsidized the expansion of Otter Creek Child Care Center, doubling the town of Middlebury’s childcare capacity. In April 2022, the college invested in an affordable housing project with over 200 units, which is set to open in 2025.
Access to the college has also improved under Patton’s tenure. Currently, over 20% of students are the first in their family to attend college, nearly 40% are domestic students of color and almost 50% of Middlebury students receive financial aid, according to the college’s press release.
Patton has appreciated the close bonds she has formed with members of the Middlebury community over her tenure as president. Photo from 2016.
The college has also faced numerous challenges during Patton’s ten years as president. On March 2, 2017, Middlebury was rocked by the guest lecture of controversial sociologist Charles Murray, which resulted in a national media coverage and disciplinary proceedings for dozens of students who protested against his visit on campus. In March 2020, like schools across the country during the Covid-19 pandemic, the college announced it would send students home for the remainder of the semester. It then implemented varying levels of restrictions on gatherings and classes until fall 2022.
While her years here have seen challenges, Patton has remained at the college longer than the leaders of many other universities. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, in 2023 the average tenure of a college president is 5.9 years, down from 6.5 years in 2016 and 8.5 years in 2006. Patton will have been the president of Middlebury for nearly 10 years when she steps down in January 2025.
The college will begin the search process for the next president in the coming weeks. According to Truscott, the search committee will consist of members of the Board of Trustees, as well as members of the Middlebury community, including staff, faculty and students.
Truscott said the committee will want the next president to work toward continuing the initiatives Patton began during her tenure. These initiatives Truscott cited include the “For Every Future” campaign, Energy2028, Conflict Transformation and effectively managing the Language Schools, Bread Loaf and the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
“I don't want to get too far out over my skis on this, but I'd say that the future president of Middlebury College will clearly want to put some of their own stamp on what they do going forward, but we will need that person to be committed to continuing the number of of great initiatives that Laurie has started,” Truscott said.
Truscott affirmed that Patton’s departure is related to the opportunity that presented itself at the Academy, rather than related to current political events.
“The political aspect of the job, which is always difficult, has not been part of this discussion or decision at all,” Truscott said. “Yes, there’s a lot going on out there in the world, but the politics have nothing to do with this.”
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences is a scholarly society in Cambridge, Mass., founded in 1780 by John Hancock and John Adams, among others. The Academy is the second oldest intellectual society in the country, and its current membership includes former President Barack Obama, as well as many other Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners.
“Patton embodies both scholarship and leadership at the highest levels, and we are thrilled that she will lead the Academy as our next president,” Goodwin Liu, chair of the Board of Directors at the Academy and chair of the presidential search committee, wrote in a press release on May 2. “She brings tremendous substance, vision, warmth and energy to the Academy’s work of honoring excellence and advancing the common good.”
Patton will succeed David W. Oxtoby, who stepped down as president of the Academy in October 2023 after over five years in the role.
Patton has taught a class in the Religion Department at Middlebury most semesters during her tenure as president. While Patton said she won’t have time to continue teaching each semester when she takes on her new role at the Academy, she hopes to keep teaching in some capacity when time permits.
“I have so many deep friendships and collegial relationships in the community that I plan to stay in really close touch with,” Patton added. “Teaching is so much a part of who I am that I couldn’t really live without and teaching and learning with students.”
Patton attends a football game with her dog, Suka, in 2021.
Patton and her husband, Pardon Tillinghast Professor of Religion Shalom Goldman, plan to remain living at their current home in Shoreham, Vt., and Patton will work in Cambridge during the week.
The college has begun to bid farewell to Patton (and her beloved dog Suka) and to look towards its unknown 18th president. Middlebury will soon be entering a new chapter in its 224-year history as an academic institution.
“I think a lot about whether institutions have a soul, and I would say Middlebury has an incredible soul,” Patton told the Campus. “I have real confidence and joy, anticipating what it will do around the things that matter most to it in the future.”
Katie Futterman '24 (she/her) is a Managing Editor.
Katie previously served as a News Editor and Staff Writer. This past summer, she was a news intern at Seven Days, and she held the same position at the Addison Independent the prior summer. In her free time, she loves to read, write, and bask in the sun.
Maggie Reynolds '24 (she/her) is the Editor in Chief.
Maggie previously served as the Senior Local Editor, a Local Section Editor, and a Staff Writer. She spent this past J-term interning for VTDigger, covering topics from affordable housing in Addison County to town government scandals. She also interned for Seven Days VT as an arts & culture reporter summer 2022 and as a news reporter for the Daily Gazette in Schenectady, NY summer 2021.
Maggie is majoring in History and minoring in Political Science and Spanish. She was a three-year member of the Women's Swimming and Diving team. Maggie enjoys running, hiking, and iced maple lattes.
Ryan McElroy '25 (he/him) is the Editor in Chief.
Ryan has previously served as a Managing Editor, News Editor and Staff Writer. He is majoring in history with a minor in art history. Outside of The Campus, he is co-captain of Middlebury Mock Trial and previously worked as Head Advising Fellow for Matriculate and a research assistant in the History department. Last summer Ryan interned as a global risk analyst at a bank in Charlotte, North Carolina.
