Ronald D. Liebowitz has been appointed the 16th president of Middlebury College. Liebowitz, 46, succeeds John M. McCardell Jr. who will step down at the end of June after serving 13 years as Middlebury's president.
Liebowitz's appointment was announced by Churchill Franklin, chair of the Middlebury College Board of Trustees, at a meeting of the College community held on April 16 in Mead Chapel. The appointment was made the day before at a special meeting of the College's board of trustees in Boston.
The announcement follows the completion of a five-month search during which 400 prospective candidates were reviewed. Finalists were selected from among approximately 30 top candidates considered by a 16-member, board-appointed search committee.
In announcing the appointment, board chair Churchill Franklin said, "Ron Liebowitz has been an extremely dedicated and talented member of the Middlebury College community for 20 years. The board's decision to name him as the next president of Middlebury College was made with the full confidence that we had unquestionably selected the best person to lead the College forward at this vital juncture in its history."
Speaking to the members of the College community gathered in Mead Chapel, Liebowitz expressed optimism about Middlebury's future and said he was honored to be selected as president. "Middlebury is a great institution, and I look forward with enthusiasm and pride to leading it in the next chapter of its history," he said.
Currently on leave in New York City, Liebowitz, his wife Jessica, and their infant son David Heschel will return to Vermont this summer. After Liebowitz assumes the presidency, the family will reside at the official residence of the Middlebury College president in Middlebury. For more on the announcement and Ron Liebowitz, see:/about/pubaff_port/news_releases/news_2004/Liebowitz+pres.htm.
If you were ever a member of Middlebury College Hillel, or if you are interested in Jewish life at the College, the current membership would like to know who and where you are. The 2004-2005 academic year will mark the 50th anniversary of Hillel at Middlebury and the 350th year of Jewish life in North America.
In celebration of these milestones, a calendar full of events both on and off campus is being planned. One of the highlights of the year will be a Hillel Reunion Weekend, Nov. 12-13, which will include the Silberman Symposium on "350 Years of Jewish Life in North America" and the theater department production of Israel Zangwell's "The Melting Pot."
Send your contact information to Rabbi Ira Schiffer, Chaplain's Office, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 05753 or e-mail ischiffe@middlebury.edu.
In other Hillel news, students who are members of the organization recently participated in a spring break project to help the residents of Cerro Bonito, a small, rural farming village of 25 families in the central highlands of Honduras. During the week-long service project, Middlebury students worked with students from the Williams College chapter of Hillel to build a new one-room school for the 35 children of the village. The group of students, along with one rabbi from each college, completed the construction of the school, which had been started before they arrived. Their tasks included painting, building a concrete sidewalk, and the digging and construction of a latrine. For additional details of the trip and to view photos see: www.middlebury.edu/about/pubaff_port/news_releases/news_2004/Honduras+Trip+March.htm.
Thirty sophomores dedicated two days of their spring break to exploring career options, thanks to Middlebury alumni and friends in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., and Vermont. Through the Career Services Office (CSO) Sophomore Externship program, these volunteers welcomed students into workplaces as diverse as the Massachusetts Audubon Society and Sotheby's, offering a window into careers in politics, healthcare, environmental protection, filmmaking, publishing, investment banking, broadcasting, economic consulting, AIDS relief, museum education, fine arts, and venture capital. Alumni at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York hosted nine students for a day of education about investment banking. This was the third year for the Sophomore Externship program, which has grown from six student participants in the fall of 2001 to 30 this spring, the highest number ever.
The CSO also reports that a record number of juniors have accepted internships on Wall Street this summer. Working through firms on campus for recruiting visits this year, the CSO arranged for 15 interns to work with top tier firms such as Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, and Morgan Stanley.
Frank Swenton of the mathematics department has been awarded the Perkins Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Division of Natural Sciences. The award for excellence is given each year to a member of Middlebury College's natural sciences division, alternating year to year between a faculty member in the mathematics department and a faculty member in one of the other five departments in the natural sciences.
In February, MiddNews reported that actor and activist Christopher Reeve, who is best known for his lead role in the 1978 motion picture "Superman," and his wife Dana Morosini Reeve '84 will co-deliver the commencement address at Middlebury's 2004 graduation ceremony. Eight other distinguished individuals will also receive honorary degrees at the event.
The list of recipients includes: Arthur B. Cohn, executive director and co-founder of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, Vt.; Kenneth R. Feinberg, one of the nation's leading experts in mediation and alternative dispute resolution, who is currently the special master of the federal September 11 Victim Compensation Fund; Claire W. Gargalli '64 who served as a trustee of the College from 1988-2002 and the chair of the board of trustees from 1995-1999; Marcia Kraft Goin '54, professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and president of the American Psychiatric Association; F. Washington Jarvis, headmaster of the Roxbury Latin School in Boston since 1974; W. Storrs Lee '28, former Middlebury College English Instructor and editor of College publications, who also served with two other faculty members as interim College president in 1941 (Lee is not able to attend commencement); Paul Muldoon, a professor at the Middlebury College Bread Loaf School of English, who also holds teaching appointments at Princeton and Oxford, and whose collections of poetry include "Moy Sand and Gravel," for which he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize; and Meryl Streep, a two-time Academy Award winner and the recipient of a record-breaking 13 Oscar nominations, who has portrayed a vast array of roles in theatre, film and television.
The outdoor graduation ceremonies will take place on the main quadrangle behind Voter Hall on College Street at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 23. More than 5,000 family and friends are expected to attend. In the case of severe weather, commencement will be held in Kenyon Arena. For a commencement calendar and other information consult the Web at /students/commencement/.