Letter from Board Chair Ted Truscott, May 2024

To Middlebury’s Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, Parents, and Friends,

You heard from Laurie Patton today about her plans to assume the presidency of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in January 2025. I want to take this opportunity to communicate with you on behalf of the Board of Trustees.

This is an extraordinary honor for Laurie—and for Middlebury. The Academy was created in 1780 by John Adams and John Hancock, among others, to “convene leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world … and cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.” Its current membership includes Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners and former U.S. presidents. Its mission, as Laurie said in her letter, is in so many ways aligned with our own and an extension of Laurie’s leadership here.

We understand how news of this kind can create uncertainty. We’ll be in touch with you in the coming weeks to let you know our timetable and logistics for the transition, as well as the composition of the committee to find Laurie’s successor. 

The search for a new president will be an inclusive effort and involve members from across our entire learning community. We’ll be as transparent as possible about the search process, recognizing there are obvious issues of confidentiality in an effort of this kind. And we’ll communicate with you regularly throughout.

The most important responsibility of any governing board is to select the right person to lead the institution, and we want to assure you this is the highest priority for me and all our trustees. The search will be an accelerated one and will focus on both the continuity of Middlebury values and preeminent qualities of leadership. We will be looking for a new president to build on the achievements of the past decade and take us to new heights. Our conversations and reflections throughout the search process will be steeped in the mission and character of this exceptional place: Our shared commitment to immersive learning; our shared goal of preparing students to lead engaged, consequential, and creative lives; our shared expectation that our students will contribute to their communities and apply their Middlebury educations in a world that needs them.

Because those are the ideals embedded in our mission, those are the principles that will anchor us in our search.

As Laurie said in her letter, she will be fully engaged as president until her departure, so now is not the time for reflecting on Laurie’s tenure at Middlebury. We’ll have ample time for that, which means celebrating the achievements that we all have made together, as a community, during this significant era in Middlebury’s history. For now, we look forward to engaging with you in this most important effort and will be back in touch soon.

With appreciation,

William F. (Ted) Truscott
Board Chair