The Board of Trustees at Hamilton College has named Joan Hinde Stewart its 19th president.
Stewart is currently dean of the College of Liberal Arts and professor of French at the University of South Carolina (USC). She will become the first female president in the 191-year history of the formerly all-male college when she assumes office on July 1. The first in her family to earn a college degree, the Brooklyn native will also join the college's faculty as professor of French.
Stewart was introduced to the Hamilton community today at 9 a.m. in the College Chapel by Stuart L. Scott, chairman of the Board of Trustees. Scott said Stewart was the unanimous choice to replace Eugene M. Tobin, who will step down from the Hamilton presidency on June 30 after 10 years in the position. Tobin will become a senior advisor at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
"In making its recommendation to the Board of Trustees," Scott said, "the Search Committee was impressed with Joan's energy, intellect and commitment to students. Throughout her 32-year career in higher education, she has distinguished herself as a teacher, scholar and administrator. Colleagues describe Joan as a smart and strategic thinker," Scott continued. "She is decisive and a strong advocate for the liberal arts. Hamilton is fortunate to have attracted someone of such stature and experience to lead the College."
"Hamilton attracted me because of its intellectual heritage, especially its historical emphasis on teaching students to communicate ideas clearly and persuasively," said Stewart. "The college is well-positioned to meet the challenges of the future. It has an outstanding faculty, talented students, and exceptionally loyal alumni who are leaders in their professions. I am delighted to be joining a community whose members embrace liberal arts education and are committed to producing graduates who are creative, critical and analytical thinkers.
"I am deeply honored by Hamilton's confidence in me," Stewart continued, "and I intend to do everything possible to deserve and sustain that confidence. Selective, residential liberal arts colleges are the glory of the American educational system, and Hamilton College is a particularly glorious model of such an institution."
Stewart has been at the University of South Carolina since the fall of 1999, and, during her tenure as dean, has played a significant role university-wide as a member of the Provost's Committee on Strategic Directions and Initiatives. She leads the College of Liberal Arts, USC's largest and most diverse college in terms of enrollment (5,000 students), number of faculty (295), and academic offerings (16 departments and eight interdisciplinary programs).
"Joan Stewart is an extraordinary dean, highly sensitive to the concerns of faculty and students," said USC President Andrew A. Sorensen. "She has the ability to achieve widespread consensus, and then, once having arrived at a decision, she is able to stay with it and be consistent in implementing it, all the while maintaining sensitivity to faculty, staff and students."
"All of us make decisions that some people will disagree with," Sorensen continued, "but if they detect that you are consistent and arrive at the decision fairly, having sought widespread input, they respect your integrity. Joan Stewart clearly is a person with enormous integrity."
"Joan is one of the best deans that I have ever worked with," said Jerome D. Odom, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at USC. "She has done an incredible job in always encouraging her faculty to be better teachers, to be better researchers, and to be involved in outreach to the community. She is a very intelligent person and, at the same time, a very down- to-earth and warm individual."
Stewart came to USC from North Carolina State University (NC State), where she was a member of the faculty from 1973 to 1999 and chaired the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures from 1985 to 1997. She also served as assistant dean for research and graduate programs for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. In 1988-89, Stewart chaired the North Carolina Humanities Council, and in 1977 she received the university's Outstanding Teaching Award.
Prior to joining the NC State faculty, Stewart taught at Wellesley College and Yale University, where she received her Ph.D. in 1970. She was an undergraduate at St. Joseph's College, a small, private, liberal arts institution in New York City, from which she graduated summa cum laude in 1965.
Stewart's scholarship focuses principally on 18th-century French literature, especially women writers. In addition to books on 18th-century fiction and editions of several 18th-century novels, her publications include a book on the French writer Colette. She is currently at work on an academic project tentatively titled The Enlightenment of Age: Older Women Intellectuals in Eighteenth-Century France.
Stewart has also authored numerous articles, essays, chapters and book reviews, and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences both in the United States and abroad. She is the recipient of fellowships from Yale University, the National Humanities Center and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and has been a fellow at the Université Paul Valéry in Montpellier, France, a visiting scholar at Oxford University in England, and a fellow at the Liguria Study Center for the Arts and Letters in Genoa, Italy.
"As a scholar and a colleague, Joan is an enabler and a tremendous source of inspiration," said Vicki Mistacco, professor of French at Wellesley College. "These qualities are amply evident in her work with students as well. I am sure that all constituencies at Hamilton -- students, faculty and staff -- will be energized by her presence. She will find the spark of originality in all of you and encourage you to realize, each in your own way, your highest potential. Hamilton is indeed very fortunate to have her on board."
Ronald C. Rosbottom, a long-time colleague who shares a scholarly interest in 18th-century French studies, said Stewart "is one of the most influential scholars in the country in her field. She is a person of real integrity … a person of quality … with extraordinary public poise and a wonderful sense of humor," added Rosbottom, former dean of the faculty and professor of French and European studies at Amherst College. "She really believes in the power of education to change the world, and she is convinced that the liberal arts provide the ideal intellectual foundation for our world's future leaders."
USC Interim Vice President for Research Harris Pastides says Stewart "has a way with words; it is not an exaggeration to call her eloquent. When I'm in Joan's company," Pastides added, "I try to be my best in speaking the language and writing the language. She will raise the bar for students to speak the spoken word and write the written word capably. She'll do that by her own use of language." The Queens, N.Y., native says he knows Hamilton well and describes Stewart as a "wonderful fit" with the college. "Joan has always been perceived as presidential by many of us who know her well," he added.
Trustee Chairman Scott said the process to identify a new president for Hamilton began seven months ago with the appointment of a 12-member search committee that consisted of trustees, faculty members, the academic vice president and a student. After interviewing faculty, students, staff and alumni, the committee adopted what came to be called a Challenge Statement that was posted on the college's Web site and shared with prospective candidates. In addition to describing the college, the Challenge Statement identified the characteristics being sought in a new president.
According to Scott, Hamilton wanted its new president to:
• inspire and motivate,
• provide intellectual leadership,
• enhance student life,
• complete and execute a facilities master plan,
• deliver on diversity,
• increase community partnerships, and
• lead a capital campaign.
In addition, Scott said Hamilton sought:
• a visionary and strategic thinker,
• a person experienced in maintaining excellence in undergraduate education,
• a visible and passionate spokesperson,
• a person with a deep-seated and proven commitment to diversity, broadly defined,
• an advocate for the faculty,
• an academic leader,
• an accessible and approachable person,
• an experienced and decisive manager,
• an administrator who understands the use of information technology, and
• a person who can sustain the loyalty of the alumni to the College.
"In other words," Scott said, "we wanted a person who had it all, and I'm pleased to say we succeeded." He said the college received nominations, expressions of interest and applications from nearly 300 individuals.
Hamilton's president-elect is married to Philip Stewart, the Benjamin E. Powell Professor of Romance Studies at Duke University. He has served as chair of romance studies and of Duke's Academic Council, and is the former president of the American Association of Teachers of French. They have a daughter, who is a graduate of Haverford College and is pursuing a Ph.D. in German at Indiana University in Bloomington, and a son, who is a student at Prescott College in Arizona.
Hamilton College provides diverse and talented students with a superior liberal arts education in a residential environment. The college emphasizes individualized instruction, intense student-faculty contact, superior advising and consistently rigorous academic programs. Hamilton currently enrolls approximately 1,750 students and employs 180 full-time faculty members.
One of the oldest colleges in the country, Hamilton will celebrate its bicentennial in 2012. In 1978, the college joined with Kirkland College, a women's college adjacent to the Hamilton campus, to become a single coeducational institution.
