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Hamilton College creates search committee for new Dean of Students

By Ilana Schwartz ’17

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Last spring, former president Joan Hinde Stewart announced the retirement of Nancy Thompson, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, at the end of the 2016-2017 academic year. Dean Thompson joined the Hamilton community in July 1986 as assistant dean of students and became Dean of Students in 2005.
With the retirement of Dean Thompson quickly approaching, the search for her replacement has picked up. The first step in the process was the selection of the committee that will spearhead the search. Karen Brewer chairs the search committee and will be working with Phyllis Breland ’80, David Dacres ’18, Audrey Darnis ’18, Travis Hill, Jon Hind ’80, Monica Inzer, Herm Lehman and Art Massolo ’64 over the next several months to find Dean Thompson’s successor. President Wippman chose members of the search committee after soliciting recommendations from members of the Board of Trustees, Student Assembly, faculty and other members of senior staff.
The president’s office selected Isaacson Miller, a higher education consulting firm, to assist in the search for the new Dean of Students. Isaacson Miller has significant experience in student affairs searches for residential liberal arts colleges and even assisted with the presidential search last year, bringing Wippman to the Hill. The firm also assisted Amherst College, Bates College, Colby College, Smith College and Swarthmore College with recent student affairs searches. Isaacson Miller Vice President Ponneh Varho and Managing Assistant Natalie Leonhard will be the main assistants to the search committee.
On Jan. 18, Isaacson Miller representatives visited the Hill to get input about the search from Hamilton’s student body. They met with various student groups and facilitated conversations in order to understand Hamilton’s culture and what students look and hope for in the administration, specifically in their Dean of Students. The information gathered from their visit will help them write a position profile, which will be posted on the Hamilton website and distributed to recruiting sites to get as many applications as possible.
Once the profile is written, Isaacson Miller will begin recruiting and vetting candidates. They will target administrators from other schools in order to build the best possible candidate pool, which is why confidentiality is crucial throughout the process. The Hamilton search committee will begin reading applications in March and narrowing the list of candidates throughout April. At the end of April, the final candidates will come to the Hill for interviews and the candidate selected will be announced before the end of the semester.
Although Dean Thompson is not on the search committee, she trusts that the person selected to fill her role “will enjoy working with students and be committed to our residential liberal arts mission.” Dean Thompson advises her successor to “engage students in addressing campus issues and developing new programs.”

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