December 12, 2014
President Joan Hinde Stewart informed members of the Hamilton College Board of Trustees last week that she plans to retire on June 30, 2016. After 13 years leading Hamilton College. Stewart has led the College for 13 years, making her the eight longest serving president in its history.
“I…consider myself privileged to have worked for so long with gifted students, outstanding colleagues, generous and dedicated alumni, supportive parents and a superb board,” Stewart said in her message to the Hamilton community.
Stewart assumed the Hamilton presidency on July 1, 2003. She was formerly dean of the College of Liberal Arts and professor of French at the University of South Carolina (USC). The first in her family to earn a college degree, Stewart also joined the Hamilton faculty as a professor of French. She is the first female president in Hamilton’s 200-year history.
During her time as Hamilton’s president, the College experienced an era of great growth and improvement. New courses and concentrations and exceptional faculty members have been added to the College’s academic program. $250 million were invested in creating new and renovated facilities for the sciences, social sciences, studio and performing arts, student activities and fitness and recreation. Under Stewart’s leadership, Hamilton implemented a strategic plan meant to advance four values considered to be College’s historic strengths: education for self-direction, a self-governing community, thoughtful dialogue and debate and engagement with the world. As a result of actions like these, Hamilton has set records for student quality, selectivity and diversity.
Perhaps President Stewart’s most significant contribution to the College will be her efforts to ensure that deserving students from families of modest means have the financial resources to attend Hamilton. During Stewart’s tenure, Hamilton reallocated $1 million in merit aid to need-based aid, doubled its financial aid budget and became need-blind in admission. Hamilton is one of only about 50 U.S. colleges and universities that are need-blind in admission and that meet 100 percent of their students’ demonstrated financial need.
Before arriving at USC in 1999, Stewart was a member of the faculty at North Carolina State University (1973-1999) and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures (1985-1997). In 1988-89, Stewart served as the chair of the North Carolina Humanities Council, and in 1977 she received NC State University’s Outstanding Teaching Award. She also served as Assistant Dean for Research and Graduate Programs for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Stewart graduated summa cum laude in 1965 from St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, New York. She then received her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1970. Stewart’s studies focus on 18th-century French literature, most notably works of women authors. On this topic, she has written several books and numerous articles, essays and book reviews and has been a frequent speaker at professional conferences both in the United States and abroad.
She currently serves on the Committee on Coherence at Scale for Higher Education, the Council on Library and Information Resources’ effort to examine emerging national-scale digital projects and their potential to help transform higher education.
Stewart received various fellowships from Yale University, the National Humanities Center and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition, she has been named 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 Bogliasco, Italy. The president has also co-taught a seminar on the early modern novel in England and France with Professor of English Emeritus John H. O’Neill.
“My profound gratitude goes to each of you for all you have done to make Hamilton one of America’s finest institutions of higher education, a model and an inspiration to others,” Stewart said. “I look forward to all that we will accomplish together in my remaining time here, and to all that our College will become in her third century.”
Hamilton’s 19th president is married to Philip Stewart, who retired as the Benjamin E. Powell Emeritus Professor of Romance Studies at Duke University. The couple has two grown children.
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