Haverford's Presidential Search: Any News?

With Haverford English prof Kimberly Benston’s two-year limited-term presidency coming to an end as of 6/30/17, the college should soon announce its choice of a new president. What has anyone heard?

The new appointee should be assuming the office in a short three months, whereas Dan Weiss’ (short-lived) appointment was announced 4/30/12, more than one year prior to his taking office on 7/1/13. Could be that the search has been a tough process, with the prospective president having to balance the alums’ wish for the college to remain at a small 1,200 students while financial pressures likely push all colleges to operate at a minimum size closer to Swarthmore’s 1,600.

Some presidential stability would be nice, as both the Class of 2015 and the Class of 2016 each had three separate Haverford presidents during their tenure: Class of '15 had Emerson-Creighton-Weiss; Class of '16 had Creighton-Weiss-Benston.

Benston’s term has been extended through 2018-2019, according to the most recent letter to the community from the Board of Managers.