<p>Looks like a wonderful choice! A 1980 alumna, first generation college student who had transfered to MHC from community college. Has 2 college age kids. </p>
<p>"I look forward to joining the Mount Holyoke community in pursuit of
our common objective: promoting the freedom that lies at the heart of women's
education, here as elsewhere, tomorrow as well as today."</p>
<p>New</a> President :: New President :: Mount Holyoke College</p>
<p>Congratulations to the entire Mt. Holyoke Community. It must be something in the air. so many LAC’s have new presidents this year: Barnard, Swarthmore, Williams to name a few.</p>
<p>What is Williams thinking? A male president? Almost unheard of. LOL.</p>
<p>The only important in a President is his/her ability to raise money. Background, touchy-feely elements are only prerequisites.</p>
<p>For an academic, this woman has spent her entire life in a very limited geographical area. She started community college in eastern Connecticut (I assume that’s where she lived), finished her bachelor’s at Mt. Holyoke, got her PhD at Brown, taught at URI, and was provost at the University of Hartford. In all that time, she probably hasn’t worked more than 40 miles from where she started.</p>
<p>I agree that fundraising is the main responsibility. However, for current students and alums, it is a bonus to have a role model and a sister alumna as the college president.</p>
<p>The radius is a little larger than 40 miles (but not much…maybe 100 miles) but she’ll get to know the country and the world pretty fast in this position!</p>
<p>It may be 100 miles from Holyoke to Providence, but Willamantic CT is right in the middle.</p>
<p>I’m sure she already knows the country and the world.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So did Ronald Liebowitz, president of Middlebury College. After being educated in Pennsylvania and NYC, he began teaching at Midd. Never left 
And he’s doing fine.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I believe Ms. Pasquerella will be a fantastic president.</p>
<p>I looked at her c.v. from the link that the OP posted. This is her main qualification:</p>
<p>“Became the Principal Investigator on a $3.5 M ADVANCE grant through NSF to promote the careers of women in the STEM disciplines and on a $750,000 NSF Northeast Alliance for Graduate Studies and the Professorate grant to create a pipeline for students from underrepresented groups into STEM graduate studies.”</p>
<p>Current president had been a provost at Weselyan…Pasquerella has been a vice provost at URI and provost at Univ of Hartford.</p>
<p>Seems to be the prior position that MHC prefers for their president. Not sure that the NSF grant would be the main qualification! Relatively small grant. Perhaps sarcasm on the part of EngProfMom?</p>
<p>She was in each prior position for two years or less, which I find interesting, as opposed to a “five years in a deanship” rule that’s pretty common in some of the large public institutions where I work, where I’ve seen women put into provost jobs early as a way to get rid of them, that is, encourage them to apply elsewhere. Also, what a provost actually does and gets done in a public such as U Hartford or U Rhode Island depends on how many loyal staffers surround that person. </p>
<p>Previous poster noted that the ability of administrators to secure funds for their institutions is increasingly what matters these days for a college/university president. I also agree with previous observations that Mt Holyoke seems to have wanted someone extremely familiar with the area and its particular culture. To me, really interesting that she has developed her administrative skill set at two public universities but will be bringing to a smaller women’s college. Good luck to her and to the Board and to the Mt Holyoke community, however, it’s an interesting choice!</p>
<p>U of Harford has been a private institution…did they recently go public?</p>