Presidency
Skandera Trombley's inauguration as president of Pitzer College on February 15, 2003 marked the beginning of the College's 40th anniversary year. She has positioned herself as a visionary leader, bringing to the College a level of energy and imagination suitable for a progressive young college combined with the seriousness and determination of an institution that is, as she noted in her inaugural address, "coming of age." In her first year in office she supported the faculty in their desire to make the SAT optional as a criterion for admission to the College, making Pitzer the West Coast innovator in SAT-optional admission practices. She led Pitzer's first strategic planning process whereby faculty, students, staff, alumni, and trustees collectively identified the College's five-year fiscal priorities. In the seven years since she assumed leadership of the College, the admission acceptance rate has gone from 56% to 20%, applications have increased by 75%, annual giving has increased by 35% and the College moved up 20 places in the US News & World Report rankings. Through her leadership and by securing $5 million, the largest single-donor gift since its founding, the College was able to go over the top of its first comprehensive capital campaign ahead of schedule. Under her leadership, the College built three Gold LEED-Certified residence halls, and will build three more over the next few years.
During her presidency, Pitzer College became the national leader in Fulbright Fellowships won by students and alumni. Since 2002, Pitzer College received more Fulbright Fellowships per 1000 students than any other college or university in the US. Seventy-four percent of Pitzer students study abroad, compared to under 2% nationally. Most recently, Pitzer was named the ninth most selective liberal arts school and ranked 17th nationwide for faculty commitment to teaching by the 2010 "US News and World Report." In the same publication, Pitzer's Study Abroad Program was named an outstanding academic program and ranked 11th among liberal arts colleges for racial diversity.
Read more about this topic: Laura Skandera Trombley
Famous quotes containing the word presidency:
“... how often the Presidency has simply meant that a man shall be abused, distrusted, and worked to death while he is filling the great office, and that he should drop into unmerited oblivion when he has left the White House ...”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“Some of the offers that have come to me would never have come if I had not been President. That means these people are trying to hire not Calvin Coolidge, but a former President of the United States. I can’t make that kind of use of the office.... I can’t do anything that might take away from the Presidency any of its dignity, or any of the faith people have in it.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You’ve got to just stand there and take it.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)