Connecticut College

Dear Members of the Connecticut College Community,

The Presidential Search Committee met last week with our partners from WittKieffer about how best to gather input from students, faculty, staff, senior administrators, alumni, parents and trustees of the College. Our discussions included the form our information collection would take and key questions to help WittKieffer and the Search Committee identify the best attributes for the next president of Connecticut College.

The Search Committee and WittKieffer agreed to offer multiple options for constituents to share their thoughts in community engagement meetings, which will include:

• Multiple scheduled in-person meetings led by WittKieffer;
• Multiple scheduled virtual meetings led by WittKieffer;
• Scheduled one-on-one meetings with WittKieffer consultants or Search Committee members;
• A survey on the Presidential Search section of the Connecticut College Website. 

Notifications for these meetings will be sent and the survey will be made available in late August and early September, giving our College community several options to provide input to the Search Committee.  The discussions will be framed by these guiding questions:

• What are the key issues facing Conn College today?
• What presidential skills and attributes are needed to address those issues?
• What is happening at Conn that will excite top candidates?

With that information, WittKieffer and the Search Committee will produce a presidential position profile by the end of September to share with candidates being considered for the position.

In addition, the Search Committee faculty representatives met last month with other faculty to hear feedback on the search process.  The faculty representatives heard suggestions related to gathering information about key priorities going forward.

The timetable on the Presidential Search section of the College’s website has been updated with more detail about how the search will proceed. Our goal is to complete the search process about March/April 2024.

To date, we have received several nominations for candidates from various College constituencies.  We encourage our community to continue suggesting prospective candidates.  The best way to submit those nominations is through the website’s submission form or by email (ConnCollegePresident@wittkieffer.com).

We will report back to the College community after we have collected your input through the in-person meetings, Zoom meetings and survey.  We look forward to your involvement as we seek the best candidate for our next president.

Cordially,

Debo P. Adegbile  ’91
Chair, Board of Trustees and Committee Co-Chair

Maria Wyckoff Boyce ’85
Vice Chair, Board of Trustees and Committee Co-Chair