Conn. Appoints Andrea Chapdelaine (Ph.D) as 12th President

Courtesy of @conncollege on Instagram

On the morning of Thursday, Mar. 28, Board of Trustees Chair Debo Adegbile ‘91 formally announced the appointment of Andrea Chapedelaine, Ph.D., as the new President of the College. President-elect Chapdelaine, currently finishing her tenure as the President of Hood College (in Frederick, MD.), will serve as the 12th President of Connecticut College, with her tenure beginning on Jul. 1 this year. This date will also mark the end of Interim President Leslie Wong’s time filling Conn.’s presidency following the resignation of former President Katherine Bergeron, which came as a result of the spring 2023 occupation of Fanning Hall. 

Though President-elect Chapdelaine is busy wrapping up her responsibilities at Hood College and with preparations to take over the presidential duties here at Conn, she was happy to respond to The College Voice for an interview and we are pleased to provide this information to the campus. 

Chapdelaine is looking forward to her new position at Conn on the banks of the Thames River. She said, “this is the greatest honor and privilege of my career—to serve a private liberal arts college that provides an excellent, purposeful and holistic education with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.” 

In the position, she said she is “excited about the opportunity to grow both professionally and personally as I meet new people, learn about Conn, and immerse myself fully in the community.”

Her overall goal “is to fully support and promote Conn’s mission to provide an excellent liberal arts education that prepares students as global citizens.” She said, “I consider Conn’s mission my prime directive!”

For the short-term, she wants to focus on learning her way around. She said, “there are a number of exciting projects underway that I need to learn more about and determine how I can best support their realization.” Early on, she is also planning to focus “on meeting as many folks as possible.”

Looking further ahead, she hopes “to work with every member of the Conn community to build an exciting vision for our collective future.”

The search and selection of the new president has been in progress for about a year now. One way or another, students, faculty, staff, and members of the Board of Trustees have all been involved. According to the link sent in the email from Adegbile, there were 43 community engagement meetings and more than 500 members of the Conn community provided input at these meetings or through surveys. 

Chapdelaine commented on the selection process and what it revealed about Conn, saying the process “was very open and helpful, so I believe I have a good foundation to build on in terms of learning the key issues and priorities.”

Naturally, the question of expected challenges on the horizon is pertinent. When we asked Chapdelaine about some of the challenges she foresees in her role as president, she responded by stating: “In my experience, there is always an abundance of great ideas and opportunities that would serve students and strengthen the institution, and yet there are never enough resources to do all of them, or at least not all at once. So, the challenge is how to prioritize and allocate resources—funding, time, space and more—to address those priorities. On a broader level, there are significant challenges facing all small private colleges nationwide—the demographic decline of traditional-age students, increased costs, and the growing skepticism of the value of a liberal arts education—but these are challenges that I am confident Conn will overcome.”

For Chapdelaine, there were three primary draws to the College (and one pleasant bonus). First, Chapdelaine said, “I was called to Conn’s mission, which I firmly believe is the primary purpose and value of a liberal arts education. Second, consistent with that mission, there was evidence of a commitment to ensuring an inclusive, exceptional, and holistic educational experience for students. Third, I found a close alignment between the desired qualifications and priorities for the 12th president and my own credentials and interests.” In addition to these, Chapdelaine said, “the fact that Conn is close to where my husband and I grew up and still have lots of family was an added bonus.”

Chapdelaine’s first experience on campus was actually when she was a high school student. She “also attended a conference here as a faculty member.” Speaking on her impression of the campus, she said, “I thought the campus was beautiful and I enjoyed the people I met. Since I did my graduate work and taught in Connecticut, I had some familiarity with the institution and was always impressed by the stellar faculty and robust academic offerings.”

The circumstances that led to the resignation of the former president and the opening in Conn’s presidential position were ubiquitous in the College’s memory throughout the selection process. The activism movement that gripped the campus last spring was about more than just the resignation of the previous president—and this is a crucial detail for the next president of Conn to understand. 

On the demands made by Student Voices for Equity (SVE), Chapdelaine said, “the Board of Trustees and everyone involved in the selection process made it clear that this was a key priority for the next president. I am aware of and appreciate the concerns raised last spring. I am deeply committed to the principles of shared governance, equity, and inclusion. I know that Conn’s Presidential Task Force has been working hard to develop recommendations to address these concerns and I will work collaboratively with the entire Conn community to continue to build a more cohesive campus community; to strengthen our policies and practices; to advance our mission; and to position the College as an exemplar of a liberal arts institution in a changing world.”

Expanding on shared governance, Chapdelaine said that she believes it means “fostering a campus culture in which all members of the Conn community feel heard, valued, and empowered to advocate for courses of action that they believe would best serve Conn. Shared governance requires transparency, open lines of communication, and an understanding of each of the governing bodies’ areas of responsibility and oversight.”

As Chapdelaine navigates her new presidency, she will undoubtedly lean on her experience in higher education, particularly her most recent experience as the President of Hood College. On how she expects this experience to help her, Chapdelaine once again emphasized the importance of sharing the responsibility—key in shared governance. She stated that “although I had a long career in higher education prior to becoming a president, what I quickly realized is that no other job or training can fully prepare you for this position. Having now been a president for nine years, I have a strong understanding of the job’s many facets that will help me hit the ground running at Conn. One of the most important takeaways I will bring to Conn is that success requires the wise counsel, skills, and experiences of many others. This is not a one-person job.”

Anytime there is a leadership change at a college or university, it marks a new chapter for the institution. This chapter will surely be memorable, especially given the nature of the on-campus activism of last spring. Connecticut College is a wonderful institution, but it faces many challenges, many of which were brought to light by the protests last spring. President-elect Chapdelaine is walking into leadership during an important moment in the college’s history, and it seems that she understands both the importance of the moment and what it will take to collaboratively lead Connecticut College into the future.