Herbst New Colgate President

RFH 2010, News

Sat, Jan 09, 2010

Miami University in Ohio has a regional campus in the City of Hamilton in that state, but it's doubtful that's what led the trustees to name that university's provost and executive vice president for academic affairs as the next president of Colgate.

Dr. Jeffrey I. Herbst will become Colgate's 16th president next summer.

The announcement was made Monday afternoon. He will officially meet members of the Colgate and Hamilton communities Tuesday morning at 11:15 a.m.

Herbst replaces interim President Dr. Lyle Roelofs, who filled in since Dr. Rebecca Chopp resigned last year to become president of Swarthmore College.

“I am deeply honored to be appointed the 16th president of Colgate," said Herbst. "The university exemplifies the very best in a liberal arts university at a time when our society is searching for answers that only this type of learning experience can provide. I look forward to working with the Board of Trustees, faculty, students, staff and alumni to promote this extraordinary community of scholars and to prepare students for the great challenges of the twenty-first century."

Born in Jamaica, Queens, Herbst graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1983 and went on to earn M.A., M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Yale University. He and his wife, Sharon Polansky, a marketing executive, have three children.

Miami University is public university of about 16,000 students located 35 miles north of Cincinnati. It has three regional campuses in Ohio and a European Center in Luxembourg.

While at Miami, Herbst is said to have been involved with issues Colgate continues to face.

According to its website, multicultural students make up 10 percent of the first-year class and 9.5 percent of the undergraduate student body at Miami.

A statement from Colgate said Herbst "helped design the Miami Access Initiative, a program that provides all tuition and fees for students from families of limited means that has significantly increased socioeconomic diversity on campus. He worked with Miami's admission office to attract an
unprecedented number of African-American applicants, raise the number of students from multicultural backgrounds to new highs, and increase the number of international students on campus several fold."

Herbst spent five years at Miami. Before that, he was on the faculty at Princeton University, where he also held a number of administrative positions including chair. His research and teaching focused on the politics of sub-Saharan Africa, including peacekeeping, how the United States can promote
democratic liberalization in Africa and what the international community can do to further economic growth in less developed regions of the world.