Valerie Smith, a Princeton dean and professor of literature and African-American studies, will lead Swarthmore College when the new academic year begins. (Swarthmore College)
A Princeton dean and professor of literature and African American studies will lead Swarthmore College when the new academic year begins.
The school announced Saturday that Valerie Smith, 59, would become the 15th president of the 150-year-old institution beginning July 1. She becomes Swarthmore’s first African American president.
“I was really struck by the passionate commitment faculty, staff, and students have toward Swarthmore,” Smith said, ” . . . the level of deep intellectual engagement.”
Smith expressed an interest in deepening Swarthmore’s interdisciplinary work and increasing the school’s ties with its neighbors.
