Bacow addresses Harvard commencement ceremony. File photo by Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer.
Comings and Goings …
Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow announced he plans to step down next June 30, 2023, after five years at the helm of America’s oldest higher education institution. An economist, lawyer and environmental public policy expert, he helped lead Harvard through the Covid-19 pandemic and launched a panel to examine the university’s ties to slavery. As president of Tufts University—a post he held from 2001 to 2011—Bacow wrote a piece for NEJHE (when it we called Connection) arguing that early decision while a “highly effective—and therefore highly seductive—tool for managing enrollment [is] not always in the best interest of most students or their parents—and not even in the best interest of the colleges that practice it.”
Lakes Region Community College President Larissa Ruiz Baía said she will leave the New Hampshire post later this summer to become president of Hillsborough Community College’s Ybor City campus in Tampa, Fla. Baía has held positions at the comprehensive community college in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire for more than 10 years, including four as president. During her tenure, the campus added the Health Science and Automotive Technology buildings and opened the Apple Ridge student apartments.
Bentley University named University at Buffalo School of Management dean Paul Tesluk to be the next provost and vice president for academic affairs at the Waltham, Mass. university, starting Aug. 1. In Buffalo, he led expansion of the business school’s initiatives in entrepreneurship, leadership, healthcare management, social innovation, global programs and diversity and inclusion, while launching new undergraduate, graduate and certificate programs.
Sacred Heart University appointed Catherine McCabe as dean of its Jack Welch College of Business & Technology, effective July 1. Since 2000, McCabe has been associate dean of Suffolk University’s Sawyer Business School, where she has increased first-year retention and boosted the six-year graduation rate.
Jim Ayres resigned as the head of the Greater Worcester Community Foundation just six months after taking leadership of the foundation, which was part of an effort that raised more than $10 million to help the region respond to the pandemic. A former vice president with the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts and executive director and CEO for the United Way of Hampshire County, Ayers was named the president in November and began in January.
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