(Story taken from the Austin College website)
SHERMAN, Texas - The oldest college in Texas makes
history next week as Austin College welcomes Marjorie Hass as the
first female president in the college's 160-year history. On July
1, Dr. Hass becomes the 15th president of the private liberal arts
college located north of Dallas. "Austin College's values are
inspiring, and I look forward to bringing the College's strengths
to the attention of a wider audience," Dr. Hass said.
Though the percentage of college presidents who are women has doubled in the past 20 years, less than 25 percent of today's U.S. college presidents are women, according to the American Council on Education. Including Dr. Hass, 27 women are among the leaders of the 145 two- and four-year higher education institutions in Texas, including those at nearby University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University. Additionally, women lead at half the Ivy League institutions (Brown, Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania), at MIT, and at other leading national liberal arts colleges around the country, including Bennington College of Vermont, Sarah Lawrence College of New York, Pitzer College of California, and Gettysburg College of Pennsylvania.
The Austin College Board of Trustees selected Dr. Hass, then provost at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, for the leadership position in November 2008 after a comprehensive national search. "The selection of Dr. Hass is affirmation of our confidence that she is a rising star ideally suited to define and realize what we know will be a continued bright future for Austin College," said Robert M. Johnson, board chair.
Dr. Hass, too, expects a bright future for her new college home. "Austin College has been nationally recognized as a college that changes the lives of its students," she said. "I am eager to be a part of moving the college to its next level of success and ensuring that future generations of talented students have the opportunity for an Austin College education."
This week, the Hass family is settling into its new home across the street from campus. The president is married to Larry Hass, who holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and will serve as an Austin College professor of humanities, teaching interdisciplinary courses. He will continue his own professional scholarship, which includes working as a performance artist and teaching and lecturing for magicians. The couple has two children, Jessica, who will be a sophomore at Sherman High School, and Cameron, a junior at Muhlenberg College. Dr. Hass said her family is thrilled to join the warm and welcoming Austin College community.
Appointed Muhlenberg's first provost in 2004, after a year as interim dean of the college and vice president for Academic Affairs, Dr. Hass also served as director of the college's Center for Ethics from 2000 to 2003. She began her career at Muhlenberg in 1993, teaching in the philosophy department, and she earned tenure in 1998 and promotion to full professor in 2006. She specializes in the philosophy of logic and the philosophy of language. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993 and her B.A. and M.A. degrees at the same institution in 1987 and 1989.
Dr. Hass looks forward to continuing a community in which all aspects of students' lives can be enhanced and developed. "A college owes its students a clear and focused statement of mission and the will to make that mission a reality through its curriculum and teaching," Dr. Hass said. "Our focus at Austin College is on undergraduate learning-to engage the student intellectually, as well as in mind and spirit."
Dr. Hass explained that for the impact upon students to be most effective, "there has to be a clear and authentic campus culture that believes education is not merely for personal benefit, but is the means by which an individual can make a meaningful contribution to the world. Colleges like Austin College, that pay attention to the moral climate they create, offer students the opportunity to make great strides in their sense of themselves as moral agents."
Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas. Founded in 1849, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original charter and name, the college is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of international education, pre-professional training, and leadership studies, Austin College is one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope's influential book Colleges that Change Lives.
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