Hamilton College President Eugene M. Tobin has accepted an invitation to join the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as a senior advisor during the 2003-04 academic year.
Tobin is stepping down on June 30 after 10 years as Hamilton's president. He first joined the Hamilton community in 1980 as an assistant professor of history.
"This unique opportunity enables me to concentrate on a number of national educational, financial and social issues that long have interested me," said Tobin. "I am delighted to be joining one of America's most forward-looking, intellectually rigorous, effective and collaborative institution builders."
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is one of the nation's pre-eminent educational and cultural philanthropies. It is a leading supporter of higher education, museums, the arts, conservation and the environment.
In his new role, Tobin will focus on programs that support liberal arts colleges. He will assist Mellon Vice President Mary Patterson McPherson on projects related to faculty development and student learning, particularly the ways that technology is transforming the classroom and changing the role and expectations of college and university libraries.
"We are delighted that President Tobin has agreed to work with us on a wide array of issues confronting higher education, and especially those affecting liberal arts colleges," said William G. Bowen, president of the Mellon Foundation.
During the course of Tobin's 10-year presidency, Hamilton has invested aggressively and strategically in its programs, facilities, faculty and students. In addition to increasing the size of the faculty by 17 percent since 1993, Hamilton has more than doubled the amount of college-funded financial aid, unveiled a new curriculum, added extracurricular options for students, opened new programs in New York and Beijing, and added and renovated facilities for academic, residential and social purposes. Currently, the college is investing $56 million in a new science complex that will nearly double the amount of space devoted to science instruction.
As a result, Hamilton's faculty experts are increasingly part of the national debate; students compete regularly for prestigious national fellowships, scholarships and prizes; the college increasingly is seen as a model for curricular and residential planning; and Hamilton is becoming a national leader in the student assessment movement. In fact, the college is currently using a three-year, $330,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to study assessment in a liberal arts environment.
"Without question, every area of the college – from academics to admission to student life to facilities to financials to fund-raising and reputation – is significantly stronger today than it was 10 years ago," according to Board of Trustees Chairman Stuart L. Scott. "Hamilton enjoys unprecedented momentum as it approaches the end of its second century, and Gene Tobin deserves much of the credit for our current good fortune."
A 1968 graduate of Rutgers University, Tobin received his master's degree in 1970 and his Ph.D. in 1972 from Brandeis University. He came to Hamilton in 1980 as an assistant professor of history. Promoted to associate professor in 1983 and professor in 1988, Tobin served as director of the American Studies Program at Hamilton from 1983 to 1988 and chair of the Department of History from 1986 to 1988. He served as dean of the faculty from 1989 until becoming Hamilton's 18th president in 1993.
Tobin is a scholar of recent American political history. He has authored or edited three books and dozens of essays and articles on the period from the Progressive Era through the Cold War.
