Academic Leadership

In the movie “Idiocracy,” the world has degenerated to garbage-filled state where people don’t know basic farming. Could this fate be avoided by maintaining support for the liberal arts?

Kathleen McCartney, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and a member of the founding board of edX, has been selected as the 11th president of Smith College (Mass.), effective July 1. During her time at Harvard, the HGSE raised $162 million, including two $10 million gifts supporting programs to develop partnerships between the schools of business and government and the education school. McCartney succeeds Carol T.

As university presidents gathered at this fall’s conferences and seminars, the usual question of “How was your summer?” likely produced more than perfunctory, polite responses. It was a wild season for a number of higher education leaders. In June, the president of the University of Virginia was “temporarily” fired by her board for not being aggressive enough in pushing new initiatives.