"The board is and was blessed by great talent and with a number of great candidates, but the board had to choose one. This weekend the ... board unanimously and enthusiastically elected Jide Zeitlin as the new chairman of the board of trustees of Amherst College," said President Anthony Marx.
Marx explained that Hostetter's term should have ended in July 2004, but he agreed to remain the chairman for an additional year in order to help ease Marx's transition to the presidency.
Individual Interviews
Zeitlin said he had no indication prior to this weekend that he was the board's choice. "Ted Phillips ['52, chosen by Hostetter to conduct the trustee interviews] came to my office in New York and interviewed me in the same way he interviewed the other trustees. He asked me whom I thought would be a good candidate for the chairman of the board and whether, if selected, I would take the position," said Zeitlin. "He gave me no inclination as to whether I was a strong candidate. We never got into that."
The selection process extends beyond the interviews conducted by Phillips. According to Hostetter, the College has a unique method by which it selects its chairman of the board. "It is a process designed to minimize the potentially divisive political ... maneuvering that could result in the waning years of a chairman's last term and the scars that could result from a contested election," Hostetter said. "At least the last five transitions have followed the same process."
Hostetter explained that approximately nine months before the end of his term, the chairman chooses "an individual, in each case an alum of the College, broadly respected and trusted for their fairness, good judgment and importantly discretion," in this case Phillips, to visit each trustee and to ask each to identify three members of the board who "would provide the best leadership for the College going forward," and to determine whether each member would accept the position if offered.
Nominations and ratifications
"Assuming there is a clear choice, as there has been in each of the past five cases, the chair reports that choice first to the Trusteeship Committee, for the purposes of acting as a nominating committee, and then to the full Board," said Hostetter. "In each instance that the Board has used this process, we've identified a consensus leader and launched that person with a strong mandate. The objective, after all, is providing a continuum of effective leadership for the College."
Hostetter and Zeitlin both noted that the process followed by the board prevents any sort of campaigning among the trustees. "This process has avoided the interruption of work inherent in a 'campaign season' and the incidental damage that might result from an alternative process," said Hostetter.
Exciting new prospects
Zeitlin is looking forward to his term as chairman of the board. "I am both humbled and excited," he said. "The Amherst board is an exceptional board in terms of the diversity of skills and backgrounds that are represented as well as just the level of commitment that board members have to the institution. ... To be selected by this group is humbling. And I am excited because as I think about where Amherst is today, and just how strong Amherst is today, while on the other hand I think about how much is changing in the world around Amherst, it just feels as though it is a real moment in time where being a part of thinking about key issues for the College is going to be exciting."
For Hostetter, Zeitlin brings to the board a complete understanding of the chairman's responsibilities. "Jide has all the characteristics Amherst might want in its new leader. [He is] smart, patient, wise and a very careful listener, [he has] deep skills and experience in the mechanics of the College's financial and investment affairs, but a keen appreciation of the essential divide between the responsibilities of the faculty and the responsibilities of the board," he said. "For a relatively young man, Jide has deep experience on the Amherst board-12 years on the board-[as much as or] more than any other sitting member."
Marx is also looking forward to have the opportunity to work with Zeitlin. "Jide has the sort of depth and breadth of background and commitment to issues of education that are important to the College at this point," he said.
Zeitlin, likewise, is looking forward to working closely with Marx. "Marx is potentially one of the strongest, most interesting, in terms of innovativeness, president in higher education in this country today, and the opportunity to work with someone such as that-you couldn't ask for more," he said.
Importance of past and future
Zeitlin served a six-year term as an alumni trustee prior to being appointed a term trustee six years ago. He is a partner at Goldman Sachs and attended Harvard Business School after graduating from the College as a dual English and economics major. Born in Nigeria and adopted by an American family, Zeitlin moved with his parents between a few countries in Africa, Pakistan and the Philippines before coming to the U.S. to attend high school at Milton Academy.
His college advisor recommended that he consider applying to the College in addition to a number of Ivy League institutions. After visiting, Zeitlin knew he wanted to attend Amherst. "I came away with this real sense of passion about education, a passion about learning," he said. The ongoing dialogue between students and faculty members particularly impressed Zeitlin. "I felt like I could get the best intellectual environment while being involved in a lot of extracurricular activities."
Zeitlin said he found all of his professors, including his thesis advisors, Professor of Economics Frank Westhoff and Visiting Professor of English Brad Leithauser, particularly engaging and committed to students. He also said the faculty at the College challenged him to think and to challenge himself. He has had a similar experience on the board of trustees. "Part of what is so attractive about the Amherst board, and about what is so exciting about working with Tony Marx and others at the College, is that they are really smart and they force you to think at your best, and not to just make assumptions, but to prove those assumptions."
Zeitlin hopes to work with the full board of trustees, the administration and the faculty to challenge the College to reach new goals in their attempt to determine in what direction the College will go in the next few years without merely accepting the "exceptional" status quo. "We've got to figure out ways to constantly challenge ourselves as an institution, to make sure that we remain relevant in a changing world," he said. "I know I spend a lot of time thinking about how Amherst makes sure that it genuinely challenges itself whether in curricular areas, or in how it manages itself from a financial and infrastructure perspective, or across a whole list of other ways. ... [I think about] how to make sure the College is changing and evolving to remain relevant without distancing itself and giving up the great strengths and traditions that have brought it to where it is."