Author: Ben Dalgetty
Following Occidental College President Susan Prager’s resignation on November 19, 2007, the Board of Trustees formed a committee to find an interim president intended to hold down the position until a new permanent president could be found. The outcome of that search is President Robert Skotheim, former President of Whitman College and the Huntington Library, who took office this January. President Skotheim has a long history of fund-raising efforts, including Whitman’s largest capital campaign to date and doubling the endowment of the Huntington.
President Skotheim said, “[My] goal is to make the campus as attractive as it could be for an incoming president.” In particular, he said he will be “offering support to ongoing operations with faculty,” as well as “being helpful to various administrators.” Since coming into office, Skotheim said that the Board of Trustees, which during last semester warned they would be increasing their presence on campus, has stepped back into their traditional long-term planning function.
When asked how he would continue President Prager’s legacy, he said, “I’ll be more conservative, just helping people do things,” adding that “what we are trying to do is fill vacancies.” President Skotheim said, “The financial condition of the college is very good,” stressing that despite President Prager’s resignation, the College was still receiving donations.
President Skotheim also talked of his love of small institutions such as Whitman, the Huntington and Occidental, which is why he was willing to come out of retirement. He explained that he had been comfortably settled in the Seattle area, where he has children and grandchildren, but said that he and his wife were looking forward to living in Los Angeles.
President Skotheim is still settling into his office and could not yet speak on what type of interaction he would be having with ASOC, but hoped that communication will remain open.President Skotheim was unfortunately unable to answer many of the Weekly’s questions, including the status of the DWA department, faculty tenure procedures and others due to the short amount of time he has been at the school. Director of Communications Jim Tranquada, who sat in on the Weekly‘s interview, was quick to point out the complicated nature of the DWA faculty search and gave his assurances that the college was fine.
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