by Anna McCormally

Earlham College President Doug Bennett announced this morning via email that the 2010-2011 school year will be his last at Earlham. He intends to retire as Earlham’s President at the end of June, 2011.

“This coming year will be my fourteenth at Earlham, an institution to which I have given my head and heart as fully as I am able,” Bennett wrote in his email, which went out to the entire student body.  “I often say that I have the perfect job for me.  No better could be imagined:  to be a Quaker and an educator entrusted with leadership of this extraordinary Quaker college and seminary.  I am grateful to have had this opportunity, but it is now time to pass it to someone else, and for me to embrace other challenges.”

This decision comes with the closing of the college’s “comprehensive campaign,” which was announced in October of 2008 and comprised five main objectives, among which were the completion of a new fine arts and a new science building for Earlham.

“Before the campaign began, I promised the Board of Trustees that I would remain here until the campaign was concluded,” Bennett wrote. “I will work as hard as I can to see that this campaign fully achieves its goals.”

In June, Bennett and his family will relocate to Topsham, Maine.

“I plan to take 2011-12 as a year of intellectual and spiritual renewal,” Bennett wrote.  “Beyond that, I will want to stay involved in some way in higher education issues concerning accountability, access, learning and assessment.”