AMHERST — In a country increasingly polarized politically, where some view higher education as a private benefit that accrues only to certain individuals, Amherst College President Michael A. Elliott wants people to understand that today’s students will soon be serving the public good.
“We’re investing in students here at the college, not just for the education they will receive, but because of the impact that they will have on the world after they graduate,” Elliott says. “I’m interested in how we can ensure we’re educating students to play a leadership role in an open and democratic society.”
As Elliott settles into the leadership of the college as its 20th president, he is prioritizing making sure students, as well as faculty and staff, have a sense of belonging, and a sense of a cohesive community. That sense will help ground students as they make their way in the world after college, Elliott says, not unlike his own experience at the college more than 30 years ago.
Elliott, a 1992 graduate, succeeded Biddy Martin on Aug. 1. His formal inauguration ceremony was last Friday on the college’s Quad, featuring student performances, music, a poetry reading, and remarks from Elliott and Andrew Nussbaum, the chairman of the college’s board of trustees, as well as from students.
Elliott grew up in Arizona, came to Amherst in the 1980s and during his time as a student fell in love with the intellectual atmosphere of a liberal arts campus, pursuing an academic career in American literature.
Following doctoral work at Columbia University, he started a career as a tenure-track professor at Emory University in Atlanta, becoming its Charles Howard Candler Professor of English. Elliott is a scholar of American literature and culture of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In 2010, he got involved in academic administration hiring, working with department chairs, and was serving as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory when the pandemic hit. The pandemic, he said, threw into relief what matters to him, becoming part of the reason he is returning to Amherst College.
“Over time I reflected on what I care about, which is undergraduate education, educating students to make an impact on the world, and sustaining an intellectual community,” Elliott said.
He appreciates the form of education offered at the college, which prizes creativity and innovation in liberal arts. “The opportunity came along and I decided to see where it might lead,” Elliott said.
Sitting in his office at Converse Hall, Elliott said he is not ready to outline specific goals, instead waiting before proposing ideas publicly so there is a clear roadmap on how to achieve them. He will use the first year on the job to listen and learn, and then hopes to make a positive impact with an agenda that develops organically.
But he will continue to focus on some of the objectives that Martin prioritized, including recruiting a socioeconomically and racially and ethnically diverse student body, 10% of which is international, and the needs-blind admissions process.
“We need to sustain that mission, which is extraordinarily ambitious,” Elliott said, complimenting on the college’s ability to move faster on that than many of its peer institutions. “That makes the work more exciting and more ambitious, and offers students a different kind of education.”
Reconnecting with townThe challenges the college faces are similar to any other entity with inflationary pressures, even with an endowment that is $3.3 billion as of fiscal year 2022.
“Amherst College has tremendous resources that are the envy of nearly every other institution,” Elliott said. “But our ambitions will always outstrip what we can do.”
Coming out of the pandemic, in which the college operated in a bubble for a time, rebuilding connections with the town will be a focus. Elliott said he has gotten a sense that those ties are not as strong as they could be.
“I would love for everybody who lives in Amherst to feel that having Amherst College as part of the community is an asset, that the college makes Amherst a richer, more interesting place to live,” Elliott said.
That includes student performances, athletic events and lectures, and other activities taking place on a near daily basis that could bring people to campus.
Similarly, he wants that synergy to be students heading into town, whether it be to Antonio’s for a slice of pizza, to Amherst Books to get literature, or to Amherst Cinema to watch a movie, though he laments the closing of Hastings, which had a wide selection of Mammoths merchandise.
“For me, the town was a big part of the undergraduate experience, ” Elliott said. “I would love for students to have the same experience of the town and community as part of their educational experience.”
He continues to like what downtown offers, noting that he recently attended an open mic night at The Drake performing arts venue. “Being in Amherst is a great pleasure,” Elliot said.
The college, though, has to do more than just provide financial support to the town. “We want to do what we can to make the town economically viable, and we want to be a partner,” he said, pointing to the college’s full-time community engagement officer, Sarah Barr.
Living off-campusOne change that will come sometime next year is that he and his wife, Jennifer Mathews, will move to a residence on Sunset Avenue, the first time the president will be living off campus. That should make him more accessible.
“I love that Amherst is such an interesting community, and I love the fact it’s a walkable community,” Elliott said, pointing out that he dislikes driving, enjoys getting places on foot and is an avid jogger.
The Presidents House on South Pleasant Street, which he calls a combination museum and dormitory, will continue to be used for some functions by the president, such as dinners he might host, but the residential quarters will be vacated.
In returning to his undergraduate campus, Elliott said he notices the physical changes, such as the new science building and new dormitories, but that some of the most critical changes are less specific to Amherst, and more societal, like the use of email to communicate with professors, which diminishes face-to-face interactions.
“It does change and sometimes challenge our effort to build a sense of community,” Elliott said.
For hobbies, he reads fiction for pleasure and cultural history texts, and listens to music and podcasts.
He anticipates one of the biggest adjustments for him personally will be the coming of cold and snowy weather, and he is making sure that getting boots and other gear so he is prepared, having spent almost all of his time since being at the college in either the South or Southwest.
“I haven’t been in a New England winter for 30 years,” Elliott said.