Former Dean and Provost Carol Christ Named President of Smith College

By Tom Holub

August 6, 2001

Former Dean and Provost Carol Christ

Carol Christ, former Dean and Provost of L&S, has been named President of Smith College, one of the premier all-women's colleges in the country. She will become Smith's tenth president beginning in June, 2002; until that time she will continue teaching at Cal.

Christ has been a major contributor to Letters and Science for her entire career. She came to Berkeley in 1970 as a professor of English studying Victorian literature, and after being granted tenure in 1976, began an extraordinary career of service to the College and the campus. She served as English department chair from 1985-87, then as Dean of Humanities from 1988-89. In 1989 she took the position of Provost & Dean of L&S, and in that role oversaw a major reorganization of the College. More recently, she served the campus as Executive Vice Chancellor & Provost, from 1994 to 2000.

"I believe it is not an exaggeration to say that the current strong organization of the College is the work of Carol Christ," said Anthony Newcomb, former Dean of Humanities, who worked with Christ through the College reorganization during the budget crises of the early 1990s. "She was and is everything a high-level executive should be: always open and friendly, yet maintaining a proper distance; quick to respond to questions and needs and to make decisions, yet always consultative and respectful of lines of authority. Moreover, Carol was first an excellent scholar and faculty member, and her overarching concern was the quality of the academic enterprise at the heart of the university—the quality of the faculty, of the students, of the academic support mechanisms, and of the curriculum. Any academic institution will be lucky to have her at the helm."

We thank Carol for her contributions to the College, and wish her well in her new position.