Sound the bagpipes: College of Wooster names its 13th (and second woman) president

WOOSTER − After a lengthy search and selection process of nearly 10 months, the College of Wooster named Anne McCall as its 13th president in a Thursday video announcement.

McCall becomes the second woman to hold the top spot, succeeding interim President Wayne Webster and Sarah Bolton, the first woman president.

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Bolton left the college in July when she assumed her new role as president of Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

"I'm honored and thrilled to be chosen as the next president of the College of Wooster," McCall said in the recorded announcement.

McCall is serving as provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at Xavier University of Louisiana. She will officially leave the university after seven years and join the College of Wooster in July 2023.

A unanimous recommendation

Peter Sundman, who leads the search committee, said they received 58 resumes for the president's post.

That was narrowed to 13 candidates for in-person interviews, said Sundman, president of the committee comprised of college trustees, faculty and students.

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That list of 13 was cut to six before Sundman's committee heard about their goals for the college. They then reduced that number to three.

The finalists met with individuals on the committee and the college community before the committee voted on their top pick.

"We didn't even have to take a vote; it was unanimous," Sundman said. "We had found our next leader."

Decades of experience

When McCall joins the College of Wooster next year, she will have nearly 25 years of experience in higher education behind her.

She graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts in French and German and has a Ph.D. in French literature from the University of Strasbourg in France.

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McCall has nearly 17 years of classroom experience teaching Women's Studies and another 16 years in administrative roles.

Her resume includes associate dean for Tulane University's School of Liberal Arts, the dean of arts, humanities and social sciences at the University of Denver, the dean of Harpur College of Arts and Sciences and her current role at Xavier.

She is also the steering committee chair for the U.S. Section of Scholars at Risk, which promotes academic freedom across the world.

Checking all the boxes

For the search committee, McCall checked every box, said Sally Staley, college Board of Trustees chair and ex officio of the search committee.

Committee participants each had their own wish list, she said.

Trustees and alumni wanted someone experienced with finance and fundraising. The faculty wanted a former teacher who championed liberal arts. The student body wanted a president who took an active interest in campus life.

The college as a whole sought someone who prioritized diversity and inclusion, Staley said, to make everyone feel welcomed in an environment of equal opportunity.

One reason the committee recommended McCall was her ongoing academic scholarship.

"She is a scholar of 19th century French fiction and life writing, recognized for her research into French novelist and feminist trailblazer George Sand," Staley said.

For the faculty, this showed McCall understood the work-life balance of being an educator and an academic with a personal life.

"But most importantly she has a love of bagpipes, Scottie dogs and tartan plaid," Staley said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: College of Wooster names Anne McCall as its 13th president