Welcome to the President's Virtual Office

I hope this page can be a resource for you, whether you are a visitor to our Web site, a current member of the Earlham community, an alumnus or friend of Earlham. I encourage you to browse the various sections of the site. I welcome your comments and questions with regard to this site or other topics. E-mail the President's Office.

Please visit my virtual desk to view the text of various memos I've sent to the community on important topics affecting Earlham's future. I've also included here a selection of recent speeches, of columns I've written for the Earlham Word (our student newspaper), and letters I've written to Earlham alumni and friends.

The two parts of Earlham

We are an institution in two parts: Earlham College, the undergraduate liberal arts college, and Earlham School of Religion, the graduate seminary, both in Richmond, Indiana. I hope you'll not only take the opportunity to learn more about both parts of Earlham online, but also to visit each in person.

A typical week

In a typical week, I'm engaged with both parts of Earlham. In the fall semester I regularly teach a course entitled "Topics in National Public Policy" in the Politics Department at the college (Syllabus Fall '06). Often in the spring, I host a campus Film Series on selected Tuesday evenings featuring unusual films (foreign films, documentaries, neglected classics). I adore movies of all kinds.

Family

My wife Ellen is the director of the Earlham Lilly Indiana Initiative (ELII), a grant-funded project that seeks to lift the aspirations of high school students who may be the first in their family to attend and graduate from college. My oldest son, Tommy, was born in 1984. The newest addition to my family is Robert Evans Bennett, born on April 14, 2003. See my bio for more about me.