Earlham College | News from Public Affairs

Although he's resigned his responsibilities as provost effective immediately, Len Clark will continue to serve the College as academic dean until his anticipated retirement in June 2007.

RICHMOND, Ind. — The average college presidency today lasts roughly six years, and in the wake of "changes at the top," the tenure of college and university executives in many other senior posts also prove comparatively short. When he retires next June, Earlham College Provost and Academic Dean Len Clark will have persevered through six campus administrations during the course of the past two-and-a-half decades.

Saying that "25 years is probably quite enough," Clark announced his resignation as provost, effective immediately, to a stunned assembly at Earlham's first faculty meeting of the new school year on Sept. 6. He will, however, continue to serve as academic dean of the College until his retirement on June 30, 2007.

Earlham President Doug Bennett disclosed that he has asked Professor of Psychology Nelson Bingham to assume the duties of provost. In addition to his classroom teaching Bingham has long served the College in a variety of administrative roles, most notably as assistant to the president for enrollment management and — for a significant portion of the 2004-05 academic year — acting president while Bennett was on sabbatical.

Although no one with the American Association of Colleges & Universities can say so with certainty (such records simply aren't kept), the consensus of opinion is that Clark's quarter-century as chief academic officer at Earlham must be one of the longest, if not the longest, active terms of service among American provosts. Bennett characterizes the accomplishment as the higher education equivalent of New York Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in 1941.

For Clark, the streak began 40 years after DiMaggio's, when in 1981 he left full-time teaching in the Philosophy Department to succeed Joe Elmore in the corner office of the president's suite on the first floor of Carpenter Hall. Only slightly less the iron man than Clark, Elmore departed after having filled the roles of dean and provost for 16 years — a fact that naturally raises the question, given the seemingly ubiquitous "quick spin" of senior academic officers in and out of executive suites elsewhere both then and now, to what can the longevity of Earlham's last two provosts be attributed?

According to Clark, it's a relatively simple matter of "haves" and "have-nots." What the College does not have is "a hierarchical tradition that automatically assumes when a [new] president comes in there be a wholesale change in administration."

At the same time, what Earlham does have that so many other institutions lack, says Clark, is the "wondrous" Quaker concept of shared governance.

"In many places, you put people in a very lonely position when they have to make these kinds of decisions involving human resources, teaching resources and policy decisions, and when things go wrong it's hard to act effectively," Clark says. "But here, those responsibilities are broadly shared. Here the provost isn't 'the boss;' the provost is the person who works with other vice presidents, deans and faculty members, and in that kind of atmosphere the work is a lot easier."

Following his announcement at faculty meeting, clerk Mary Garman took the "unusual" step of pausing the proceedings to ask the hundred or so people gathered how many had served with Clark on one or more Earlham committees and would those people please stand; half the room rose.

Garman next asked how many others had at one time or another approached Clark for assistance with a problem; another score stood, and more than a few of those already standing raised their hands.

Then Garman asked how many others had benefited through the years from the occasional cheerful word of encouragement or advice from Clark. When finally the entire gathering was on its feet, Clark was showered with a long ovation.

While conscious that retirement was a practical consideration as he approached age 65, the energetic Clark says he really hasn't thought much about his "legacy" at Earlham. He believes the College has become far more international, interdisciplinary and representative of the diversity of cultures during his time as provost, but deflects any suggestion that he especially is the reason why.

"It struck me that I didn't think of one or two or three things we did [as an institution] because of me," says Clark of his reflections prior to telling colleagues he planned to step down. "I think that says something important about the College at this stage, that really we're reaping the seeds planted by many others through the years and which we have only cultivated to this point of success."

"Sometimes passions can be so individual it's difficult to maintain an overall identity or direction," observes the Wabash College and Yale University graduate. "And at smaller colleges, particularly those of a religious tradition, often those very powerful core institutional values can also limit individual passion and creativity. My proudest memory is how Earlham over many years has managed to honor both of those ideals … both the common good and the personal pursuit of truth."

Known at times to refer to colleagues past and present as "legends" in the annals of Earlham, Clark takes in stride that now, occasionally, the term also may be applied to him. Although he hopes it results from more than just the length of his term in office or the possibility that he may be the last person to serve as both provost and academic dean at the College (with Clark's retirement, President Bennett has opted to separate those roles for at least "the next few years").

At the conclusion of his own Earlham experience, Clark says that having helped the College to "define educational expectations in terms of the functional, rather than just the structural" is the hallmark he hopes to leave behind.

Reflects the departing provost, who naturally played a critical role in Earlham's recent revision of its general education requirements: "You can simply say to students, 'You have to have a course in philosophy or chemistry or art.' That's structural. Or you can say to them, 'You have to achieve a certain level of critical thought and analysis.' That's functional and very important and what I think we've managed to do. I hope it lasts a long time."