Law prof named new head of Reed College

Colin Diver, former Law School dean and current law professor, will become the president of Reed College in Portland, Ore., on July 1.

Diver's appointment to the top post of the small liberal arts college came after a year-long national search that attracted 200 applicants. Reed's board of trustees voted unanimously on his appointment on Saturday, and an announcement was made shortly thereafter.

Yesterday, officials at Franklin and Marshall announced that Executive Vice President John Fry would also be leaving Penn to take over as president at the Lancaster, Pa., school.

Diver was the dean of Penn's Law School from 1989 to 1999. He is considered an expert in administrative law and torts and has written numerous scholarly publications, including a co-authored textbook on administrative law used in law schools throughout the country.

"I was dean for 10 years and I've been on the faculty for 13 years at Penn, and I've loved every minute of it," Diver said. "I will miss the place enormously, but this is one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that you just can't ignore."

Stephen McCarthy, the chairman of Reed's presidential search committee, said Diver created enormous interest the moment he stepped on the Oregon campus in December during the selection process.

"Diver is a wonderful guy," McCarthy said. "He's incredibly bright. He understands what intellectual pursuits are all about. He has a fantastic sense of humor, and he has a wonderful record as an administrator. All of that adds up to a very rare combination."

Diver said the chance to return to his own liberal arts roots was what drew him to Reed. He received his B.A. from Amherst College in 1965, and for the past four years has served on its board of trustees.

"In some ways, Reed reminds me of my own education almost 40 years ago," Diver said. "It's fiercely independent, it's really committed to the intellectual life to a degree that very few undergraduate institutions are. That's one of the things that made this particularly attractive to me."

While college presidents often hold a Ph.D. in an area of academia, Diver will lead Reed with the LL.B. he received from Harvard Law School in 1968. His colleagues believe his legal mind, combined with his experiences as the Law School's dean, will help him at Reed's helm.

"He's from a completely different discipline that's not represented at Reed," Penn Law Professor Edward Rubin said. "That might give him an advantageous neutrality. Also, he was the head of a professional school. Law Schools are quasi-autonomous. As dean, you develop a lot of administrative skills."

And this experience may serve Diver well in his new post.

"He was an excellent dean at the Law School," current Dean Michael Fitts said. "He oversaw the rebuilding of the Law School both academically and physically, and he'll make a truly fine president of Reed."

Many of Diver's colleagues said he will be missed as a scholar, as a colleague and as a seasoned leader.

"It's nice for us in a way," Rubin said. "It's an honor to have a former dean become a college president, that other schools look to us for leadership. But it's too bad to lose him."

Diver will replace Peter Steinberger, who was appointed Reed's acting president following the resignation of Steven Koblik last year. Koblik left Reed to head the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif.

McCarthy also chaired the search committee that hired Koblik 10 years ago. He describes that experience as very different from the one that ended in Diver's appointment.

A decade ago, Koblik was given a list of things that were broken at Reed and was asked to come and fix them. Koblik did that, and in the process transformed Reed.

"Reed is much stronger than it's ever been," McCarthy said. "Colin has the opportunity to make us as good as any undergraduate college that exists in the country."

Diver has both internal and external goals for Reed College. He hopes to raise the size of the faculty to reduce the student-to-faculty ratio, and to increase the economic, ethnic and racial diversity of the student body. To help achieve that diversity, Diver will work to boost student financial aid.

Externally, his main objective is make Reed -- a private, four-year college with an enrollment of approximately 1,300 students that has produced 31 Rhodes scholars -- more visible nationwide.

Diver said Reed is well-known to many who are familiar with higher education, but that many, especially those who live on the East Coast, have never even heard of the school.

"I don't think it's the household name that it ought to be," Diver said. "I'd like to see it mentioned in the same breath as Amherst and Swarthmore and schools like that."

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