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After a career spanning nearly three decades at one of the nation's most successful higher education consortia, Lorna Peterson, executive director of Five Colleges, Inc., will retire in June, 2009. Nearly half the history of the 43-year-old consortium -- comprising Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts Amherst -- has been spent with Dr. Peterson at the helm. Starting at Five Colleges in 1980 in a grant-funded position, Peterson became the consortium's first development officer, and in 1990 assumed leadership of the 36-person organization, which is directed by the presidents of the five institutions. By every standard of measure, her 18 years as executive director have been a period of growth for the consortium. The budget has tripled, a dozen multi-campus certificate programs (akin to a degree minor) have been established and the number of joint faculty appointments has nearly doubled. Some 5,000 student course exchanges take place every year. "It is hard to speak of cooperation in higher education without invoking Lorna," said Smith College President Carol T. Christ, president of the Five Colleges, Inc., board of directors. "Her leadership has created a dynamic, innovative, synergistic partnership among five distinctive institutions that is the envy of university systems and consortia across the country and abroad." Highlights of the consortium's accomplishments during Peterson's tenure include the creation of a Five College film studies major and establishment of the Five College Astronomy Fellows program. In addition, multi-campus student performances have flourished over the past decade, with such annual events as PoetryFest, the Five College Student FilmFest and Five College Multicultural Theater's WORD!. "For me, a highlight of my time here has been working with faculty when they get excited about developing a new area of the curriculum or new center for study," said Peterson, "such as when we created the Center for the Study of World Languages and the Women's Studies Research Center." Peterson also spurred the establishment of such resource-sharing positions as recycling manager and risk manager that serve multiple institutions. A major accomplishment has been completion of a 54-mile fiber optic network. Not only do member campuses now have high speed Internet access, but the seven municipalities through which the network runs may use it at no charge; establishing Five Colleges as a force in bringing broadband Internet to western Massachusetts. President Christ is assembling a search committee with representatives of each of the five colleges to conduct a national search for Peterson's replacement. In the meantime, Peterson sees plenty of work in the coming year for her and her staff, including further developing the joint faculty appointments program and promoting the campuses as an employment opportunity to an ethnically and economically diverse population. "We also plan to build on the Five College network as a resource, not only for our campuses and their towns, but for the region." Page created 4/18/08 Home
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