Dean Leaves To Lead Depauw

Harvard administrator Brian W. Casey will be the next president of DePauw University the institution announced yesterday.

Casey, who is currently Harvard’s associate dean for academic affairs in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, will take the reins of the Greencastle, Ind. institution on July 1.

“He was, far and above, the best candidate,” said Sarah R. Wallace, chairwoman of the DePauw presidential search committee.

“The selection committee voted unanimously to endorse him in one vote. He had many attributes that we were looking for in terms of his abilities, experience, and communication skills.”

Dean of the Faculty Michael D. Smith, who said he has known Casey since graduate school, lamented the loss in an e-mail to Harvard faculty.

“While I am sorry to lose him as a member of my staff, I am excited for him as he takes this next step,” Smith wrote. “I have no doubt that he will excel in his new role.”

Faculty across a broad range of academic disciplines at DePauw expressed excitement at Casey’s appointment from a pool of over 200 original applicants.

“When you hear Dr. Casey talk, you can’t help but feel his passion and enthusiasm for being the next President of DePauw University,” Jacqueline R. Roberts, director of biochemistry at DePauw, said in an e-mailed statement.

Leslie R. James, director of the Black Studies Program at DePauw, concurred with Roberts’s assessment.

“One thing that I appreciated and found outstanding, was the fact that he remembered the question that one of my colleagues asked him when he was interviewed here some weeks ago,” James said in an e-mail.

“My colleague and I had waited in line to introduce ourselves, and when he remembered her question from weeks ago, I was so impressed,” James said. “These things might seem little, but they mean much.”

Faculty members also said they had particular hopes for the direction in which Casey should lead DePauw.

Victor A. DeCarlo, chair of the DePauw Physics and Astronomy Department, said that Casey should strive “toward the diversification of the student body begun by our current president,”

“I would also like to see the university commit more scholarship money toward attracting talented science students,” he said.

Casey, who will be DePauw’s 19th president, joined Harvard in 2006 after serving in multiple administrative roles at Brown.

He holds a law degree from Stanford—where he was a member of the Stanford Law Review—as well as a Ph.D. in American Civilization and a Master’s degree from Harvard.

He succeeds Robert G. Bottoms, who has served as head of DePauw since 1986 and is the school’s longest-serving president.

—Staff writer Prateek Kumar can be reached at kumar@fas.harvard.edu.