James E. Crowfoot, professor of natural resources and of urban and regional planning, has been named the 18th president of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. He will assume his new post July 1.
The appointment of Crowfoot, who also is former dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment, was announced May 15 by Antioch’s current president, Alan E. Guskin.
“More than anyone else in higher education, Jim Crowfoot has the skills to lead a college committed to building a strong college community based on values of social justice and academic excellence,” Guskin said. “He is the best choice to lead Antioch College into its next level of development. His values and creative leadership will be essential ingredients in the college’s continued evolution as a progressive and alternative liberal arts college.”
President James J. Duderstadt said “Jim Crowfoot is a visionary whose creativity and energy will be missed at Michigan. With his deep sense of fundamental academic values, he will be a perfect fit as president of Antioch College and we wish him the best in his new role.”
Crowfoot is widely published on environmental, social and multicultural issues, including white men’s roles in multicultural coalitions.
At the U-M he has been director of the Scholars Program in Conservation and the Environment for the Pew Charitable Trust, and is one of the co-founders of the Program in Conflict Management Alternatives. In addition, he was co-founder of the environmental advocacy specialization and of a new curriculum emphasis in environmental dispute resolution, both the first of their kind among peer colleges.
Antioch Dean of Faculty Gene Rice said Crowfoot “embodies the values of Antioch College at its very best. He has played a national role in the discussion of interdisciplinary studies. And I have never heard anyone speak more thoughtfully about the role of the white male in a progressive institution.”
In commenting on his appointment, Crowfoot said he is “passionately committed to the process of change to accomplish increased justice and an environmentally and economically sustainable future. U.S. education very badly needs innovative and non-traditional programs like Antioch’s. I find each element of Antioch’s emphases—personal and intellectual development through the liberal arts, co-op education and learning through participatory governance—compatible with my values and my own career-long efforts to develop and maintain alternatives within a large, traditional academic institution.”
