Dr. Elisabeth Showalter Muhlenfeld

Dr. Elisabeth Showalter Muhlenfeld announces her retirement effective June 2009:

Retirement Announcement April 26, 2008

SBC News article April 28, 2008

 

 

 

April 26, 2008

 

Dear Sweet Briar friends,

 

Today, I announced to the Board of Directors that I will retire in June 2009, after completing thirteen years of service as Sweet Briar’s ninth president. This decision has not come easily.  Every time I drive through the gates of the College, I am awed by the beauty of the woods, the dells, and the lovely Georgian buildings nestled here, all focused on the education of women who go out each year to make a difference in the world.  It has been a privilege to serve this special college. 

 

Traditionally, such letters look back over the period of one’s tenure, and indeed these years have seen many changes. Since 1996, the College has added undergraduate majors in film studies, environmental science and studies, business, archeology; a minor in law and society; an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Fine Arts degree; and certificate programs in equine studies and in leadership. Our first graduate programs, masters programs in teaching and education, were implemented in 2004, the same year that Sweet Briar became one of two women’s colleges in the country to offer engineering degrees. During this period, beloved long-time faculty members retired, but we welcomed talented young faculty who have stepped into their shoes and embraced the teaching philosophy of the College, crafting courses to insure that students connect classroom work with the hands-on practice of each discipline. We have become a national leader in student engagement.

 

Strategic planning—most recently the Shape of the Future initiative of 2003-04—engendered a recommitment to our role as a women’s college, and a reaffirmation that in the 21st century students who will become “useful members of society” must, as liberally educated women, be well equipped to move into professional life. As a true scholarly community, we have become more collaborative and interdisciplinary, conscious of our obligation to help students understand how to integrate everything they learn. The academic quality of a Sweet Briar education has never been higher.

             

Our beautiful campus has grown more beautiful.  We opened the Florence Elston Inn & Conference Center, completed the Student Commons to round out the lower quad, and “recycled” a number of buildings on campus to meet 21st century needs:  the water plant became a nature center and state-of-the-art wet lab and the train station a laboratory and classroom for environmental sciences and studies; the dairy barns are being transformed into a visual arts complex; and just yesterday we broke ground for a new 53,000 square foot Fitness and Athletics Center adjoining Daisy Williams Gymnasium that will become a new community gathering place.  We have paid close and respectful attention to the College’s history, restoring the exteriors of all of its historic buildings, and clearing and rededicating a large slave burial ground.  We marked our centennial in 2001, and have brought Tusculum, the home of our founder’s mother Maria Crawford, to campus.

 

 

The College is in solid financial shape.  We weathered the declining enrollments of the 80s and the fluctuations of the 90s, and for the last five years have seen steady increases; this year’s enrollment was among the highest in the college’s history, and we anticipate an even larger student body next year. In 2006, we completed Our Campaign For Her World, raising well over $111 million, exceeding our goal by nearly $10 million.

 

All of these accomplishments are a tribute to a visionary Board of Directors, a fine faculty and a staff dedicated to excellence as a matter of course. Even more, these milestones stand in testament to the love, support and confidence in its future each of you has given to Sweet Briar in the last dozen years.

 

For our family, Sweet Briar has been a magical place.  During the last twelve years, my husband Larry Wollan and I have seen three of our four children marry (two daughters right here in the Chapel). These days, six grandchildren race through the house and explore the Boxwood Circle, joyous to be at Sweet Briar on the odd weekend, or at Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter.  When all the guests have left, Larry and I have treasured the chance to sit on the upstairs portico with a martini or a glass of wine, and simply take in the beauty that surrounds us.  It will be very difficult to leave. 

 

But to everything there is a season.  Larry and I need to spend more time with our families, and we each have long-deferred projects and aspirations we want to pursue. More importantly, I know that a period of fiscal stability and creative energy is an ideal time for the College to undertake a presidential transition.  I have every confidence that Sweet Briar’s distinguished reputation as one of the nation’s finest liberal arts colleges for women will only continue to grow in the years to come. That confidence stems from my intimate knowledge of the high quality of this institution, and from my conviction that each of you is invested in its future.

 

So am I.  In the next year, I hope to talk personally with as many of you as I can, to express my gratitude for your friendship and support.  Beyond next June, rest assured that Larry and I will remain enthusiastic members of the Sweet Briar family, ready to help in any way, and at any time.

 

                                                Yours,

                                                Elisabeth Showalter Muhlenfeld
                                                President                                            

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Elisabeth S. Muhlenfeld
President of the College

Sweet Briar College welcomed Dr. Elisabeth Showalter Muhlenfeld as its ninth president in August 1996. Her administration has been marked by growth in a number of areas. Under her leadership, the College opened the Florence Elston Inn & Conference Center, completed the Student Commons, and broke ground on a new Fitness and Athletics Center on campus, marked its centennial in 2001, and implemented a new strategic plan, The Shape of the Future, in 2004.  In 2006, Sweet Briar completed Our Campaign For Her World, which raised well over $111 million, exceeding its target by nearly $10 million.

 

Her administration also expanded academic programs, including adding majors in environmental science and studies, business, archeology, film studies and an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Masters programs in teaching and education were implemented in 2003.  In 2004, SBC became one of two women’s colleges in the country to offer engineering degrees.

 

Dr. Muhlenfeld received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Goucher College in 1966, a Master of Arts in English at the University of Texas at Arlington in 1973 and a Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina in 1978. She came to Sweet Briar from The Florida State University in Tallahassee, where she was the founding Dean of Undergraduate Studies with responsibility for academic progress of 8,000 lower-division students, advising, the Honors Program, and the offices of Admissions, Registrar and Financial Aid.

 

She is the author of four books, including a biography of Mary Boykin Chesnut, as well as an edition of Chesnut’s original diaries, co-edited with historian C. Vann Woodward. She is the is editor of Two Novels by Mary Chesnut, published by the University of Virginia Press in the Southern Texts Society series, and of William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!: A Critical Casebook.

 

Dr. Muhlenfeld has written dozens of articles and essays and numerous presentations at regional, national and international conferences, often on issues affecting undergraduate education.  She is active in numerous literary and language-based organizations, and is an advocate of women’s colleges.  She is a frequent commentator in newspapers, journals, and on NPR and C-SPAN.

 

Active in many professional and civic organizations, Dr. Muhlenfeld serves on the Board of Directors of the Tredegar Civil War Center and the Council of Independent Colleges, and is on the executive committee of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges in Virginia. She served as Virginia’s representative on the Executive Committee of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which accredits approximately 780 colleges and universities throughout the southeastern United States and in Latin America.  Dr. Muhlenfeld is currently chair of the Women’s College Coalition.

 

Laurin A. Wollan, Jr., her husband, is a retired professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State.  They have four adult children and six grandchildren.

 

 

Printable version: Muhlenfeld Brief Bio

Comprehensive Curriculum Vita