By: Karis Mulcahy
“How do we follow up after Jorge’s retirement announcement?” Malcolm Smith, Vice President of Student Development ponders aloud about an announcement the entirety of Kalamazoo College received earlier that day.
On April 14, 2025, President Jorge Gonzalez sent shockwaves through the Kalamazoo College campus by announcing his retirement date as June 30, 2026. After nearly a decade of President’s Gonzalez’s leadership, Kalamazoo College must now search for their next president. The process of choosing a new president is a tedious, months-long search to ensure the college will find the perfect 19th president.
Spearheading this search for the next president of Kalamazoo College is Jody Clark, the chair of the board of trustees. Clark has a heavy responsibility on her shoulders to put together the search committee that will be ultimately responsible for deciding on the next president. While the bylaws of Kalamazoo College mandate a majority of trustees on the search committee, Clark is determined that all voices on campus be heard.
“Getting everyone’s input is paramount to me,” said Clark, “it is a key focus of the board.”
To do this, the search committee will expand beyond trustees to include the president of the Alumni Association Engagement Board (AAEB), faculty, staff, and one to two student representatives. The student representatives will be nominated by their peers, then vetted to ensure the nominees are prepared to take on this endeavor.
After Clark has finalized the search committee, the real work begins. To find the next president of Kalamazoo College, the board of trustees asks everyone involved with Kalamazoo College share their opinions. This will be done through a series of listening sessions held by Clark. These sessions, which take place in the Olmstead Room from May 15th- 16th, will be geared towards certain demographics of Kalamazoo College. Department chairs, general faculty members, students and staff will all have individual listening sessions, during which they will be invited to share opinions on the necessities of the next president of Kalamazoo College. The criteria for the next president will be decided during these listening sessions, based on what the public relays to the search committee.
Due to conflict of interest, President Gonzalez will not become involved in the search for the next president. “The person we select as the 19th president of Kalamazoo College will be different than Jorge,” says Clark. Since President Gonzalez is one-of-a-kind, it is inevitable that the next president will be different. However, Clark assures the student body that the next president will be as equally committed to the college.
The estimated timeline for when the decision of the next president will be made and announced, offers Kalamazoo College members an idea of when to expect news. A widespread search will start over the summer, which will permit the search committee to interview the top twelve candidates in virtual meetings in October. From there, the candidates will be narrowed down until the 19th president of Kalamazoo is found and announced in January of 2026.
All demographics at Kalamazoo College are being encouraged to actively participate in the search for the next president, by meeting with a search committee to voice their opinions. Anyone with an invested interest in the future of Kalamazoo College should offer their opinions at the listening sessions in May and be on the lookout during the next academic year for the decisions of the search committee.
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