President Wendy Raymond announced yesterday through a campus-wide email that John McKnight, Dean of the College, will be leaving Haverford at the close of this academic year, and beginning a position as inaugural dean of undergraduate student affairs in the School of Arts and Sciences at Dartmouth University. The national search for McKnight’s replacement will begin early next calendar year.
President Raymond wrote that the announcement is “bittersweet” for her.
“Dean McKnight has had an immeasurably positive impact on the Dean’s Division, the lives of our students, and the College,” she said in the email.
She included a link to the full announcement released by Dartmouth, which outlines the new position McKnight will be taking on, including playing an “important role in shaping the new [School of Arts and Science’s] mission.”
McKnight will be drawing on over 20 years of prior experience in higher education administration. Before coming to Haverford, he worked at Lehigh University, Lafayette College, and Connecticut College, where he served as the founding Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion.
Since his arrival at Haverford in July of 2021, McKnight has made great strides in bettering student experience, through the development of more significant metrics to measure student success and his investment in fostering a community accepting of and motivated by diverse perspectives. He has led numerous initiatives within the Haverford 2030 plan including FORD Life, which seeks to emphasize co-curricular hands-on experience, Summer Experiences for All, invested in wider access to student internships, and One Team: Elevating Haverford College Athletics, a project aiming to holistically improve the experience of Haverford’s student athletes and step up in the Division III landscape. He’s also hosted drop-in hours frequently, speaking to students one-on-one in an informal setting where they can share excitement, concern, and anything else on their minds.
In nearly five years at Haverford, McKnight has been a unifying mediatory force across conversations across the community. In a profile published by the College earlier this year, he highlighted specifically the skill it takes to de-escalate situations and resolve conflict in his position, which requires being able to “speak the language” of students, faculty, and staff. “I feel proud of my track record at Haverford and other institutions,” he said. “I’m excited to see what happens next. I still believe fundamentally in the bigger picture here of what we’re doing.”
