In a move that surprised many within academia, Bennett College trustees have named noted commentator and economist Dr. Julianne Malveaux president of the women’s college, effective June 1. Malveaux is best known for her numerous appearances on CNN and BET, and her columns have appeared regularly in USA Today, Ms. Magazine, Essence and this publication, Diverse: Issues In Higher Education. Malveaux replaces retiring Bennett College President Johnnetta Cole, whose leadership is credited with bringing Bennett back from the brink of deaccreditation and fiscal insolvency.
Though many unfamiliar with Bennett’s presidential search progress expressed surprise upon hearing of the selection, Malveaux was received enthusiastically by hundreds of cheering students, faculty and staff members who assembled on campus Monday morning for her formal introduction.
“I couldn’t be more pleased and more humbled by the reception that I got in Steele Hall this morning. I really couldn’t be more overwhelmed at the lengthy standing response — some of the students I taught here coming out and they were right there, front and center.”
“I think that people were concerned about what transition would be like, Dr. Cole has been such a powerful and phenomenal leader that people were concerned about who would come next and I think that I’ve allayed their concerns,” Malveaux said.
Though many in the Bennett community have come to know Malveaux through her teaching as a diversity-in-residence scholar this past year, some academics familiar with her often-polarizing punditry wonder if her hard-charging style will mesh well with the demands put upon a college president.
“She can be controversial at times, and she has issues with conservatives, because they see her as a neo-liberal,” says Dr. Lavonne Jackson Leslie, a professor in Howard University’s African-American studies department. “She is a Black feminist, and that is important in many ways, but at the same time … she’s controversial to many.”
