Former Smith College President Carol T. Christ has been named as interim Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost of University of California at Berkeley, effective Sunday.
Christ, the 10th president of the Northampton private women’s liberal arts college, will replace Claude Steele who announced his resignation from UC Berkeley April 15.
Professor Christ, a renowned Victorian literature scholar, served as president of Smith from 2002 until June 2013.
“When you lead a college,” she wrote in her letter to the Smith community announcing her decision to retire in 2013, “you step into a river that flows before and after your time in its waters.”
Among Christ’s many contributions to Smith College was her work in championing diversity, women’s issues, and environmental sustainability, launching a capital planning effort, and carrying out curriculum reform.
Christ said in a March 12, 2012, Boston Globe piece that two of her accomplishments at Smith stood out from the rest: “developing the nation’s only accredited engineering program at a women’s college and presiding over a significant rise in diversity among students.”
Stacey Schmeidel, Media Relations Director for Smith, said the college wishes her the best in her new position.
While Christ will be serving UC Berkeley in a new capacity, she is no stranger to the school.
Prior to joining Smith, Christ was UC Berkeley’s executive vice chancellor and provost from 1994 until 2000.
She returned to UC Berkeley in January 2015 as director of the university’s Center for Studies in Higher Education after holding several other positions at the university in past decades.
Her long relationship with the California institution left a positive impact, particularly in sharpening the school’s intellectual focus, championing women’s issues and diversity and helping to build many top-rated departments in humanities and sciences.
Christ first joined the English faculty at UC Berkeley in 1970 after receiving her Ph.D. from Yale University. She served as chair of the Department of English, dean of the Division of Humanities (as it was formerly called) and provost for the College of Letters and Science. A member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Philosophical Society, Professor Christ was the highest-ranking female administrator at Berkeley until she returned to full-time teaching in 2000.
Christ said she was honored to serve the campus again, according to a message sent to the campus by Chancellor Nicholas B. Dirks.
“I love Berkeley, and am ready to do whatever I can at this crucial moment in the university’s life,” she said.
Dirks echoed her enthusiasm, saying:
“I am thrilled that Professor Christ has agreed to step into this important role as interim executive vice chancellor and provost. Her extensive experience on this campus coupled with her significant career accomplishments position her to provide exemplary leadership for Berkeley’s academic enterprise. In particular, I know that Professor Christ is eager to collaborate with the deans and the leadership of the Academic Senate to advance the strategic planning process that is bringing our campus finances back into equilibrium.”
Sarah Crosby can be reached at scrosby@gazettenet.com.