Prior Lafayette President David Weiss leaves Haverford for the Big Apple

The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced last Tuesday that they were electing Daniel Weiss, president of Lafayette from 2005 until 2013, as their new president.

Weiss, who has been president of Haverford College since 2013, will be succeeding Emily Rafferty. Rafferty was president of the Met for the last ten years. Weiss will be taking over the museum, which has a $3 billion endowment and a $300 million budget, in the summer after the conclusion of this school year, according to a recent article in the New York Times.

In a message posted on Haverford’s official website, Weiss expressed his excitement about the opportunity.

He wrote the offer came as a surprise, writing, “…as an art historian with a lifelong interest in museums, I am drawn to the singular opportunity to play a leadership role at the Met.”

He also wrote that he was sorry to leave his teaching career.

“It is with no small amount of reluctance that I give up the opportunity to continue our important work,” he wrote.

Weiss is a nationally recognized art historian, according to his official page on the Haverford website, specializing in the art of the Middle Ages with degrees from Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University, as well as a Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University. He will be in charge of the largest museum in the country, averaging over six million visitors a year.