The consultant serving as Lafayette College’s interim vice president for communications stepped down on Dec. 31 after almost two and a half years in the role.
Pete Mackey, who joined the communications division in the fall of 2022, resigned months before a search for a permanent replacement was expected to end. Scott Morse, the assistant vice president for communications, is acting as interim vice president until the replacement is selected.
“I had other emerging obligations in my business that made this a good time for the transition,” Mackey wrote in an email. “My outstanding Lafayette colleague, Scott Morse, is more than capable of assuming this interim role while the search concludes.”
Lafayette has not had a permanent communications head since 2022.
In the years since, the college has seen a federal antisemitism investigation, the departure of five senior administrators, the planning of an aborted vice-presidential debate and outrage over a dining provider transition, among other controversies. Through it all, Lafayette’s communications tactics were led by Mackey while he ran his consulting company, Mackey Strategies.
In the month since Mackey’s departure, the college has faced the fallout of a historic faculty no-confidence vote and Trump administration policies upending research and immigration.
According to college President Nicole Hurd, a permanent vice president could be named “in the coming weeks,” but the timeline has shifted several times.
Mackey’s hiring marked one of the first senior leadership vacancies of Hurd’s presidency. At the time, the college noted that Hurd would consider “the best time to launch a search for a permanent vice president in the coming year,” but the search was not launched until May 2024. By September, Hurd said in a campus announcement that finalists would be interviewed that month and a hire would be made by the semester’s end.
Though several candidates visited Easton that month for a series of “open lunch sessions” with the campus community, no replacement has been named. According to Hurd, the administration decided to “reassess” its approach to hiring with its search partner, Storbeck Search.
Hurd did not respond when asked why this took place.
In late January, another series of open lunches was held. Morse wrote in an email that three candidates were being interviewed.
“Lafayette College deserves the best possible candidate to fill this position,” Morse wrote. “We will take whatever time is needed to find that right individual.”
According to Mackey, his departure had been a “rolling conversation” between him and Hurd, and the pair decided in fall 2024 that he would step down at the end of the calendar year.
“It was our intention from the start of our agreement that at an opportune point I would step down and a new vice president would be recruited,” Mackey wrote, noting that he and Hurd came to the decision because “other leadership searches had been completed.”
The only public announcement of Mackey’s departure was a note appended to an event reminder in the Jan. 21 issue of the Lafayette Today, three weeks after Mackey’s term had ended.
The vacancy is one of three in Hurd’s senior leadership team, a group of the college’s 11 most senior administrators. The fundraising division has been led on an interim basis by another consultant from Mackey’s firm since 2023, while the college’s information technology division has been without a leader since October.
The average term length for an interim senior administrator under Hurd has been one year and three months, according to an analysis by The Lafayette. Under Hurd’s predecessor, Allison Byerly, the average interim term was four months.
Mackey’s interim work for and subsequent exit from the college was cited by the faculty in its no-confidence motion against Hurd. The duration of his term was used to support the faculty’s claim that Hurd “has not effectively addressed the mass exodus driven by her administration.”
