We are pleased to report that Lafayette is doing incredibly well across the board under college President Nicole Hurd’s leadership. Applications have increased 28% since 2021 with a record 10,528 applicants for the Fall 2025 incoming class. Forbes’ list of the top U.S. colleges placed Lafayette in the top 12%. The Wall Street Journal rankings included the top 500 colleges and universities, and the list for liberal arts colleges placed Lafayette at #9 overall and #3 for top liberal arts colleges in the Northeast. Standard & Poor’s and Moody‘s credit rating services have reaffirmed our A+/A- and Aa3 ratings, respectively.
Yet, as you probably know, the college faculty met several weeks ago and approved a “No Confidence” motion against President Hurd’s leadership by a vote of 102-86 with 6 abstentions. This suggests that about 66 faculty members did not vote. Therefore, those who voted “No Confidence” represented less than 40% of the total 260 faculty members. This vote, in our view, led to a vindictive effort to discredit the president.
A faction of 10 faculty members led by Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies professor Mary Armstrong, sees the faculty as having “a uniquely central role” in the governance of the college. (Note, Professor Armstrong also signed the open letter after the 2016 presidential election – which had the effect of upsetting many alums and led to the creation of the ACL). We believe this faculty group saw their own self-importance beyond the point of reasonableness, refusing to see the need for the Board of Trustees to find a proper balance among disparate interests across the whole of the college community, including students, administration, parents, alumni/alumnae and faculty. The singular point is that the faculty have an important voice, but no more important than all the others in combination. During the review process, the new “strategic plan” was unanimously approved by the trustees, the Student Government, and the Alumni Association Board. The college staff approved the plan by an overwhelming 244-3 vote.
Fortunately for Lafayette, the Board of Trustees, under the outstanding leadership of Bob Sell (board chair), has unanimously approved a resolution endorsing complete confidence in President Hurd. This no-confidence vote by the faculty damages the college’s reputation, and it is important that we, as alumni, stand up and strongly support President Hurd and the Board of Trustees.
Stephen Benson, 1969
Jack Bourger, 1971
Bruce McDermott, 1969
William Messick, 1968
Bill Rappolt, 1967
Alden Siegel, 1960
Randy Thornton, 1967
This letter is signed on behalf of the Alumni/Alumnae Coalition of Lafayette. The Alumni/Alumnae Coalition of Lafayette is not directly affiliated with Lafayette College.
Joe • Feb 21, 2025 at 12:59 pm
This is absolute bullshit. This is lie. Time to pack your bags, Nicole.
Truth Seeking Alum • Feb 21, 2025 at 7:46 am
This may be your view, let’s call it a hardline view, a flawed view in the opinion of many other alumni who also care deeply about the College. The metrics you cite in your unwavering support of this president are indeed impressive, but they have little to do with her personal efforts or what she has brought to the College in her mere three and a half years there. The college has been in this uptick mode now for better than a decade and a half, beginning under prior excellent presidents.
And the metrics you cite reflect nothing about how she and her administration have been performing in the actual administration of the college on a daily basis, something the best qualified to judge are those seeing it day in and day out on campus, not you sitting at home, through the valued, respected and mature eyes and whose opinion should be highly valued, namely the faculty.
These professors who have been hired to teach our children how to learn, grow up and become worthy citizens indeed saw continuing flaws, major flaws, that they finally felt had to be brought to the attention of the Board and acted upon. They should be thanked and not condemned. In many ways, this is the most important metric for evaluating any president —working smoothly with a reasonable and dedicated faculty for the betterment of the college, which has been the golden rule of all prior presidents in the entire history of the college, and which this president, as the facts cited seem to establish, has a pattern of failing to do.
Further it is beyond contempt that you would to try by sly insinuation to denigrate the worthiness of any particular professor involved in the group that in good faith and respect for the institution that is Lafayette College brought the petition of no-confidence to the board. And you once again try to negate the power of the faculty no confidence vote by calling out the number of those who stayed home and did not vote, as if this vote is any different from any other vote in any democratic organization and in our democratic society. Like in national and state elections, those who vote carry the day and have the final say in any matter of governance.
The truth you varnish over is that the faculty does have “a uniquely central role” in the SHARED GOVERNANCE of the College, just as it has had since the College’s founding, along with the president and the trustees. All prior presidents and boards of trustees have recognized that principle and acted accordingly to win that respect and maintain that unique relationship.
The shame was that the administration would even attempt to bring the Strategic Plan to the board of trustees despite the specific rejection by the faculty rather than attempt to resolve the differences and that the board then blindly passed the Strategic Plan. In doing so, it added insult to injury by engaging in the subterfuge of saying the faculty vote against the Strategic Plan was disregarded because it was a “split vote.”
Name Required • Feb 21, 2025 at 2:15 pm
Interesting that the truth seeking alum does not have an identity or graduation year.