From: President's Office <president@amherst.

edu>
To: all-amherst-community
Sent: Tue Oct 05 23:08:02 2010
Subject: A Message from President Marx

Dear Friends:
I write to let you know that I plan to conclude my term as President of Amherst College and Professor of
Political Science on June 30, 2011, when I hope to become President of the New York Public Library subject to
approval by their board. It had been my intention to share this news with the college community before the
public was informed, and I regret that circumstances have somehow intervened, as they often do. So I write to
you now.
I have been privileged to serve Amherst College and the decision to leave is not an easy one. My family and I are
grateful for the roots and friendships we have established here and I am proud of what Amherst College stands
for.
A place such as Amherst is never done. That is what makes this a living place. What we are today is the product
of many hands, who have built upon the foundation of others, and whose work will be built on in turn. As a
community, we not only take stock of ourselves against a consistent set of values but also with a critical passion
that has led us to much for which we can take pride.
Amherst aims to be the most selective and the most diverse liberal arts college in the country. In recent years we
have seen measures of student academic standards increase for every cohort we track. Our low-income
enrollment—now about 25 percent—has more than doubled, significantly outpacing that of our peers and
ensuring mobility based on talent. Amherst now better includes and represents the world we inhabit—with a
student body that is more than 40 percent students of color and nearly 10 percent international students. All of
our students also benefit from need-blind admission. We have seen further developments in our curriculum, with
the first new majors in decades, the first new college-wide requirement for writing in more than a generation,
and increased reliance on external reviews for tenure and for departments to ensure that we get the best advice
on all fronts. We have sought to instill values and civic engagement through service opportunities connected to
the curriculum. A new science center is being planned that will enhance our campus and our intellectual life.
And in the last two years of economic difficulty, we have acted together to ensure the sound financial footing of
the College, reducing projected per-student expenditures in unprecedented ways, while not cutting access for the
best students, not laying off our valued staff colleagues, and with significant additions to the faculty—the
lifeblood of our educational and scholarly mission. For all of this we have seen remarkable support from our
alumni, including the two largest gifts in the history of the College, one being the largest unrestricted gift to any
college, enabling us to be in reach of our five year campaign goal within the two worst economic years in my
lifetime.
I have been honored to be a member of this faculty, this staff, and this board, and am grateful to all of you for
making these achievements possible. I now consider myself an Amherst alum and will continue to be a student
and to be inspired by the students I have met here. But after eight years it will be time to pursue in another
setting the values that have so engaged me here—the values that I have grown into, that Amherst has long stood
for, and that I hope will inform the world my children will live in.
The Public Library is New York’s City’s preeminent educational institution that is free and open to all. It is the
largest circulating library in America, has an operating and capital budget that exceeds $500 million, and has
1,900 dedicated full-time staff members. More than 18 million visits are made annually to its collections, the
third largest in the world, and 24 million visits occur on-line each year. Nearly 90 libraries serve the intellectual
needs of an amazingly diverse citizenry. Scholars everywhere benefit from access to its books. The New York
Public Library is one of a very few institutions that unite the world of advanced scholarship and the world of
universal education. It is one of a very few that both conserve our cultural heritage and push ahead into new
technological and intellectual frontiers. It is one of a very few that cherish both the tranquility of the reading
room and the vocal debates of the public square. It is a local institution, but “local” in the sense that New York
itself is local—a community with global implications. At the same time it is an institution that faces challenges,
as books become virtual, as public and private funding becomes scarce, and as the values of knowledge,
reasonableness, and reflection seem increasingly on the defensive.
My standing for election to the presidency of the Library, as with my earlier decision to come here to Amherst, is
part of a progression that began in the 1980s in South Africa. There, I saw an officious state suppress the
majority of its population, and I knew heroes who were willing to put their lives at risk, and lose them, to bring
change. I discovered the transformational power of education for those students who, against overwhelming
odds, were able to get one. My time as a scholar and teacher at Columbia focused on how change of this kind
can happen. I was surprised in 2003 to be given the opportunity to lead Amherst, an institution that pursues a
powerful model of intense education for individual and social transformation. I have been deeply proud to be a
part of the further opening of that opportunity to students of varied backgrounds, who make this a unique place
to learn together. I believe that the New York Public Library represents a great opportunity to extend the values
that have brought me—and Amherst—to this transition.
The responsibilities faced by the Library, and the larger society, are immense. We have to ensure that the public
retains free access to ideas, information, and books. We have to ensure a future for scholarship that further
builds our understanding. And we have to ensure that our citizens have civic space and vibrant programs for
learning and thinking, all the more so as the world seems to be turning away from enlightenment. The Library
must do all of that, as a bulwark of an informed and inclusive civil society, much as Amherst is such a bulwark.
Everything I have done and learned leads me in this direction—to pursue in a new way the ideals we have forged
together. I would be honored to take up the position in the Library as an act of faith in those ideals, for I can
think of no more important basis for me or any of us to decide about new challenges. As I do so I carry two
words with me: “Terras irradient.” Those two words are the motto of Amherst College but they carry far beyond
its borders.
I look forward to the remainder of the academic year at Amherst and for those of you on campus I invite you to
join Board Chair, Jide Zeitlin and me, at an open campus gathering at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 7th in
Johnson Chapel.
Yours, Tony