Jill Beck assumed the presidency of Lawrence University in July 2004, becoming
the college’s 15th president and first woman president, and was formally
installed in office in May 2005, during a two-day Celebration
of the Arts and Liberal Learning.
Among the themes she has chosen for her presidency are to increase collaborative
and complementary activities between the fine and performing arts and the traditional
liberal arts and sciences and to encourage more active community engagement by
Lawrence and its students.
Under her leadership, the college has created an innovative postdoctoral teaching fellowship program, the Lawrence University Fellows in the Liberal Arts and Sciences. During its first year, 2005-06, the Lawrence Fellows program brought eight new Ph.D.s to campus in fields as diverse as music composition, physics, gender studies, geology, and philosophy.
President Beck is the founder of ArtsBridge America, an outreach program that offers hands-on experiences in the arts to school-age children, placing university students in K-12 classrooms as instructors and mentors. In 2005, Lawrence University became the headquarters of ArtsBridge America and the first private institution to join the program, which now has 22 participating institutions in 13 states and Northern Ireland.