The Bowdoin College Board of Trustees elected a new chair, approved the election of a long-serving Trustee to emeritus status and granted tenure to seven faculty members during meetings held in Boston February 4-6, 2016.

Michele Cyr ’76, P’12, a trustee since 2000, was elected to a three-year term as chair, to begin July1, 2016. Cyr, associate dean for academic affairs for the division of biology and medicine at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School, as well as professor of medicine and medical science, will succeed Deborah Jensen Barker ’80, P’16, who will remain on the board and continue as chair through June 30, 2016.

Cyr chairs Brown’s Title IX Oversight and Advisory Board and co-chaired the University’s Sexual Assault Task Force focusing on campus sexual violence and gender-based harassment. More about Michele Cyr here.

Barker joined the board of trustees in 1999 and was co-chair of The Bowdoin Campaign, the College’s five-year fundraising effort that concluded in 2009 having raised $293 million for the academic program, student life and financial aid. Barker, who was actively involved in the Presidential Search Committee, began her three-year term as Bowdoin’s first female board chair in 2013.

In recognition of his devoted service to the College, John J. Studzinski ‘78, who joined the board in 1998 and concluded his service to the board in December 2015, was elected Trustee Emeritus.

Trustees also promoted seven faculty members to tenure positions. Assistant professors Margaret Boyle (Romance Languages and Literatures), Judith Casselberry (Africana Studies), David Hecht (History), Abigail Killeen (Theater and Dance), Jeffrey Selinger (Government and Legal Studies) and Yao Tang (Economics) were promoted to associate professor with tenure.

Associate Professor Crystal Hall (Digital and Computational Studies) was also granted tenure.