Effective July 1, Scott B. Perper ’78 will take over as chair of the Board of Trustees. Perper was elected unanimously during a virtual meeting that took place this February. Perper’s election follows the recommendation of an ad hoc committee composed of six trustees and President Clayton Rose.
James “Jes” Staley ’79 P’11, the former CEO of Barclays, stepped down from the Bowdoin Board of Trustees on Monday, according to a statement from Director of Communications Scott Hood. The statement followed an announcement earlier in the day that Staley would resign from his position as Chief Executive of Barclays.
Last Saturday, during Family Weekend, members of the Bowdoin Labor Alliance (BLA) and other student activists hosted a teach-in on the Main Quad to educate students and their families about the College’s Board of Trustees. Student activists centered their grievances around James “Jes” Staley ’79 P’11—who has come under fire for his relationship with the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein as well as his actions as CEO of Barclays—and circulated an online petition calling for Staley’s removal from the Board.
Six signs advocating for the removal of James “Jes” Staley ’79 P’11, CEO of Barclays, from the College’s Board of Trustees were taken down yesterday morning from the strip of grass between Maine Street and Park Row outside Hawthorne-Longfellow Library and Gibson Hall.
Before the members of the Board of Trustees convened in Beverley, Mass., this Thursday, they read a 60-page packet about Gen Z.
Among the materials trustees were required to read prior to the meeting was an article by Jeffrey Selingo, a journalist who covers higher education, titled “The New Generation of Students: How colleges can recruit, teach, and serve Gen Z.”
“Today’s students are attentive to inclusion across race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and they want colleges to live up to those ideals as well,” writes Selingo.
Our first year, President Clayton Rose taught a First-Year Seminar titled “The Moral Leader.” A young Ben Ray wrote in his course notes that “an accumulation of moral challenges solved with moral choices (either based on principles or consequences) paints a picture of the capabilities of a leader.” Clayton taught that moral leaders have a moral code which guides their decisions.
Some Bowdoin alumni are upset after former diplomat Susan E. Rice was announced as one of the three honorary degree recipients for the 213th Commencement, which will take place in May. Certain alumni expressed concern with Rice’s diplomatic record, particularly her response to an attack on U.S.
Bowdoin’s trustees and senior administrators traveled to Silicon Valley last week for their annual meeting and spent time with executives from a number of technology firms including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Uber and Coursera. According to President Clayton Rose, there was no specific takeaway or plan for the College to implement.
The second meeting of the Board of Trustees this academic year will be held in Palo Alto, California beginning next Thursday. It is the first time the meeting will be held outside of the Northeast.
“We wanted to engage with the culture of the ‘new economy’—not that new anymore—the culture of technology and innovation and entrepreneurship,” said President Clayton Rose.