MC’s 13th President

Introducing Dr. Mauri Ditzler to campus

by Marisa Kratochvil
Editor-in-Chief

The walls of Wallace Hall have seen 12 presidents come and go since 1853 and this year it has opened its doors to yet another: Dr. Mauri Ditzler, Monmouth College’s 13th president.

“I look forward to spending the upcoming months learning the core values of the college,” Ditzler stated. “As a community, we will develop strategies to sustain the existing momentum and explore ways to make an excellent college even better.”

Since he is now following in the footsteps of former MC president Richard Giese, President Ditzler commented, “Giese had done a remarkable job of building momentum on campus and creating a ‘can-do’ atmosphere. I hope I have that energy and enthusiasm for the future that Giese brought to the institution.”

He assumed duties on July 1 after being the Dean of Wabash College in Crawfordsville, IN since 1999.

In an interview, he commented he had no intentions of leaving Wabash and looking for another president position, but there were aspects of MC he could not ignore.

According to President Ditzler, the following qualities of MC influenced his decision to accept the position.

“Monmouth College has the ability to become a world class educational institution,” he commented, “and it has the desire to become even better.”

“Monmouth College is also strong enough to talk about this ability realistically.”

Another endearing aspect of MC was how everyone he talked to liked the students on campus.

“At Monmouth, the people [administration and faculty] really seem to like who the students are and the students are the reason the professors work hard,” President Ditzler stated.

He elaborated on the fact the MC personnel is not only concerned with getting new incoming students, but that they also do not forget about those who are still on campus.

“It’s refreshing,” he said, “and we could imagine being a world class educational institution with the students we have now.”

The third aspect that attracted him to MC was how it was a mid-Western, liberal arts institution.

“Monmouth goes beyond content in its curriculum and offers a much healthier view as a liberal arts education,” he remarked.

“It's a refreshing idea and breaks the mold.”

It was after being phoned by a representative and a meeting with the Trustees that he was persuaded to accept the position.

Looking at his future with MC, President Ditzler stated his interest in its educational programs.

“My focus will be creating an engaging community, where students and faculty are interacting both in and out of the classroom,” he said.

“I hope for them to use all forms of engagements and make Monmouth one of the most engaging college campuses in the country.”

Furthermore, President Ditzler will lead MC according to three guiding principles, with the first one being to get students and faculty more engaged.

“Liberal arts colleges,” he stated, “ought to serve society and look out to see where we are needed. We need to become better at civil discourse and use discussions to learn from each other.”

His first point then leads into his second: learning how to discuss difficult topics in a civil manner.

His third and final guiding principle includes investing MC resources in establishing a world class educational program.

“We have already developed an educational program, in which students want to come here and I want to create a better program for students and to attract more,” he said.

So far, President Ditzler has set general goals for this year.

MC has its annual survey every year, which measures student engagement and he stated, “Each year we do better and better and are attaining stronger results.”

However, he acknowledges some room for improvement on the score.

In addition, President Ditzler seeks to hire an excellent, and permanent, vice president of academic affairs (VPAA) to relieve Rajkumar Ambrose, interim VPAA, who has agreed to this position for a second year.

He also hopes for the MC's faculty to have a rewarding environment and say it was more enjoyable then the previous year, seeks for the overall graduation rate to increase and to improve the retention rate between freshmen and sophomore year.

“This way,” he added, “we have proof they had a smooth transition and were engaged.”

As for his credentials, President Ditzler is known as a reformer of general chemistry and was a former Analytical Chemistry professor.

For 15 years he was a professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester , Mass, and has a list of accomplishing students who have earned doctorate degrees.

“I liked the idea of being a role model,” he added, “and over time, I became more interested in the broader view of the impact of teaching.”

President Ditzler took his first dean position in 1994 while at Millikin University in Decatur and during his final year there he served as acting vice president for academic affairs.

While acting as the Dean of College at Wabash, he was deeply involved in strategic planning, grant writing, faculty governance/hiring, tenure decisions and helped to promote Wabash's Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, which is a research center meant to study the effectiveness of a liberal arts education.

“We collected evidence, raised money to create the building and hired 10 researchers,” he added.

“The center has been in existence for four years and has had a national impact.”

The center was established through a $20.8 million grant he helped conceive and write.

Regarding the future renovations of HT, President Ditzler has the experience and has been involved in six science building renovation/construction projects.

“HT is a good building, but it was built in a different era,” he commented.

To President Ditzler, it is more efficient to build two new buildings so that one could support laboratory technology and the other would function (i.e. discussion areas and offices).

Compared to those presidents before him, President Ditzler finds commonalities among them and acknowledges Bruce Haywood's strong faith in the effectiveness of a liberal arts education, as well as Sue Huseman's sense for building a strong community and collegial atmosphere.

Ditzler is a 1975 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wabash and earned his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Duke University in 1979.

President Ditzler and his wife Judi have three children: Meggan, their eldest daughter who teaches chemistry in Vermont ; their son Mark, who is in the biophysics graduate program at the University of Michigan and Lorin, their younger daughter, who will graduate this year from Grinnell College .

The Ditzlers own a farm outside of Crawfordsville, and he is fond of spending his free time there, growing fruit and repairing its old barn.

Additionally, he has run a business for the past 35 summers that specializes in corn detasseling

President Ditzler stated, “Judi and I are delighted to be coming to Monmouth. We are so impressed with the people we have met so far. Everyone at the college and in the town has been welcoming.”