May 6, 2016 4 min read

Washington & Jefferson College was an all-male institution of higher learning until 1970, but it took another 35 years before the college – named for two presidents – actually had a woman in charge.

Dr. Tori Haring-Smith made her mark on local history 11 years ago when she became the first woman president of W&J, but her era is about to come to a close. She was busy Friday letting faculty and staff know she intends to retire June 30, 2017.

Haring-Smith is a world traveler and she sees it as a key to having those who live in far-flung lands understand each other, to the benefit of all. Known as the Magellan Project, which Haring-Smith fostered, the college provides funding for all W&J students to take advantage of challenging independent research of their own design.

Student travels have taken a future veterinarian to the Cook Islands in the South Pacific to spay and neuter dogs, documenting cross-cultural attitudes toward strays; another went to a Burmese monastery to learn how religion shapes attitudes toward the environment; yet another had an internship at the American embassy in Berlin, while another examined World Heritage sites in Transylvania. To date, more than 400 Magellan Projects were completed in 50 countries, although some proposals meet with rejection if a student hopes to head to war-torn or otherwise dangerous countries.

The funding aspect of the Magellan Project is especially important because one-third of W&J’s students are eligible for the federal Pell Grant, a need-based grant to low-income undergraduates, and a fourth are the first in their family to attend college.

“We have a wide socioeconomic swath,” Haring-Smith said Thursday, mentioning the Pell Grant recipient may room with a student who previously lived in a gated community. “I love that economic diversity here. It makes for some very interesting discussions.”

College affordability has taken W&J’s president twice to the White House for summit meetings on that topic, and, during Haring-Smith’s tenure, the school began its “Good Neighbor” award for eligible prospective students from seven Southwestern Pennsylvania counties.

W&J traces its founding to Washington Academy, which opened its doors in 1781, but many building projects, including new residence halls and the John A. Swanson Science Center and the Janet Swanson Tennis Center, were completed.

Athletic facility and library improvements are part of “An Uncommon Bond: The Campaign for Washington & Jefferson College,” a $100 million campaign to support W&J faculty and students and to update campus facilities, exceeded its goal, Haring-Smith said, and the James David Ross Family Recreation Center is scheduled to open in the fall.

The college has also been recognized for its commitment to clean energy, where 50 percent of the energy used on campus is purchased from wind farms.

The now-outgoing president expects the membership of a search committee to be finalized by the middle of this month. The members will be working with a national firm specializing in administrative positions in higher education, and Haring-Smith hopes a candidate will be selected early next year.

Haring-Smith, 63, and her husband, Robert, are grandparents of 3-month-old Saul Haring-Smith. They plan to retire to New Hampshire, where they’ve had a cabin since she taught theater and writing at Brown University in Providence, R.I. She plans to write narrative nonfiction inspired by her father’s experiences as survivor of the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor and her grandmother’s quest to bring him home for treatment of what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder.

In a news release from the college, Richard T. Clark chairman of the college’s board of trustees, thanked Haring-Smith and said, “She has demonstrated unwavering dedication to W&J and to our students. She has resurrected the rich history, traditions and activities of our college and brought those to the forefront again while instituting changes that make W&J globally connected and financially strong. It has made us proud as alumni and as a board.”