Leaving Homer

After 26 years of working within 100 yards of the Homer statue, Edward L. Ayers is about to call Richmond home. A professor of history who has been dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences since 2001, he assumes the presidency of the University of Richmond in July.

“I have been blessed in countless ways by my association with U.Va.,” Ayers said. “My time as dean has only strengthened my love for this place. But the opportunity to serve as president of an institution dedicated to so many of the things to which I am devoted — undergraduate education, civic engagement, the integration of the liberal arts into a broad education — is compelling to me.”

Beloved by students for his enthusiasm and accessibility, Ayers has been praised for his scholarship and teaching about the history of the American South. His book “In the Presence of Mine Enemies, War in the Heart of America 1859-1863,” a work of interpretive narrative history, won the two most prestigious awards in American history scholarship, the Bancroft Prize and the Beveridge Prize. He received the Carnegie Foundation’s National Professor of the Year for Research and Doctoral Universities award in 2003, recognizing his leadership in digital scholarship with projects such as the “Valley of the Shadow” website. He also has received numerous teaching and citizenship awards at U.Va., including the Thomas Jefferson award, the University’s highest honor, in 2006.

Strong Leader

Immediately after Ayers’ deanship began, the College was plunged into an unprecedented fiscal crisis when the state required that Arts & Sciences return $4 million from its operating budget. Several months into his deanship, Ayers found himself in the unwelcome position of canceling dozens of faculty searches, cutting travel and operating budgets, and freezing salaries for two years. During the crisis, Ayers and the faculty worked hard to shield students by preserving funding for classes and other elements of the undergraduate program.

Lately, careful planning and new funding commitments have put the College on a stronger fiscal footing than before the cuts. During the crisis Ayers crafted a plan for renewal that has guided the school since the University began phasing in a 30 percent increase in base support for Arts & Sciences last year. With the new money secured from the central administration and the state, the College has hired more than 100 faculty members, increased its diversity, created new programs, given competitive raises, and laid the foundation for a sustained period of growth in the faculty and facilities.

South Lawn Project

Chief among those facilities is the South Lawn Project, a $105 million group of buildings adjacent to Jefferson’s Lawn that will house the departments of history, politics, and religious studies. Garnering more than $52 million in private support to date, Ayers has shepherded the South Lawn Project from concept to groundbreaking. The period also has seen historic renovations of Cocke Hall for classics and philosophy and Fayerweather Hall for art history, and the start of construction on Ruffin Hall for studio art.

Ayers’ tenure also has been marked by completing a comprehensive examination of the undergraduate academic program, thoroughly revamping undergraduate advising, and creating a January Term that was adopted by the entire University.

“Dean Ayers has been a visionary leader for the College of Arts & Sciences for the last five years,” said U.Va. Rector Thomas F. Farrell II (Rhetoric and Communication Studies ’76, Law ’79). “He has been a fantastic leader at the University, and the University of Richmond’s gain is our loss.”