Hobart and William Smith Colleges appoint alumnus Vincent as next president

GENEVA, N.Y. — Gregory Vincent, a 1983 graduate of Hobart and William Smith (HWS) Colleges, will become their next president.

The schools’ board of trustees voted “unanimously” to name Vincent to the post, approving the candidate that the presidential-search committee had recommended, according to a news release posted on the schools’ website.

Vincent will be the 27th president of Hobart College and the 16th of William Smith College.

He will succeed Mark Gearan who, last August, announced he would conclude his duties as president “at the end of the 2016-17 academic year,” according to the schools’ website.

Vincent currently serves as VP for diversity and community engagement at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a professor of community-college leadership and a professor of law.

HWS described Vincent as a “national expert on civil rights, social justice and campus culture.”

“Dr. Vincent is an exemplary educator, scholar and leader whose experiences in higher education administration and community engagement are an ideal fit for Hobart and William Smith,” Thomas Bozzuto, chair of the Hobart and William Smith Colleges board of trustees, said in the release. “Selected from a large number of very qualified applicants, Greg’s character, vision and expertise were obvious. He has dedicated his life to ensuring access to education and to providing opportunities for students to succeed. We are thrilled to welcome him and confident in his ability to lead the colleges into a new era of achievement.”

Vincent is the first alumnus in the colleges’ history to serve in the role, according to the news release.

Vincent background

Vincent attended public schools in New York City, where he graduated from the Bronx High School of Science.

In his time at Hobart, he majored in history and economics, served as a resident advisor, and was a member of the school’s basketball and cross-country running teams.

Hobart presented Vincent with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award at graduation.

Vincent went on to earn a law degree from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

Vincent’s career included serving as Ohio’s assistant attorney general in the early 1990s. While in the role, Vincent “successfully” argued several “major” civil-rights cases before that state’s Supreme Court. He was eventually promoted to director for regional and legal affairs at the Ohio Civil Rights Commission in Cleveland and later served as VP and lead counsel for Bank One, which is now JP Morgan Chase & Co.

His return to education began with an appointment as assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He was then named vice provost for academic affairs and campus diversity and law professor at Louisiana State University, and then vice provost for institutional equity and diversity and law professor at the University of Oregon.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com