St. Lawrence University selects the school’s next president

CANTON, N.Y. —The St. Lawrence University board of trustees on Thursday announced it has chosen Kathryn Morris as the university’s 19th president.

She currently serves as provost and VP for academic affairs at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Morris will begin her tenure at St. Lawrence on July 1, succeeding William Fox, who announced his retirement in August 2020 and has served as the university’s president since 2009.

Morris has served as the provost and VP for academic affairs at Butler for the past eight years. In that role, she has been responsible for leading six academic colleges, played a “critical” role in strategic planning, and led two presidential commissions on diversity and on sexual assault.

At Butler, she helped to drive key university priorities including enrollment growth and the launch a $250 million fundraising campaign. During the past year, she was a “key part” of the COVID-19 response team at Butler, overseeing the development of the summer program to prepare faculty for the 2020-21 academic year.

“I am deeply honored to join this passionate, adventurous, and welcoming community,” Morris said of St. Lawrence University. “From the academic reputation to the breadth of co-curricular opportunities for students, there were so many things that made St. Lawrence an attractive place to call home. I was particularly impressed with the proactive institutional planning, including the most recent Experience St. Lawrence Task Force work, and the true commitment I saw to diversity and inclusion.”