Ian Baucom, executive vice president and provost, has been named President of Middlebury College and will take office July 1, according to a release posted to Middlebury’s website Wednesday morning. The University has announced that Baucom will officially step down from his position in March.
Brie Gertler, deputy provost and senior vice provost for academic affairs, will serve as Interim Executive Vice President and Provost in Baucom’s position when he steps down from the role in March.
Baucom has served as executive vice president and provost since 2022. In this position, he is responsible for managing the academic schools of the University — including overseeing education and research initiatives, libraries, art museums and public service. Before 2022, Baucom served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for eight years after spending 17 years at Duke University.
During his tenure, Baucom has overseen the growth of the undergraduate and graduate College of Arts and Sciences. Under his leadership, the College launched its new curriculum, which included Engagements courses, a program designed to introduce first year students to the liberal arts and sciences through a year-long sequence of seminar-style courses.
Baucom led efforts to form the Democracy Initiative, which eventually led to the establishment of the Karsh Institute of Democracy — a University-based center focused on advancing the study and practice of democracy through research, teaching and public programs — in 2021. He has also hired five new deans and Vice President for Research Lori McMahon, and oversaw efforts to hire 150 new faculty members.
In a statement to the Faculty Senate at their meeting Friday, Baucom said he was looking forward to his new role and thanked the senators for their service to the University.
“This has been the honor of my professional life, to be here and to be changed by this place and what it stands for, and what it represents,” Baucom said. “There's a lot of joy in my life right now. I am so looking forward to going to Middlebury, [but] there is a sense of loss, of losing this [place].”
In a written statement, Middlebury Board Chair Ted Truscott said he was confident that Baucom would succeed in this new role and was looking forward to working with him.
“In Ian, we have an inspired choice for a new president who will lead this extraordinary community through the next chapter in the life of the institution we love,” Truscott said. “It was clear from our first conversation that we share values around what’s most important at a place like Middlebury … I speak for the entire Board when I say we can’t wait to get started."
The University is among many national universities which have experienced increased faculty and staff turnover since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in 2024, the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources reported that voluntary turnover rates within higher education were trending downward after having notably increased during the pandemic. The overall turnover rate for faculty and staff during the 2023-2024 academic year was 14 percent, which remained above pre-pandemic levels but was below a peak in 2022-2023.
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