Alison Byerly Named New Lafayette President

Alison Byerly has been named the new president of Lafayette College, the school announced Wednesdsay morning.

Byerly, who will take office July 1, replacing current President Daniel Weiss, who is stepping down to become president of Haverford College.

She is also the first female president of an inistitutation that began admitting women in 1970.

In a news release, Byerly said she was "excited by the opportunity to lead such a dynamic and ambitious institution."

"As an undergraduate college that encompasses both the traditional liberal arts and a strong engineering program, Lafayette provides an extraordinary range and depth of opportunities to students, yet it remains deeply committed to the highly individualized, one-on-one mentoring that is the hallmark of the residential liberal arts college," she said.

Byerly met briefly with reporters Wednesday afternoon at the college's Pfenning Alumni Center, and spoke about some of the challenges facing the school, including struggles with the Greek system, and underage drinking.

Before Lafayette, Byerly served as provost at Middlebury College in Vermont, and has been a visiting scholar at MIT, Stanford and Oxford.