In another Maine college shake-up, Bates president will leave role next June
File Photo / Tim Greenway
Clayton Spencer
The president of Bates College, Clayton Spencer, will leave that role next June, the Lewiston liberal arts school announced Wednesday.
Spencer has served as the eighth president of Bates since 2012, after holding several leadership positions at Harvard University. In 2018, she was named a Mainebiz Woman to Watch.
She informed Bates trustees and students of her decision earlier this week.
“When I step down on June 30, 2023, I will have had the profound honor of serving the college in this role for 11 years. I have loved my time at Bates,” she wrote in a letter to the college community on Wednesday. “I am not at all sure what this next chapter will bring for me, but I am excited to explore new interests and ways of being.”
The college said trustees will immediately begin designing a search process to identify Spencer’s successor and will share details in the coming weeks.
“The search will be broadly consultative,” said the board chair, John Gillespie, in a news release. “We will form a search committee that includes representatives from the campus community in addition to trustees.”
Bates is not the only Maine college undergoing a leadership transition. In April, Bowdoin College said its president — another “Clayton,” Clayton Rose — will leave that position in 2023 after an eight-year tenure.
Last month, a newly hired president for the University of Maine at Augusta, Michael Laliberte, declined that role amid fallout from the school's vetting of his work experience. A new search is underway.
Eastern Maine Community College, in Bangor, has also undergone a change at the top. Liz Russell began as president earlier this month, succeeding an interim president, Wayne Burton, and President Lisa Larson, who left EMCC last October.
Lasting legacy
Spencer has brought new energy to Bates, which today has an enrollment of 1,900 and has been an anchor of learning and commerce in Lewiston since 1855.
Under her leadership, the college’s endowment has more than doubled, from $216 million in 2012 to $466 million in 2021. The college next week will conclude its most successful fundraising campaign ever, having surpassed an initial $300 million goal and raising more than $336 million. Meanwhile, annual fundraising has nearly tripled, from $12 million in 2013 to $34 million in 2021.
In recent years, Bates has also expanded its financial aid for students, expanded campus facilities, and launched new initiatives in a number of academic areas, including digital and computational studies.
During Spencer’s tenure, the number of admission applications has increased 54%, from 5,362 in 2012 to 8,273 applications for the class of 2026.
“Clayton has been a transformative leader for Bates, giving new shape and meaning to the power of a liberal arts education for today’s world,” said Gillespie. “She has also guided the college through the extraordinary challenges of the past several years with exceptional clarity and a steady hand.”
Spencer grew up in Virginia and North Carolina. She received a bachelor's degree from Williams College in 1977, then went on to earn a bachelor's degree in theology from Oxford in 1979, a master's degree in religion from Harvard in 1982, and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1985.
She clerked at the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, then practiced law at the Boston firm of Ropes & Gray. She worked for Ted Kennedy from 1993 to 1997 and served as the chief education counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.
Returning to higher education, Spencer spent 15 years on Harvard's senior leadership team as an assistant vice president and then vice president, directing policy initiatives.
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