All Over Albany

The next Union College president is David Harris

Union College announced Tuesday that its next president will be David R. Harris, a 48-year-old sociologist who's currently the provost at Tufts. He'll succeed Stephen Ainlay, who's set to leave the post at the end of the current academic year after 12 years in the role.

Harris's CV includes undergrad and PhD at Northwestern, academic and administrative positions at Cornell, and time spent working for the US Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama admin. Press release blurbage:

In his time at Tufts, Harris has been a transformational leader with an impressive record of achievement. Shortly after joining the administration, he led a year-long effort to create Tufts' first-ever, university-wide strategic plan. From that plan emerged many new initiatives, including 1 + 4, a program to energize civic renewal by providing students an opportunity to engage in a year of international or national service before starting at Tufts. The strategic plan also led to the creation of Bridge Professorships, which span two or more schools to advance research and teaching on complex issues.

At Tufts, Harris also established the new position of chief diversity officer and associate provost, and he launched Bridging Differences, an initiative to empower the Tufts community to develop the skills necessary to engage in informed and civil discussion around some of today's most challenging topics.

Widely known for his warm and welcoming personality, Harris has worked hard to connect with the Tufts community. In partnership with the Tufts Cycling Team, he created the Tufts Century Ride - a 100-mile bike trek through the three Tufts campuses that garners a great deal of community participation each year.

Harris was recently involved in an episode at Tufts in which administrators revoked a speaking invitation from Anthony Scaramucci (himself a Tufts grad) after he threatened legal action against a Tufts sophomore over an op-ed. [Tufts Daily] [Boston.com]

According to his website, Harris's academic work has focused on race, ethnicity, and higher education; mixed-race identity and interracial relationships; residential mobility; racial differences in suburbanization.

Harris set to become just the 19th president in Union's 223-year history. His term starts July 1.

Disclosure: AOA editor Greg Dahlmann serves as a community representative on a human subjects review board for Union College.

photo via Union College