The DU Board of Trustees announced via email on Thursday, June 12 that Dr. Rebecca Chopp, current president of Swarthmore College, will succeed Robert Coombe as DU chancellor. Chopp will become DU’s 18th chancellor, and she will be the first woman to obtain the position during the university’s 150-year history.
In addition to her work at Swarthmore College, Chopp has served as president of Colgate University, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Emory University and as a dean at Yale University, according to the Board of Trustees email. She also has an academic background in religion, philosophy and theology.
In a Q&A published by the University of Denver Magazine, Chopp said she has held a high regard for DU for some time.
“I’ve actually been admiring the University for 20 years,” she said in the interview. “I have watched it build its excellent academic programs and amazing facilities.”
In the interview, Chopp also pointed to DU’s size, people, location, study abroad programs, and overall ‘attitude’ as factors that stood out to her about the university.
“I’ve learned in the interviews for the chancellor’s position that DU’s forward-looking attitude is best described with words such as optimism, resiliency, creativity, engagement, energy and courage,” she said. “The attitude of an institution determines, I think, its culture, its ability to seize opportunities, its handling of adversity, and the nature of its environment for learning and development of students.”
Chopp was selected through a search process that began at the beginning of 2014. The process was delayed in the spring due to the fact that all of the final selected candidates wished to have their applications remain private, according to a May 20 Clarion article. At that point, the Chancellor Search Committee selected DU community members who were invited to meet with the finalists in private and offer their opinions of the candidates. The committee also sought broader student and DU community input throughout the selection process, according to the Trustees’ email.
The DU community will have the opportunity to meet Chopp this Friday, June 13 at 10 a.m. in the Special Events Room of the Anderson Academic Commons (AAC).
