Wheaton President Ronald A. Crutcher has been elected chair of a national association of colleges and universities advocating for quality in the undergraduate experience on American campuses.

February 23, 2005

Wheaton College President Ronald A. Crutcher has been elected chair of a national association of colleges and universities advocating for quality in the undergraduate experience on American campuses.

President Crutcher was elected to the chair of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Board of Directors in January at the group's annual meeting, and will serve in that position for one year. He has been active as a leader in AAC&U for years and served as its vice chair in 2004.

''The high quality liberal arts education that Wheaton and other AAC&U members schools offer to students is the best preparation for professional success, personal satisfaction and the civic engagement upon which our country depends,'' President Crutcher said. ''I look forward to playing a leadership role in raising public awareness about all that our schools have to offer.''

President Crutcher takes the chair of AAC&U's board as the association begins an ambitious 10-year campaign to raise public understanding of the lifetime value of a quality liberal education. Founded in 1915 by college presidents, AAC&U now represents the entire spectrum of American colleges and universities-large and small, public and private, two-year and four-year. AAC&U comprises more than 1,000 accredited colleges and universities that collectively educate more than five million students every year.

A music scholar and professional musician as well as a leader in higher education and the arts, President Crutcher took office as Wheaton's seventh president on July 1, 2004, and has instituted a comprehensive strategic planning process involving the entire college community in building a vision of the institution's future.

Before coming to Wheaton, President Crutcher served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He also held senior leadership posts at the University of Texas at Austin (1994-99), the Cleveland Institute of Music (1990-94), the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1987-90). He began his academic career as an assistant professor at Wittenberg University (1977-79).

A Phi Kappa graduate of Miami University, President Crutcher pursued graduate studies at Yale University as a Woodrow Wilson and Ford Foundation fellow. In 1979, he was the first cellist to receive the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale. The recipient of a Fulbright Award, President Crutcher studied in Germany. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in March 1985 and currently performs in this country and Europe with the Klemperer Trio.