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Farewell To President Cheever

Built Record-High Enrollments, Robust Financial Health

BOSTON (February 1, 2005) — Daniel S. Cheever Jr., who has served as president of Simmons College in Boston for a decade and led it to record-high enrollments and robust financial health, will resign as president in July 2006. Simmons Board Chair Lucia Luce Quinn said Simmons "has prospered mightily in virtually every respect" under Cheever's leadership, and the board accepted his decision to resign "with sincere regret and deep appreciation."

"We have record enrollment growth, strong and stable financial performance, major new academic facilities, improved morale, and a record-setting capital campaign," she said. "President Cheever's legacy will endure, and so will our gratitude."

Cheever, 62, said he made the decision to resign in the summer of 2006 to assure ample time for the college to hire a new president who would be in place at Simmons well before the launching of its next major capital campaign in 2007. The last campaign, which raised a record $70 million, ended in 2004.

In announcing his decision, Cheever noted that "we're at the strongest point in Simmons's history. I've been at the helm since 1995, and while I cherish this wonderful Simmons community, I think it's important to have fresh leadership to launch a major new capital campaign and guide it through to its successful completion."

Improvements under Cheever since 1995 include steadily rising enrollments culminating in current record-high enrollments and applications, budget surpluses and robust financial health, and near completion of a $250 million building program. That program includes a new college center, six renovated residence halls and campus conference center, multi-million dollar technology investment, a large new classroom building and one on the drawing boards, and current construction of a new state-of-the-art library.

The improvements have been made at a time when Simmons has the lowest average annual tuition increase of any of its 14 major competitors, and faculty salaries have gone from 60th percentile to 85th percentile of comparable peer institutions.

Simmons College is a nationally recognized private university in Boston, with 4,500 students enrolled in the undergraduate college and five graduate schools. Simmons was founded more than a century ago as the first women's college in the country to combine liberal arts education with professional career preparation. Today Simmons has an undergraduate college for women; the nation's only business school designed specifically for women; and nationally recognized co-educational graduate schools of social work, library and information science, health studies, and graduate studies.