Another College Picks a Trustee as Interim President

The president of Simmons College, Susan C. Scrimshaw, is stepping down after two years on the job. She will be replaced, on an interim basis, by Helen Drinan, who heads the Boston college’s Board of Trustees, according to a news release issued today by Simmons. Ms. Drinan will serve a two-to-three-year term, a relatively long assignment for an interim president.
The announcement followed news this month that a trustee had been appointed interim chancellor of Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. A trustee-turned-president is rare in higher education. While board members may be well prepared for the job, most institutions turn to administrators to fill interim presidencies.
Samuel Goldman, the new interim chief at Carbondale, is a former professor and administrator. Ms. Drinan, however, hails from business and has not worked in higher education. The health-care executive is an alumna and has been on Simmons’s board since 2003.