Board of Trustees records

Members of the Mount Holyoke College Board of Trustees are responsible for overseeing the institution's finances, admissions policies, academic affairs, student life, development, and physical plant. Board members also play a role in the selection of the presidents of the College and honorary degree recipients. The Trustees have diverse backgrounds and are primarily drawn from academia, human services, the government, and the corporate world.

The Board was established in 1836 and originally consisted of several "benevolent gentlemen" who helped Mary Lyon plan a school of higher education for women. The founding Trustees included: John Todd (who served as the first president of the Board), William Tyler, David Choate, Joseph Condit, William Bowdoin, Roswell Hawks, Edward Hitchcock, Andrew W. Porter, Joseph Avery, Herbert Humphrey, and Samuel Williston. These original Trustees helped provide Mary Lyon with administrative and financial support in the fledgling years of her school. Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, as the school was originally called when it opened its doors in November 1837, was established as property of the Trustees and was intended as a not-for-profit venture.

The first woman trustee, Sarah Williston, was appointed to the Board in 1884. Mount Holyoke principals and presidents have also been members of the Board since that year. The presidency of Elizabeth Storrs Mead (1890 - 1900) furthered the involvement of Mount Holyoke presidents in the activities of the Board of Trustees. This laid the groundwork for the expansion of the college under the presidency of Mary Woolley (1900 - 1937). With support from the Trustees, Woolley oversaw the construction of sixteen new buildings on campus during her tenure.

In 1937, the Board of Trustees approved the appointment of Mount Holyoke College's first male president, Roswell G. Ham. The decision was controversial among students, alumnae, faculty, staff, and even the Trustees themselves.

Alumnae began serving on the Board of Trustees in 1892 and the practice of adding a Young Alumnae Trustee to the Board began in 1970. An advisory group of former Trustees, called the Trustee Fellows, was established by the Board in 1988.