For five years, Dr. Steven R. DiSalvo has been the president of Saint Anselm College, but that shall all change in the spring of 2019. Dr. DiSalvo in the late fall of 2018 announced to the Board of Trustees of Saint Anselm College that he shall be stepping down as the president of the institution in the late spring of 2019.

With this sudden change of power at Saint Anselm College, the search for a new and qualified president in a short amount of time becomes more demanding for the Board of Trustees and challenging as the spring semester develops. Which is why they selected a student from Saint Anselm College to help with the search process, Kerrin Norton.

Kerrin Norton is a senior of the class of 2019 from Braintree, MA. She is an English and communications major at Saint Anselm College and is very much involved at the institution. Norton has been an excellent advocate for the search committee, telling students to attend the Presidential Search Forum and upon asking why she was so passionate about students attending the forum.

“I had the honor of being selected as the student representative for the 2019 presidential search committee,” she said. “I will be a part of the process the whole way.”

This gives a chance for the Board of Trustees to have student input during the presidential selection in order to choose someone who not only embodies the qualities of an Anselmian, but is loved and respected by the student body at Saint Anselm College as well.

The reason behind Norton’s passion behind students attending the Presidential Search Forum is because at the forum faculty and students are allowed to share to the representative of the search committee what they would like or not like to see in the next president that shall be selected in the spring of 2019.

At the Presidential Search Forum there were students that expressed many qualities they would like to see in the next president, from “someone who we can see around campus” to “maybe someone who is a part of the staff here at Saint A’s.”

The importance of hearing what the students want to see in the next president is quite large from Norton’s prospective.

“I think it’s so important to make sure that we find a president who will help the college thrive and prosper, while adhering to our traditional Anselmian values and upholding our Benedictine tradition.”

As Norton expressed, Saint Anselm College needs someone who is willing to become part of the institution in more ways than just one.

This search is just under way and will become even more demanding as time starts to wind down. Kerrin Norton and the rest of the search committee have heard what faculty, staff, and students would like to see in the next president. It will be tough to fulfill everyone’s needs but with the passion and persistence Kerrin Norton has, there is faith that they will make an excellent selection for the next president in the late spring semester of 2019.