Dr. Steven DiSalvo and Saint Anselm College have begun negotiations in the final steps of choosing the College’s next president, the Crier has learned.

Members of the college’s Board of Trustees met in Boston Saturday, April 27, with Abbot Mark Cooper, O.S.B. The procedure for selecting a president calls for the abbot, as chancellor of the college, to make a recommendation, and then the trustees either accept or reject the nomination.

If DiSalvo accepts the position, he will be the 10^th president and first lay president in the college’s history, arriving just in time to lead celebrations for Saint Anselm’s 125^th anniversary next year, and will succeed Father Jonathan P. DeFelice, O.S.B., who has served in the role for nearly a quarter century.

DiSalvo declined to comment on the appointment, but did confirm in a phone call from the Crier that negotiations were ongoing. Presidential negotiations traditionally include issues of salary, housing, benefits, and transportation.

This selection was made after almost a year-long process conducted by the college’s Presidential Search Committee and Isaacson, Miller, the search firm hired to assist. This past month, the list of candidates was narrowed down to two finalists, Steven R. DiSalvo, Ph.D., and Msgr. Stuart R. Swetland, S.T.D., both of whom met with faculty, students, administrators, trustees and the monastic community during their campus visits on April 15-16 and April 22-23 respectively.

Dr. DiSalvo is currently the 14^th president of Marian University in Fond du Lac, Wisc., a position which he assumed in July of 2010. DiSalvo told the Saint Anselm community that as president he has been able to utilize his experience in fundraising and Catholic higher education to improve the university’s financial position and administrative efficiency.

This is the first time in the college’s history that a member of the monastic community has not been selected as president.