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At its meeting on May 18, the faculty adopted the following statement:
The Faculty of Lafayette College expresses its grateful appreciation to June Schlueter for her devoted service as Provost of the College, 1993–2006. A distinguished administrator, teacher, and scholar, she has led the Faculty through a time of remarkable curricular reform and has helped us improve the quality and diversity of the student body. As chief academic officer, she has encouraged and supported the development of the faculty, individually and collectively, with dedication, fairness, and a concentration on the best in every person. By her scholarly accomplishment she has demonstrated exemplary commitment to learning. In supporting and advancing the breadth and richness of academic life and in defending academic values, she has exemplified the ideal of liberal education. She has played many roles and played them well. Her purpose has been to promote the success of others and the good of the College, and through her courtesy, generosity, loyalty, and tireless devotion to Lafayette, she has been truly a leader of her peers.
Following the meeting the faculty hosted a reception for Schlueter, who is stepping down June 30 after 13 years as the College’s chief academic officer. Scores of faculty, staff, and friends gathered in the Wilson Room of Pfenning Alumni Center to bid the provost farewell as she prepares to begin a two-year sabbatical leave to pursue her scholarly interests.
Schlueter, who is the Charles A. Dana Professor of English, provided a window on those interests in a noon-time lecture entitled “Facing Shakespeare,” which focused on the mystery surrounding depictions of Shakespeare and whether any of them capture what he really looked like.
Following the talk, Diane Windham Shaw, special collections librarian and College archivist, announced that Skillman Library had acquired, in Schlueter’s honor, a rare edition of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus through the generosity of Leslie Muhlfelder ’81, vice president for human resources and general counsel, and her family.
The folio-size volume, published in 1973 by Gehenna Press, was produced by renowned printmaker and sculptor Leonard Baskin and contains Baskin’s etchings and engravings, including one of Shakespeare. It will be placed in the Schlueter Rare Book Room, named at the time of Skillman’s rededication last spring in recognition of the generous support of Schlueter and her husband, Paul.
A year ago, Schlueter and her husband, Paul Schlueter, presented Skillman Library a copy of one of the most celebrated Haggadoth of the 20th century in memory of Ludwig Muhlfelder, the late father of Leslie Muhlfelder. A Haggadah is a compilation of biblical passages, prayers, hymns, and rabbinic literature to be read during the Passover Seder.
At the reception, President Dan Weiss called Schlueter a “scholarly administrator” and said he was inspired by her ability to continue her many academic pursuits while still working at a high level as provost.
Among others who shared memories and expressed gratitude for Schlueter’s dedication to Lafayette were Robert Cohn, Philip and Muriel Berman Professor of Jewish Studies, and Margarete Lamb-Faffelberger,associate professor and head of foreign languages and literatures. Remarks by President Emeritus Arthur J. Rothkopf ’55 were read by James Woolley, Frank Lee and Edna M. Smith Professor of English.
Last spring June and Paul Schlueter brought out a book spotlighting the groundbreaking work of longtime faculty member Francis Andrew March, the world’s first professor of English and first to teach a required Shakespeare course. Francis A. March: Selected Writings of the First Professor of English was published by Lafayette for the Friends of Skillman Library.
June Schlueter and Paul Nelsen ’69, professor of theater and drama at Marlboro College in Vermont, are editors of a new book of essays in honor of the late James P. Lusardi ’55, Francis A. March Professor of English. Acts of Criticism: Performance Matters in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries was published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.