Yale's new president will be Maury D. McInnis, the current president of Stony Brook University, a public university in the state of New York, who is known for increasing the university's profile, endowment and prestige.
Dr. McInnis, who earned her master's and doctorate from Yale University in the 1990s, will succeed President Peter Salovey, who is retiring in July, and will be the university's first female permanent president.
Her selection came after a search that began last fall, and delays in announcing a successor to Dr. Salovey, who is retiring at the end of June, sparked speculation that the university's search committee was struggling to find someone at a time of turmoil on campus.
Joshua Bekenstein, a founder of Bain Capital who heads the Yale Corporation, the university's governing board, said the search committee conducted a “very thorough” selection process.
“We felt it was important to do all the work,” he said. He expressed confidence in Dr. McInnis, adding, “I know she'll do a great job.”
Dr McInnis, who serves on the Yale Board of Trustees, will take up the reins at a tumultuous time when the university faces challenges arising from last year's Supreme Court ruling banning race-based admissions and the possibility of continued pro-Palestinian protests over the war between Israel and Hamas.
In a brief interview Wednesday, Dr. McInnis said he remains committed to maintaining a diverse campus at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, despite last year's Supreme Court ruling.
“My deep commitment to expanding opportunity for students and future students continues at Yale, as well as in my work at Stony Brook,” Dr. McInnis said in an interview, adding, “And that doesn't change in any way because of the court's decision.”
Yale University has not yet released demographic information for its freshman class.
Dr. McInnis survived a vote of censure by Stony Brook's faculty senate after his decision to arrest protesters on the university's campus in May. He defended the decision on Wednesday, saying, “No university president wants to call for the authorities to intervene to break up a student protest. Once we realized they weren't going to disperse, everything proceeded peacefully and orderly.”
At Stony Brook University, Dr. McInnis, 58, secured a $500 million gift from the Simons Foundation and won a competition to create a state climate change campus on Governors Island in New York City. Dr. McInnis spent much of his early career at the University of Virginia, where he earned his bachelor's degree and later served as professor and associate dean. Prior to taking up his position at Stony Brook in 2020, he served as dean at the University of Texas.
Dr. McInnis specializes in art history. Much of her research focuses on the intersection of art and politics, particularly the politics of slavery. Her most recent book, published in 2019, is “Educated in Tyranny: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson's University.”
Dr. McInnis will be the first woman to serve as Yale's permanent president, although the university appointed a woman as interim president in 1977. Speaking about her precedent-setting selection, Dr. McInnis said she was well aware that she would be “a role model for other women aspiring to positions of leadership.”