February 08, 2024 | NEWS | By Seth Jahraus
President L. Song Richardson announced via email Feb. 7 that she is stepping down after just over two and a half years leading Colorado College.
Board President Jeff Keller announced Manya Whitaker, an executive vice president and Richardson’s current chief of staff, will be interim president of the college for the next two years.
“I write today to share a decision I have made about my future with the college,” Richardson wrote in her email to the campus community. “Following careful contemplation and with the deepest respect for this extraordinary place and its future, I have decided to return to my role as a professor of law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law, and to launch an institute focused on equity, opportunity, and leadership.”
While Richardson’s resignation might have come as a surprise to some, one member of a student council that advises the president said recent interactions might have offered some clues.
“I think after I read her email today, it kind of makes sense,” said Royce Hinojosa.
In her email to the campus community, Richardson hinted towards conflicting moral responsibilities that have led to her decision.
“As our national dialogue about these topics continues to intensify,” she wrote, “I find myself increasingly torn between my desire to pursue that work as an academic with the freedom to fully engage in these debates, express my personal views, and challenge the status quo, and my responsibilities to CC as president.”
She plans to sustain the 23-24 school year, after which she will have served the shortest term out of any CC president since the campus’s first president James Dougherty, who resigned in 1876 after only serving one year due to financial troubles, according to CC Tutt Library documents.
Hinojosa ‘26 said he and other president’s council members had not heard of Richardson’s intent to resign.
Hinojosa recalled a president’s council meeting that occurred within the last month where Richardson provided an in-depth description of her feelings regarding her role as president.
“She made it very clear that she would love to be more outspoken… she would love to continue to challenge the status quo,” said Hinojosa.
Hinojosa described how Richardson has an obligation as a campus representative to withhold personal beliefs. She must consider alumni donors in all of her actions, and in doing so, she must limit any of her desires to engage in advocacy.
“I understand why she would prefer to … return to a place where she is able to do that,” said Hinojosa.
The effects of Richardson’s resignation ripple across student government as well. Former Colorado College Student Government Association member and potential student body presidential candidate Koray Gates ‘25 is saddened by the decision.
“President Richardson is someone who I was genuinely looking forward to getting the opportunity to know better and work with more closely, should my run for president be successful,” Gates said.
Whitaker, who is also a current Colorado College associate professor of Education, will serve as the interim president for the next two years upon Richardson’s resignation in June. Whitaker was traveling and unable to comment by the time this story went to press.
Whitaker joined the college in 2011 as a Riley Scholar-in-Residence for the education department before she was hired full-time in 2013. Whitaker has been serving her current administrative position since 2022 according to her online profile on the CC website.
“Within the first thirty seconds, I knew that Manya was perfect for Colorado College,” said Mike Taber, an education professor and the chair of the Colorado College sesquicentennial.
Taber developed a close relationship with Whitaker through his position in the education department. Taber praised Whitaker, saying she is someone “who understands the college really well [and] understands what it means to be an academic institution.”
The Catalyst expects to speak with President Richardson and Vice President Whitaker next week to discuss further details of the resignation and change of leadership.