On Sunday, October 31, the Scroll met with John Jeffry Louis '81, Head of the Board of Trustees, to catch up on school issues.

Scroll: How did you choose the trustee representatives to serve on the search committee for the new Headmaster'
Jeff Louis: There are five of them and the hardest thing was that there were a lot more trustees who would have liked to have served. The best practice is to have a small committee because it is just impossible to try to bring everyone together to meet [frequently]. It is going to be a very difficult. But really what we wanted on that committee was a variety-a variety of views, a variety of perspectives and experiences on the board.... If you take people who are all towards the end of their terms on the board, you [will have] a group of people select a new headmaster and then leave. [The committee] will be here to work with their selection.

Scroll: What is the role of students in selecting a new headmaster?
JL: The committee was really just selected and formed today. We met for the first time, and the first order of business was obviously developing a process and then selecting two of what we call community members, essentially employees of the Academy who live here. Which really means staff or teaching faculty or administrative faculty will serve on this committee with us. And we actually did talk a lot with the committee on professional life about how we involve students with this process. You are our customers, so frankly you are very important to us as students and we have to come up with a way to meet face to face with some students in the process to understand what you think is important, what the student body thinks important. We have not yet determined the process for doing that, who we meet with, whether it is representative bodies or any students who want to be a part of that. We haven't figured out a way to do this yet, but the commitment to doing it is there.

Scroll: Students always hear that the trustees make 'all the decisions" for the Academy. What kind of decisions do you actually make?
JL: Well, I don't think it's true that the trustees make all the decisions, in fact, I think the opposite is true. Our role is a governance role, and our role is very much to think long-term and to safeguard the Academy in many ways from financial issues and things like that. The role is really to hire the headmaster, and that is probably the most important responsibility of the board, but otherwise we are probably safeguarding the endowment and making sure that the processes are correct for a whole series of decisions that are made on campus by the administration ... to make sure that there is the right amount of study and research that go into making those decisions.... We do, of course, [make decisions ] in the area of fundraising and building buildings and things like that...you don't want a bunch of people who aren't living here making decisions [regarding student life issues, such as alterations to major school rules].

Scroll: Well this has certainly taken some of the magic out of trustee meetings! We've a/ways thought of them as some sort of clandestine group...
JL: No, I think you'd actually find that the opposite is true. I think one of the most important roles of a board is to understand what their responsibilities are not, and there are more things that they are not than what they are. And I think we do that well.

Scroll: Was your love for the Academy what initially drew you to the position of Head of Trustees?
JL: It's not entirely easy, but it is a great privilege to work with such a great place and the hardest part of the job is probably taking over when the Academy is in such great shape. And probably more of the job is to preserve really what is great here. I love Deerfield and my grandfather was on the board and my father was president of the board of trustees when I was a student. We have a great board and committees that function very well.

Scroll: Do the Trustees have any set qualities or characteristics that they' are looking for in a new Headmaster?
JL: Not yet, because that again is part of a process where we need the entire committee put together and we need to spend some time on campus with everybody and build that profile. We the committee need to spend time with the board to find out what they are looking for. So the process so far has been getting the committee formed. And that is a big part of it, getting input....The idea is for this to be accessible, so people can write to us on campus.

Scroll: Are there any potential candidates who have expressed interest in the position?
JL: I've had a few letters suggesting candidates. No candidates themselves have been nominated.

Scroll: What plans do you have for improving communications between students and trustees?
JL: Well, first of all, I do think we need to improve communications. I think we're pretty good in terms of Student Life Committee bringing students in and hearing what the issues are, but it is a very formal communication. One of the things that the Student Life Committee is working on setting up is a lunch that will be less formal and something that I hope will become tradition. I don't know how they'll run a process for selecting students to come to that meal, but again, you're the customers, you're the ones who we need to be hearing from about what the issues are and I think that is a lot easier sometimes in an informal setting. I think there are only positives that come out of communication.

Scroll: Are there any plans for the next big project on campus?
JL: No, but it depends on how you define big project. The next thing is a domino effect. When the math department moves [to the Koch Center], they vacate all this space in the Main School Building, so the next focus is on the humanities and how they fill that space, as well as admissions and college placement. There is a big program to see how we are going to reallocate space over there...In terms of other projects. there's nothing looming I would say, and there aren't any major needs. But we do think it's a good idea to identify desires.

Scroll: Considering it is the 15th anniversary of co-education, how do you perceive the school differently now from when it was an all-boys's institution?
JL: The challenge for Deerfield has been to hold on to the best traditions that we have, and to be able to let go of the ones that were probably associated with being an all-male school, and all the pressures that come from the changing world. So, it's forever a balancing act. My sense is that we've done a pretty good job, but it takes a lot of time.... We're still a young school in terms of co-education. My sense is that things are happening more and more. I think you had a question about faculty chairs being all-male right now. I asked Mr. Widmer about that, and he said it's going to happen but there's probably some patience involved. Obviously, it's not something that can just be mandated. But it's just going to happen with the changing demographics of the school and the faculty…[and] we need to do more from the board level. We have eight women on the board in a board of 28.That needs to change too.