Goucher College President Announces Resignation Plans

Goucher College President Sanford J. Ungar intends to step down after 13 years as head of the Towson institution.

Ungar, the liberal arts college's 10th president, will leave the top job on June 30, 2014, according to a news release. He plans to return to Goucher in the fall of 2015 as a professor for the History and Communication and Media Studies departments following a one-year sabbatical. 

"My time at Goucher has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my career and my life," Ungar said in the release. "It has been a great privilege to help find new ways to enhance and honor the liberal arts tradition that is at the heart of this institution. Our students are among the very best in the business—innovative, highly motivated individuals, and independent thinkers who will make a major difference in the world when they leave us. Goucher is a wonderful place to study, think, work, and grow."

A journalist by trade—including time spent in the 1980s as the host of NPR's "All Things Considered"—Ungar took the position of Goucher College President in July 2001. He had also served as dean of American University's College of Communication for 13 years. 

Notable accomplishments during his tenure include launching the country's first study-abroad requirement for undergraduate students; the completion of several on-campus development projects such as the Athenaeum, the school's flagship building that includes a library, cafe and classrooms; and an environmental sustainability campaign.

He courted some controversy after a professor in Goucher's French department was accused of war crimes during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Ungar relayed his experience with the matter in an article published by New York Magazine.

Goucher will begin its search for a new president in the near future.

"I am grateful for the opportunity I have had to be the 10th president of Goucher, and I am pleased to have traveled around this country and many other parts of the world as its representative," Ungar said in the release. "I will, of course, always be a Gopher at heart and will do anything I can to promote the college’s prospects and reputation for the rest of my days."

Patch Editor Tyler Waldman contributed to this report.