WATERVILLE, Maine — When college presidents retire, they tend to look back at the accomplishments during their tenure that improved their schools—the new buildings, the increased scholarships, the bigger endowment. It’s a list that doesn’t vary much from institution to institution.
Laurie Lachance retired on Nov. 1 after 12 years as president of Thomas College in Waterville, and she breaks the mold. We sat down in the Thomas library just over a month after her last day on the job to talk about her years there, a time she clearly enjoyed and found rewarding.
“What are you proudest of that you accomplished as president?” I asked.
She paused for about five seconds, gathering her thoughts before answering.
“I’m proudest that we were able to grow and do it in a manner that was very true to our culture and the DNA of who we are,” she said. “We did it with integrity and ethics.”
There are, Lachance noted, a lot of ways to grow a college, some of them rather unsavory.
“You can sell your soul to a donor because they want the college to be, or do, something. You can sell your soul by lowering the threshold to receive students into the college because you just need warm bodies. But we did it in a manner that actually raised the bar,” she said. “We grew the college ethically. And I feel great about that.”
What students may remember most about Lachance is how friendly and down-to-earth she was. Unlike some college presidents, she had no interest in being cocooned in an ivory tower. Often she’d eat lunch with students.
“The great thing for me was when they would call me Laurie," she said. "I really liked that. Because why should they in any way feel inferior?”