American University of Paris chooses alum as head

Schenck said that she knows the AUP inside and out, having worked at the institution for 18 years. Originally joining the faculty as a comparative-literature professor, Schenck took her first administrative position nine years ago as associate dean for curriculum development. She has since served in positions including vice president for academic affairs and dean of the university and vice president for academic innovation and development.

She explained that she took on administrative duties in addition to her professorial commitment because of her desire for a better AUP. Schenck has worked to bring together administrators from around the world to discuss “the mission of sharing electronic resources, technologies, curricular projects, and student and faculty exchanges across 20 institutions, 17 countries, and 15 languages,” according to the AUP’s website.

She added, however, that even as president, she will keep “one foot in the classroom” by teaching comparative literature and graduate courses on leadership and civil-society development.

As she takes the reins at the university, Schenck said that she hopes to maintain high academic standards and continue the tradition of diversity in the faculty and the student body.

“AUP is an amazing place because there are 100 different nationalities within the student body, 30 within the faculty and no national majority,” she noted. “All teaching and learning at AUP is reflected by the demographic diversity.”

The current economic turmoil, however, may make her tenure a difficult one. Schenck noted that the state of the economy will make her more conservative about capital-intensive projects.

Schenck, who considers President Tilghman one of her greatest role models, majored in English at Princeton and received a certificate in comparative literature. She wrote her thesis on Cassandra in ancient and modern tragedy, and she was very close with her thesis advisers, William Howarth and Robert Fagles.

“Not a day goes by when I don’t think of them,” Schenck said.

After graduating summa cum laude from Princeton, she received her Ph.D. from Brown. Following graduate school, Schenck received tenure as an English professor at Barnard University, where she founded the Barnard New Women Poets Series.

Classmates from Princeton recall her strong intellect and her ability to reach out and engage people.

“Celeste was almost intimidating intellectually,” said Martin Domb ’75, a friend with whom she still keeps in touch.

“I am delighted in her selection, but not surprised,” added Barbara Zipperman ’75, Schenck’s roommate from senior year.

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Schenck explained that her experience as an undergraduate at Princeton gave her a “very powerful sense of student-learning experiences on college campuses” and an “elevated awareness of the university’s responsibility to the public good.”