VP for Campus Life Calhoun to retire, leaving behind mixed legacy

Vice President for Campus Life W. Rochelle Calhoun will retire from her position at the end of this academic year after over a decade at the University. Her legacy is marked by increasing attention to mental health on campus and student internship opportunities, but also criticism of her response to student protesters during the 2024 “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”

“Princeton is the people who work, study and teach here. It is really the incredible people that have made working here so enjoyable,” Calhoun wrote in a statement to The Daily Princetonian.

Calhoun is the third person to hold the title of vice president for campus life, succeeding Cynthia Cherrey in 2015. Calhoun and her team oversee various aspects of the student experience at Princeton, from internship and service opportunities to resources related to religion, sexuality, diversity, and mental health and well-being.

Calhoun’s office launched a strategic plan for 2020 to 2025, which sought to “enhance the holistic development and educational experience of all students.” Some ways in which her office sought to advance the plan was through “prioritizing health and wellbeing” and “enhancing campus life communications.”

Calhoun wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince’ that she is most proud of “working with students to see their ideas come to life.” She cited the placement of a “wind phone,” a non-working telephone for calling loved ones who have passed, in the garden behind Maclean House; Community Care Day, which began in 2023 and offers activities in support of mental health; free menstrual products in bathrooms; and the Princeton Peer Nightline, an anonymous peer listening service, as examples.

Cherrey, Calhoun’s predecessor, was named in a lawsuit brought against the University in March 2014 for its mental health policies, after Cherrey had been involved in allegedly pressuring a student to withdraw following their suicide attempt. In August 2019, the University and the plaintiff voluntarily agreed to dismiss the case.

During Calhoun’s tenure, the University launched a mental health task force that worked with the nonprofit Jed Foundation to increase mental health training and resources on campus for faculty, staff, and students.

Calhoun oversees the annual Orientation program on free expression for incoming first-years led by University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83, which began in 2021. She also oversaw the launch of the Leadership and Education through Service (LENS) initiative for funded service and social impact student internships — a program run jointly by the Center for Career Development and the Pace Center for Civic Engagement.

However, Calhoun faced significant criticism for an April 2024 message she sent to the campus community that claimed 13 students who occupied Clio Hall during the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” threatened staff inside the building in an “abusive” way.

The Clio Hall sit-in came several days after protestors began a sit-in at McCosh Courtyard, calling for the University to divest from Israel in the wake of the war in Gaza.

Following Calhoun’s campus-wide message, 128 faculty and researchers signed a letter calling for her resignation. The signatories criticized Calhoun for characterizing the protesters as posing a danger and engaging in likely criminal conduct. They pointed to a long tradition of civil disobedience on college campuses, including Princeton’s, and challenged her account of events.

Several faculty members who were present inside Clio Hall, but later left before the students were arrested, wrote in a statement that the protesters were peaceful and “what [they] witnessed inside Clio Hall bears no resemblance to VP Calhoun’s letter.”

The protesters were arrested and put on trial for criminal trespassing. In July 2025, a judge dismissed the charges against the protesters.

University administrators, including Calhoun, also came under criticism for dining changes announced last fall that effectively eliminated the independent dining status and required upperclassmen living on campus and not in an eating club or co-op to purchase a Block 128 dining plan.

Calhoun earned a bachelor’s degree in theater arts and politics from Mount Holyoke College, and a master of fine arts degree from Columbia. At Columbia, she coordinated co-curricular programs with NYU.

She then returned to Mount Holyoke, where she spent more than 20 years in student affairs. She served as an assistant dean of students, and later as director of diversity and inclusion, associate dean of the college, and acting dean of the college. In 2008, she joined Skidmore College as dean of students and vice president for student affairs before coming to Princeton in 2015. 

At Princeton, she was president of the McCarter Theatre Center’s board of trustees and finished her three-year term in 2024. She was also on The Paul Robeson House Advisory Committee, which aims to restore the historic birthplace of Paul Robeson on Witherspoon Street. She received the Mary Lyon Award in 1995, the Alumnae Medal of Honor in 2008, and the Elizabeth Topham Kennan Award in 2018, all awarded to her by Mount Holyoke.

At Princeton, Calhoun was a “huge fan” of student activity and extracurriculars. She wrote to the ‘Prince’ that some of her “best memories have been sitting in the stands/audience watching the talented Princeton students.”

The search for Calhoun’s successor, which the University aims to name by summer 2027, will be led by Executive Vice President Katie Callow-Wright. Before she retires, Calhoun will finish leading work on an updated Campus Life Strategic Plan.

“In Campus Life we have worked hard to help create a sense of belonging for all students. I hope we continue to see the value of everyone seeing themselves as belonging to this community,” Calhoun said. 

Luke Grippo is a head News editor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from South Jersey, and typically covers the state of higher education, University affairs, and state politics. He can be reached at luke.grippo[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Clara Docherty contributed reporting.

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