President Dudley To Resign, Take Claremont McKenna Presidency

President Dudley To Resign, Take Claremont McKenna Presidency

The longtime Washington and Lee president’s tenure is set to end in the summer of 2026. 

(W&L President Will Dudley, in his Washington Hall office. | SOURCE: Author)

“[T]his will be my final year at Washington and Lee,” President William (Will) Dudley said in a message to the university community, which has been uploaded to the W&L website. 

Dudley, a Virginia native, is in his ninth full school year as president, his last after accepting the presidency at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. “Ten years is long enough to grow deeply attached to the people and the place,” he said. 

“I will miss it and, most especially, all of you. … Ten years is also long enough for a university community to accomplish a great deal, which we have done together,” he added. “I take pride in leaving Washington and Lee in a strong position,” Dudley said, touting that “W&L is now need-blind in undergraduate admissions,” that “[o]ur community has become much more diverse, in meaningful ways,” and that “the academic credentials of our law students have never been higher.”

Additionally, Dudley showed pride that W&L has “made significant investments in our curriculum, in student opportunities, and in our facilities,” as well as that student satisfaction “is at or near the top of national surveys,” along with strong student professional success.

Dudley’s announcement follows two weeks after the school named Paul Youngman, ‘87, as dean of the college, and six months after the former dean of the college, Chawne Kimber, resigned after four years to take a position at Pitzer College, also in Claremont, California.

In an email to the W&L school community, Rector Wangdali “Wali” Bacdayan, ‘92, noted that Dudley’s “contributions have touched every corner of campus, and we look forward to celebrating his many accomplishments in the months to come.”

Bacdayan noted that the Board of Trustees “will engage a nationally recognized executive search firm to assist the university in conducting a search through a process that includes input from students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the university.” While “[d]etails on the search will be announced in the coming week,” he argued that “Washington and Lee is in a strong position to attract exceptional candidates for the presidency.”

In a letter to Claremont McKenna’s community, Ken Valach, the chair of Claremont McKenna’s board of trustees and presidential search committee, said Dudley has “a grounding in our mission, tested presidential experience, and the vision and gusto to move us to a future of excellence.”

The letter quotes Dudley, saying, “I am honored to be selected as Claremont McKenna’s sixth president. I am inspired by the College’s founding vision that liberal arts education is the best preparation for responsible leadership and impressed by its sustained commitment to academic excellence. … Carola and I are excited to move to Claremont and join the community this summer.”

Dudley received the unanimous recommendation of Claremont McKenna’s presidential search committee. According to The Claremont Independent, Dudley is set to earn $600,000 to $700,000 per year, compared to his W&L income of $737,521 for the fiscal year ending in June 2024, according to the university’s IRS-990 filing.

Dudley is a 1989 graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. After President Ken Ruscio’s abrupt resignation in early 2015, W&L quickly set its sights on the then-Williams College provost, announcing their decision an hour before Mock Convention 2016. Prior to taking office in January of 2017, Dudley sat down with The Spectator, following in the footsteps of other presidents. 

“The goal is to sustain the university’s strengths while seizing opportunities to improve,” he told The Spectator. Dudley touted his “commitment to the best possible liberal education,” adding, “I care about academic excellence.”

Dudley was non-committal about the role history would play during his tenure, following a president whose term had seen several controversies stemming from the subject. “As a newcomer, I don’t think it’s for me to pronounce the definitive virtues and traditions of W&L. I’m counting on you all to educate me about those.”

Yet, Dudley extolled both namesakes’ virtues, saying the school “has a strong sense of purpose, encapsulated in the motto — Non Incautus Futuri — and reflected in both Washington’s belief that quality education was needed on the frontier and Lee’s conviction that education was critical to reconciling the nation after the Civil War.”

In August of 2017, President Dudley vociferously condemned the violence in Charlottesville, saying that “W&L’s institutional values … are antithetical to the vile ideologies that we saw on full display.” He noted that “W&L and Lexington have a complex history with regard to the Confederate symbols and figures around which these hateful groups are rallying. Lee, our former president and one of our namesakes, has become a particularly polarizing figure.”

Nearly two weeks later, Dudley, referencing the event in Charlottesville and former President Robert E. Lee’s time in the Confederacy during the Civil War, announced “the creation of a Commission on Institutional History and Community.” The Commission would eventually recommend renaming Robinson Hall, now Chavis Hall, while supporting several changes that were not adopted, including greater student orientation to W&L’s history, and opposing efforts to rename the university.

In his first year, President Dudley quickly ventured into the national political landscape, condemning President Trump’s travel ban as incongruent with the values of W&L. Dudley called Executive Order 13679, commonly referred to as the “Muslim ban,” “contrary to W&L’s mission, non-discrimination policies, and dedicated efforts to enhance international education.”

During the first Trump administration, Dudley used his position to platform many political concerns.

In the summer of 2020, he commented three times on George Floyd’s death, arguing that America was “up in arms and in flames, outraged by the persistence of racism and the perpetration of violent misconduct by some of the very people who are sworn to serve and protect us all.” He released another comment a week later to “express my frustration, sadness, and anger with the killing of George Floyd and with the persistent racism and inequities that plague our nation.”

During 2020, Dudley also oversaw W&L’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw W&L remain open for in-person classes.

Later, Dudley responded to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, after which the university was forced to move away from “Race-Conscious Admissions.” “Our commitment to diversity, which is rooted in our mission, … remains unchanged,” Dudley said in a statement following the decision. 

In the spring of 2023, Dudley responded to attempts by students and faculty members to prevent conservative commentator Matt Walsh from speaking on campus. Confronted with a petition signed by hundreds of students and faculty to restrict Walsh’s speech, Dudley cited W&L’s “commitment to freedom of expression” in holding that the university “permit[s] all recognized student organizations to invite speakers of their choosing to campus.” 

“I hope our community will use this moment as an occasion to reflect upon what it means to freely exchange, discuss, and debate ideas, and upon the kinds of events and speakers that are most conducive to stimulating thoughtful, intellectual conversations,” Dudley added. Walsh, invited to campus by The Spectator, was permitted to speak in Lee Chapel, National Historic Landmark and his rescheduled speech saw hundreds of attendees in September of 2023. 

In October of 2024, Dudley presided over the largest single donation in W&L’s history, gifted by William “Bill” Miller III, ‘72.

In November that year, Dudley condemned the graffitiing of the Red House, the university’s LGBTQ Resource Center. In a message to the community, Dudley said, “there is no place for harassment, intimidation, or vandalism at Washington and Lee.”

(Dudley speaking at the 2024-25 academic year commencement ceremony. | SOURCE: Washington and Lee University)

In his May 2025 commencement address, Dudley criticized the proposed endowment tax in early drafts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was later trimmed down. He argued that “in the interest of institutional and national greatness, we need the Senate to eliminate the endowment tax, or at least to exempt small schools, like W&L, that focus on teaching and receive very few federal research dollars.”

This fall, President Dudley refused to publicly condemn Charlie Kirk’s assassination, responding to a Spectator opinion by saying that his “approach to speaking on behalf of Washington and Lee has evolved over time. Experience has taught me that the university and its community are best served when the presidential voice is reserved for issues that bear directly on our mission or operations.”

President Dudley interviewed with The Spectator this fall, discussing many subjects, including the strength of W&L’s institutions and his plans for the school. Regarding his future, he said at the time, “I love living here. … So one of the things I've done in my life is not make, you know, three- or five-year plans. Basically, I find a job that's exciting to me and important to me, and as long as I feel that way and other people want me to do it, I'll keep doing it.”