Louis Tomlinson Benezet

Louis Tomlinson Benezet (born June 29, 1915 in La Crosse , Wisconsin , † January 23, 2002 in Mill Valley , California ) was an American educator, education politician and multiple US university president.

Life

Louis Tomlinson Benezet was the son of Louis P. Bénézet , a professor at Dartmouth College. He received his BA from Dartmouth College , New Hampshire , his MA from Reed College (for "Psychology"), Portland , Oregon, and his Ph.D. ("College and Educational Administration") at Teachers College, Columbia University (New York) (1929).

He was president of Allegheny College , Meadville , Pennsylvania , from 1948 to 1955 , and president of Colorado College from 1955 to 1963 . He made Colorado College a nationally recognized training facility. When he left Colorado College in 1955, he was a recognized, national figure in the field of "higher education" in that state. The annual Benezet Award (“Benezet Award”) is named after him.

He was President of Claremont Graduate University and the University Center in Claremont , California from 1963 to 1970 . As President of Claremont Graduate University, he made a lasting impression in the US national education sector as he advocated a change in the college rating system that would better reflect the actual performance of his students in later life. He formulated that a university is only as good as it can produce a sustainable increase in education for the vast majority of students .

From 1970 to 1976 he was President of the State University of New York , Albany .

Sources (selection)

• General Education in the Progressive College. NY Teachers College Columbia University 1943
• What is our deadline? An Educational Crusade to Find the Means of Survival. Journal of higher education 20, 303-308 (1949)
• General Education in the Progressive College, New York, Arno Press, 1971
• People versus pyramids: New goals for the elite college (The Colorado College Studies) 1999, ISBN 0935052348