The Evergreen State College Names Its 1St Woman President

OLYMPIA - The Evergreen State College hired a new president yesterday to loud applause and shouts of joy from faculty and students who jammed the college board room.

Jane L. Jervis, dean of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, will begin her new job Aug. 1, said Evergreen board chairwoman Carol Vipperman. Jervis was not present.

"I'm delighted to be the future president of Evergreen State College," Jervis said by telephone from her home in Maine.

"I feel both excitement and humility," she said. "Higher education as a whole is facing very difficult times, and the challenge for the next few years is to find a way for Evergreen to flourish as the very distinctive place that it is. Evergreen represents something that is worth fighting for."

Among those cheering her appointment was Alley Hinkle, a media technician at the college library, who had met and listened to Jervis during extensive contact with students and faculty that was required of all candidates.

"She has this stability about her, this common sense that is extremely appealing," Hinkle said.

Jervis, the school's first female president, was not due on campus until Monday.

She will be paid $102,000 a year to start, Vipperman said.

The joy at the selection was a far cry from the mood in September 1990, when then-president Joseph Olander resigned after newspapers reported he had falsified his academic credentials and resume. Olander denied the allegations.

Jervis said with a laugh that her resume had been thoroughly examined by college officials.

A statement issued by the college said Jervis, 53, previously was dean of students and associate professor of history at Hamilton College. She holds a doctorate in the history of science from Yale University and two masters from Yale, one in arts and another in philosophy.

She received a bachelor's degree in physical sciences from Radcliffe College in 1959.

She is married to Norman Chonacky, a physicist, who also will move to Olympia, officials said.