Features
By Dan Petty
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August 30, 2007
As Edward Ayers begins his second full month as president of the University of Richmond and his first week with students, he finds himself probing for answers about the university's identity -- answers he has yet to find.
"My job this year, with as much honesty as I can, is to figure out what the University of Richmond is so I can help it fulfill itself," Ayers said.
Ayers, the former dean of arts and sciences at the University of Virginia, said his background as a historian is serving him strongly as he works through the early months of his presidency.
He is meticulously moving through the campus and among its community members, meeting with groups of students and faculty and doing whatever he can to sense a common pulse in a community that largely fails to fall into the rigid mold of a liberal arts university.
"It's very clear that nobody else is built like we are.