John T. Casteen III, president emeritus of the University of
Virginia, was presented today with the 2016 Council of Fellows/Fidelity
Investments Mentor Award* during the opening plenary of ACE2016, ACE's 98th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
The Council of Fellows/Fidelity Investments Mentor Award is bestowed
annually to acknowledge the substantial role of mentors in the success
of ACE Fellows Program participants.
Established in 1965, the ACE Fellows Program is designed to
strengthen institutions and leadership in American higher education by
identifying and preparing faculty and staff for senior positions in
college and university administration. Nearly 2,000 higher education
leaders have participated in the ACE Fellows Program since its
inception, with more than 300 Fellows having served as chief executive
officers of colleges or universities and more than 1,300 having served
as provosts, vice presidents and deans.
Casteen, who served as UVA’s president from 1990-2010, has mentored
six Fellows and nominated two others to participate in the program.
"President Emeritus Casteen’s dedication to the Fellows Program
exemplifies his commitment to helping pave a path for future higher
education leaders,” said Lynn M. Gangone, ACE’s vice president of
leadership programs. “Mentors are a driving force in what makes the
Fellows Program so unique, and we are grateful to him and the thousands
of other mentors who have devoted such extensive time and effort over
the years to the program.”
Since 2008, Fidelity Investments has been a generous supporter of the
ACE Fellows Program, enabling the Council of Fellows to provide support
for the discretionary fund of the Mentor Award winner's institution as
well as the Fellows Fund for the Future, which provides stipends to
defray costs of sponsoring a Fellow for qualified institutions.
“Fidelity celebrates the role mentors play in cultivating the next
generation toward success. Today, we applaud those in higher education
who are committed to mentoring future leaders,” said Alexandra Taussig,
senior vice president, Tax-Exempt Market, Fidelity Investments.
Over his 20 years at UVA and during an earlier term as president of
the University of Connecticut, Casteen oversaw increases in the
representation of women, minority, and economically disadvantaged
students, and similar changes in the composition of the faculty. In
2003, he directed the creation of AccessUVA, the university's full-need
financial aid program.
Casteen also presided over substantial growth—intellectual, financial
and physical—at UVA. His projects ranged from new construction and
renovation programs (some 140 buildings in all) to fostering development
of new academic disciplines (media studies, neuroscience and public
policy, for example). Casteen led two financial campaigns for the
university's endowment, one that raised some $1.4 billion, and the
other, which current UVA President Teresa Sullivan completed after
taking office, raising more than $3 billion.
Casteen earned his B.A. (1965), M.A. (1966) and Ph.D. (1970) degrees
in English from the University of Virginia. His honorary degrees include
doctorates from the universities of Edinburgh and Athens.
After retiring from his role as president in 2010, Casteen continues
to teach as a professor at UVA. His current courses include one
primarily for graduate students on intellectual history in Venice, a
multi-year series of graduate seminars on the governance of colleges and
universities, and introductory courses in Old English and Old
Icelandic. He is an active Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences.
The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., president of DePaul University (IL), was the recipient of the 2015 Council of Fellows/Fidelity Investments Mentor Award.
*ACE and Fidelity Investments® are independent entities and are not
legally affiliated. The recipients of the Council of Fellows/Fidelity
Investments Mentor Award are selected solely by the Executive Committee
of the Council of Fellows. Fidelity employees are not involved, in any
way, in determining, selecting or approving the recipient or amount of
any award. The selection criteria and guidelines for the award may be
obtained directly from ACE.
Left to right: Lynn
Gangone; Richard L. Byyny, chancellor emeritus, University of Colorado
Boulder; Alexandra Taussing; John T. Casteen; ACE President Molly
Corbett Broad; and Thomas J. Botzman, president, Misericordia University
and chair, ACE Council of Fellows.