Interview with Lafayette College President Nicole Hurd

Today we are interviewing Lafayette College President, Nicole Hurd. President Hurd founded a non-profit organization called College Advising Corps. She spent fifteen years fundraising and collecting data to help bring college access to a variety of diverse students. She transitioned to Lafayette College as President, where she could have more depth and impact. President Hurd said, “I wanted to have those deep relationships again… to see, hear, and value each other.”

President Hurd shared delight that students were back on campus.  At Lafayette College, the student: faculty ratio is 10 to 1. She sees each small liberal arts college as part of a bigger engine that all work together to protect democracy. “Our students go out and graduate and change the world in really important ways.”

President Hurd referred to herself as a “constructive irritant” when she was in the college access sector. Her data analysis showed that one of the barriers which low-income students face is consistently having to prove their low-income status, which can demoralize the student and derail them from pursuing higher education. As a result, she got rid of the CSS profile, which is another form in addition to the FAFSA. Instead, she has her admissions staff utilize high school data that reveals if a student used free reduced lunches 75% or more. “Let’s think about the journey and not just the four years.” She suggested Presidents talk to their financial admissions office and ask, “Do you really need this data?” She explained, “by focusing on the high school data instead of putting pressure on the individual students, it helps the students feel valued and part of the college family.”

Summing up the interview, President Hurd shared, “My favorite words are grace, humility, and accountability. Stop doing things that don’t work and scale things that do work. Not believing you have to be gigantic to be transformative. It’s not about managing time. It’s about energy management.”