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V O L . X X I I I N O. V I M A R C H 2 0 , 2 0 1 7 26 B efore his official inauguration as president of Colby College in July 2014, David A. Greene accepted the college's board of trustees' invita- tion to attend a committee meeting on admissions and financial aid. Asked toward the end of the meeting what he thought about the number of applicants to the elite school — 5,000 at the time — he replied, "Your ambi- tion is not in the right place. You should have 10,000." "Eyes rolled. But then he ripped through a num- ber of ways to go about it," recalls Robert Diamond, the former chair of Colby's board who hired Greene. "His first year he increased applicants 60% and the second year there were more than 10,000." Greene accomplished that by changing the college's culture and attitude about admissions, says Diamond, and he recruited talented people to transform the way the school went about bringing in top students. Diamond says he personally had a lot on the line to pick the correct successor to William Adams, who had been president since 2000. e selection committee started with 300 applicants, pared it to under 100 and then interviewed 30 intensively. "e biggest first impression of David for me was he had written to us with an incredible piece on the value of a good liberal arts education," Diamond says. "He truly understood what it took to be suc- cessful at a small liberal arts college." e only concern among Diamond and his fellow trustees was that Greene had big ambitions and a broad plan to become an anchor institution to help make Waterville a destination city in which the school and the college intersected, where arts and restaurants would draw tourists from all over. e town, afterall, had helped Colby survive several cycles when money was tight. It was time to pay it back, and Greene had made similar transformations as executive vice president at the University of Chicago and its Hyde Park neighborhood and as a vice presi- dent at Brown University in Providence. Early on, Greene had big plans for little Waterville, including a downtown dormitory and boutique hotel. "A number of the trustees said, 'You realize this will require more ambitious fundraising,'" Diamond says. eir fears about whether he could attract the money were quickly allayed. By October 2015 Colby had purchased four down- town Waterville buildings to rehab, and continued buying buildings. In October 2015 the Harold Alfond Foundation and Colby each ponied up $10 million for Waterville's revitalization. In February 2017 philan- thropists Peter and Paula Lunder gave $100 million to the college's art museum and real estate executive and Colby graduate Joe Boulos and his wife Sheri donated $10 million toward the new athletic center. In all, Greene estimates, the entire Main Street Waterville project will require some $65 million in Anchoring Waterville Inextricably linked through history, the college is now helping the town B y L o r i V a l i g r a NONPROFIT David A. Greene President, Colby College P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY With ambitious growth plans on and off campus, Colby College President David A. Greene stands in front of the future Center for Discovery, Global Impact and Achievement. Colby College 4000 Mayflower Hill, Waterville President: David A. Greene Founded: 1813 Business: Education Employees: 223 faculty, 471 staff Enrollment: 2,000 undergraduates Total budget: $177.6 million (FY ending June 30, 2017) Contact: Kate Carlisle, kbcarlis@colby.edu / 207-859-4369

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