Professor of Romance Studies Philip E. Lewis has been appointed vice president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's Liberal Arts Colleges Program, effective Feb. 1. A Cornell faculty member since 1968, Lewis has served the university in a number of leadership positions, including as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1996 to 2003.

"All of us in the arts college know how deeply and judiciously Dean Philip Lewis has reflected on the challenges confronting higher education, particularly in the humanities, and what diligence and breadth of knowledge he brings to every problem he tackles," said Jonathan Culler, the Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature. "The Mellon Foundation has made an inspired choice in appointing him as vice president, since his distinguished career in academic administration gives him a keen sense of what is feasible, which will complement his determination to get institutions to reflect on how they might substantively improve the education they offer."

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a private philanthropic institution with assets of approximately $5 billion that makes grants to institutions of higher education, independent libraries, centers for advanced study, museums, art conservation and performing arts organizations. The Mellon Foundation's Liberal Arts Colleges Program provides grants to colleges across the country.

Mellon Foundation president and former Cornell Provost Don M. Randel described Lewis as "... a deeply committed teacher of undergraduates as well as a distinguished scholar in the humanities and a continuing participant in public discussions of the academy generally. In short, he represents personally and powerfully the values and pursuits that are central to the mission of the foundation, and he will be especially good at helping us think about how we might knit together the various strands of our support of higher education generally."

Lewis commented: "Cornell is a great university, a wonderful community, a haven for altruism, a microcosm that mirrors and intensifies the metamorphic complexity of the world at large. Through nearly four decades of ups and downs, successes and failures, gains and losses, my loyalty to this institution, my commitment to our superb faculty, staff and students, and my appreciation of Cornell's alumni and friends, have been unwavering."

He said he anticipated a "fulfilling experience" in being able "to pursue on a national scale the work I began here in the arts college as an advocate for liberal education."