Chancellor of the College
The Chancellor of the College is an administrative position originally conceived to oversee religious and moral compliance with the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut, and was a role completely separate from that of College President. Today, it is a symbolic role absorbed by the president of the College that does not directly affiliate with any religious institution.
The history of the role of the Chancellor of the College runs roughly parallel to the history of the strength of Trinity's religious affiliation since its founding by Episcopalians in 1823. From its early years, Trinity, then known as Washington College, had considered itself an Episcopalian institution, despite its being rather lenient when it came to worship practices and religious moral curricula. However, “in the mid-1840's the College became something of a minor battlefield between partisans of extreme ‘Churchmanship’ within the Episcopal Church.” 1) During this time, disagreement between High and Low churchmen motivated many administrative tensions as the College attempted to maintain its distinct reputation as a college of liberal arts without sacrificing its affinities to the Connecticut Diocese, from which it received funding.
In 1845, the trustees, among increasing demands by the Associate Alumni for “a more 'Churchly' atmosphere” 2) at the College–which involved the institution of English university practices–instated the Academic Senate, under which the entire college community resided as a single academic body. The announcement of the new Senate was made upon the publication of the first Catalogus Senatus Academici in 1846, which clearly defines the trustees and professors as forming the Academic Senate of the College. It was within this Academic Senate that the role of Chancellor was established for the first time. The role of the Chancellor was to supervise the entire academic body with a pointed focus on moral and spiritual matters of the College, performing periodic visits to the campus to observe the institution's adherence to the Episcopalian values it espoused. The Chancellor was expected to be a visiting member of the Board of Fellows when possible, however his power was to remain out of conflict with the powers of the academic body. Bishop Thomas Church Brownell, formerly the president of the College, was elected the first College Chancellor.
Of all the new roles created to make the College more “Episcopalian,” it was that of Chancellor which linked the two most closely together. After Bishop Brownell took the seat of Chancellor and the presidency was filled by John Williams, the board of trustees successfully petitioned to make the Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut not just the Chancellor, but the president of the board of trustees as well. As such, Bishop Brownell once again became the head of the College in May 1848. Though there still was a role for the president of the College, it was not until 1888 that this role was actually considered to be the real leader of the College. It was the Chancellor who was the 'real' president, solidifying the College's alliance with the Diocese of Connecticut. The role of the Chancellor as a visiting overseer of the institution's religious operations also brought the Board of Visitors into existence. As the position became more established at the College, a Vice-Chancellor position was also instated.
By the end of the 19th century, the College was beginning to secularize, and with this came many changes to the administration, curriculum, and reputation of the school. George Williamson Smith was elected president in 1883 and would serve until 1904. During his term, the era during which the Chancellor (then former president John Williams) was the head of the College would come to a definitive close, changing the course of Trinity's longstanding identification with the Diocese and its reputation as an Episcopalian school as such. Though during the early years of his presidency Smith held his ground as other American colleges began to secularize, stating that a religious commitment was indispensable to Trinity's core values, he had never been resident in the Diocese as had been Chancellor Brownell and Williams. As it would turn out, he was somewhat disappointed with the relative lack of power placed in the hands of the presidential seat. Despite this, Smith still managed to make major modernizing changes in the College throughout his tenure, but it was apparent by 1888 that relations between Chancellor Williams and President Smith were tense, to say the least.
When Smith was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Northern Ohio in 1888, he purposefully delayed his decision, to the chagrin of an Academic Body which still held very strong approval of him. During this time of uncertainty about the future of the presidency, combined with the gathering disappointment among the College that Smith may end up being the third Trinity president to be lost to the Diocese, questions began to be raised about the cruciality of the Bishop being the head of the College. More and more throughout the end of the 1880s, sentiments approaching secularization of the college's leadership gained momentum until the trustees, being aware that Smith would not remain at Trinity if he was being offered a more powerful position as a bishop elsewhere, carried a motion to petition the Connecticut General Assembly to remove the Chancellor's position and appoint the president of the College to head the board of trustees instead. The bill, put together by a committee of trustees, was passed on February 20, 1889. Following the decision, President Smith announced that he had declined the position as Bishop Coadjutor of Northern Ohio and would remain president of Trinity, taking on newfound power as a result of the change to the College Charter.
Since this major change to the structure of leadership, the chancellorship has remained a purely symbolic position with increasingly less explicitly Christian affiliation as the decades have passed. Today, the role has all but disappeared from the structure of Trinity's leadership.