"Nancy Dye has been an exemplary leader for Oberlin," said Robert Lemle, chair of the Oberlin College Board of Trustees. "The Board accepts her resignation with regret and admiration for her hard work, high purpose, and achievement. She leaves an Oberlin College that is poised for continued success, with a clear mission and strategic and financial goals and direction."

Dye’s legacy includes an Oberlin whose student body has grown substantially stronger. Admissions in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the Conservatory of Music have improved dramatically, particularly in terms of selectivity and yield.  Her initiatives have led to improvements in financial aid policies and funding to meet the full financial need of each student in both the College and Conservatory.

During her tenure, the College’s endowment has grown from about $260 million in 1994 to its current level of about $700 million.

President Dye has been an outstanding fundraiser. During her presidency the College successfully completed the New Oberlin Century Campaign, which raised the highest campaign total in Oberlin's history.

President Dye's leadership in planning has given Oberlin a clear sense of direction and priorities. She has led two successful planning processes at Oberlin: a long-range planning exercise in 1996-97 called Broad Directions for Oberlin's Future and, in 2003-2004 through much of 2004-2005, an integrated strategic and financial plan, which the faculty and Board approved in March 2005.

President Dye's leadership also has given Oberlin College a much
sharper vision of capital project priorities. Her determination and drive led to the restoration of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, a distinguished hallmark of Oberlin architecture. Her early support of the Adam Joseph Lewis Center for Environmental Studies facilitated the construction of the greenest building on any American campus. And her leadership was critical to the conception and construction of the College's Science Center, one of the best facilities for undergraduate studies in the United States. The center is critical to maintaining Oberlin’s leading position in undergraduate science education.

President Dye's academic leadership and vision has focused on 21st-century curricular and academic issues and has strengthened the educational experience at Oberlin. In recent years, she has been particularly concerned with the importance of internationalizing Oberlin's curriculum, programs, and student body, with the goal of making Oberlin a true world college. She has strengthened Oberlin's ties with universities in China and Japan, and is working to create an exchange program focusing on music between Oberlin and universities in Iran and China.

She also helped make Oberlin more student-centered by establishing the Dean of Studies Office to oversee and coordinate efforts to improve student retention to graduation, improve academic advising, and make recommendations for improvements in academic policies. Her leadership was instrumental in establishing a strong, well-functioning, ably staffed, and very diverse Dean of Students Office and significantly enhancing student socio-economic, racial, ethnic, and international diversity.

In finding ways to help deal with disagreement on campus, President Dye established an Ombuds Office, a model student mediation program, and the Oberlin College Dialogue Center. Very early in her tenure she created Oberlin’s Center for Service and Learning, which was designed to coordinate and expand meaningful student volunteer opportunities, to nurture civic engagement, and to foster a positive working relationship between the College and its local community.

She also has made significant contributions to maintaining and
improving the quality of life in the city of Oberlin. President Dye
successfully worked to save the local Allen Memorial Hospital, now the Community Health Partners Allen Medical Center, establish the Oberlin Schools/College Partnership, and the Oberlin High School Scholarship Program, which guarantees a tuition-free education to any Oberlin High School graduate who wishes to attend Oberlin College and who meets the admissions requirements.

President Dye also has been instrumental in establishing and funding a new and innovative one-year master's degree program in teacher education. This program has been developed by the College and the Oberlin public schools, and will be sited in the schools. Oberlin College's work with community institutions, particularly its schools, is critically important in enhancing Oberlin's academic excellence and its ongoing ability to recruit and retain excellent faculty.

President Dye has been active in many national and regional higher education organizations. She has served on the boards of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, which she also chaired; Pomona College; the American Council of Learned Societies; the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX; the Great Lakes College Association; and the Five Colleges of Ohio.

"Being Oberlin's president will forever be the most transformative and exhilarating experience of my professional life," said Dye.  "For the rest of my life I will remain committed to helping this great institution thrive in every way I can.”