New College of St. Mary Magdalen president pledges renewal, service to Church

Feb 8, 2011 / 22:21 pm

Music scholar Dr. George Harne has been appointed the new president of New Hampshire’s College of Saint Mary Magdalen. “Our best years are ahead of us,” he declared.

“I am humbled by the unanimous support of the Board of Trustees,” said Harne in a Feb. 7 announcement.

“The College of Saint Mary Magdalen has a future that is at once bright and filled with hope,” he continued. “We are committed to renewing Catholic higher education through our program in the liberal arts and we look forward to serving the Church regionally and nationally through our new Liturgical and Catechetical Institutes.”

Harne has served as the college’s academic dean since 2009. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and master’s degrees from Princeton, St. John’s College and the University of Washington.

He succeeds President Jeff Karls, who will stay on as the college’s vice president of finance and operations.

“I am honored to follow in the footsteps of Jeff Karls who has led the College of Saint Mary Magdalen to a position of national prominence,” Harne stated. “His love for the College and the Church, and his vision for the future of the College have been an inspiration.”

He said the college would take Bl. John Henry Newman, St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope Benedict XVI as its guides in its efforts to “renew the College of Saint Mary Magdalen as a model of Catholic collegiate life that is faithful to the Magisterium and deeply rooted in the Catholic intellectual tradition.”

Harne’s scholarly work includes published papers on medieval music, Renaissance music, music in antiquity, and the contemporary philosophy of music. As a tutor at the College of Saint Mary Magdalen, he has taught courses in philosophy, Latin and Mathematics. He has also taught in the college’s honors program.

At Princeton he was active in the Center for the Study of Religion and the Program in Hellenic Studies. He has been honored with Princeton’s Stanley J. Seeger and Naumberg Fellowships and the Mustard Seed Foundation’s Harvey Fellowship.

The College of Saint Mary Magadalen changed its name from Magdalen College in 2010 to place a greater emphasis on the name of its patron saint and to emphasize its desire for renewed Catholic identity. The school was founded in Warner, New Hampshire in 1973.

The college’s website is http://www.magdalen.edu