Program Officer

Eugene M. Tobin is Program Officer for the Liberal Arts Colleges program.

Through the work of the College Sports Project, he coordinates the Foundation’s support of colleges and universities (within the NCAA’s Division III) who are committed to aligning intercollegiate athletic programs more closely with educational values. 

Prior to joining the Foundation in July 2003, Mr. Tobin served as the eighteenth president of Hamilton College (1993-2003), where he was also dean of the faculty (1988-1993) and professor and chair of the department of history (1986-88).  His previous teaching experience includes service at Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University), Kutztown University (PA), Miami University (OH), and Indiana University.  His research focuses on late nineteenth and early twentieth century American social and political history from the Progressive Era through the Cold War and the history of American higher education.

Mr. Tobin earned his B.A. in history from Rutgers University and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the history of American civilization from Brandeis University.  He is the co-author with William G. Bowen and Martin A. Kurzweil of Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education (University of Virginia Press, 2005); author of Organize or Perish:  America’s Independent Progressives 1913-1933 (Greenwood Press, 1986); co-author (with Ann Fagan Ginger) of The National Lawyers Guild:  From Roosevelt through Reagan (Temple University Press, 1988); and co-author (with Michael H. Ebner) of The Age of Urban Reform:  New Perspectives on the Progressive Era (Kennikat Press, 1977).  His articles have appeared in Labor History, The Historian, the Journal of Urban History, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, and New Jersey History; and he has published op-eds in the Baltimore Sun, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Forward, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.