George S. Bridges is, by all appearances, a pleasant fellow. With his ready smile, bow ties, and avid conviviality, the oval-faced Bridges seems to relish the role of college president—specifically, as head of The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. “My approach,’’ he once told an interviewer, “is to lead from the middle—to support the faculty and staff in their jobs and listen to their ideas and varying perspectives.’’
In practice, though, Bridges’s approach at Evergreen State this past academic year was characterized by a vast reservoir of tolerance for intolerant behavior and a willingness to turn the other cheek in the face of personal diminishment.
Whatever his actual approach to leadership, it seems to have served him well until now. His storybook career has spanned more than four decades and includes Ivy League degrees in criminology and sociology, a stint as a U.S. Justice Department official, teaching gigs at Case Western Reserve and the University of Washington, increasingly high-level responsibilities at Washington, and eventually the presidency of Whitman College, a highly regarded liberal arts institution in Walla Walla, Washington. After 10 years at Whitman, he took the reins at Evergreen in October 2015.
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