Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University since 2016, Benjamin C. Withers is responsible for $55M in annual expenditures, serving 13 academic departments/schools and six interdisciplinary programs, with more than 600 faculty and staff, and 6,780 degree earning undergraduate and graduate students.

With his leadership, the faculty and staff in the College have increased the size of the incoming first-year and transfer undergraduate majors by 30%, added nearly 100 new tenure-track faculty, and achieved new highs in sponsored research awards ($3.5 million), and, in conjunction with the Office of the Provost, significantly increased faculty and staff salaries. In conjunction with his development staff, he has been a part of external fundraising that includes two of the largest individual gifts in college history: $5M in 2019 and $15M in 2020. The College is currently undertaking a $135m renovation/new construction of the Clark Building, one of CSU’s most heavily used buildings.

Withers earned his doctorate in art history from the University of Chicago focusing on early medieval manuscripts, taught a variety of courses at Indiana University South Bend and University of Kentucky before coming to Colorado State. With three books/edited collections and nearly 40 peer-reviewed publications, his scholarship has been supported by the NEH, The Indiana University President’s Arts and Humanities Initiative, University of Kentucky, and The Ameritech Foundation, among others.