New Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid

April 4, 2022

Dear Members of the Trinity College Community,

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Matthew S. Hyde as the next dean of admissions and financial aid at Trinity College. His appointment will begin on July 1, 2022.

Matt’s appointment comes after a nationwide search for a strategic leader with the demonstrated experience and skills needed to carry forward the college’s vision for recruitment, enrollment, and financial aid. Matt stood out in a highly competitive pool of candidates for his wealth of experience, knowledge, warmth, and strategic thinking. Drawn to the search by his love of academic communities of distinction, Matt has expressed great enthusiasm for the opportunity to innovate and direct the future of admissions and financial aid at Trinity. He will serve as a member of the President’s Cabinet and on the leadership team of the Student Success and Enrollment Management Division. Matt’s deep interest in the full arc of the student experience will help guide Trinity’s continued growth as a vibrant community dedicated to student well-being and success, both inside and outside the classroom.

Currently, Matt serves as the assistant vice president for enrollment management and dean of admissions at Lafayette College, where he has led a team since 2011. Under his leadership, Lafayette grew the size of its applicant pool by 82 percent and increased other important recruitment benchmarks, including selectivity, student diversity, secondary/tertiary market growth, and yield rates. Throughout his time at Lafayette, Matt helped to build and mentor teams within the department, uniting the efforts of the Financial Aid and Admissions Offices to manage modeling and forecasting strategies and to meet ambitious enrollment goals.

Prior to his time at Lafayette, Matthew served as an associate director of admissions at Tufts University from 2004–11, where he directed the Tufts Alumni Admissions Program and connected more than 3,400 alumni volunteers with prospective students. Additionally, he worked closely with the Athletics Department to support the recruitment of student athletes in 28 NCAA Division III programs.

Earning a B.A. from Bowdoin College in history and environmental studies, Matt deeply appreciates and champions the values of a liberal arts education. He additionally earned an Ed.M. from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

Matt’s appointment would not be possible without the dedication of the search committee: chair Joe DiChristina, vice president for student success and enrollment; Alison Draper, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Science; Kim Eckart, special projects manager and analyst for finance; Kevin Huang ’12, assistant professor of engineering; Jody Goodman, dean of student life and director of the Bantam Network; Antonio Guirola ’22; and Vidhi Vasa ’22. I also would like to extend our gratitude to interim dean of admissions and financial aid Terry Cowdrey, whose leadership helped to guide the enrollment team in their work to recruit the Class of 2026 and to reach a five-year high in the number of applications this year. We are grateful for their time and talent.

We look forward to welcoming Matt and his family to Trinity and to Hartford in July!

Sincerely,

Joanne Berger-Sweeney
President and Trinity College Professor of Neuroscience