Stephen Charles Ainlay
Eighteenth President of Union College
Stephen Charles Ainlay became the 18th president of Union College on July 1, 2006. He is a sociologist by training and has a distinguished record as a scholar, teacher and administrator. In addition to his role as president of Union College, he also serves as a professor of sociology for Union and chancellor of Union University, a united entity composed of Union College, Union Graduate College, Albany Medical College, Albany Law School, Albany College of Pharmacy, and the Dudley Observatory of the City of Albany.
A native of Goshen, Indiana, Ainlay earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Goshen College, and both his master’s and Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Before joining Union, he was Vice President for Academic Affairs at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. He joined the College in 1982 as assistant professor of sociology and was promoted to associate professor in 1987 and to full professor in 1993. Ainlay was named Dean of the College in 1996. Two years later, he was promoted to Vice President for Academic Affairs.
In July of 2007, Ainlay was appointed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer to the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education for New York. The commission studied the state’s higher education system and made recommendations about improving access, expanding degree programs, preparing community college graduates for four-year institutions and high-value jobs, and enhancing academic research and employment. He also serves on the executive committee of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities (CICU), which represents 110 independent campuses in New York State.
Ainlay's research projects have focused on investigations of blindness, aging, spirituality and various aspects of Mennonite life, all aimed at better understanding the ways in which people find meaning in their lives.
His books include Day Brought Back My Night: Aging and Vision Loss; Mennonite Entrepreneurs (co-authored with Calvin Redekop and Robert Siemans); The Dilemma of Difference: A Multidisciplinary View of Stigma (co-edited with Gaylene Becker and Lerita Coleman); and Making Sense of Modern Times: Peter L. Berger and the Vision of Interpretive Sociology (co-edited with James Davison Hunter). He has also published a number of articles and book reviews related to his research areas in such journals as the Journal of Social Issues, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and the Journal of Gerontology. Stephen is a frequent presenter at conferences of scholars and academic administrators.
Ainlay has served as a board member and vice chair of the American Conference of Academic Deans. He has served on the Chief Academic Officers Committee of the Colleges of Worcester Consortium and on the Consortium’s Board. He also has served on the Board of the Lilly Fellows Program. A number of community boards have also benefited from his service, including the Board of Incorporators for the Age Center of Worcester, the Advisory Board for the Executive Office of Elder Affairs for the City of Worcester, the Council on Aging for the Town of Holden, the Worcester Office of the Massachusetts Association for the Blind, the Audio-Journal-Radio Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and the Educational Advisory Board of Worcester Home Care Services.
Among his fellowships, Ainlay was a visiting scholar at St. Edmund’s College in Cambridge University and summer fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences in Palo Alto, Calif. He also held a post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton University’s Mental Health Training Program.
Stephen C. Ainlay is married to Judith Gardner Ainlay. They have two sons: Jesse, a 2005 graduate of Holy Cross, and Jonathan, a student at the University of Arizona.