As of December 4, 2015, nearly 40 liberal arts college libraries—most of them members of the Oberlin Group, and Allegheny College and Ursinus College participating from outside Oberlin’s membership—have committed to contribute more than $1 million to the work of Lever Press over the next five years. Librarians and faculty members at these institutions will also comprise the press’s Oversight Committee and Editorial Board. Supported by these pledges, Lever Press aims to acquire, develop, produce and disseminate a total of 60 new open-access titles by the end of 2020.
The institutions that have so far pledged to support the first five years of Lever Press are:
- Adrian College
- Agnes Scott College
- Allegheny College
- Amherst College
- Atlanta University Center, Morehouse & Spelman Colleges
- Bard College
- Bates College
- Berea College
- Bowdoin College
- Carleton College
- Claremont Colleges
- Coe College
- College of St. Benedict/St. John University
- Denison University
- Earlham College
- Furman University
- Grinnell College
- Hamilton College
- Haverford College
- Kenyon College
- Knox College
- Lafayette College
- Lake Forest College
- Macalester College
- Middlebury College
- Oberlin College
- Rollins College
- Sewanee: The University of the South
- Skidmore College
- Smith College
- St. Lawrence University
- St. Olaf College
- Swarthmore College
- Susquehanna University
- Trinity University
- Union College
- University of Puget Sound
- Ursinus College
- Vassar College
- Washington & Lee University
- Whitman College
- Williams College
- The College of Wooster
The Lever Press Oversight Committee, elected by the pledging institutions, consists of:
- Andrew Ashton, Director of the Libraries at Vassar College
- Marta Brunner, Dean of the Library at Skidmore College
- Mark Christel, Director of Libraries at the College of Wooster
- Dalia Corkrum, College Librarian, Whitman College
- Terri Fishel, Library Director, Dewitt Wallace Library, Macalester College
- Bryn Geffert, Librarian of the College, Amherst College
- Neil McElroy, Dean of Libraries, Lafayette College
- Kevin Mulroy, J. McFadden Dean of the Library at The Claremont Colleges
- Loretta Parham, chief executive officer and library director at the Atlanta University Center
- Michael Roy, Dean of the Library, Middlebury College
- Peggy Seiden, College Librarian, Swarthmore College
- Marci Sotor, Provost, St. Olaf College
One of the first tasks of the Oversight Committee will be to assemble an Editorial Board, comprised of distinguished senior faculty from the participating institutions, and responsible for vetting and approving Lever Press publications.
Lever Press is distinguished by three key commitments: editorial alignment with the mission and ethos of liberal arts colleges, a “platinum” approach to open access in which the pledging institutions rather than authors pay all publishing costs, and digitally-native production processes designed to support innovative projects that go “beyond the book.”