Timothy Law Snyder chosen to lead Loyola Marymount University

The Loyola Marymount University Board of Trustees has selected a former administrator from another Jesuit institution to lead the Los Angeles campus, officials announced Friday.

Timothy Law Snyder will be the 16th president when he takes over in June. He will replace David W. Burcham, who has served as president since 2010 and is retiring. Burcham was previously the interim president and provost at the campus and a top administrator of Loyola Law School near downtown.

Thirty-five trustees voted to approve Snyder; there was one abstention.

Loyola Marymount University has nearly 9,400 students. The school did not disclose how much Snyder would be paid.

Snyder is Catholic but is not a priest and would be the school’s second lay president. Burcham, a Protestant, was the first. An increasing number of Catholic universities across the country have lay presidents.

Snyder received his undergraduate degrees from the University of Toledo and conducted his graduate work at Princeton University. He has worked at the Berklee College of Music, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and Georgetown University. He was an administrator and professor of mathematical sciences at Loyola University Maryland from 2007 to 2014.

Snyder said he took the job because it was an “extraordinary” opportunity. “I was very impressed with the faculty, the staff, the administration,” he said.

The 56-year-old has worked at three other Jesuit institutions and said “it is the best system for education that presently exists.” He said he hopes to provide more financial aid to students to increase access and diversity. Eighty-three percent of incoming freshmen received some form of financial aid last year, according to the school.

Snyder also said he would like to encourage students to study abroad more and create more partnerships between the school and technology, film and fine arts companies. “L.A. is one of the most creative places in the world ... and we should take advantage of that,” he said.

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