LEXINGTON, Va. (AP) _ Washington & Lee University has named the school’s next president. The university announced in a press release on Friday that its board of trustees has elected William Dudley, provost and philosophy professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to be the next president. Dudley will assume the post in January, succeeding Kenneth Ruscio, who announced in May that he would step down. Ruscio will remain in office until Dec. 31. Dudley was born in Charlottesville and raised in Arlington. He received his B.A. in mathematics and philosophy, magna cum laude, from Williams in 1989, and an M.A. and a Ph.D., both in philosophy, from Northwestern University. He joined the Williams faculty in 1998. His area of expertise is German idealism, from Kant to Hegel.