UMass-Dartmouth Picks Florida Veep; Grant Withdraws
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The Boston Globe is reporting that Divina Grossman, a vice president at Florida International University, has been chosen to lead the University of Massachusetts' Dartmouth campus.
Grant, now in her 10th year at MCLA, was one of six finalists selected by a search committee to replace retiring Chancellor Jean MacCormack. However, she withdrew her name feeling it wasn't a good fit, according to a college spokesman.
Two other finalists had also dropped out by the time the UMass Board of Trustees met on Thursday afternoon to vote on the committee's final recommendation. Along with Grossman, the finalists had been Daniel Julius of the University of Alaska and Maurice Scherrens of George Mason University.
Original post on March 27, 2012, at 11 a.m.
MCLA President Finalist for UMass-Dartmouth Post
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Mary K. Grant is a finalist in the nationwide search to fill the chancellorship of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
The president of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts is one of six candidates — and the only one from Massachusetts — being considered to succeed the retiring Jean MacCormack.
The finalists were named on Monday. All six are being invited to visit the campus in April. UMass President Robert L. Caret will recommend one of the candidates to the trustees, who will make the final decision on the campus's new leader.
"We are very pleased to bring forward a slate of extremely impressive finalist candidates, any one of whom has the potential to be a dynamic new leader for UMass Dartmouth," said Maria D. Furman, a UMass trustee and Dartmouth graduate who chaired the search committee, in a statement. "The next chancellor will guide UMass-Dartmouth into a new era of growth and will be an important leader for the South Coast region."
In a statement on the university's website, Grant was cited for expanding academic programming, increasing enrollment and strengthening connections between the college and communities. She is a member of the Governor's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Advisory Council and the Berkshire Compact, and was instrumental in getting $54 million in state funding for a science center and campus renovations.
Grant, a 1983 graduate of MCLA, was named president in 2002.
There were 129 applicants for the position, held by MacCormack since 1999. Earlier this month, the search committee interviewed 12 candidates over two days in Boston before selecting six finalists.
Also selected were Jonathan C. Gibralter, president of Frostburg (Md.) State University; Divina Grossman, vice president of engagement at Florida International University; Daniel J. Julius, vice president for academic affairs for the University of Alaska; Maurice W. Sherrens, senior vice president at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.; and Jem Spectar, president of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown.
The Dartmouth campus enrolls some 9,400 students in more than 40 undergraduate and 25 graduate degree programs, including four at the doctoral level. Its enrollment has by grown by a third over the past decade and its research enterprising from $4 million to $25 million under MacCormack's leadership.
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