Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

WARWICK -- David M. Dooley, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Montana State University, has been named the 11th president of the University of Rhode Island, the state's flagship research institution.

The Board of Governors for Higher Education announced its selection at a meeting Monday night, held at the Community College of Rhode Island's Warwick campus.

Dooley, 56, will earn about $320,000 a year and is scheduled to take over on July 1 from departing URI President Robert L. Carothers. He beat two other finalists: Sona Karentz Andrews, provost and vice president for academic affairs and a professor of geosciences at Boise State University, Idaho; and Robert D. Newman, associate vice president for interdisciplinary studies and a professor of English at the University of Utah.

The three finalists all listed extensive experience running capital campaigns, building endowments for faculty chairs and key academic building, and cultivating donors - now a major part of being a successful college or university president.

Dooley, a scientist, has ties to New England.

He was a chemistry professor and department chairman at Amherst College from 1978-1993 and on the faculty in the department of molecular and cellular biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1984 to 1993. He earned a bachelor's in chemistry from the University of California San Diego in 1974 and received a doctorate in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1979.

While at Montana State, Dooley helped to expand the university's tiny research budget to $100 million, and is credited with helping the state school rise to the top tier of research universities, according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. URI, a slightly larger institution with ambitions to expand its own research, lands in Carnegie's second tier.

As Montana State's chief academic officer, Dooley has significant experience with the academic side of higher education, but is also knowledgeable about finances, as chair of the university's budget and planning committee.

During visits to the Kingston and Providence campuses in April, Dooley made a favorable impression on students and faculty, who said he was personable and seemed attuned to their needs.

Carothers, 66, announced in 2008 he would step down as the university's 10th president after serving 18 years, making him one of the longest serving university presidents in the country.

 Tags  David M. Dooley University of Rhode Island

Comments

who said:

It's no wonder RI is in the red, he's going to make more then the Govenor. With is bonuses he'll make more then Obama, plus he gets to live in a smaller version of the White House. It's a college he running not the country.

Link | May 11, 2009 6:56 PM
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the regulator said:

I'm sure he's qualified but I would have liked to see a woman such as Sonia Karentz Andrews. Probably too much to ask for the boys club at higher ed.

Link | May 11, 2009 8:46 PM
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Jack said:

I wonder the same thing? Does a college president really need to make 300,000??

Link | May 12, 2009 9:45 AM
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