UM president to step down in 2011

University of Maine President Robert Kennedy announced Wednesday that he will resign June 1, 2011.

Kennedy’s resignation allows him to transition to a position where he will oversee special projects in statewide economic development and educational opportunity, according to university spokesman Joe Carr.

Chancellor Richard Pattenaude and the president began discussions about the possibility of a new role for Kennedy at the system level in October.

“We just sort of started to explore what I wanted to do and what I wanted to spend my time and focus on,” Kennedy said in an interview on Wednesday. “We came to the conclusion that these would be not only interesting projects but something that my background would help with, and also something very important to the students across the system at other campuses.”

“This is an evolving process,” Kennedy said. “I talked to the chancellor this morning, and neither of us really know how this role will be structured or where exactly it will be going.”

Kennedy said that while the specifics were unknown, the focus of his new position would be on sustainability and green initiatives, and to create a statewide curriculum on alternative energy. He said he would continue his focus on federal research funding to benefit the university and the state. He said he would continue to tackle the challenges, especially economic pressures, that face the university system.

“I’m an optimist,” Kennedy said. “But part of me has always asked, ‘How can we surmount these challenges, what can we do to overcome them, to put the university and ourpeople in the best position?’”

Though his new role will have him working on system- and state-wide projects , Kennedy will be a faculty member of  UMaine, according to University of Maine System spokeswoman Peggy Markson.

“We’ve had faculty members at the universities work on special projects before, sort of ‘on-loan’ to the system office,” Markson said. The university will be compensated by the system office for Kennedy’s position.

A search committee to find a new president for UMaine, comprised of a board of trustees member, undergraduate and graduate students, and faculty members, will begin the process of replacing Kennedy in September, according to Markson.

With the time he has left as president, Kennedy will continue projects he’s been working on, including the Academic Program Prioritization Working Group, the establishment of UMaine as a tobacco-free campus and continuing to secure grants and federal funding for the university.

“My focus will be on positioning the university in the best possible way as we surmount the challenges we face,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy names the expansion of the Honors College, the focus on climate change, the success of Habib Dagher’s Advanced Engineering and Wood Composites Center and his fundraising record among his proudest achievements as president. According to a statement from UMaine, the university has amassed more than $100 million in investments under Kennedy’s nearly seven-year tenure, which includes his time as interim president.

Kennedy came to UMaine in 2000, and served as executive president for academic affairs and provost, as well as interim president, before his appointment to the presidency in April 2005. He holds a doctoral degree in plant botany from the University of California at Berkeley. He was a finalist for president at Kansas State University but withdrew his name from consideration before a final decision was made.

Kennedy’s resignation was first reported in Wednesday’s issue of the Bangor Daily News.

CORRECTION:
An earlier version of this story stated that Kennedy still served on the board of Fairpoint Communications Inc. According to university spokesperson Joe Carr, Kennedy resigned from that position in September.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010, 8:54 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.