News

Team selected to find UM president’s replacement

Posted on June 08, 2010, at 7:21 p.m.

BANGOR — The University of Maine System announced today the members of a search committee tasked with finding the next president of the University of Maine campus.

Eleanor “Ellie” Baker, a member of the University of Maine System board of trustees and graduate of UMaine with a law degree from the University of Maine School of Law, will head the committee composed of faculty, staff, students and alumni. It is expected the committee will make recommendations to University of Maine System Chancellor Richard Pattenaude by the end of the summer.

“I’m delighted that trustee Baker has agreed to chair the search, as an alumna and participant on advisory boards, she has an excellent sense of the university,” Pattenaude said in a statement.

Current UMaine President Robert Kennedy announced in March of this year his intention to step down from the position in June 2011. He will remain at the university to oversee several projects dealing with statewide economic development and educational opportunity.

Other search committee members are University of Maine System trustees Charles O’ Leary of Orono and Michelle Hood of Bar Harbor, UMaine professor of spatial information science and engineering Harlan Onsrud, professor of wood science Robert Rice, associate professor of management Stephanie Welcomer, Department of Facilities Management budget analyst Joseph Szelesta, Department of Athletics administrative assistant Ranee Dow and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Jeffrey Hecker.

UMaine graduate student James Beaupre, Class of 2012 president and student Sen. Nathaniel Wildes, along with James Goff of the UMaine board of visitors and alumnus John Rohman, a Bangor engineer, were also named to the committee. Second-year business student Katie Foster, also the nonvoting student representative to the University of Maine System board of trustees was named to the committee as an alternate.

“Our search committee represents a broad cross-section of the UMaine community which is key to helping us make the best possible recommendations,” Baker said in a statement.