Bryant President Machtley’s contract renewed through 2020

RONALD K. Machtley, Bryant University president, recently had his contract renewed by the board of trustees until 2020. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
RONALD K. Machtley, Bryant University president, recently had his contract renewed by the board of trustees until 2020. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

(Updated, 5:35 p.m.)
SMITHFIELD – Bryant University President Ronald K. Machtley will serve the university through 2020 under a contract renewed by the school’s board of trustees.
As Machtley completes 21 years at the helm of the university this year, trustees unanimously extended his contract on Jan. 15. The board did not disclose terms or salary. In 2013, he was one of the highest paid college chiefs in the region, with total compensation of $795,570.
Machtley has been president at Bryant since 1996, making him one of the longest serving higher education presidents in the country, the university said in a press release. He lives on campus with his wife, Kati Machtley, who is the director of the Bryant University Women’s Summit, an annual conference in its 19th year attended by more than 1,000 people that has sold out every year.
Trustees Chairman William J. Conaty, class of 1967 and retired senior vice president of corporate human resources for General Electric, cited a long list of accomplishments under Machtley’s tenure, that range from the university’s accredited status as a business college along with establishment of a College of Arts and Sciences, and a School of Health Sciences, to growth of the endowment from $107 million to $176 million.
“The board is thrilled to extend and retain President Machtley’s commitment to Bryant University through July 2020,” Conaty said. “Ron and Kati Machtley’s accomplishments over the past 20 years are truly remarkable and have elevated Bryant to a world-class university.”
Other key accomplishments include university rankings by U.S. News & World Report listing the school as 11th among its peers; expanding and diversifying enrollment by 60 percent in 20 years to 3,600 undergraduates and 600 graduate students; adding nearly 450,000 square feet of new campus facilities and opening a new branch campus in Zhuhai, China, whose entering class of 160 students will earn a Bryant University degree.

Bryant is “a great place and I’m lucky to be here, and even luckier to have a spouse who supports and works right with me,” said Machtley.

At 67, Machtley said he believes “innovation” will define his legacy as it continues to unfold. So far, he has overseen the school’s “Vision 2020” strategic plan, launched in 2010, and $76 million worth of improvements to campus buildings and grounds, including an Academic Innovation Center opening this fall that he says will revolutionize teaching at Bryant.

The center will replace the traditional “sage on stage” lecture hall and format with breakout rooms and a large room called the “forum” that will enable teachers and students to engage not just in digesting new material but in sharing information they’ve mastered. Teachers and students will be able to work in teams the way they do in startup companies, he said.

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“This building allows for teachers to break in the middle of a class, not with a lecture format but with a faculty member walking around, students answering questions and putting projects on a screen,” he explained. “Very few institutions have mastered this concept. It’s still in its infancy, but this building will be singularly dedicated to its implementation.”

Asked if this contract will be his last as he leans into his seventh decade, Machtley said not necessarily.

“Every day, I just thank God for my health and ability to keep going,” he said, “and I tell the board if they feel I’m not up to the task to just tell me. I’m just going to keep going as long as there is a need and I feel up to the task, and Kati and the board and I feel there’s a meaningful role. I don’t want to be the last to realize the moment it’s time to step down.”

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