SOUTH KINGSTOWN – A new University of Rhode Island president is expected to be decided on Monday evening when the university’s board of trustees holds its special meeting at 6 p.m.
Current president, David M. Dooley, will retire in June after 12 years leading the state’s only land-grant school.
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URI said back on March 12 that the university’s search committee narrowed the number of candidates for URI’s top leadership position down to 20 at the time. The committee hoped to announce a new president at the board’s April 22 meeting, URI said March 12, but that timeline has now accelerated.
Multiple media reports recently stated that the search committee further trimmed the candidate pool down to two people: Brian Blake, provost for George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and Marc Parlange, the provost for Melbourne, Australia-based Monash University.
Blake, according to a report from GWU’s student newspaper The GW Hatchet, said in an email to senior university staff that he concluded there is “much important work yet to be done at GW” after having several conversations with family and colleagues, pulling out of the running for the URI post.
URI officials did not immediately respond Monday to Providence Business News if Parlange is the favorite to be selected by the board as the university’s next president.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on Twitter at @James_Bessette.
