University President

The finalists to become the next president of the University of Vermont are all accomplished academics who are due on campus in Burlington next month for public forums, officials say. The names of what are expected to be five finalists will be made public before the first public interview takes place on Jan. 19. "All have had extremely successful careers in higher education and have impressive records of scholarly work," said Robert Cioffi, chairman of...

CAMBRIDGE - Rafael Reif, named the 17th president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Wednesday after 32 years at the school, almost did not come to MIT at all. Courted as a postdoctoral scholar in 1979, he was so put off by the university's image as "this cold place where nobody talks to each other" that he repeatedly refused a job interview. To be polite, he told a persistent recruiter there was only a 5 percent chance he might like the school. But when the recruiter pointed out that "five is not zero," Reif gave MIT a skeptical shot - and never left.

SANTA FE - Glenn W. Ferguson, former ambassador to Kenya and former president of the University of Connecticut, has died. Mr. Ferguson died of cancer Dec. 20 at his home in Santa Fe, his wife, Patricia Head Ferguson, said this week. He was 78. Services were private, his family said. According to a biography from the University of Connecticut, where Mr. Ferguson was president from 1973 to 1978, he earned a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's in business administration from Cornell University, and a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1957.

If Joyce Carol Oates's new novel, "Mudwoman," were a computer game, it would be up there with Mortal Kombat and Doom for its grotesque violence, blood, and gore. Which is odd in a novel about a university president and her conflicts with her board. But of course it's about more than that. This particular university president, when she was 3 years old, was tossed into a muddy riverbed and left for dead. By her mother. As "Mudwoman" begins, Meredith (also M.R., also Mudwoman)

If Joyce Carol Oates's new novel, "Mudwoman," were a computer game, it would be up there with Mortal Kombat and Doom for its grotesque violence, blood, and gore. Which is odd in a novel about a university president and her conflicts with her board. But of course it's about more than that. This particular university president, when she was 3 years old, was tossed into a muddy riverbed and left for dead. By her mother. As "Mudwoman" begins, Meredith (also M.R., also Mudwoman)

Harvard University’s new vision for a science campus in Allston is far different from the original idea it pursued over the past decade. The revamped proposal still includes a health and life science center on Western Avenue with up to 700,000 square feet of space for laboratories and academic researchers drawn from other Harvard locations in Cambridge and Boston’s Longwood Medical Area. But now, the largest science footprint would be a 36-acre, privately-developed “enterprise research campus’’ with as many as 12 buildings for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and...

ORONO, Maine -- Trustees of the statewide University of Maine System this week will consider going ahead with a six-year, $150 million fund-raising campaign for the flagship campus in Orono. "This will take UMaine to the next level and guarantee that we can compete with the best universities in the country," university president Robert Kennedy said. He said the money would be used "in trying to keep UMaine at its (present) level and even beyond in terms of national recognition and service to the state.

ALBUQUERQUE — A former University of New Mexico president and four other people have been arrested in connection with a prostitution website operated by a New Jersey professor, police said yesterday. Albuquerque police officials said that Flaviano Garcia, the former university president, was being held on charges of promoting prostitution, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy. Lieutenant William Roseman said Garcia was part of a group called the hunt club, which recruited members to join the website allegedly operated by David Flory, 68, a professor at Fairleigh...

Governor Deval L. Patrick has consolidated his grip on the University of Massachusetts board of trustees with the appointment yesterday of seven new members, several of whom are trusted political aides and fund-raisers. As part of the move, he has also reappointed Fall River businessman James J. Karam, a close political ally and fund-raiser, as board chairman, just weeks after the attorney general found that the search Karam led for a new president was conducted illegally behind closed doors.

DAMARISCOTTA, Maine -- Arthur Mengies Johnson, a former president of the University of Maine at Orono known as an educator who brought the school together during transitional times, died Sept. 18 at his home. He was 83. Mr. Johnson had served as the university president from 1984 to 1986. Mr. Johnson came to the University of Maine as a visiting professor of history in 1968 after teaching at the US Naval Academy and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

Suffolk University says James McCarthy, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Baruch College in New York, will become its ninth president next month. The school says its board of trustees approved McCarthy's appointment Wednesday. McCarthy will take over from Barry Brown, who has served as acting president since former President David Sargent retired in 2010. McCarthy worked as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Baruch College, overseeing its academic programs and services and managing an academic budget of more than $100 million.

The finalists to become the next president of the University of Vermont are all accomplished academics who are due on campus in Burlington next month for public forums, officials say. The names of what are expected to be five finalists will be made public before the first public interview takes place on Jan. 19. "All have had extremely successful careers in higher education and have impressive records of scholarly work," said Robert Cioffi, chairman of...

Evelyn E. Handler, who was the first female president of Brandeis University and of the University of New Hampshire, died Friday afternoon after she was struck by a car while walking on a street in Bedford, N.H. Handler, 78, served as president of UNH from 1980 to 1983 before taking the same position at Brandeis, where she was president from 1983 to 1991. Handler was the only female president in the history of Brandeis, which was founded in 1948, according to its website. "On behalf of the entire Brandeis community, we extend our deepest sympathies to the Handler family,"...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - In a massive shakeup, Penn State football coach Joe Paterno and school president Graham Spanier were fired last night by the board of trustees amid the growing furor over how the school handled child sex abuse allegations against an assistant coach. The longtime coach, the winningest in major college football, was ousted at the end of a day that began with his announcement to retire at end of the season, his 46th. It was not to be. "The university is much larger than its athletic teams," board vice chair John Surma said during a packed news...

PROVIDENCE - Ruth J. Simmons, the first African-American woman to lead an Ivy League university, is stepping down as president of Brown University. In a statement sent to students, faculty, and alumni yesterday morning announcing her departure, Simmons called her time leading Brown deeply satisfying but said the time was right for a change. "I recently decided that this is the ideal time both for Brown and for me personally to begin the process of transitioning to new leadership," she said.

Governor Deval L. Patrick has consolidated his grip on the University of Massachusetts board of trustees with the appointment yesterday of seven new members, several of whom are trusted political aides and fund-raisers. As part of the move, he has also reappointed Fall River businessman James J. Karam, a close political ally and fund-raiser, as board chairman, just weeks after the attorney general found that the search Karam led for a new president was conducted illegally behind closed doors.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - The steel fence that the US government wants to build along the Mexican border would do more than slice through the University of Texas's Brownsville campus and cut off the golf course from the rest of the school. School officials say it would make a mockery of the very mission of the university: promoting close ties between the United States and Mexico. The university - built close to the Rio Grande on land where the United States and Mexico traded cannon blasts during the Mexican-American War 160 years ago - recruits Mexican students, offers government and business classes in...

The NCAA has joined the University of Michigan in an investigation into practices of college football’s winningest program. University president Mary Sue Coleman announced yesterday the NCAA has given the school a notice of inquiry. “It marks the beginning of an investigation,’’ NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn explained. The NCAA’s enforcement staff often looks into allegations, according to Osburn, but only sends school presidents a letter of inquiry when an initial review determines a violation may have occurred based on credible...

ALBUQUERQUE — A former University of New Mexico president and four other people have been arrested in connection with a prostitution website operated by a New Jersey professor, police said yesterday. Albuquerque police officials said that Flaviano Garcia, the former university president, was being held on charges of promoting prostitution, tampering with evidence, and conspiracy. Lieutenant William Roseman said Garcia was part of a group called the hunt club, which recruited members to join the website allegedly operated by David Flory, 68, a professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Harvard University’s new vision for a science campus in Allston is far different from the original idea it pursued over the past decade. The revamped proposal still includes a health and life science center on Western Avenue with up to 700,000 square feet of space for laboratories and academic researchers drawn from other Harvard locations in Cambridge and Boston’s Longwood Medical Area. But now, the largest science footprint would be a 36-acre, privately-developed “enterprise research campus’’ with as many as 12 buildings for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and venture...