BANGOR, Maine — The University of Maine System has hired a higher education administrator from Texas to oversee looming changes in the academics of the system’s seven campuses.
The system’s board of trustees announced Tuesday that Robert Neely will take the post of vice chancellor for academic affairs. In that role, he’ll oversee comprehensive reviews of the system’s course offerings and build on cooperation among campuses.
“Creating new opportunities for academic collaboration among colleagues and across campuses will increase the capacity of Maine’s public universities to inspire students and serve the state,” Neely said in a system news release that announced his hiring.
Neely is provost and vice president of academic affairs at Texas Woman’s University, a co-ed public university not affiliated with Texas’s public university system that primarily serves a largely female student population. He also teaches biology. He’s held other administrative positions at Eastern Michigan University and Iowa State since the 1980s.
The hire comes under Chancellor James Page’s One University initiative, an effort to reduce redundancies in the system’s course offerings and increase campus collaborations to drive down costs, while making programs more attractive to students to boost enrollment and revenue.
Ellen Chaffee, a consultant the system hired to review the system’s academic restructuring efforts, said the vice chancellor for academic affairs would be vital to ensuring these goals are met. One of her major recommendations was that the system hire a new vice chancellor for academic affairs as soon as possible.
Neely was among four finalists for the position named last month after a national search.
His annual salary will be $225,000, with a starting date of Sept. 1, according to the system.
“In Dr. Robert Neely, our search committee identified a proven academic leader with the experience and approach needed to transform our academic programs into a truly statewide, strategically aligned portfolio,” Page said.
Susan Hunter, president of the system’s flagship campus in Orono, was the most recent vice chancellor for academic affairs before taking over the UMaine presidency after the departure of former President Paul Ferguson in 2014.
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