MALLOY
extent, I’m being hired to move it farther along. It’s a difficult time in the educational arena. I’m superexcited.”
His salary will be
$350,000 a year, university officials said. The contract includes a housing allowance, and Malloy and his wife Cathy are expected to keep their home in Essex.
The unified system itself was created in 1968, around the time that as a 13-yearold, Malloy attended a summer program at the Hebron Academy, a small college prep school northwest of Lewiston, Maine, with a high ratio of teachers to students, founded in 1804. He credits that summer
program with giving him the skills and fortitude to battle through his handicaps.
The university’s national search was announced last December, when Chancellor James H. Page announced his retirement at age 66, after seven years at the helm. His last day will be June 30. The university system also has a law school, 31 sites for courses, and a cooperative extension.
Malloy said he will have a lot of traveling to do throughout the systems, with campuses spread from Portland in the south to Fort Kent and Presque Isle, near the Canadian border. “Maine is as big as the rest of New England combined,” he said.
“Malloy is an executive
leader and public servant committed to taking on complex change initiatives and getting the job done,” said James Erwin, chairman of the board of trustees, in a statement. “As governor he delivered reforms and structural changes to state government that were not always popular, and certainly not expedient, but that advanced the long term interest of his state and its citizens.”
“Under Dan’s leadership we will help lead Maine’s response to our workforce shortage and skills gap by connecting more of what we teach directly to a job, by reaching more adult learners and other Mainers underserved by higher education and lifting their Mainecareer aspirations, and by continuously including new approaches to what we teach and how we teach it to meet the competitive challenges of today’s higher education marketplace.”
After his appointment Thursday, university system officials escorted him on a tour of the far-flung campuses, starting in Augusta. Other campuses are located in Farmington, Machias, and Portland, the main campus of the University of Southern Maine. The law school is located in Portland.
Among his accomplishment as governor, Malloy brought in the Maine-based The Jackson Laboratory biotech firm, in an effort to bring 21st century jobs.
“Dan Malloy understands what higher education means for the future of a state and its people and is willing to put himself on the line to ensure that that future is bright,” said Charles Hewett, Ph.D., executive vice president and CEO of The Jackson Laboratory.
In a statement Thursday morning, Malloy said that Maine’s workforce needs grow daily, and the trustees’ strategic priorities set high expectations.
“Decisions will come fast, but they will be informed,” Malloy said. “I will be devoting many of my first days to visiting the campuses. I want to meet with new colleagues, hear from students, and see firsthand how our universities are serving the people and communities of Maine.”