April 17, 2000

Dr. Alice Chandler Appointed Interim President of Ramapo College

Dr. Robert A. Scott to Leave Ramapo to Become President of Adelphi University

(Mahwah) -- Dr. Alice Chandler, who served for 16 years as president of the State University of New York at New Paltz, today was appointed interim president of Ramapo College of New Jersey. "She is an experienced, successful president," said Dr. Robert A. Scott, Ramapo’s outgoing president, "and with her reputation for leadership in both global education and liberal arts education, will continue Ramapo’s commitment to those areas." Arthur C. Ramirez, vice chair of the Ramapo College Board of Trustees, headed the search committee for an interim president.

"Ramapo, with its interdisciplinary and international programs is a college for the 21st Century," said Chandler on her appointment. "I look forward to the prospect of leading the College into the future."

Chandler also served as acting president of the City College of the City University of New York. Since her retirement in 1996, she has been active as a writer, speaker and consultant in higher education. She has been chairperson of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and a board member both of AASCU and the American Council on Education (ACE). She has chaired the commission on Women of the ACE, was a co-chair of the commission on the Future of State Colleges and Universities, and served on the National Commission on Minority Participation in American Life. She has been a member of the Presidents’ Commission of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and has served on the board of trustees of the Council on International Educational Exchange.

A distinguished Fulbright Scholar, Chandler is a recipient of the Marita Houlihan Award for International Education. Acting provost of the State University of New York in 1985, she has participated in many statewide and national commissions and was a member of the Revson Foundation board for more than a decade. She has headed four accreditation teams for the Middle States Association, and also conducted a number of presidential evaluations. Since retirement, she has served as a consultant for the Academic Search Consultation Service, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Association of Governing Boards, Indiana University, the NAFSA Association of International Educators, the City University of New York, Missouri Western State College, the State of New Jersey, New Jersey City University, and the University of Toledo.

The author of 11 books and monographs, Chandler has published widely in the fields of higher education policy, rhetoric and composition, and Victorian literature. Her early volume, A Dream of Order: The Medieval Ideal in Nineteenth-Century English Literature, was recently translated into Japanese. Since retirement, her published monographs have included: Access, Inclusion, and Opportunity; Public Higher Education and the Public Good; and Paying the Bill for International Education.

Scott, Ramapo College’s president for the last 15 years, is leaving the College to become president of Adelphi University effective July 15. His tenure at Ramapo has been marked by rising enrollments, increasingly rigorous admissions standards, a construction boom, fiscal stability, the addition of three graduate degree programs and numerous other programs and new majors, global partnerships with schools, universities, corporations and organizations, and a focus on "the four pillars" of a Ramapo education: international, intercultural, interdisciplinary, and experiential.

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