Dr. Robert Allyn Scott, New Jersey Educator, Appointed as Adelphi University's Ninth President

The board of trustees of Adelphi University today announced the appointment of Dr. Robert Allyn Scott as the University’s ninth president, effective July 15, 2000. He will succeed Steven L. Isenberg, a trustee of the University who has served as interim president since August 1, 1999. Dr. Scott for fifteen years has been president and chief executive officer, as well as professor of sociology and anthropology, at Ramapo College of New Jersey, a liberal arts college in New Jersey’s state system.

During his tenure at Ramapo, Dr. Scott has helped the school build a strong reputation as a highly competitive liberal arts college with a top ranking among public colleges in the northeast, bringing about significantly increased enrollments and luring faculty that have gained such prestigious recognition as awards from the Guggenheim and Kellogg foundations as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institute of Health, and the Fulbright award.

Michael Finnerty, interim co-chair of Adelphi’s board of trustees and also co-chair of its presidential search committee, said today that Dr. Scott, “has all the qualities we sought for Adelphi’s next president. He is a proven educational leader of strength, high standards and strong management expertise who will continue the remarkable progress that has made Adelphi a national success story in the past three years.”

Dr. Jill Ker Conway, the Adelphi trustee who with Mr. Finnerty co-chaired the presidential search committee, said that “Dr. Scott is a man of scholarship and intellect who will be the ideal leader for the future of Adelphi.”

Dr. Scott today said that “I am delighted to join Adelphi as its next president. It is an outstanding institution with more than a century of achievement in higher education and many exciting plans for the future. I look forward to helping Adelphi break new ground in the new millennium.”

Since the departure in August, 1999, of Adelphi’s previous president, Matthew Goldstein, to become Chancellor of the City University of New York, Adelphi’s board chairman, Steven L. Isenberg, has served as the University’s interim president. During that time he has been on leave from his chairmanship; Mr. Finnerty and Dr. Shirley M. Malcom have served as interim co-chairs of the board.

Dr. Malcom and Mr. Finnerty, speaking on behalf of the Adelphi board of trustees, said of Mr. Isenberg’s interim presidency, “Steve Isenberg has been a tireless and brilliant champion of Adelphi since becoming chairman in 1997. He has been a superb interim president who brought the campus together and maintained a high momentum of innovation and change. The gratitude of the entire campus and everyone in the Adelphi family goes out to him with great affection today.”

In the period of Mr. Isenberg’s interim presidency, Adelphi has developed several new academic and cultural programs, recruited more than two dozen new faculty, formed innovative alliances with Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, and Brooklyn secondary schools, established joint admissions programs with nine New York metropolitan area community colleges, earned a $1 million grant for technology in the curriculum from the U.S. Department of Education, and built upon the growing number of undergraduate applicants to increase Adelphi’s competitiveness and its overall undergraduate enrollment. These achievements continue the strong turnaround begun three years ago when the present board of trustees was appointed by the New York State Board of Regents.

Prior to his presidency at Ramapo College, Dr. Scott was director of academic affairs for the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and later assistant commissioner; before that he was associate dean and senior administrator for Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences. He received his B.A. from Bucknell University and his Ph. D. from Cornell University. His scholarship is in the sociology of education, public policy in higher education, strategic planning and new direction in international education, school-college partnerships and college-corporate collaboration in the U.S., Canada, and many nations overseas. His research has been supported by several institutions and foundations and he has been the invited speaker at many international conferences and colloquia. Dr. Scott is the author of more than two hundred articles, essays, presentations and reviews published in professional and popular journals. He has authored, edited, or contributed to nine books and monographs on public policy and postsecondary education, including Lords, Squires and Yeomen: Collegiate Middle Managers and Their Organizations (George Washington University/ERIC, 1979), which he authored and which remains one of the most frequently cited monographs in the ERIC series, and Internationalizing the Undergraduate Curriculum: A Handbook for Campus Leaders.

A leader in national and international higher education circles, Dr. Scott is co-founder and past chair of the Council on Public Liberal Arts Colleges. In 1994 he served as Governor Christine Todd Whitman’s appointee as senior consultant to the newly formed New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and chaired the Higher Education Restructuring Implementation team. As senior adviser to the U.S. State Department, Dr. Scott represented the United States at UNESCO’s 1998 Paris conference to negotiate a treaty on the transferability of academic credits and credentials. In 1999, he was a member of the U.S. delegation at UNESCO’s World Conference on Higher Education. He is a member of the Congressionally-mandated Study Group of the Federal student loan programs; director, Global Kids, Inc., and past chair, American Council on Education Commission on International Education.

Adelphi’s presidential search committee comprised the two trustee co-chairs, Mr. Finnerty and Dr. Conway; three trustee members, Dr. Malcom, Dr. Philip Jordan, and S. Bruce Pantano; Professor Brook Spiro of Adelphi’s School of Social Work and Professor Larry Newland of the music department; Edward Hackert, a 1985 alumnus of Adelphi’s School of Business; and Terri Germain, an Adelphi junior and president of the student government association. The firm of Korn Ferry International assisted the board and search committee.

As president of the University, Dr. Scott will receive $305,000 in annual salary along with a benefit package covering health, disability and life insurance and a defined-contribution pension plan. In addition, he is required by contract to reside in the University president’s residence on campus and will have use of a University-owned automobile.