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Lawrence will step down after 12 years as Rutgers' leader Archived article from Feb 8, 2002
By Douglas Frank and Phyllis Gottlieb After nearly 12 years as president of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Francis L. Lawrence has announced his decision to step down and return to the faculty once a successor has been named by the Rutgers Board of Governors. In a letter to the university community, Lawrence said the decision came "after much reflection and discussion with my wife and other members of my family over the past few weeks." He said he decided to step down at a point "when, thanks to the talent and hard work of everyone in the Rutgers community, our well-loved university has marked the achievement of a long list of historic benchmarks."
In accepting Lawrence's resignation, board chair Gene O'Hara said the governing body "respects his decision and appreciates his willingness to remain on as president until the process of identifying and securing a successor can be completed." "The board wants to publicly thank President Lawrence for his dedication and leadership for the past 12 years," said O'Hara. "His record of accomplishment is extraordinary." The board is currently developing the search procedures to select the next president and is expected to announce those procedures shortly. By law, the board of governors is charged with the responsibility for the election of the president with the advice and consent of the board of trustees. "As in the past, we will give members of the Rutgers community an opportunity to participate in the process," O'Hara said. He indicated that the process will most likely include the assistance of a professional search firm and that "every effort to protect candidates' confidentiality will be made" in order to produce the broadest possible pool of candidates. "As we move forward, the board of governors will see that key university constituencies are fully engaged in this endeavor and that the university community is informed of our progress," O'Hara said. Praise for Lawrence Faculty praise for Lawrence came from Clement Price, a professor of history on the Newark campus and a civic leader, who cited the president's vision in promoting diversity. "Because he encouraged innovation in the civic arena and made diversity one of the university's cornerstones, the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience (headed by Price) is a reality," he said. "Many universities and colleges are only now encouraging their faculty members to give scholarship an avowedly public dimension. Fran's leadership has already done that at Rutgers, and it has added favorably to the university's stature," Price added. Richard Harris, professor of political science and public policy, and director of the Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs, said, "Despite controversy surrounding his tenure, I prefer to think about the positive effect President Lawrence has had on Rutgers. As a professor on the Camden campus, I think one of most important contributions he made was to allow individual campuses to develop their own programs and agendas. In Camden, for example, our new centers and institutes are in no small way a reflection of his confidence in the abilities and vision of our faculty." Barry Qualls, dean of humanities for FAS-New Brunswick, said Lawrence's "lasting legacy is his perception that the three university campuses should form the intellectual backbone of the state." He noted that Lawrence appointed university-wide committees for such tasks as curriculum, reaccreditation and strategic planning. These committees "brought together faculty members from all three campuses in productive discussions that serve, and will serve, the university for decades to come. "Rutgers is a faculty-centered institution," Qualls continued. "This is, for me, its signal strength." A record of accomplishments Among the accomplishments of his administration, the president cited the increase in applications and improvement in the quality of Rutgers students, the expansion of the faculty, a "dizzying rate" of growth in funding from the National Science Foundation and a doubling of external research grants. Lawrence, who came to the university in 1990 after a distinguished career at Tulane University in New Orleans, spearheaded the development of Rutgers' first university-wide, long-term strategic plan. "A New Vision for Excellence" is the blueprint for raising Rutgers into the ranks of the top research universities in the nation by 2010. The plan defines growth areas for Rutgers. Since its approval in 1995, the university has added 25 new undergraduate and 28 new graduate degree programs and established more than 45 new research centers and institutes, including the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience, the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center, the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life, the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, the Joseph C. Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies, the Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs and the Center for State Health Policy, among many others. The plan also sets the agenda for concerted fund-raising efforts, including the current $500 million Rutgers Campaign: Creating the Future Today. The six-year campaign, by far the largest in Rutgers' history, has in its first 42 months already raised $376.5 million, more than 75 percent of its goal. "It's really unfortunate timing to see him go in the middle of the capital campaign," commented Jason Miller, a Cook College senior and student representative to the board of governors. "He has done a lot of things for Rutgers, and I'm sorry to see him go," added Miller, who praised the president's efforts to make Rutgers "a better place for undergraduates." Another major university-wide initiative resulting from the strategic plan was the decision to implement RUNet 2000, a comprehensive data, voice and video network linking more than 200 university buildings in Newark, New Brunswick and Camden. This groundwork paved the way for development of the Rutgers Regional Network, an intercampus and statewide fiber-optic telecommunications infrastructure; RU-TV, a 65-channel campus video network serving more than 12,000 students; 59 fully wired "smart classrooms"; and expanded distance-learning, online teaching and other instructional technologies. "RUNet 2000 became Rutgers' path to the 'wired campus,'" observed O'Hara. Costing some $100 million and now nearing completion, "it is already transforming teaching, research and outreach at Rutgers." In announcing his decision, Lawrence praised everyone involved in these endeavors, noting that the success of the strategic plan was due to "Rutgers' people who brought the plan to life" and whose talent, ambitions and drive have been "the solid basis on which it has advanced." Building a student-centered university Among the "great pleasures" of his presidency, Lawrence numbered the opportunities he has had to work with Rutgers students. "Diverse in many ways, they have in common their lively minds, their ambitious plans for the future, their active social consciousness and their capacity for enjoying all the opportunities for growth that Rutgers offers them," he said. Lawrence pointed out that applications to Rutgers have "skyrocketed, and so has the quality of our students." A typical student among the 789 Outstanding Scholars admitted this fall had SAT scores of 1380 and a rank in class in the 94th percentile, he noted, adding: "We are equally proud of the fact that our student body is more diverse than ever before." O'Hara praised Lawrence for combining research and teaching to produce "a model student-centered research university." The president, O'Hara said, "envisioned, pursued and achieved a learning environment in which students, working directly under prominent researchers, could participate in the discovery of knowledge in the course of normal study." O'Hara also praised Lawrence's talent for leveraging "a relatively modest public investment into many millions more in federal, state and private funds for basic and applied research," and noted his leadership roles within the state and nationally. The president, said O'Hara, "has greatly increased Rutgers' visibility as one of the nation's finest public research institutions." Lawrence served as the first chair of the New Jersey Presidents' Council. He serves on the executive committee of the elite Association of American Universities (AAU) and as the AAU representative on the board of the American Council on Education. His reports on graduate education for the AAU and on the "Learning Society" for the Kellogg Commission are models for higher education across the country. In addition, under Lawrence's leadership, Rutgers secured a participating membership in the Big East Conference in all sports. He has served as chair of the Big East Conference and as Big East representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). He currently heads an NCAA board of directors task force for the reform of college athletics and was recently elected to the executive committee of the board. Lawrence has agreed to serve the university, at the request of the chair and vice chair of the board, until the completion of a successful search. "I will continue to devote high energy and enthusiasm to its leadership, and particularly to Rutgers' $500 million capital campaign," he pledged. "President Lawrence leaves the flagship of our state's higher education system stronger, more directed and more widely recognized than when he found it," asserted O'Hara. "His successor will find the university in an enviable position." At a glance Among President Francis L. Lawrence's most notable accomplishments are: Strategic planning Oversaw the development and implementation of the first long-range university-wide strategic plan, which sets the vision and goals for the institution through 2010. Information technology Initiated RUNet 2000 to provide voice, video and data connections to more than 200 university buildings. Fund raising Increased yearly giving to the university by nearly 500 percent and spearheaded the $500 million Rutgers Campaign. Student recruitment Instituted an enrollment-management system, which this year brought in a record-setting 42,152 applications, including many from the highest-achieving students in the state. Research and scholarship Encouraged first-rate research coupled with excellence in teaching. Annual research dollars awarded to Rutgers have more than doubled since 1990, and the number of faculty members in the National Academies has increased by 37 percent.
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For questions or comments about this site, contact Greg Trevor Last Updated: May 30, 2006 © 2012 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. All rights reserved. 
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