A Message from the Board Chair

A message to the university community from Larry McHugh on the naming of UConn's new president.

Larry McHugh, chairman of the Board of Trustees, sent the following message to the university community on the occasion of the naming of UConn’s 15th president:

To the UConn Community,

I am proud to announce that the University’s Board of Trustees today voted to select Susan Herbst as UConn’s next president, following an intensive six-month search. Susan is currently executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer at The University System of Georgia. She will begin her tenure at UConn in July. Next month, she will begin regularly traveling to Connecticut to meet and work with President Austin and UConn’s many constituencies as part of the transition process.

Susan is the high-quality individual we set out to find when this process began in June. She has exceptional leadership abilities, vision, a strong academic background, and an in-depth understanding of public higher education. Both the board and the search committee have the utmost confidence in her ability to effectively work with all of UConn’s stakeholders, including our students, faculty, staff, and alumni as well as federal and state officials – including incoming Governor Dannel Malloy.

There were more than 100 applications for the position from around the nation. Susan was one of three finalists to be interviewed by the 40-member search committee, which included a broad cross section of the university community as well as representatives from state government and the private sector.

Clearly, UConn is prospering as an institution and is on a strong upward trajectory. Yet our future is not without challenges and obstacles, particularly as we head into a very difficult budget year, in which the state must overcome a large deficit. Knowing that, we sought a president who would be able to navigate through these challenging times and ensure that UConn remained on our path of excellence. We wanted our next president to be someone who could not only lead the University in the coming months and years, but who could also help lay the groundwork for the decades ahead. It is clear to the board and the search committee that Susan will be that president.

I wish to thank the search committee and Witt-Kieffer for their hard work, which allowed us to find an excellent candidate to lead the University of Connecticut. I would especially like to acknowledge the tireless work of the steering committee; they devoted countless hours to what was a long and labor-intensive process of reviewing and organizing applications, conducting rounds of interviews, and recommending the finalists. Their effort to efficiently and diligently do the work that needed to be done is what allowed us to select a candidate in the time frame we did.

Lastly, I would again like to thank Phil Austin for his continued service to the University as its interim president for the last six months. His commitment to UConn is deeply appreciated.

The search committee members and the members of the steering committee are listed on UConn Today. Susan’s CV is available on the UConn website.

Best wishes and happy holidays,

Larry McHugh
Chairman, Board of Trustees
University of Connecticut