Meehan Discusses Transition at UMass Dartmouth

University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan held a forum at the Dartmouth campus Wednesday to discuss the upcoming transition in leadership.

Chancellor Divina Grossman will be stepping down later this month, and Meehan wanted to get a sense of what the campus community felt was important to look for in the search of a new chancellor.

Hundreds of staff and faculty turned out to the meeting and provided input about the need for transparency, better communication, higher enrollment and marketing/branding of the university.

He said he and the search committee will hold a national search to fill the position.

"We're looking for the best person we can possibly find," Meehan said. "Higher education is very competitive today and I think we have the oppotunity to get the best eperson possible and that's what we're committed to doing."

Meehan said an interim is expected to be named by the end of this year.

When asked by an individual in the crowd, Meehan declined to comment on why Grossman was being let go and says he wants to look toward the future.

"I think now is the time to embrace all of the hard work she did and I'm not going to articulate anything that could be percieved as negative, only the positive," Meehan said.

Meehan also denied any involvement by him or his office with a story about Grossman's planned ouster by The Boston Globe last month. He called the story damaging to Grossman as well as the entire University of Massachusetts system.