UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Robert Johnson will be stepping down from his post effective September 4.
Johnson posted the following on the UMass Dartmouth website, followed by a letter from UMass President Martin Meehan:
Dear Members of the Campus Community,
I write to inform you that I will be leaving UMass Dartmouth. My official last day will be September 4, 2020. Within the next few weeks, working with President Meehan, I will announce further information outlining leadership transition specifics.
I am honored and humbled to have led, for three years, this world-class university that prides itself on its ambition, creative thinking, and research breakthroughs. I reflect fondly on our time together and what we have accomplished since I arrived in July 2017. Together, we developed a shared ambition for the university’s future and have accomplished much.
I write to you today with mixed emotions as these are uniquely challenging times for UMass Dartmouth, higher education generally, our nation, and our world. I do not take lightly making a transition of this nature during such troubling times. However, it is important for me to be in a place where I can make the greatest contributions to society and the world.
The state of UMass Dartmouth is strong, and it is positioned well for its next chapter with its next leader. Nothing stops and the journey continues. The university is advancing, the leadership is committed, the employees are resilient, and I could not be prouder of the students. While I regret that I will not be personally congratulating them at October commencement, I wish them the absolute best. They are the generation now called to solve the world’s problems and transform it in a more just and positive way.
I thank President Meehan (see the message below) and all of you who welcomed me to this remarkable mid-Century campus—with its spacious grounds and impressive soon-to-open student-centric spaces. The university’s vibrancy and unique sense of place extend past campus to the heritage- and culture-rich SouthCoast region and beyond. It has been my pleasure to be here and an honor to serve the UMassD community for the past three years. Thank you for sharing this journey.
With gratitude,
Robert E. Johnson, Ph.D.
Chancellor
A message from UMass President Marty Meehan to the UMass Dartmouth community
Chancellor Johnson’s entrepreneurial spirit, commitment to student success, and belief in the power of a university to strengthen regional economies through research and engagement have helped create new opportunities for individuals and SouthCoast communities over the last three years. His leadership, grounded in personal and professional experiences, has been critical to the continued ascension of UMass Dartmouth as a national research university, especially during recent months as UMass and all of higher education have confronted unprecedented challenges.
I am thankful to Dr. Johnson for his service to UMass, and will always remember the day he was officially inaugurated when he said: “Our greatest asset is our sense of humanity, our understanding that on a planet with more than seven billion people that we represent the top one percent in the world and we must embrace our social responsibility to meet the needs of the present age.” Chancellor Johnson has steadfastly advanced that ideal throughout his time at UMass Dartmouth and I am sure he will continue to do so in his next endeavor.
Sincerely,
Martin T. Meehan ’78
President, University of Massachusetts
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