On February 5th, UConn announced its 16th president, who will be replacing Susan Herbst on August 30th. His name is Thomas C. Katsouleas, he is 60 years old and has quite an impressive resume, and plan for our university.
Katsouleas grew up in southern California, and earned two physics degrees from UCLA, a B.S. in 1979 and a Ph.D in 1984. He taught at the University of South Carolina for 14 years, then became the Dean of the Engineering School at Duke after only a year of teaching there. He held that position for seven years, then moved on to being Provost of University of Virginia since 2015.
He was one of 215 applicants for Susan’s position, and after an endorsement from Governor Ned Lamont, he received a unanimous vote from the University of Connecticut Board of Trustees. He will start this position on August 30th, and he will be earning less than Susan was.
Katsouleas says he has many plans for our university. Being an innovator himself, he would like to double the research dollars the university has, to encourage an even greater economic output from UConn. He also believes that keeping the football program will be more beneficial for the university than cutting it would be. “I think it’s part of the identity of who we are as a broad context university and I don’t think the savings from cutting it are as great as people think. It has ancillary value for the other sports and for fundraising overall.” He also believes that we are in a good athletic conference, and should be committed to building that conference up.
Lastly, and most importantly, he thinks that tuition increases should always be a last resort.
So, although we will miss, #ThanksSusan, and blaming her for our university’s problems, it is exciting to see what our new president has in store for us.