"President Bulger honors me with his recommendation to the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees," said Lombardi in an April 10 UMass press release. "It will be a great privilege to have the opportunity to work with the faculty, students, staff, alumni and friends of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst."
The University's 22-member Board of Trustees must approve the appointment before it can become official. However, trustees and administration are treating this step as a formality. The instatement of Lombardi will put an end to a nine-month search following the resignation of David Scott, who had served as chancellor for eight years.
"John Lombardi is equal parts visionary and skillful, exacting manager, and we consider ourselves fortunate to find a chancellor with these attributes," said Board of Trustees Chairman Grace Fey, who led the search, in the released statement. "Dr. Lombardi's decade at the University of Florida truly was a period of innovation and accomplishment. We are pleased to welcome him to the University of Massachusetts."
There was some controversy concerning Lombardi's appointment. During his tenure at the University of Florida, Lombardi was chastised for calling his boss "an Oreo, black on the outside and white on the inside," according to The Massachusetts Daily Collegian.
During the search, UMass has been led by Interim Chancellor Marcellette Williams, who is expected to complete her one-year service as chancellor before deferring to Lombardi on July 1.
Williams' tenure has been fraught with fiscal cutbacks and program eliminations, a circumstance that is likely to continue under the new chancellorship. During her time in the office, Williams announced the firing of 95 employees, including the elimination of its child care and security programs, as well as the foreign language resource center. Williams also cut seven varsity sports and announced plans to allow faculty attrition to decrease the number of faculty by not filling in vacated spaces, all as part of an effort to reduce a $15 million budget deficit for the current fiscal year.
"Chancellor Williams provided inspired leadership during her year in office," said Bulger in the statement. "Marcie Williams helped to calm and heal the campus after the outrage of Sept. 11 and she has made difficult decisions during a time of fiscal challenge. She has touched the hearts and minds of many of our students. We are in her debt."
Lombardi was chosen to follow up Williams' efforts, beating out two other candidates recommended by the Board of Trustees' search committee. William Hogan, a member of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, and Elizabeth Capaldi, provost at the State University of New York at Buffalo, were also finalists.
"It was our good fortune to have three distinguished academic leaders as finalists," said Bulger in the statement. "Each candidate presented distinctive strengths and each could provide outstanding leadership."
Lombardi served as UF's president from 1990 to 1999 and is credited with expanding its enrollment, improving student services, diversifying faculty and increasing research funding and fundraising during his tenure.
"Under John Lombardi's stewardship, the University of Florida ascended to new heights," said Bulger in the statement. "I believe that John Lombardi's record of accomplishment cannot be overlooked and makes him the candidate best suited to lead our flagship campus."
Lombardi currently serves as the director of the University of Florida's Center for Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, lending his expertise as a Latin American historian with extensive writings about the history of Venezuela.
"I applaud the appointment of John Lombardi as Chancellor and the Faculty Senate looks forward to working collaboratively with him on the challenges and opportunities for transformation which face the flagship campus," said UMass Professor Ernest May, the secretary of its Faculty Senate, in a released statement. "The University of Massachusetts is lucky to get him."
Lombardi graduated from Pomona College and earned his master's and doctorate degrees from Columbia University. Prior to his time at UF, he served as a provost at Johns Hopkins University.
"He has a charismatic personality and long experience as a crusader and fundraiser," said May in the statement. "He is an expert-perhaps the national expert-in studying the profile and characteristics of the nation's top research universities."
"I welcome him with open arms," said President Tom Gerety. "It is a very, very tough job."
Lombardi will enter a highly politicized situation at UMass, as more cuts are expected, with the Massachusetts State Legislature showing no sign of increasing funding in light of the recession. Nevertheless, UMass officials and Lombardi are optimistic that Lombardi's appointment is a step towards recovery.
"John Lombardi has demonstrated that he has the capacity to inspire greatness," said Bulger in the statement. "I am confident that he will lead UMass-Amherst to new heights."
"Working together, we can enhance Amherst's tradition of competitive excellence-always the hallmark of America's major research universities," said Lombardi in the statement.