Ramsey named acting President

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Ramsey named acting President

James R. Ramsey has been appointed acting president for the University of Louisville, bringing a shred of stability to a university shaken by the back-to-back departures of president John Shumaker and acting president Carol Garrison.

The Board of Trustees voted unanimously on August 1st to select Ramsey after a recommendation from Carol Garrison.

Garrison, who will be leaving on September 1st to assume presidential responsibilities at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, said that Ramsey will work well with other U of L leaders and clearly has an abundance of experience in higher education, plus an understanding of issues relevant to the university.

Set to begin as interim president on September 2nd, Ramsey said that he has already worked with many U of L administrators and faculty and will spend much of his time listening to deans, vice presidents, students, faculty and staff before setting an agenda for his presidency.

Ramsey will remain in this position until a permanent president is chosen, but has said that he is not interested in pursuing the position . Trustees chair Jessica Loving said the university hopes to have a permanent president chosen by the end of the year.

While dealing with the pressure of being a university acting president, state budget director, senior policy advisor to the governor, and a senior professor of economics and public policy at U of L, Ramsey must also cope with the high rise of emotions on the U of L campus.

” One of the things I can do is provide some stability. When you lose two leaders in a fairly short period of time, people begin to ask questions,” said Ramsey, according the Courier-Journal.

Losing two presidential figures is not the only adjustment that the students, faculty, and staff will have to adjust to. During this past summer the roles of provost, vice-president of student life, dean of the School of Music, and head of the communication department have changed, as well as vacancies for the positions of dean of the College of Education and associate provost- certainly making this fall a transitional period for all people involved with the campus.

However, Ramsey wishes to assure the campus community that the university is on firm ground.

Considering his resume of working with administration, the university appears to be in capable hands.

Ramsey has previously worked as vice chancellor for finance and administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel, special adviser to the chairman of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, head of state transition team for Postsecondary Education Improvement Act, acting president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, vice president of finance and administration at Western Kentucky University, and executive director of the Kentucky office for investment and debt management, as well as other positions regarding administration and academia.

“U of L has been so critical to (education) reforms in Kentucky,” Ramsey told reporters. “This university is on a roll.”