UMass trustees to select new chancellor of Boston campus

BOSTON (AP) — The University of Massachusetts board of trustees is holding a special meeting this week where it is expected to select a new chancellor for the system's Boston campus.

The meeting Monday is at the UMass club in Boston.

Only one finalist for the position has been named — Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, currently a dean at UCLA.

Before the trustees vote, they will hear from Norm Peters, chairman of the 21-member selection committee, and then get a recommendation from Marty Meehan, president of the five campus system.

Suárez-Orozco is the Wasserman Dean at the University of California Los Angeles, where he leads a graduate school, 16 research institutes, and two academic programs. He has also previously held positions at Harvard University and New York University. His academic research has focused on immigration, education, and globalization.

The UMass Boston Faculty Council unanimously endorsed Suárez-Orozco last Tuesday.

UMass-Boston has about 16,000 students, most of whom are commuters.

The school has struggled financially recently and had to cut programs and offer voluntary buyouts. It has been without a permanent chancellor since 2017. A previous attempt to find new chancellor ended in 2018 when all three finalists dropped out.

The interim leader, Katherine Newman, also dropped out of the running.