Former Becker president leaving UMass Dartmouth for undisclosed job
Robert Johnson, former Becker College president and outgoing UMass Dartmouth chancellor.
UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Robert Johnson, the first African-American chancellor at that school, will resign effective Sept. 4, following a three-year tenure, and is moving on to a role where he believes he can make greater contributions.
"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," Johnson wrote in a message to the campus community Thursday. "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 university did not announce Johnson's next steps or a reason for his planned departure, but his statement suggests he's moving on to a new job.
Johnson was the president of Becker College in Worcester when he became the UMass Dartmouth chancellor. He is credited for helping Becker find firm financial footing following the Great Recession.
Johnson is departing a 710-acre campus that serves nearly 9,000 students with a 400-member faculty. The campus produces $27 million annually in research activity and UMass-Dartmouth has more than 50,000 alumni and generates an estimated $500 million of regional economic activity annually.
UMass President Marty Meehan, in his own message to the UMass-Dartmouth students, recalled a comment Johnson made the day he was 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." Meehan wrote that 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."
The university credited Johnson, who serves on a Black Advisory Commission launched by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2017, with obtaining the largest research grant in school history -- $4.6 million from the Office of Naval Research to fund research projects in undersea technologies; completing a new residential and dining complex for first-year students; and expanding the College of Nursing into the College of Nursing & Health Sciences.
Johnson said his last day will be Sept. 4 and said he would announce leadership transition details "within the next few weeks."
"The state of UMass Dartmouth is strong, and it is positioned well for its next chapter with its next leader," Johnson wrote. "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."
The UMass Board in March 2017 chose Johnson for the post, and he arrived after having served as president of Becker College in Worcester since 2010.
"This is an honor for me for a number of reasons, most importantly my dad. When I was a young boy, he used to talk about the University of Massachusetts," Johnson told the board. "And the greatest joy in my life was when I called him last night and told him I was coming here."
A Detroit native, Johnson has served in administrative roles at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio; the University of Dayton; Oakland University and Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Morehouse College, a master's in education administration at University of Cincinnati, and a doctorate in higher education administration from Touro University International.
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