SELMA BOTMAN
AGE: 57
CURRENT JOB: Executive vice chancellor and university provost at the City University of New York system
EDUCATION: Bachelor's, psychology, Brandeis University; graduate degree, Oxford University; doctorate, history and Middle Eastern studies, Harvard University
GREW UP IN: Chelsea, Mass.
FAMILY: Husband Thomas Birmingham, lawyer and adjunct professor at Tufts University; two grown daughters
BOOKS WRITTEN: three
CURRENTLY READING: "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
INTERESTS: Bicycle riding
IN HER CURRENT POST, Botman manages a staff of more than 15 academic deans and directors and a budget of more than $60 million. She also oversees CUNY's Honors College and School of Law. The CUNY system includes 230,000 students and 6,300 faculty members spread over 23 colleges, community colleges and graduate schools in New York City.
The educator nominated Wednesday to become the new president of the University of Southern Maine said she plans to make fixing USM's financial problems a top priority.
Selma Botman, an executive vice chancellor and provost at City University of New York, was selected from a field of four finalists by University of Maine System Chancellor Richard Pattenaude. If confirmed by university trustees Monday, Botman, 57, will take over the $203,000-a-year job on July 1.
Botman will lead a university that has campuses in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston, with a total of 10,200 students, including many who work full time while attending college.
She will inherit an $8.2 million budget deficit accumulated in the past four years in the face of falling enrollment. Interim President Joseph Wood has started to correct the deficit with nearly $3 million in cuts this year and $2 million in cuts the next two years. Officials might eliminate up to a quarter of the university's 108 degree-granting programs to cut costs.
Botman said she understands the budget is the single most important issue facing the university. She said in an interview that she will work with staff and faculty to attract new students and investment to a university that functions as an economic engine for southern Maine.
"We want to make a compelling case about the true value of public higher education," Botman said.
She does not have enough information to offer specific plans on how she would return the university to financial health, she said.
Attracting more students by reaching out to high school students and adults interested in going to college, and making sure enrolled students do not drop out, are ways to boost enrollment, Botman said.
"Recruitment and retention are very important," she said.
Pattenaude said he picked Botman because she understands the challenges ahead for the university while recognizing the opportunities.
He said she has strong experience in boosting graduation rates at CUNY. USM officials are trying to reduce the university's dropout rate to boost sagging enrollment. Just under 34 percent of the students who enter USM graduate after six years, well under the rate of similar universities.
"She was quite successful and it is exactly what is needed at USM," he said.
Some faculty said they viewed Botman as a strong contender for the job during on-campus interviews of the four finalists in January.
Eileen Eagan, an associate history professor, said most faculty either favored Botman for her experience or David Belcher, a provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, for his charisma.
Eagan said she liked Botman's experience, support for academic freedom and her academic credentials.
Some students said Botman was a good choice.
"We all got to meet her and felt she was well qualified. We had a tough time finding negatives about any of the presidential candidates," said Benjamin Taylor, vice chairman of the student senate.
A.J. Chalifour, president of the student body and part of the presidential search committee, said Botman understands how to get students involved in the university.
"She has very strong awareness and strength in promoting student success," he said.
Robert Blackwood, chairman of the university's Board of Visitors, an advisory group to the president, said he would like trustees to confirm Botman's nomination Monday. "She would help the university make a quantum leap," he said.
Botman holds master's and doctoral degrees in Middle Eastern studies from Harvard University, a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University and master's of philosophy from Oxford University. She and her husband, Thomas Birmingham, a lawyer and adjunct professor at Tufts University, have two grown daughters.
Botman has held senior administrative and faculty posts at the University of Massachusetts system and Holy Cross College.
Staff Writer Beth Quimby can be contacted at 791-6363 or at:
bquimby@pressherald.com
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