UMaine Student Affairs Leader Announces Resignation

Contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571

ORONO — Richard D. Chapman, University of Maine Vice President for Student Affairs since August 1999, has announced his plans to resign from that post effective July 31.

“Richard’s contributions to our progress in recent years have been very significant,” says UMaine President Peter S. Hoff.  “He has overseen a real transformation in the student experience at UMaine and has been the driving force behind a number of initiatives that have made life better for our students.  Richard personifies the student-centered approach that we advocate so strongly.”

Perhaps the most visible accomplishment of Chapman’s tenure is the renovation and expansion of UMaine’s student union.  The Memorial Union project, the largest completed construction project in the university’s history, transformed an outdated and inadequate facility into a top-notch modern student union and resource center. He has also overseen improvements in several program areas, including those related to recreation.  He has worked extensively on the development of a plan to secure funding and begin work on a $25 million student recreation center.  That facility was approved last year and is expected to open in the fall of 2006.

“Thanks to the efforts of a strong and dedicated staff, we have accomplished a great deal in the past five years,” Chapman says, “and I am most pleased to have been a part of that progress.  We have worked hard to improve the sense of community that exists at UMaine and I believe that the results of those efforts have had a positive effect on everybody who studies, works or lives on campus.”

“Richard Chapman has dramatically affected the Black Bear Experience,” says Matthew Rodrigue, a UMaine senior and former student government president. “His leadership has brought UMaine’s student life to a new level of strength and vitality. For me personally, he has been a good mentor and friend. Our students will surely miss him.”

Chapman says he expects the next few months at UMaine to be productive and enjoyable.

“I sincerely enjoy being around our students and others in this community, and I look forward to spending the rest of this semester and the early part of the summer at UMaine,” he says.

Hoff says that he will evaluate the situation over the next several weeks before announcing how he will proceed with regard to a replacement.