Updated Friday, January 12, 2018 at 2:51 p.m.:
Professor Richard Feldman, who served as dean of the College from 2006 to 2017, has been appointed interim President of the University of Rochester, according to a statement Danny Wegman, chair of the university's Board of Trustees.
Feldman, an epistemologist, first joined the UR in 1975 as an assistant professor of philosophy after earning his bachelor's degree from Cornell.
Feldman will take the lead responsibility for responding to the independent investigation report and his primary work will be working with the UR community and the board to develop a plan to implement the report's recommendations, Wegman says.
University of Rochester President Joel Seligman is resigning. Before US Attorney Mary Jo White provided the University of Rochester's Board of Trustees Special Committee her team's investigative report today concerning allegations of sexual harassment, Seligman notified the board of his decision.
click to enlarge - FILE PHOTO
- University of Rochester President Joel Seligman.
Seligman's resignation is effective February 28, according to a written statement from the UR.
A statement from the university's trustees calls Seligman "a brilliant, transformative leader of the University of Rochester who will long be remembered for substantially expanding our academic programs and our campus, broadening our student and faculty diversity, strengthening our finances, increasing our enrollment and securing Rochester's place among America's finest academic institutions."
Until the past year’s events, Seligman’s leadership — at the university and in the community — was indisputable. He became president of the UR in 2005, a time when the Rochester economy was struggling to reinvent itself. After iconic corporate giants like Kodak and Xerox were severely weakened, the UR became the area’s largest employer with Seligman, a relative outsider, at the helm.
During the last 10 years, the UR grew both in size and stature intensifying its focus on biomedical engineering and optics, cancer and HIV/AIDS research, cardiovascular care, and neuromedicine. The university, under Seligman's leadership partnered with the Rochester City School District to turnaround a failing East High School, and he is the former co-chair of the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council in an effort to revitalize the Upstate economy.