MD and Veep at Minnesota State Community and Technical College to Lead Connecticut’s Merged Community College System
By John O. Harney
Comings and Goings …
The Connecticut Board of Regents for Higher Education appointed Dr. John Maduko, a medical doctor and current vice president of academic and student affairs for Minnesota State Community and Technical College, to serve as the inaugural president of Connecticut State Community College, the planned merged community college system in Connecticut.
DR. JOHN MADUKO
He will lead a system being consolidated from 12 separate schools into a single institution with 12 campuses and more than 32,000 students. The merger, which began in 2017, recently received approval for accreditation from the New England Commission of Higher Education. It is expected to be completed by July 2023.
Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU) named Indiana University (IA) Assistant Vice President Hitesh Rai Kathuria to be the Connecticut system’s provost and senior vice president of academic and student affairs, beginning June 3.
In his current Indiana post, Kathuria also serves as director of the Office of Collaborative Academic Programs with IU Online, and a tenured associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Indiana University East, one of the seven campuses in the IU system.
At CSCU, he will succeed Kenneth Klucznik, who became CSCU’s interim provost/senior vice president of academic and student affairs when Jane McBride Gates retired in January. Klucznik will return to his position of vice president for academic affairs.
University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy selected University of Southern Maine (USM) professor Joseph McDonnell to be interim president of the University of Maine at Farmington for a two-year term, starting July 1.
He will succeed Edward Serna, who announced he would leave Farmington this summer to become president at his alma mater, Winthrop University in South Carolina. McDonnell is currently a professor of policy, planning and management in USM’s Muskie School of Public Service, where he previously served as dean of the College of Management and Human Services and as provost.
Prior to that, he was interim dean of the School of Business and research professor at Stony Brook University in New York. In its announcement, the system chancellor’s office noted that the Farmington campus has seen enrollment fall more than 25% over the past 10 years.
Colby College named University of New England Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration Nicole Trufant to be the Waterville, Maine college’s first female CFO, succeeding Doug Terp, who will retiring after 34 years at Colby.
Northeastern University hired Washington, D.C.-based higher-education lobbyist Jack Cline as its vice president for federal relations. Cline recently served as the associate vice chancellor of federal relations for the University of Kansas and before that, as assistant vice president for federal relations with the UMass system.
NCAA President Mark Emmert announced he is stepping down as leader of the major collegiate athletic association after 12 years in charge. Previously,
Emmert was chancellor and provost for university affairs at the University of Connecticut, where he wrote in NEJHE (when it was called Connection), urging New England higher ed to face up to growing international competition in distance learning.