UConn Names New President

STORRS — Michael J. Hogan, executive vice president and provost at the University of Iowa, has been named the 14th president of the University of Connecticut.

Dr Hogan was the unanimous choice of the 33-member search committee and was endorsed for the post by the Board of Trustees at a meeting in the Rome Ballroom in South Campus. His selection followed an comprehensive national search.

“Michael Hogan is a distinguished scholar and one of the nation’s outstanding academic leaders,” said John W. Rowe, MD, chairman of the Board of Trustees. “His experience at the University of Iowa and prior to that at The Ohio State University equips him superbly for the challenges and opportunities at the University of Connecticut. His responsibilities at Iowa, including engagement with health care issues as well as the full range of undergraduate and graduate programs at a major public university, will serve him, and us, well in the years ahead.”

Dr Hogan, a specialist in the history of American diplomacy, holds the F. Wendell Miller Professorship in History and has served as the chief academic officer at the University of Iowa since 2004. He is responsible for oversight of all academic programs, student academic services, strategic academic planning, and the promotion of student and faculty diversity. He has also been a key advisor to the UI president on health sciences issues and chairs UI’s health sciences policy-setting committee, comprising the health sciences deans and the directors of the clinical care programs.

“Michael Hogan is the ideal candidate to lead our state’s flagship public university,” said Governor M. Jodi Rell. “He is committed to excellence, and he shares my vision for the young people who go to UConn to prepare for their futures.”

Prior to joining the University of Iowa, Dr Hogan served as the executive dean of the Colleges of the Arts and Sciences, dean of the College of Humanities, and chair of the Department of History at Ohio State University.

“I am honored to be chosen as the next president of the University of Connecticut and I am grateful for the confidence shown in me by Dr Rowe, the Board of Trustees, and the search committee,” Dr Hogan said. “I was attracted to UConn by its steep upward trajectory, its outstanding academic reputation and by the demonstrated commitment to UConn by the governor and the General Assembly.”  

During Hogan’s tenure in Iowa, he led development of a new strategic plan, was thoroughly engaged in private fundraising and worked closely with state officials. He also revitalized the university’s student recruitment, championed a number of initiatives intended to enhance academic quality and research excellence, and collaborated with the President’s Advisory Committee on Athletics.

The author or editor of nine books and a host of scholarly articles and essays, Dr Hogan has been a fellow at the Harry S. Truman Library Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and has served as Louis Martin Sears Distinguished Professor of History at Purdue University.

His scholarship has been recognized by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, which awarded him the Bernath Lecture Prize in 1984. The Ohio State University presented him with its Distinguished Scholar Award in 1990, the highest award for scholarly distinction conferred on members of the faculty.

He holds a bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of Northern Iowa and a master of arts and doctor of philosophy in history from the University of Iowa.

Dr Hogan will begin working at UConn in mid-September. He succeeds President Philip E. Austin, who is stepping down from the post after 11 years.