Douglas J. Bennet

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Douglas J. "Doug" Bennet Jr. (born June 23, 1938) is the president of Wesleyan University, located in Middletown, Connecticut. He is the 15th president in the school's history, and has been president since 1995. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs in the Clinton Administration (1993-1995) and was the President and CEO of National Public Radio from 1983-1993.

Born in Orange, New Jersey, Bennet grew up in Lyme, Connecticut, and attended the local public schools. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received a bachelor of arts degree from Wesleyan in 1959, an M.A. in history from the University of California, Berkeley in 1960, and a doctorate in history from Harvard University in 1968. In 1994, he received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Wesleyan. He now has prostate cancer.

On May 4, 2006, Bennet announced that he would step down as President following the 2006-2007 academic year. The last several years of his presidency were mired in conflict, with a large student movement feeling that President Bennet's fund raising priorities directly conflicted with the interests and needs of the student body, and the University's mission of education. Notably, this came to a head in December of 2004, when hundreds of students surrounded the small campus administrative building South College, where President Bennet's office is located, demanding that he address and prioritize student concerns.

On March 26, 2007, Wesleyan's Board of Trustees announced that Michael S. Roth would succeed Bennet as President for the 2007-2008 academic year[1].