Francis L. Lawrence

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Francis L. Lawrence (born 1937, in Rhode Island) was the eighteenth president of Rutgers University, serving from 1990 to 2002.

Lawrence received his Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Louis University in French and Spanish (1959), and earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in French Classical Literature from Tulane University in 1962. Employed as a professor at Tulane, he eventually rose through the ranks to become Provost and Dean of the Graduate School. He was appointed President of Rutgers University in 1990. His tenure at Rutgers has been received with a mix of criticism and praise: praise for impressive fundraising efforts, and building a faculty that earned several awards (including the Pulitzer Prize, National Medal of Science, MacArthur Foundation "genius" prize, Guggenheim Fellowships, and Sloan Fellowships), and criticism for decisions that lead to unfettered support for "bigger time" athletic participation in joining the Big East Conference, which some allege has drained University prestige and diverted funds away from academic projects and for his endorsing of several corporate sponsorship agreements. In 1994, public comments in which Lawrence stated that disadvantaged African-American students lack the "genetic hereditary background to have a higher average" on standardized tests lead to calls for his resignation and massive protests—including one that brought an NCAA Basketball game to a halt as students staged a sit-in on the court.

Lawrence has served as President of the North American Society for French Seventeenth-Century Literature, on several editorial boards for journals and a monograph series, and as a member of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education. He retired from the office of President in 2002 and has returned to teaching with an appointment as University Professor at Rutgers.