| Francis Leo Lawrence | |
|---|---|
| President of Rutgers University | |
| Term | 1990 – 2002 |
| Predecessor | Edward J. Bloustein |
| Successor | Richard L. McCormick |
| Born | August 25, 1937 Woonsocket, Rhode Island |
| Alma mater | St. Louis University (1959) Tulane (1962) |
| Salary | $287,000 |
Francis Leo Lawrence (born August 25, 1937)[1] was the eighteenth president of Rutgers University, serving from 1990 to 2002.[2] [3]
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Francis Leo Lawrence was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where he graduated from Mount St. Charles Academy in 1955. Lawrence earned his bachelor's degree from St. Louis University in French and Spanish in 1959. He was awarded an NDEA fellowship for graduate study and earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in French classical literature from Tulane University in 1962.[2]
Before his appointment as President of Rutgers University in 1990, Lawrence was Academic Vice President and Provost at Tulane University, where he had also served as Dean of Newcomb College and Dean of the Graduate School.[2] He is married to Mary Kathryn Long Lawrence. They have four children and thirteen grandchildren.
Lawrence's twelve year tenure at Rutgers was received with a mix of criticism and praise. He was praised for impressive fundraising efforts,the improvement of undergraduate education and for the increased academic quality of incoming students, as well as the construction of new academic facilities for the Mason Gross School of the Arts, the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, and the Rutgers-Newark Center for Law and Justice. He was criticized for promoting "big time" athletics, which, many objected, lowered university prestige and diverted funds away from academic purposes. [2] Nevertheless, he was also credited with retaining some members of the distinguished faculty recruited by his predecessor Edward Bloustein, some of whom earned several prestigious awards (including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Science, the MacArthur Foundation "genius" prize, Guggenheim Fellowships, and Sloan Fellowships). Comments made in 1994, in which Lawrence urged that higher education should not be denied to disadvantaged students who might lack the "genetic, hereditary background to have a higher average" on standardized tests, were publicized in 1995 by a union in negotiations with the Rutgers administration and led to calls for his resignation and student protests,including one that brought a televised basketball game to a halt, as protesters staged a sit-in on the court.
Lawrence has served as President of the North American Society for French Seventeenth Centurey Literature, on editorial boards for several scholarly journals, as the board chair of a monograph series, on the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education, and on the boards of several national higher education organizations. He retired from the office of president in 2002. As President Emeritus, he has returned to teaching, with an appointment as University Professor at Rutgers.
| Preceded by Edward J. Bloustein |
President of Rutgers University 1990–2002 |
Succeeded by Richard L. McCormick |