James R. Ramsey

James R. Ramsey (born November 14, 1948) is the current president of the University of Louisville, located in Louisville, Kentucky. He became the school's acting president on August 1, 2002^[1] and was named its permanent president on November 4, 2002.

Ramsey earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Western Kentucky University in 1970, and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Kentucky in 1972 and 1974, respectively.^[2] He also served in the United States Army Reserve from 1970–1977.

He served twice as Kentucky's budget director and worked as the state government's chief economist. He has also directed Kentucky's Office of Financial Management, been the state's chief Economic Analyst, and worked in the Office of Investment and Debt Management. He also worked as interim commissioner of Kentucky's Office of the New Economy. For his work and expertise in economics, he was named Kentucky's Distinguished Economist of the Year in 1999 and won the National Governors Association's Outstanding Public Service Award in 2001.

Ramsey has also been an economics professor at five other universities: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Loyola University, the University of Kentucky, Western Kentucky University, and Middle Tennessee State University.

Since becoming president, his administration's main goals have been to continue the school's large gains in research activity and endowment, and to improve infrastructure and aesthetics of the university's Belknap campus. At the suggestion of his wife, Jane, a $1 million campus beautification project was begun, which planted hundreds of trees on the roads around the campus and painted five overpasses with a UofL theme. In addition, he has worked with city and state officials to modify the nearby I-65 area to provide better access to campus, improve Stansbury Park, and redevelop vacant industrial buildings near campus into upscale housing or athletic facilities.

Major academic accomplishments completed since he took office include an increase of over $200 million in the schools endowment, the doubling of federal research funding, an increase of two points in the school's average ACT scores among new students, improvements in retention, and an increasing enrollment from areas outside the Louisville area. Major physical projects include the completion of a new nanotechnology research building, an expansion of the Ekstrom Library, three new student residence halls, new natatorium, lacrosse field, Indoor Football practice facility, and baseball stadium and adjacent sports medicine complex. Work is ongoing for a new heart disease research building and a state of the art medical laboratory on the school's medical campus.

Ramsey resides with his family in his native Jeffersontown, Kentucky. This is unusual for a UofL president, since the university provides a large home for its presidents to use, and it is often vacant since Ramsey seldom uses it.^[3]

Costume controversy

In October 2015, Ramsey and his wife hosted a Halloween luncheon at the university presidents' mansion, at which he and his staff dressed in costumes as stereotypical Mexicans, wearing sombreros and large fake mustaches. They posed for a group photo holding maracas, with Ramsey wearing a colorful striped poncho.^[3][4][5] Ramsey and his Chief of Staff later apologized after this was criticized as being culturally insensitive.^[3][4][5]

References

External links

• Official University of Louisville biography