Finalists named for new chancellor of UMass Amherst

AMHERST, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - Officials with the University of Massachusetts are moving closer to naming a new leader for the Amherst campus.

In a letter to the campus community, Victor Woolridge, a member of the university’s board of trustees and chair of the UMass Amherst Chancellor Search Committee, announced that their 21-member committee has chosen finalists for chancellor, who will take over for retiring Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy.

Those finalists include Javier Reyes, who currently serves as interim chancellor of the University of Illinois Chicago, and Dr. Paul Tikalsky, who is the Dean of the College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology, at Oklahoma State.

Woolridge noted that their executive search firm communicated with 108 possible candidates and they interviews 26 of those people. The committee then interviewed 12 candidates, which led to the selection of their finalists.

“Responding to our directive from the Board of Trustees and President Meehan, we set out to identify innovative and bold leaders who are prepared to continue the ascendance that UMass Amherst has enjoyed under Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy’s impressive, decade-long tenure at the university. The committee has met that challenge,” Woolridge explained in the letter.

The UMass President’s Office said that each candidate will visit the Amherst campus in the coming weeks to meet with students, faculty, staff, and members of the community.

Subbaswamy’s retirement is set to take effect at the end of June.