Board names David Dooley next URI president

PROVIDENCE — A chemist credited with expanding the research budget at Montana State University was selected Monday to become the next president of the University of Rhode Island, state officials said.

David Dooley, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Montana State, was selected by the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education to succeed URI President Robert Carothers, who is leaving next month after 18 years in the job.

State leaders hope URI can become a research center that will stimulate business growth, even as its direct funding from state government shrinks. Frank Caprio, chairman of the Board of Governors for Higher Education, credited Dooley for expanding Montana State’s research budget from nearly nothing to $100 million.

“He has clearly demonstrated that he understand the University’s aspirations and is well acquainted with what it will take to achieve them,“ Caprio said in a written statement.

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Dooley, 56, earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California in San Diego and a doctorate in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology.

After teaching at Amherst College in Massachusetts, he joined Montana State in 1993 and served as chair of the university’s chemistry and biochemistry department. Six years later, Dooley was appointed interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. He earned the job permanently in 2001.

Dooley is expected to begin at URI on July 1.

Two other candidates were considered for the university presidency: Sona Karentz Andrews, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Boise State University in Idaho; and Robert Newman, associate vice president for interdisciplinary studies at the University of Utah.

URI is the only public university in Rhode Island. It has nearly 15,600 students.

NBC 10 contributed to this report.