Selma Botman

Selma Botman
10th
In office July 1, 2009 – July 9, 2012
Preceded by	Richard L. Pattenaude
Succeeded by	Theo Kalikow
Personal details
Born	1950 Chelsea, Massachusetts, U.S.
Residence(s)	Portland, Maine, U.S.

Dr. Selma Botman is an American academic. She became the President of the University of Southern Maine on July 1, 2008. She was appointed to the position by the University of Maine System's Board of Trustees at the March 10, 2008, meeting of the Board. She was officially inaugurated on April 25, 2009, succeeding Richard L. Pattenaude. Following a vote of no confidence in May 2012, she resigned her presidency, with final University of Maine System Board of Trustees approval on July 9, 2012.

University of Southern Maine

Since coming to the University of Southern Maine, Dr. Botman has focused on building a model 21st-century public comprehensive university, with student achievement as its focus. In fall 2008 she initiated a strategic planning process, which concluded in spring 2009 with the publication of Building Maine's Future: 2009-2014 [4]. She has introduced strategic budgeting to the university along with tight fiscal and operational accountability. Dr. Botman attempted to guide the university through a complex restructuring effort designed to increase the quality of students' educational experiences and remove barriers to interdisciplinary exchange and programmatic development.

CUNY and Administrative history

Previously, Dr. Botman served as the Executive Vice-Chancellor and University Provost of The City University of New York (CUNY). She was appointed to that position at CUNY in the fall 2004. Previously, she served as Special Assistant to the Chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and as Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Massachusetts system. She was a tenured full professor in the Departments of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Lowell campuses. She was also a tenured member of the Department of Political Science at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Biography

Dr. Botman received a B.A. in psychology from Brandeis University, a B.Phil. in Middle Eastern Studies from Oxford University, and an A.M. in Middle Eastern Studies and a Ph.D. in History and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University. Dr. Botman is a specialist in modern Middle Eastern politics. She has taught in the history PhD program at the CUNY Graduate Center and the history department at The City College of New York. She has published three books—Engendering Citizenship in Egypt, Columbia University Press, 1999; From Independence to Revolution: Egypt, 1922-1952, Syracuse University Press, 1991; and The Rise of Egyptian Communism: 1939-1970, Syracuse University Press, 1988—and numerous articles. Dr. Botman has been an Affiliate in Research at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies and a member of Middle East Studies Association, the American Association of University Women, the American Association for Higher Education & Accreditation, and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.

Under Selma Botman’s leadership, CUNY initiated and coordinated several flagship programs, including the university-wide Campaign for Student Success, The Teacher Academy, the Black Male Initiative, the Latino Faculty Initiative, the Macaulay Honors College for undergraduate honors education, and a revised Distinguished Professorship initiative. She collaborated with the NYC Department of Education to establish CUNY as a national model for urban public education. Dr. Botman developed numerous programs to improve the university’s visibility, to enhance the breadth and rigor of its academic programs, and to make high-quality education available to every New York City public school student.

At the University of Southern Maine University of Southern Maine, Dr. Botman advocated for the university's indispensability to the community as Maine's only regional comprehensive public university and for the necessity of the university being a student-centered institution. Since arriving at the university in 2008, she developed a five-year strategic plan, Preparing USM for the Future: 2009-2014" and restored the university's fiscal health. In 2009 she secured University of Maine System Strategic Investment Funding to establish the first STEM honors program in the state, the Pioneers, which admitted its inaugural class in fall 2011. In May 2010 the University of Maine System Board of Trustees approved a sweeping academic reorganization plan that Dr. Botman oversaw, resulting from a process that included faculty and administrators on an institutional redesign team and that won approval by the USM Faculty Senate.

REFERENCES

External links

• The University of Southern Maine
• Pay Increases Suspended Amid Scandal
• Top Administrators Lose Raises
• Faculty to Hold Vote of No Confidence for USM President
• Blog with the documents explaining both sides of the issues