Ripich steps down from UNE today, retires on a financial high note

When University of New England President Danielle Ripich officially steps down today, she leaves the university better positioned financially.

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By Staff

University of New England President Danielle Ripich officially steps down and retires today.

When she leaves, after 11 years leading UNE, the university will be better positioned financially, it said this week.

Its “Moving Forward” capital campaign raised $61.6 million through May 31. The effort was launched under Ripich’s watch and headed up by Robert McAfee, an emeritus trustee.

It is the most successful capital campaign in university history.

“This campaign would not have succeeded without the support of UNE’s board, faculty, staff, alumni and friends,” she said at UNE’s President’s Gala on June 8. “It is their vision and dedication to innovation that has helped us all collectively transform this university, and I am confident the next president, Dr. James Herbert, will lead UNE through its next dynamic transformation.”

Herbert, who starts July 1, comes to UNE from Drexel University in Philadelphia, where he was executive vice provost and dean of the graduate college.

Ripich was the 2016 Mainebiz Business Leader of the Year in the nonprofit category.

Interviewed at the time, Ripich said student ranks had swelled 70% to more than 10,000, including a campus in Tangier, Morocco, seven new buildings on two Maine campuses and three new colleges, including the College of Pharmacy in 2009 and the College of Dental Medicine as well as the new Oral Health Center, which both opened in 2013.

In 2010 the university received the largest gift in its history, $10 million from the Harold Alfond Foundation, which it matched to build a new athletic facility, as well as about $200,000 in cash and in-kind services from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2014 to develop competency-based education. In 2015, the university forged a competency-based education effort with Bangor Savings Bank so employees could brush up or learn new skills through distance learning, a new focus for the university. And it jumped into an important growing force for the university by signing an agreement to help sponsor the New England Ocean Cluster House on the Portland waterfront and adding an interdisciplinary minor in climate change studies.

In all, Ripich has increased the university's operating surplus by $127 million.

UNE’s capital campaign was publicly launched in 2014, but the university had been privately raising funds since 2009.

It has received support from the Harold Alfond Foundation for construction of the Alfond Forum athletics complex and Northeast Delta Dental for the establishment of the UNE College of Dental Medicine, Maine’s first and only dental school. The College of Dental Medicine received other significant gifts from the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation, the Mattina R. Proctor Foundation, the Vincent B. and Barbara G. Welch Foundation, Unum, Jane and Robert L. Card, Barry C. Saltz and the Davis Family Foundation.

Support for scholarships and financial aid was a key component of the campaign. Of the $61.6 million raised, well over $23 million was earmarked for student support.

Other gifts have paid for or supported gyms, dining halls and an alumni hall. It received a gift of an island in Saco Bay, for marine research.

UNE has campuses in Biddeford, Portland and Morocco.