UMaine at Augusta president resigns

Courtesy / University of Maine at Augusta James Conneely, president at University of Maine at Augusta since January 2016, announced Tuesday he will be leaving the job on June 30.

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James Conneely, president at University of Maine at Augusta since January 2016, announced Tuesday he is leaving the job effective June 30, 2017.

The Bangor Daily News reported that Conneely informed UMaine Augusta employees of his decision late Tuesday night, noting that it had been accepted by University of Maine System Chancellor James Page. Conneely’s email to the Augusta campus’s employees did not say why he was resigning.

In a written statement sent to Mainebiz, Page stated: “The University of Maine at Augusta has a very strong leadership team while the faculty and staff serving in Augusta, Bangor, and at the university centers across the state are firmly committed to student success. We appreciate President Conneely’s service to Maine as a member of this team and wish him well in his professional pursuits.”

Page’s office said he will be meeting with campus and community stakeholders in the coming days to discuss transitional leadership for the university. Plans for new leadership at UMA will be announced prior to Conneely’s departure at the end of June.

Conneely’s appointment as the UMaine Augusta president was announced in December 2015, following a national search. Previously, he had been a senior consultant at Keeling & Associates Inc. and had served as president of Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore.

He had followed two interim presidents at the Augusta campus: Glenn Cummings, now president of University of Southern Maine, took over as UMA's president after Allyson Handley left for a job in California in September 2014. After Cummings was named USM president, Rebecca Wyke, the University of Maine System's chief financial officer, stepped in.