Richard Davenport Appointed President of Minnesota State University, Mankato

Posted: February 21, 2002

Contact: Doug Anderson, doug.anderson@MinnState.edu, 651-201-1426

President Richard Davenport

Richard Davenport today was appointed president of Minnesota State University, Mankato, by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees.

Davenport, 56, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, will begin serving as president July 1. Interim President Karen Boubel will continue to serve until then.

"We are confident that Dr. Davenport will provide visionary leadership for Minnesota State University, Mankato," Board Chair Mary Choate said. "He has a strong record of academic leadership and experience in building collaborations and partnerships within the university setting and with outside constituencies."

Davenport will be the 12th president of the university, which enrolled 13,225 students in credit-based courses in fall 2001 and has a projected full-year-equivalent enrollment of 12,250 for the 2001-2002 academic year. The students come from 47 states and 88 countries.

"In addition to his academic leadership, Dr. Davenport has shown outstanding commitment to establishing partnerships with private and public organizations, which will serve the university well during these changing times," said Chancellor James H. McCormick, who recommended Davenport to the board.

Davenport holds a doctorate in higher education administration from Iowa State University. He has a master's degree in speech and hearing science from Colorado State University and a bachelor's degree in speech and hearing disorders from the University of Nebraska, Kearney.

Since 1990, he has held senior positions and served as a tenured full professor at Central Michigan University, an institution with about 27,000 students. Prior to that, he served as dean of the graduate school and associate vice president for academic affairs at Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison, Colo., for four years.

From 1980 to 1986 he was chairperson and professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders at a three-college consortium in Winona that includes Winona State University, and from 1977 to 1980 he was an assistant professor in speech science, pathology and audiology at St. Cloud State University.

"This opportunity to lead an institution with a strong regional and national reputation is both exciting and challenging for me," Davenport said. "I'm going to do everything I can do to move Minnesota State University, Mankato, to the next level of prominence."

Davenport and his wife, Sharlene, have two children.

Minnesota State University, Mankato, which serves more than 15,000 students annually, is the second-largest institution in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.