Atlanta — August 24, 2005

Regent Richard L. Tucker, chair of the Special Regents Committee, and Chancellor Thomas C. Meredith today announced the names of three finalists for the presidency of the new state college in the University System of Georgia, which will be located in Gwinnett County.

“The national search we conducted gained the interest and candidacy of a stellar group of academic administrators,” Tucker said. “As reflected in the group of finalists, we look forward to appointing an outstanding leader to this challenging new post.”

“We are moving closer to an historic milestone,” Chancellor Meredith added, “and that is the naming of a president for the 35th institution in the University System of Georgia,”

The finalists, in alphabetical order, are as follows:

Dr. George DePuy, chief academic officer at the University of California Berkeley Extension, in Berkeley, Calif. DePuy, who was named to his current position in 2001, is responsible for the development and maintenance of academic policies at UC Berkeley Extension, which annually serves the continuing-education needs of 50,000 students. He also served as UC Berkeley Extension’s acting chief executive officer and dean from July 2001 to September 2002.

DePuy previously served as the founding president of the DeVry Institute of Technology, in the Silicon Valley city of Fremont, Calif. – part of the DeVry University national, for-profit, higher-education system – from 1998 to 2000. Before that, DePuy was at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, in Menomonie, Wis., where he served as provost and vice chancellor for academic and student affairs from 1993 to 1998, and as vice chancellor for academic affairs from 1991 to 1993.

DePuy also spent 19 years with the State University of New York (SUNY). He served SUNY-Binghamton, in Binghamton, N.Y., from 1972 to 1986, first as director of engineering technology programs and then as director of the Division of Technical Studies from 1978 to 1982. He then moved to the SUNY Institute of Technology, in Utica, N.Y., where he served from 1986 to 1988 as dean of the Telecommunications, Electrical Engineering Technology and Computer Science (TEC) Division, and from 1988 to 1991 as dean of the School of Information Systems and Engineering Technology.

DePuy earned a Ph.D. and a Master of Science degree from Syracuse University, in Syracuse, N.Y. He also holds a Bachelor of Science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, in Newark, N.J.

Dr. Daniel J. Kaufman, dean of the academic board and chief academic officer for the United States Military Academy (USMA), in West Point, N.Y., from June 2000 until his retirement this past June. Kaufman, a highly decorated brigadier general in the U.S. Army, has co-edited and co-authored six books on such topics as international relations, national security policy and strategy, Vietnam and NATO.

Kaufman had taught in the Department of Social Sciences at the USMA since 1974, and was named director of the department’s national security studies program in 1983, deputy department head in 1990, and department head in 1996. Since 2000, he has chaired the academy’s Faculty Council, Installation Planning Board and Athletic Committee.

Among the academic honors he has earned, the brigadier general holds the title of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.). He earned a Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Science degree from the USMA.

Kaufman’s military experience includes service as a platoon leader in Vietnam, a member of the National Security Council staff, a battalion operations officer with the 82nd Airborne Division and special assistant to the chief of staff of the U.S. Army.

Dr. Peter J. Sireno, president of Darton College, in Albany, Ga. Sireno, has been president of Darton, the third-largest of the University System of Georgia’s 13 two-year colleges, for 16 years. He has a total of 20 years’ experience at the executive level in college administration.

Sireno received the Chair Academy’s 2004 International Exemplary Leadership Award for his advancement of academic and administrative leadership on the Darton campus, which has grown from 1,934 students when he arrived in 1989 to over 4,500 students. Under Sireno’s leadership, Darton has become South Georgia’s center for nursing and allied health education, offering nursing, 13 allied health degrees, and 10 health care certificates. Approximately 25 percent of Darton’s students are nursing majors, enrolled at the Albany campus or in one of three satellite programs.

Sireno’s commitment to keeping Darton College on the leading edge of the use of technology for teaching and learning has led to the offering of 16 on-line degrees, and 85% of the courses for 40 additional Darton degree programs are also available online. Since 1996, Darton has been recognized three times as the national winner for Exemplary Initiative in Educational Technology by the National Council of Instructional Administrators. In 2005, the Center for Digital Education in association with the American Association of Community Colleges included Darton College among the Top Ten Digital Community Colleges.

Before his appointment as president of Darton, Sireno served as provost of the Dale Mabry Campus of Hillsborough Community College, in Tampa, Fla., a campus with 18,000 credit students, from 1985 to 1989. Prior to that, he was dean of Dodge City Community College, in Dodge City, Kan., from 1983 to 1985.

Sireno holds an Ed.D. from the University of Missouri. He also obtained a Master of Arts degree and two undergraduate degrees from Northeast Missouri State College (now Truman State University), in Kirksville, Mo.

The Board of Regents will take final action on the naming of the new president during their regularly scheduled monthly board meeting, slated for Sept. 7.

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