St. Mike’s names new president

COLCHESTER — A former vice president and faculty dean from Boston College has been named the 16th president of Saint Michael’s College, school officials announced Wednesday.

John J. (Jack) Neuhauser, served from 1999 to 2005 as academic vice president and dean of faculties of Boston College, and from 1977 to 1999 as dean and professor of the Boston College Carroll School of Management. Neuhauser, a computer scientist, will take over as president of Saint Michael’s College on July 1.

“I’ve come to know and admire Saint Michael’s College as a trustee for five years, and quite literally, to know this place is to love it,” Neuhauser said. “The academic qualities of Saint Michael’s, its faculty commitment to scholarship and teaching, the enthusiasm and curiosity of its students, and its talented administration and staff, should put it in the first ranks of liberal arts colleges. That is the path I hope we will follow together.”

Neuhauser said he hopes to continue the legacy of previous presidents, including the outgoing president Marc vanderHeyden.

School officials were also pleased.

“On behalf of the board of trustees, let me say, we couldn’t be more pleased to have the honor of naming Jack Neuhauser as the 16th president of Saint Michael's College,” said Joseph Garrity, chairman of the Saint Michael’s Board.

“Under the leadership of retiring Pres. Marc vanderHeyden, Saint Michael’s has achieved significant accomplishments,” said Garrity, a 1978 graduate of Saint Michael’s and retired COO/CFO of 4Kids Entertainment of New York City.

In four of the last seven years, the Carnegie Foundation has named Saint Michael's College professors as Vermont Professor of the Year. The school’s students have also been nationally recognized with being awarded a Rhodes Scholar and Pickering Fellow within the last year, and in 2003 Saint Michael’s was recognized with an invitation to host a chapter of the academic honor society, Phi Beta Kappa on campus.

“Jack Neuhauser has the experience and skill to build on our momentum, to continue to build on our significant accomplishments, and to take us forward,” Garrity said.

During his six years as academic vice president and dean of faculties of Boston College, Neuhauser was responsible for leadership of the faculty in seven schools and colleges, containing 670 full-time faculty members, and nearly 400 part-time members. During this time the number of full-time faculty increased by 50 and the number of endowed professorships more than doubled, to 45. Half the new faculty were persons of color.

During his tenure, grant funding doubled to more than $40 million per year, and undergraduate applications increased by 50 percent, with a steady increase in quality. The university received the fourth highest number of applications of any private university in the United States, attracting over 22,000, and BC cemented its place as a top 40 national university in the U.S. News rankings.

As dean of Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, Neuhauser led a redesign of the MBA program to promote socially responsible, ethical management and to offer several joint degree programs: MBA-MSA, MBA-JD and MBA-Ph.D. He is also credited with raising $20 million on his own for the Carroll School.

Neushauser is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Manhattan College in 1964, a master’s in operations research and statistics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1965, and a doctorate in operations research and statistics: mathematics, also from Rensselaer, in 1968.

Governor calls for Internet security audit

MONTPELIER — Gov. Jim Douglas is calling for a full review of the Internet security protocols employed by every agency and department in state government.

Douglas said the Department of Information and Innovation (DII) would conduct the review and deliver him a report by March 1.

Douglas has said he is disappointed that several Internet technology (IT) offices in state government had not adopted the most vigorous and up-to-date security measures.

“The problems discovered over the last several months are entirely unacceptable to me because they were preventable,” Douglas said. “I expect the department to look at every area and aspect of our Internet security protocols to be sure we are employing all the available resources to protect the integrity of our systems. And I expect a higher standard to be set in IT departments throughout state government.”

On Jan. 29, state officials acknowledged that a state computer containing the names, Social Security Numbers and bank account information for 70,000 Vermonters had been hacked.

This comes on the heals of two other incidents — one involved the names and Social Security numbers of hundreds of health care providers being listed on the Internet as the result of a contractor’s error, and the other where a number of Uniform Commercial Code filings containing Social Security numbers of the applicants had been posted to the secretary of state’s website.

The most recent breach of personal data came from computers managed by the Agency of Human Services. Agency Secretary Cynthia LaWare told the Associated Press that the state stored the information provided by a number of lending institutions beyond what was necessary, and when it wasn’t even needed.

Some of the names were of people who owed back child support, while nearly 60,000 names were simply supplied by the financial institutions so the state could determine if their customers owed child support. After that, it was supposed to get rid of the data.

Douglas also said independent security firms may be called upon to assist in this top-to-bottom review.

“We may also need to create a more unified system of IT security so there is greater accountability for results,” he added.

Posted February 1, 2007

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