Why Should Delaware Care?
As president of the University of Delaware, Dennis Assanis oversees the largest public university in the state with more than 20,000 students. His tenure has been marked by large growth at the university, but also financial difficulties and a strained relationship with faculty.
In a surprise announcement, University of Delaware President Dennis Assanis revealed Monday that he will conclude his nearly decade-long tenure at the flagship university at the end of this academic year.
Assanis shared the news in a statement to the UD community, in which he also said he would work closely with university leadership in the coming days “to complete our goals for this year and ensure institutional continuity.”
The announcement comes amid ongoing tensions between faculty and administration over the university’s finances and spending priorities. In recent years, faculty and academic programs have faced budget cuts, even as the school has invested heavily in new real estate and campus renovations.
In his statement, Assanis wrote that he feels he has made the meaningful contributions he set out to accomplish as UD’s president.
“I therefore feel this is the appropriate moment to make a leadership transition, with the institution’s best interests always in mind and a thoughtful approach for continued growth and excellence,” he said in the statement on Monday.
Assanis’ resignation also follows a string of exits by top UD administrative staff.
Last week, the university announced that Mary Remmler, senior vice president and chief financial officer, resigned, and John Long, executive vice president and chief operating officer, announced that he would be retiring on May 14.
In an interview with Spotlight Delaware on Monday, Assanis said that tensions with faculty were not the reason he is stepping down, saying instead that it was time to take a break. The average university president serves for five and a half years, he added.
Assanis also said he does not have another job lined up, but noted that he is not retiring.
“I still have a lot of energy,” he said.
After Assanis’ departure next month, an interim president will be appointed to take over on July 1, according to Terri Kelly, chair of the Board of Trustees.
As of 2023, Assanis was the third-highest-paid president of a public university, surpassing a total compensation package of $1.5 million. He also received the highest bonus of any public university president at $495,000, surpassing Florida State University’s president, who earned about $337,000.
A strained faculty relationship
In 2021, the UD Board of Trustees announced that it had extended Assanis’ contract, which wasn’t set to expire until next year.
It happened as tensions grew between the Assanis administration and UD’s faculty. The strain had been intensifying since 2020 when the university faced one of its most severe financial crises, operating under a $250 million budget deficit due to the impacts of COVID-19.
Amid the crisis, UD’s faculty union, the American Association of University Professors, agreed to suspend previously negotiated pay increases. Although the union and university reached new terms in late 2023, the administration has continued to cite — and project — ongoing budget shortfalls.
UD redirected its funds because of the deficit, which reduced academic support services, froze travel budgets for professors attending academic conferences, and postponed spending on lab-related projects.
But in 2024, the union commissioned a financial study which found that between 2018 and 2024, UD spent about $923.1 million on construction, with 77% of the funding drawn from the operating resources, including funds that might have otherwise supported academics.
Faculty members felt that academic priorities were being sidelined and expressed the need for more accountability.
Last year, more than 750 professors expressed concerns about financial transparency, with many questioning how the university was allocating its funds. At least a dozen professors anonymously suggested the faculty should consider a vote of no confidence in Assanis.
Persephone Braham, president of the university’s AAUP chapter, described Assanis as a kind person who, in her view, did the best he could during a difficult period. However, she noted that his tenure included a number of “missteps” that raised concerns among faculty.
“I do believe that Dennis took the institution away from its foundations, which were very solid,” she told Spotlight Delaware.
A tenure of growth
Assanis became the UD president in June, 2016 after the university had conducted a national search to succeed former-President Pat Harker – who left to take over the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
Prior to that, Assanis had served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Stony Brook University in New York.
His tenure at UD was marked by continuous growth, including most prominently the development of the university’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus.
Formerly a Chrysler manufacturing plant and employment engine for the Newark area, Assanis oversaw the development of a state-of-the-art research campus that today employs more people than the auto plant did at its height.
The STAR Campus also became home to the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL), a public-private partnership that leads industry-wide research on vaccines and drugs, including through the COVID pandemic and its aftermath.
Assanis’ tenure was also notable because it coincided with the presidency of UD’s most famous alumni, former-President Joe Biden.
During the period, UD solidified its relationship with Biden through the renaming of the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, as well as the creation of the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware.
Under Assanis’ watch, UD also began the First State Promise program, which aims to cover all tuition and fees for Delawarean undergraduate students coming from families with incomes under $75,000. Today, about a third of all Delawarean students at UD are covered by the program.
Beyond academics, Assanis may be best remembered by alumni for leading the Blue Hens to the highest level of college football competition. Next year, UD will make a long-debated jump to the FBS level of the sport in Conference USA.
