Next Dowling president embraces challenge

Jeremy D. Brown, a spirited Manchester, England, expatriate, said he will bring years of budget managing experience to his new job as Dowling College's next president.

"One of the things I appreciated about the interview process was that they explained all of these difficulties to me and were very open about it," said Brown, currently the head of Edinboro University in northwest Pennsylvania.

Brown, 52, will start his new job in June. He said he'll spend the next few months poring over Dowling's books and will create a budget priority committee made up of faculty and staff -- similar to one he started at Edinboro -- to analyze its finances.

"I want to get on top of that as quickly as possible," he said. "Frankly, I love the challenge."

Brown said he served as chief budget officer for Yale University's graduate program in the mid-1990s. Later, at Princeton, he developed a formula for a budget allocation to each academic department. He also helped shape the budget for SUNY's campuses from 2003 to 2007.

He said his experience prepared him well for his new role.

That's good news for Dowling, which has been in turmoil for years. The college -- with campuses in Oakdale and Brookhaven, and a satellite center in Melville -- had a total enrollment of about 3,900 students last fall. Brown will succeed interim president Scott Rudolph.

Board members gave millions to the college to help meet its budget in fiscal year 2010, and Moody's Investors Service recently downgraded its junk-rated debt from bad to worse.

Despite the college's financial shortcomings, Brown believes Dowling could become a top-notch institution.

"We have strong academic programs and our faculty and staff are first-rate," he said. "They work very hard and are very loyal."

David Ring, vice president for student affairs at Dowling, said he hopes Brown can help the school attract and retain quality students.

"His personality and level of confidence has really impressed people and made us think he can take the good things we have and make them better," Ring said.

Brown's colleagues at Edinboro, which has about 8,700 students, say he's as comfortable in the student cafeteria as he is in the faculty lounge or out in the community.

Brown slept for a night in each of Edinboro's dorms when he first came to the university in 2007 so he could build a strong relationship with students.