Paula Rooney has led Dean College for 27 years. She steps down next May

FRANKLIN — After serving Dean College as president for nearly three decades, Paula Rooney has announced that she will leaving office at the end of this school year.

On Oct. 25, Rooney announced that the 2021-22 academic year will be her last school year as president of the Franklin college after serving for 27 years. Her last day will be May 31, 2022.

Rooney is the college's 13th president in its 156-year history, and first took on the role in 1995.

“At some point it’s time to decide if you want to maybe go down a different road and write a new chapter,” Rooney told Wicked Local about choosing to leave the college. She doesn't plan on retiring yet — or leaving the area — anytime soon, and said there's still some local associations she plans to remain involved in.

“I’m going to think about what is the best way for me to be able to serve and give back some of what I received, both in my personal and professional world,” she said.

Rooney, originally from Boston, is currently among the longest-serving college presidents in the country, said Mark Boyce, chair of the Dean College Board of Trustees in a press release.

The average college president serves for around six and a half years, according to the American Council on Education.

“Dr. Paula Rooney has become synonymous with Dean College,” said Boyce. “Coming to Dean at a critical juncture in the school’s history, Dr. Rooney transformed the institution into the strong and thriving college it is today."

The board of trustees have began succession planning in preparation for Rooney’s departure and will be releasing more details about it in the coming weeks, said Boyce.

But she won't be disappearing from campus entirely, said Rooney.

Something she looks forward to doing after leaving the college is returning to take a tap dancing class with Todd Shanks, a dance instructor at the college's Joan Phelps Palladino School of Dance.

"The performing arts are a big part of what we do, and I was in a play once,” said Rooney, and even tossed a baseball during a Red Sox game. “But I’ve never been in a tap performance. It just seemed like the next logical thing to do."

While she's spent nearly three decades at the college, it's the amount of work she’s accomplished in that time that's more important, she said.

“The years don’t really matter — it's the daily interactions, the daily contributions, the things we’ve been able to accomplish — those are the things that are really important,” she said.

Her impact

Under Rooney’s leadership, Dean College began offering baccalaureate degrees in addition to its associate degree programs, and led the college's transition to NCAA Division III athletics.

That shift coincided with improvements to multiple athletic campus venues, like the Longley Athletic Complex. Rooney was also the driving force behind the college’s academic partnership with Kraft Sports + Entertainment, which led to opportunities like the creation of The Center for Business, Entertainment and Sport Management.

In addition to the athletics, Rooney has overseen countless other campus development projects, like the Green Family Library Learning Commons, the Main Stage Theatre and the expansion of the Campus Center. In 2017, the Rooney Shaw Center for Innovation in Teaching — named after Rooney and her husband Dr. Gerry Shaw, who has been Dean of the School of Business for 20 years — opened on campus to promote teaching strategies and encourage active learning.

On the financial side, the college has run a budget surplus for 11 consecutive years and for 22 of the past 23 years. The college also has an endowment approaching $65 million.

As of this fall, Dean's enrollment stands at 1,121 with 93% of students working toward a baccalaureate degree. Dean’s enrollment also reflects a 7% increase over the previous year.

Prior to Dean College, Rooney was the vice president for student affairs at Babson College and previously held senior academic and administrative appointments at Reed College, Colgate University and Indiana University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Framingham State College and both a master’s degree and doctorate from Indiana University.

Lauren Young writes about business and pop culture. Reach her at 774-804-1499 or lyoung@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @laurenwhy__.

This article originally appeared on The Milford Daily News: President of Dean College to leave after 27 years