Mary Jane Saunders has stepped down from the presidency of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. She will return to the faculty and will take on a research project to determine the feasibility of developing a physician’s assistant program at the university. The university has been involved in several controversies in recent months, including the decision to name its football stadium after a private prison company that donated $6 million for the naming rights. That plan was later scrapped after student and alumni protests.
In her letter of resignation, Dr. Saunders listed her many accomplishments since being appointed president of the university in 2010. But she stated, “There is no doubt the recent controversies have been significant and distracting to all members of the university community. The issues and the fiercely negative media coverage have forced me to reassess my position as president of FAU. I must make choices that are the best for the university, me, and my family.”
Before joining FAU in 2010, Dr. Saunders was provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Cleveland State University in Ohio. She had joined the faculty at Cleveland State in 2003 as a professor in the department of biological, geological, and environmental sciences. Previously, she taught at the University of South Florida and Louisiana State University.
Dr. Saunders is a graduate of Boston University and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Massachusetts.