Credit: Adama B. Thompson

Emmet Dennis, the newly appointed president of the University of Liberia, confers with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Rutgers’ roots are stronger than ever in West Africa, as Emmet Dennis, longtime dean of the former University College in New Brunswick, was named the next president of the University of Liberia (UL). 

The oldest degree-granting school in West Africa, the University of Liberia comprises 15,000 students on three campuses in and around Liberia’s capitol city of Monrovia. 

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf announced the appointment on November 12. Dennis will assume office on February 1. 

A native of Liberia, with a Ph.D. in parasitology from the University of Connecticut, Dennis has a long history of shuttling his knowledge and experience between America and his homeland. He initially joined Rutgers in 1969 as an assistant professor in the department of zoology. By the mid-1970s, as an adjunct professor, he was the founding director of the Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research. 

Back at Rutgers during the 1980s, he became vice chair of the Department of Biological Sciences, and handled a wide range of teaching and administrative roles. He most recently served for 12 years as dean of University College, concurrently serving for five years as vice president for student affairs and teaching a course in human parasitology in the Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience. 

In 2006, he took a sabbatical to join the board of trustees at the University of Liberia, and has since helped to rebuild Liberia’s educational infrastructure, damaged in a series of civil wars spanning from 1989 to 2003. He expects his rebuilding focus to continue as he assumes the university’s presidency. 

“So many well educated and productive citizens left the country during the periods of the civil conflict,” Dennis said. “Human capital is much needed in all aspects of the private and public sectors, and it is the responsibility of the educational system to provide the needed human resources.”  

In his presidential tasks, Dennis sees himself tapping into his entire Rutgers academic and administrative background. “Overseeing health services, career services, personal counseling, student information services, students-with-disabilities services, etc. are all very valuable experiences that I will draw upon as president of UL.” He also plans to seek mutually beneficial collaborations with Rutgers and other universities, a technique he first used in building the Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research. 

Will he teach at UL? Absolutely. “At least one course a year,” he said. He also expects to return to New Jersey about two to three times per year. 

“I’ll miss New Jersey,” he said, “but not the winters.”