Dr. William E. Cooper
President, 1998 - 2007
Dr. William E. Cooper was appointed President of the University of Richmond in 1998. During Dr. Cooper's tenure, the University created and began implementing an ambitious 10-year strategic plan and a comprehensive campus master plan. Both provide inspiring direction and a strong sense of momentum for the future.
To support many of the initiatives outlined in the strategic plan, Dr. Cooper authorized the launch of the Transforming Bright Minds campaign in March 2004 to raise $200 million by 2008. In December 2006, the campaign exceeded its goal and concluded in June 2007, a year and a half ahead of schedule. The campaign established more than 100 new scholarships and faculty chairs, as well as major capital improvements.
Dr. Cooper’s bold thinking and clear vision for Richmond’s future fostered a climate welcoming of entrepreneurial and synergistic spirit. His creation of the Richmond Quest, an innovative program designed to engender intellectual inquiry and cohesion, led to the development of unique courses, symposia and student research projects.
In a move inspired by the wishes of Richmond’s founding fathers, Dr. Cooper oversaw the development of a policy that commits the University to meeting the full financial need of all students who enroll at Richmond. This policy served to increase the number of undergraduate applications, diversify the pool, enhance selectivity and improve yield on offers of admission.
Other notable achievements throughout Dr. Cooper’s tenure include the creation of the President’s Council of Emerging Leaders, a group of prominent young alumni that serves as an advisory board for important issues, and the President’s Working Group, comprised of senior administrators with the goal of encouraging synergies across divisions and schools. The University’s relationship with the Pew Charitable Trusts was deepened under Dr. Cooper’s watch, with three different multi-million dollar projects falling under the institution’s purview. As a corollary, the University launched the D.C. Initiative, a network of administrative leaders, faculty, alumni and friends in the Washington D.C. metro area who work together to improve student recruitment, enhance educational programs and expand opportunities for career development. Dr. Cooper also engineered the move of Richmond’s intercollegiate athletic program to the Atlantic 10 conference, to better align athletics with a major geographical footprint with implications for admissions, fundraising and institutional marketing.
Through judicious use of resources, excellent financial planning and the generation of new revenue, the University’s endowment grew from $751 million in 1998 to over $1 billion in 2004.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Cooper received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Brown University in 1973 and a Ph.D. in cognitive science from M.I.T. in 1976. At Brown, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Harold Schlosberg Award. After a postdoctoral fellowship at M.I.T., he served as a faculty member at Harvard and subsequently at the University of Iowa and Tulane University, where he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Beginning in 1996, he served as Executive Vice President for the Main Campus at Georgetown University.
Dr. Cooper has authored or co-authored five books and over one hundred articles on brain mechanisms involving speech perception and production, including articles in journals such as Nature, Cognitive Psychology, the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, and Cognition. He has received support for research from the National Institutes of Health and has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fulbright Fellow, and recipient of the Bruce Lindsay Award of the Acoustical Society of America. In addition, he has published numerous essays on public policy and higher education and poems on topics ranging from life in Brazil to raising his two daughters with his wife, Dr. Clarissa S. Holmes.