The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Chancellor Search Committee named Robert E. Johnson, president of Becker College, James P. Lentini, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at Oakland University (Mich.), and Philip K. Way, provost and vice president for academic and student affairs at Slippery Rock University, in the search for a new UMD chancellor.

UMass President Marty Meehan will now select one finalist to recommend to the Board of Trustees as the next university chancellor.

Since March, 2016, Peyton Helm has served as interim chancellor for the university. Former chancellor Divina Grossman announced that she was stepping down in December 2015 because private fundraising, professors, and enrollment had reportedly gone down during her nearly three-year tenure. Grossman is currently a nursing professor at the university.

About the candidates:

Way's career spans more than three decades, and includes university administration positions at the University of Cincinnati, University of Alabama, and, most recently, as provost and vice president for Academic and Student Affairs at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.

Lentini has served in faculty and administrative roles at several universities over his 28-year career, including Wayne State University, The College of New Jersey, Miami University, and Oakland University, where he currently serves as senior vice president for Academic Affairs and as a provost.

Johnson has held his presidency Becker College in Worcester since 2010. He's also held administrative positions at Sinclair Community College in Ohio, the University of Dayton, Oakland University in Michigan, and Central State University in Ohio.

The search process:

A 16-member committee comprised of students, faculty, alumni, staff, community representatives, and members of the UMass Board of Trustees was formed in September 2016 to help select a new chancellor for UMass Dartmouth.

The search committee sought input on the qualifications and characteristics considered important in the new chancellor, advertised the position nationally, and retained the Boston-based executive recruitment firm Isaacson, Miller to assist in the search.

As part of the process, the search committee held open public forums at UMass Dartmouth and in Fall River and New Bedford.

Peters said the message from those forums was clear: The community wanted a chancellor who was committed to the campus and willing to be fully engaged in the South Coast community.

Throughout the course of the search process, Isaacson, Miller communicated with 165 prospective candidates, interviewed 40 candidates, and presented the credentials of those candidates to the search committee.

The committee chose to interview 12 candidates leading to the designation of finalists.

Each of the finalists is scheduled to meet with President Meehan and the campus community between March 1 and 3. Visit umassd.edu for a complete schedule.

Anyone interested in providing feedback to Meehan can email umdsearch@umassp.edu by noon on Monday, March 6.