Rev. Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C., inaugurated as University of Portland’s 20th President: Rev. Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C., was inaugurated as University of Portland’s 20th president on Friday, Sept. 26 in the Chiles Center on campus. The inauguration ceremony, which followed a Mass also in the Chiles Center, was attended by thousands of individuals, including students, alumni, faculty, regents, staff, community members and presidents of other universities.
Fr. Poorman became the University’s President on July 1, 2014, succeeding Rev. E. William Beauchamp, C.S.C., President from 2004-2014. Prior to this role, Fr. Poorman served as Executive Vice President, beginning in July 2011. As Executive Vice President, he oversaw the divisions of University Operations, Financial Affairs, University Relations and Student Affairs.
A professor of theology, teaching courses in Christian ethics and moral theology, Fr. Poorman was instrumental in the formation of the Dundon-Berchtold Fund for Moral Development and Applied Ethics which includes the Character Project and the Dundon-Berchtold Fellowships for students and faculty to explore ethics-related issues. Until he assumed the presidency, he served as pastoral resident in Schoenfeldt Hall.
Before coming to the University of Portland, Fr. Poorman was at the University of Notre Dame, where he served as a member of the theology faculty and as Vice President for Student Affairs from 1999 to 2010. In that capacity, he was responsible for that university’s residential life as well as other student services, activities and programs, including Campus Ministry, Notre Dame Security Police, the Student Activities Office, the Counseling Center, Health Services, the Career Center, the Office of Alcohol and Drug Education, the Gender Relations Center, and Multicultural and International Student Services. Prior to his appointment as Vice President for Student Affairs, Fr. Poorman served at Notre Dame as Executive Assistant to the Executive Vice President and the President.
Fr. Poorman graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Illinois and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from Notre Dame and was ordained a priest in 1982. He later studied at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, where he earned a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics. He then returned to Notre Dame to serve full-time on the faculty of the theology department, directing the department’s master of divinity program from 1992-1998.
Prior to his appointment as Executive Vice President, he served for seven years on University of Portland’s Board of Regents.