{"id":397,"date":"2026-03-26T15:32:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T15:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/umbc50\/?page_id=397"},"modified":"2026-04-03T18:07:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T18:07:07","slug":"john-dorsey","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/home\/themes\/presidents-administration\/john-dorsey\/","title":{"rendered":"John Dorsey"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Black-and-white<\/a>
John Dorsey Posed in Front of a Panoramic Photograph of UMBC, UARC Photos-07-02-0177<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Many considered John Dorsey to be \u201ca quiet administrator who [worked] mostly behind the scenes,\u201d as the Baltimore Sun once said of UMBC\u2019s chancellor from 1977 to 1985. Dorsey was a native Marylander born and raised in Washington County. He received his bachelor\u2019s degree in economics from the University of Maryland and his master\u2019s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University. Dorsey returned to College Park and rose quickly through the faculty ranks, eventually serving as vice-chancellor of administrative affairs from 1970 to 1977, until Dorsey was selected to lead UMBC in 1977. Seeking to boost recruitment, he built up the Admissions department and sought to expand academic programs to attract new students. Expansion of the graduate programs was also a priority, and degrees in Information Systems Management, Molecular Biology, Computer Science, and a School of Engineering were added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Dorsey\u2019s nine years of leadership, he focused on restructuring administration and academics while enhancing the university\u2019s profile. SAT scores of incoming freshmen increased by nearly 100 points, and the student body increased from 5,200 to more than 8,150. The annual budget also expanded to $46.2 million from just $18.6 million. In 1986, Dorsey stepped down as UMBC\u2019s chancellor and took a position as special assistant to University of Maryland President John S. Toll. He later returned to teaching economics and retired in 2001. John Dorsey passed on July 24, 2014 at his home in Laurel, MD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Newsletter\"<\/a>
UMBC Review, Vol. 5, no. 1 (Winter 1986), UPUB I1-004<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Newsletter\"<\/a>
UMBC Review, Vol. 5, no. 1 (Winter 1986), UPUB I1-004<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many considered John Dorsey to be \u201ca quiet administrator who [worked] mostly behind the scenes,\u201d as the Baltimore Sun once said of UMBC\u2019s chancellor from 1977 to 1985. Dorsey was a native Marylander born and raised in Washington County. He received his bachelor\u2019s degree in economics from the University of Maryland and his master\u2019s and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":391,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-397","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/397\/revisions\/562"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}