Jan 27, 2014 09:06 AM EST By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

University of Portland (UP) Board of Regents have named Rev. Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C., the school's 20^th president. Poorman, the current vice-president, succeeds Rev. E. William Beauchamp.

Beauchamp will step down at the end of academic year 2013-14. He has been serving in the position since 2003.

"We believe Fr. Poorman is the ideal person to build upon the foundation laid by Fr. Beauchamp and his predecessors," Thomas D. Arndorfer, a UP regent and chair of the presidential search committee, said in a statement. "He will guide the University forward while remaining true to our mission of teaching and learning, faith and formation, service and leadership."

As vice-president since 2011, Poorman supervised financial affairs, university relations and student affairs. He was also the professor of theology.

Prior to Portland, Poorman served as the vice president for student affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He holds a bachelor's degree in English at the University of Illinois, a master of divinity degree from Notre Dame, and a doctorate in Christian ethics from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. He was ordained in 1982.

UP, established in 1901, is a private Roman Catholic university and is affiliated to the Congregation of Holy Cross. The school is the only comprehensive Catholic University in Oregon with a college of arts and sciences, the Pamplin School of business, the school of engineering and the school of nursing. The institution is prominently known for its women's soccer program, which won the 2002 and 2005 Division I NCAA Women's Soccer Championships.

U.S. News & World Report ranked the school the 6th best Regional University in the 'West' and also mentioned it on the 'Great Schools, Great Prices' list.

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