Calling it “a trust I will not break,” Richard Herman was named as the University’s ninth chancellor by University President B. Joseph White at a ceremony at the Illini Union Tuesday morning, pending approval by the Board of Trustees.

Herman, who had served as University interim chancellor since June 2004, was chosen over two other finalists for the position following a nine-month search process.

The Board of Trustees is expected to confirm Herman during its May 19 meeting in Chicago.

Tuesday’s ceremony was the culmination of a period of relatively rapid advancement for Herman. At this time last year, Herman was University provost; Seven years ago, he was a dean at the University of Maryland.

Herman’s appointment as the chancellor also comes at a time of change in the University leadership. White has only served as University president for five months, and there has been no permanent University provost since Herman left the position to become interim chancellor last year.

“We need a person of committed, sustained, high inspirational leadership,” White said Tuesday.

During Tuesday’s ceremony, Herman wiped his eyes as he received one of several standing ovations from the audience.

As chancellor, Herman said he wants to help instill a feeling of civic responsibility in University students.

“(There is a) troubling decline in people’s involvement in their communities and the erosion of young people’s awareness of who sits on the U.S. Supreme Court, compared to the near-universal knowledge of who sits in judgment on Fox TV’s American Idol,” Herman said. “We must revitalize our commitment to educating students to realize that they enhance their lives and the lives of their families when they give back to society.”

James Anderson, chair of the chancellor’s search committee, said Herman was chosen from an impressive list of finalists.

“This is a position that Richard got the old-fashioned way – he earned it, and he had to do it in a very tough field,” Anderson said.

Larry Eppley, board chair, agreed that Herman was the right person for the job.

“(We need) someone who can find a way from no way, and Richard Herman fulfills that on all counts,” Eppley said.

Students who have worked with Herman also spoke highly of him.

“I’m just really happy that it turned out this way,” said Adam Blahnik, a senior in LAS who has worked with Herman on two campus committees. “I think he’s an amazing advocate for students. He always put students first. He was never just an advocate for the administration.”

Billy Joe Mills, a junior in LAS who interacted with Herman on the University Senate’s tuition policy advisory committee, said Herman’s relatively quick advancement through the administrative ranks was due to his good social skills.

“He’s someone you want to be friends with,” Mills said. “He can alter his personality type to fit whatever type of situation he’s in, whether he’s in a serious meeting with administrators, or with students.”

Herman’s background is in mathematics. Before serving as dean of computer, mathematical and physical sciences at the University of Maryland, Herman was chair of the Department of Mathematics at Penn State University from 1986 to 1990, according to the University Web site. He has also served as a faculty member at the University of California-Los Angeles, Penn State University and the University of Maryland, and he has been a visiting faculty member and fellow at the University of Marseilles and Princeton University.

After graduating cum laude in 1963 from the Stevens Institute of technology in Hoboken, N.J., Herman received his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Maryland in 1967.

He lives in Champaign with his wife Susan and three children.