Doti Quickly Selected as 12th President of Chapman : Education: Students and faculty cheer their new president. The popular professor signals a greater accessibility than Allen E. Koenig, who quit under fire.

Moving quickly to replace the school’s embattled chief, Chapman College on Wednesday named a popular campus professor and well-known economic forecaster as its 12th president.

The third time proved lucky for James L. Doti, a 44-year-old Chicago native who has had two stints as acting president of the small, Christian-based, liberal arts college.

Doti received spirited standing ovations from students and professors Wednesday at two campus gatherings where he was introduced as the new president. Several said he promises far greater accessibility than did outgoing President Allen E. Koenig, whose tenure was dogged by controversy over his policies and approach.

“There’s just tremendous relief at (Koenig) being gone and tremendous jubilation over Jim coming in,” said Mike Martin, a philosophy professor. “This is what should have happened in the first place.”

School trustees chose Doti within an hour of accepting President Allen E. Koenig’s resignation at an emergency meeting Tuesday. The new president takes office July 1.

Neither Doti nor school officials would discuss Doti’s salary, but his predecessor was said to have been paid more than $230,000.

Board Chairman George L. Argyros, an Orange County developer and former owner of the Seattle Mariners, said Doti was the only candidate considered and won unanimous approval for the job.

“For the trustees, it was rather obvious what our next step was,” he said.

“I think that Jim’s time has come,” Argyros told students and professors. “He will make a great president.”

Fred Smoller, a political science professor, said: “The sun is shining on Chapman again.”

And Robert Crane, who graduated from Chapman this spring after calling for Koenig’s resignation in the school paper, said: “I think this is fantastic. . . . After the Koenig debacle, I think (the trustees) needed to move quickly to choose someone who could bring the campus together after all the division of the last year. Dr. Doti is the right man.”

Koenig came to Orange from Emerson College in Massachusetts in 1989, after beating out Doti for the job. In his letter of resignation, he cited “personal and family reasons.” He declined comment Wednesday on his replacement.

Argyros said Koenig left voluntarily, without pressure from trustees. Addressing campus members at Doti’s introduction, Argyros said he feels “indebted” to Koenig for his work.

But his praise for Koenig drew only murmurs from an overflow crowd of about 250 faculty members and students in the Waltmar Theater who, just moments earlier, had cheered Doti. And Argyros himself acknowledged: “We’ve been through a lot in the last year and a half. . . . It wasn’t as pleasant a ride as we would all like from time to time. I recognize that.”

Koenig clashed with students and faculty over his vision for moving the 2,200-student school away from its liberal arts roots and toward more professionally based courses, such as communications and business. He was criticized as well over such specific plans as faculty layoffs and requirements for having undergraduates live on campus.

In a spring referendum, 75% of the participating students gave Koenig a vote of “no confidence.”

Koenig’s critics also said he was perceived as inaccessible and bent on making policy without others’ input. Doti, on the other hand, is lauded as a professor and administrator who often mingles with students on the campus “shady quad.”

He quickly sought to bolster that reputation Wednesday, inviting students and professors at one of the gatherings to give him short statements on their own “visions” for the college.

“We have problems,” said Doti, who came to Chapman in 1974 as an economics professor, “but we’ve dealt with problems before.”

He poked fun at the controversy over Koenig’s thwarted “strategic plan,” which included a 20% faculty layoff, telling the crowd that he planned a “completely new strategic plan.”

Then, he added quickly: “Just kidding, just kidding.” In fact, Doti said he was “quite happy” with the more moderate compromise plan ultimately worked out with the faculty, although he saw room for some undisclosed revisions.

And even though Koenig’s plan to require students to live on campus in dormitories drew widespread criticism, Doti said he generally agreed with the idea and has no plans to change it.

He said that the chance for students to become a part of the campus community, rather than living elsewhere, “is what Chapman is all about.”

Times staff writers Kristina Lindgren and John O’Dell contributed to this report.