Massachusetts Gaming Commission chairman Stephen Crosby interested in leading UMass Boston

"People have suggested it," said Chairman of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission Stephen Crosby, confirming his interest in the UMass Boston chancellorship. "I have agreed to be considered. I'm totally flattered people would consider it a possibility."

Before he was appointed as chairman of the five-member agency overseeing the state's new gambling industry in 2011, Crosby served as the founding dean of UMass Boston's McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies. He held the job for six years. Crosby has also worked as the budget chief to Gov. Paul Cellucci and Acting Gov. Jane Swift, supervising nearly two dozen agencies. He also served as Swift's chief of staff.

In October 2017, UMass President Martin Meehan and the chair of the UMass Board of Trustees, Robert Manning, announced the formation of a search committee to conduct a "global" search for the next chancellor of UMass.

UMass Boston, located in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood and next to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, has 17,000 students and 11 colleges and graduate schools.

Crosby's interest in the job comes as the Gaming Commission prepares for the opening of MGM's Springfield casino and grapples with the scandal surrounding Steve Wynn and allegations of sexual misconduct against the casino mogul. After the allegations were laid out in the Wall Street Journal, the commission launched an investigation into Wynn Resorts, which holds the lone eastern Massachusetts casino license.

Crosby said he's enjoyed the Gaming Commission job. His term ends in 2019.

"I'm totally happy here," Crosby said. "It's been a fantastically complicated, challenging, cliff-hanging, unexpected job, but it's been fantastic."

Barry Mills, the former president of Bowdoin College in Maine, has been the interim chancellor at UMass Boston since July 2017 and is slated to step down in June. Mills took over for J. Keith Motley, who served as chancellor between 2007 and 2017.