Edward T. Foote, who spent two decades as the president of the University of Miami lifting its academic standards, stabilizing its finances and helping dispel its reputation as Suntan U., died on Feb. 15 in Cutler Bay, Fla., near Miami. He was 78.

The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his daughter, Julia Foote LeStage.

A former journalist and lawyer, Mr. Foote, who was known as Tad, was just 43 in 1981 when he left Washington University in St. Louis, where he had been the dean of the law school, to lead the University of Miami.

At the time, Miami was known more for its party atmosphere than for its classroom rigor. Perhaps more problematic, he arrived at a difficult moment for the city. Crime was rampant, the drug trade was flourishing, and the Mariel boatlift had flooded the ill-prepared city with Cuban refugees.

Time magazine published a cover story with the headline “South Florida: Trouble in Paradise” shortly after Mr. Foote took over. In the months before, hundreds of students who were expected to attend the university had enrolled elsewhere.