ASU at Jonesboro in national search for new leader
Arkansas State University at Jonesboro — the state’s second-largest public fouryear campus — has started a national search for a new leader.
Arkansas State University System President Chuck Welch named an advisory search committee, which has created a Web page and an advertisement that includes a list of responsibilities. The school has attracted at least 10 applicants.
The search comes as only one other public university in Arkansas is looking for a new leader: the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Nationwide, searches are on for a chancellor at the Nevada System of Higher Education — who would oversee the state’s two research universities, a state college, research institute and four community colleges — a president at the University of New Mexico, and an executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer for the University System of Georgia.
In Arkansas, the new leader will take over at a time when the state’s colleges and universities are switching funding mechanisms from one that was largely enrollment-based to one focused on student success. And with that, schools for the first time in at least a decade could have a shot at a piece of $10 million in new funding if state lawmakers approve it during the 2018 legislative fiscal session.
The new chancellor will also be faced with the task of other Arkansas peers: graduating more students with their current resources. At Arkansas State, the new leader will start a new five-year strategic planning initiative, helping to determine what course the 14,085-student university will take in the coming years.
The search advisory committee is encouraging interested applicants to turn in their materials — a letter
of interest, a resume and references with contact information — by April 17 for prioritized consideration, according to the website. The committee will review applications until the position is filled.
The goal is to narrow down the list of applicants by late April, get finalists to the campus in May and name a new chancellor by June 1, Welch said. The search committee will not use the help of an executive firm, he said, adding that he believed that through networking, the university could still attract a strong pool of candidates.
Ultimately, Welch will select whom to hire, and the system’s board of trustees will need to affirm the choice.
In September, Welch brought Doug Whitlock out of retirement at age 73 to run the Jonesboro school on an interim basis. The Kentuckian’s contract runs through June 30 and can be extended on a month-to-month basis if needed.
Whitlock replaced former Chancellor Tim Hudson, who resigned just before the start of the fall 2016 semester amid allegations that included nepotism and conflicts of interest. He did not receive a severance package.
The system’s internal auditors found that Hudson had tried unsuccessfully to hire his wife, Deidra, who worked part time as the study-abroad manager, on a full-time basis at an annual salary of $50,000. The study-abroad program, auditors said, was unorganized and lacked written agreements with parties, including third-party vendor Multisense.
Auditors also said the Hudsons had a personal relationship with the family who owned Multisense, which was
selected to be the third-party provider for Spain trips without using a competitive bidding process. Tim Hudson, who never disclosed the relationship with that family, had also later hired a son of the Multisense owner as an executive assistant at an annual salary of $70,000.
Subsequent audits also reported that Tim Hudson used his standing as chancellor more than once to secure special privileges, including attempts to obtain more financial assistance for his
then-college-going daughter. The ex-chancellor had also submitted reimbursements for travel expenses in Mexico, where the system is working with local officials to start a campus at Queretaro, when auditors said most of the claims were already taken care of by the school’s partners. He has since repaid the university.
The audits have been forwarded to Scott Ellington, the prosecuting attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit of Arkansas. Ellington said his office
is still reviewing the audit findings.
Hudson led the university for four years, replacing a two-year interim chancellor, Dan Howard, according to the university. ASU’s first chancellor in 2006 — when the ASU System was created — was Robert Potts, who served four years. The average tenure of a chancellor or president is about six years, according to the American Council on Education.
“I guess the previous chancellor was here the longest, but we kind of had a revolving door in our chancellorship here.” said Mike McDaniel, the university’s faculty senate president and professor of communication disorders. “That may be an overstatement. We haven’t had anybody in that position for more than four years. There’s not been a great deal of continuity, and everybody has a different agenda.”
The university needs to present a united mission so everyone knows they are in the same key, he said. Whitlock has taken steps to get everyone in sync, he said.
“He’s a real good listener,” McDaniel said. “I think he’s intuitive and experienced enough to sometimes read between the lines. I think he has a sense of what’s important and where the university needs to spend its time and resources. He’s been kind of the antithesis of what we had before.”
“Unfortunately, he’s like me: he’s a little long in the
tooth,” he added. “We’d like to have a younger version of him get the job.”
Faculty and staff groups are also interested in a chancellor with a commitment to and expertise in shared governance — the idea that everyone on campus is involved in decision-making processes — and with a collaborative, transparent style of leading, Welch said.
The campus also wants to continue building the number of doctoral degrees offered and research, both of which are still in “infancy stages,” he said. Those could become a part of the university’s new strategic plan, led by the new chancellor, Welch said.
He added one of the jobs of the new leader would be to make determinations on changes in admission standards and balance that with how rapidly the university grows and how much it focuses on faculty research and teaching. He would also like someone open to the idea of innovative partnerships, such as the recent addition of the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine on the Jonesboro campus.
ASU-Jonesboro’s proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2017, includes a chancellor’s annual salary at a maximum of $275,000. But Arkansas law — under Arkansas Code Annotated 6-63-309 — allows public higher education institutions in the state to exceed the line-item budget maximum by no more than 25 percent in public funds so that the schools can recruit and retain well-qualified academic personnel.
The law calls for the rule to be applied to no more than 10 percent of the college or university’s authorized positions, including chancellor, academic deans, division or department chairs, distinguished professors and other faculty. Colleges and universities often supplement public pay with private donations to enhance salaries.
Hudson made $360,000 annually, while Whitlock earns $305,000 annually.
The new chancellor would also be in charge of the campus’ nearly 1,600 full-time employees and would manage an annual $201.3 million budget, with less than a third coming from state appropriations.
The leader would inherit a university that is accepting fewer students needing remediation. Students with scores below 19 in math, English or reading on the ACT college-admissions exam are required to take non-credit remedial classes. The school has lowered its remediation rate in the past five years, and, according to the most recent state data, 22.4 percent of the 1,577 first-time students entering ASU in fall 2015 needed remediation.
The leader would also come in as the state looks to raise the number of Arkansans with a degree to better suit the future job market. The university’s current graduation rate is 36.4 percent of 1,959 entering in fall 2009 and earning a degree six years later, but higher-education institutions will focus more on helping students succeed.