Wayne D. Watson to Retire After a Decade as Chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago

Wayne D. Watson, who has served for the past decade as chancellor of the City Colleges of Chicago, one of the nation’s largest community college systems, has announced that he will retire next summer at the end of the current academic year. Now, almost a century after its founding, the system includes seven community colleges, a French pastry school, a culinary institute, and a television station that reaches 1.7 million viewers.

All told, the seven community colleges enroll approximately 57,000 students. About 20,000 of these students are black.

Before heading the community college system, Dr. Watson served as president of two of the system’s seven colleges. He holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees, all from Northwestern University. Dr. Watson also sits on Northwestern University’s board of trustees.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.