Dr. Jack Thomas was named the eleventh president of Western Illinois University in 2011. Previously, Dr. Thomas served as the university’s provost and academic vice president. Some of the president supporters alleged that racism was behind the campaign to oust the university’s first African American president.
Stepping down from their positions are Melissa Thomas-Hunt, professor of management and vice provost at Vanderbilt University, Andre Patillo, director of athletics at Morehouse College in Atlanta, and Filomina C. Steady, chair of Africana studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
Joyce E. Smith, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, has announced she will retire in summer 2020 and Eddie A. Holloway, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students at the University of Southern Mississippi, will retire in June.
The four African American who are stepping down from their positions are Ellen Smiley at Grambling State University in Louisiana, Neema Connor at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Dana Brooks at West Virginia University, and Melvin Leon Heard at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Jacqueline Royster, dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Peggy Bradford, president of Shawnee Community College in Ullin, Illinois, have announced they are leaving their posts this coming summer.
Those stepping down from their posts are Nicole Prudent at the Boston University School of Medicine, Blake D. Morant, dean of the law school at George Washington University, Frankie Jeffries at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Michael Adewumi at Pennsylvania State University, and Willie Hill Jr. at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
John Newson, director of university bands at Howard University in Washington, D.C., has retired from his position after 25 years and James Lucas, director of human resources at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is retiring after almost seven years at the institution.
The African American men who are leaving their current posts are Winston B. Crisp at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Corey D.B. Walker at Virginia Union University, Donald Cole at the University of Mississippi, Cliff Thornton at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and Stanley Pritchett at Morris Brown College in Atlanta.
Marilyn Sanders Mobley, vice president for inclusion, diversity, and equal opportunity at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, will step down and return to the English department faculty and Alan Brangman, executive vice president and university treasurer at the University of Delaware, has announced he will retire in early 2019.
Walter Robinson, associate vice chancellor of enrollment management at the University of California, Davis, is retiring and David Williams II, vice chancellor for athletics and university affairs and athletics director at Vanderbilt University, is stepping down but will continue to serve on the university’s law school faculty.
Pat Singleton-Young was the director of the Multicultural Student Center at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina and Carolyn Ashe is retiring as professor and director of the Institute for Business Ethics, and Public Issues at the University of Houston-Downtown.
The three retirees are Rhonda Rogers at Virginia Tech, Karla Spurlock-Evans at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and Kent Merritt at the University of Virginia.
Ethel Hill Williams, the Reynolds Professor of public affairs and director of the School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Carolyn B. Brooks, professor of microbiology at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, are retiring.
When he retired in June 2019, Dr. Henry Tisdale will have led the historically Black university for a quarter century. He was the first African American to earn a doctorate in mathematics at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Linda Hayden is retiring after 38 years of teaching at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina and Claudie Mackey has been on the faculty there since 1977.
The resignation comes after allegations surfaced that Dr. Vincent plagiarized part of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1978, Beverly Ledbetter was appointed the university’s inaugural general counsel and she has served as Brown’s chief legal officer ever since. She earned her juris doctorate at the University of Colorado Law School.
Dr. Bell became president of the university in July 1, 2012. From 2009 to 2012, Dr. Bell was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. In retirement, she plans to write a book on her journey from the cotton fields of Alabama to the presidency of a state university.
Gaddis Faulcon recently retired from his post as vice president at Saint Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina and Phail Wynn, a vice president at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, announced he will retire in June.
Dr. Conway has served as chancellor since 2016 and has had a 45-year career with the University of North Carolina System. Earlier, Dr. Conway was vice chancellor and chief of staff at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina.
George Cotten, who has served as vice president for university advancement at Florida A&M University since April 2015 has resigned. Shawnta Friday-Stroud, dean of the School of Business and Industry, was named interim vice president of university advancement.
Larry E. Davis dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh, has announced that he will step down as the end of the current academic year. He has led the School of Social work since 2001.
Dr. Dunning was named interim president of Albany State University in 2013 and was hired on a permanent basis in 2015. He successfully presided over the university during its merger with Darton State College.
In 1995, Nathaniel Glover was elected as the first African American sheriff in Florida in more than 100 years and the first African American sheriff in the history of Jacksonville. He was named the 29th president of Edward Waters College in 2011.
Frankie O. Felder, senior associate dean at the Clemson University’s graduate school, retired on August 15. Dr. Felder had served as a dean at the graduate school since 1987. She was the first African American dean at Clemson.
Sherri Burr, Regents Professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law, is retiring. She has taught at the law school since 1988.
Haywood L. Strickland has announced that he will step down as president of Wiley College in Marshall, Texas at the end of the 2017-18 academic year. He has led the historically Black educational institution in East Texas since 2000.
Dr. Hill will remain affiliated with the university as professor emeritus in medical education and administration and professor emeritus of psychology, microbiology, and immunology.
Dan Hall, vice president and director of the Office of Community Engagement at the University of Louisville, is retiring after 32 years on the university’s staff. He was the first African American to earn the title of vice president at the university.
Livingston Alexander, president of the University of Pittsburgh campuses at Bradford and Titusville, announced that he will step down on June 30, 2018. He has been president of the Bradford campus for 14 years and added the Titusville campus to his duties in 2012.
Kenneth Perry, an associate professor and the chair of the computer science department at Morehouse College in Atlanta, and Paula J. Giddings, the Elizabeth A. Woodson 1922 Professor of Africana Studies at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, are retiring.
Tobe Johnson is the longest serving faculty member in Morehouse College history. He has taught at the historically Black college for 59 years. Marcellus Barksdale, a professor of African American studies and a professor of history, joined the faculty in 1977.
Morton has led the university since December 2008. At that time, he was chair of the university’s board of trustees and agreed to lead the university as interim chancellor until a new leader could be found. But a few months later, the board asked him to take the job on a permanent basis.
Willie Ruff, a professor at the Yale School of Music, is retiring after teaching at the university since 1971. Also retiring is Darlene Clark Hine, a professor of history and professor of African American studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
The Black women who have announced their retirements are Sandra J. DeLoatch of Norfolk State University in Virginia, Iris Rosa of Indiana University, Jean Hampton of Texas Southern University, and Branwen Smith-King of Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Dr. Motley’s resignation comes at a time when the university is experiencing declining enrollment and has accumulated $30 million in debt. Protesters held a rally in front of the State House on Beacon Hill in Boston in support of Dr. Motley.
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