LITTLE ROCK – A University of Arkansas graduate who was a longtime professor and dean at the school’s flagship campus was picked Thursday to lead the state university system and to guide it through tough economic times.
Donald Bobbitt, the current provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington, will replace B. Alan Sugg, who plans to retire after more than two decades as president.
Bobbitt graduated from the system’s Fayetteville campus – as did two of his sons – and joined the university’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in 1985, eventually becoming the department’s chairman. He led Fayetteville’s Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences for five years before going to UT Arlington in 2008.
“The University of Arkansas and my family are intimately entwined,” Bobbitt told reporters after his selection Thursday evening.
The board of trustees met in a closed session for more than 90 minutes after hearing from the last of the four candidates they considered. Afterward, they voted unanimously for Bobbitt.
Bobbitt, 54, will receive a three-year contract with an annual salary of $355,000, which is slightly less than the maximum public funds allotted for the position by law.
“We think that we’ve found an extraordinary young candidate,” said Carl Johnson, the board chairman. “He has a vision, he has the leadership skill, the management skill, and also the academic background to lead us into the future.”
Afterward, Johnson told reporters that he thought Bobbitt was someone who could “try to help us with our budget.”
Bobbitt said he would look for ways to make a sprawling system with 13 academic institutions and more than 66,000 students more efficient. One possible way to grow could be online education, he told reporters.
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