FAYETTEVILLE : UA vice chancellor to retire in early 2009
Posted on Saturday, August 16, 2008
The University of Arkansas ’ vice chancellor for Student Affairs will retire Jan. 31 after more than a decade on the job.
Johnetta Cross Brazzell is credited with beginning a program in fall 2000 called First Year Experience. It sought to bond UA freshmen to the campus academically and socially so they could more easily persevere to a degree.
When Brazzell came to the Fayetteville campus Jan. 15, 1999, UA’s freshman retention rate was 74. 1 percent.
By fall 2004, it peaked at 83. 7 percent and was 82. 8 percent for fall 2007.
The rate follows a class of first-time, full-time degree-seeking freshmen to see what portion return to campus the next fall. It is the first leg of the six-year graduation rate, a standard the U. S. Department of Education uses to track the performance of the nation’s four-year universities and colleges.
Brazzell, 61, said that she has long planned a retirement from full-time work and that her departure has nothing to do with the chancellorship change July 1, when G. David Gearhart took over for John A. White.
“This is about me,” she said. “It will be wonderful to work with Dave for the time I have left.” In a statement, Gearhart said that Brazzell did a “remarkable job” and that she will be missed.
“She has left us a solid foundation for further growth and improvement,” he said.
UA spokesman Steve Voorhies said officials haven’t decided whether they’ll use a national search to find a replacement for Brazzell, who earns $ 189, 720 annually.
Brazzell said she has two adjunct faculty appointments at UA, one in education and one in history, but that she has more than five months to decide how she’ll spend retirement. She said she wants to remain active, “but my intent is certainly not to take on a full-time job.” “The difference we have made in students’ lives — this is what this is all about,” Brazzell said. “Where they live, what they eat, the opportunities that are available to them, the programs we’ve put in place for their development.” Early on, Brazzell found herself in the crossfire of a complaint from a prominent alumnus, and later on, in the middle of a battle among students during a planned restructuring of student government.
In June 2000, Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Wendell L. Griffen put his alma mater on notice he would withdraw his recruiting and fundraising support to protest what he described as Brazzell’s impending demotion of a black administrator.
Griffen, Brazzell and the administrator, Lonnie R. Williams, then a UA assistant vice chancellor for Student Affairs, are all black.
At the time, UA officials responded that a restructuring within Student Affairs had not been completed; about three weeks later they said Williams had never been targeted for demotion.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
