ASU interim provost hired permanently

Cooksey to oversee academic affairs

— Arkansas State University-Jonesboro named Lynita Cooksey the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, the university announced Tuesday.

Cooksey, a former associate dean and professor, has served as interim provostsince July, when former interim Provost Glendell Jones Jr. left to become president of Henderson State University.

ASU’s last permanentprovost was G. Daniel Howard, who left the position in 2010 to become interim chancellor. Howard will return to the classroom in the spring as a professor of educational leadership.

As provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, Cooksey will oversee academic programs at the campus, which has an enrollment of nearly 14,000 students and a growing online education component.

“Dr. Cooksey is a proven academic leader and has done an outstanding job throughout this transitional period dating to last year,” said Chancellor Tim Hudson, who was hired in March.

“After taking counsel from key individuals in our academic community about the qualities we would want in a provost, I concluded we already had the right person in place.”

In a news release, Hudson called Cooksey a “persistent advocate of faculty development and student welfare.”

Hudson worked with several campus groups to make his selection, including the Executive Committee of Faculty Senate and the Department Chairs Council, ASU said.

Cooksey earned her doctorate in entomology at Oklahoma State University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arkansas State University. She is a graduateof Jonesboro High School.

She joined the ASU faculty in 1993, later becoming chair and associate chair of the Department of Biological Sciences and associate dean of what was then the College of Arts and Sciences.

Cooksey has also servedas dean of University College, where she was instrumental in establishing the First-Year Experience program at ASU, the release said.

She is currently coordinating the accreditation process with the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

“I appreciate the confidence Dr. Hudson and the campus community has placed in me,” Cooksey said in a statement.

“I look forward to remaining a part of strong academic and leadership teams and assisting Dr. Hudson with his vision for the next era of our institution.”

University leaders had not set Cooksey’s new salary Tuesday, ASU spokesman Regina Bowman said.

Arkansas, Pages 15 on 10/17/2012

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