The president of Western Illinois University has resigned after eight years in the role.
Jack Thomas, who has led the college based in Macomb and the Quad Cities since 2011, announced his choice to step down at a board of trustees meeting Friday and later issued a statement confirming his departure.
Thomas, 58, stated he would leave the workplace on June 30. Trustees later stated Thomas would pass on administrative leave via June 30, 2021, throughout which Western will retain to pay him his base salary of $270,528.
Thomas’ departure comes as trustees were scheduled to discuss an overall performance review and the terms of his contract. The board also scheduled Friday to lease a new provost, Martin Abraham, who will instead function as transient president. Tuntiltrustees can rent a period-in-between chief.
Before becoming president, Thomas became provost and educational vp from 2008 to 2011.
“At this pivotal time in our history, I believe the university would be well served by new leadership,” Thomas stated in the announcement.
“It has been a privilege serving as president, provost, and member of the Illinois Board of Higher Education in the course of this historical duration. Despite our nation’s problems concerning the price range and lack of population, our university remains resilient. We are a global-elegance university, and at some point in my very last days as president, I will work to make certain the entirety is in the vicinity for the new leadership to start the subsequent bankruptcy in Western’s history.”
After his departure, Thomas can begin at the college as a tenured distinguished provider professor, effective July 1, 2021.
“President Thomas has been devoted and committed to serving our students,” board Chairman Greg Aguilar said in a statement. “He has mentored endless college students and impacted many lives for the coolest. Again, we want to thank President Thomas for t”his leadership.
As with a number of the nation’s universities, Western has struggled in recent years with falling enrollment and financial problems that ended in layoffs and furloughs of groups of workers and schools, falling credit ratings, and elimination of packages.
From an excessive of thirteen 602 college students in 2006, enrollment plummeted to 8,502 students in the final fall, a drop greater than 37 percent.
There also had been more than one round of layoffs, including in March, while 132 employees were permitted to cross.
Thomas stated that increased kingdom investment, the country’s price range deadlock, population declines in the vicinity, and an increase in students leaving Illinois for university have all contributed to Western’s woes.
“Without a doubt, I have needed to make some difficult selections consisting of ones wthat have occasionally been very unpopular, however, though we’re constantly made with the first-class pastimes of the general University’s future at heart,” Thomas wrote.
Thomas’ department is the modern primary manager of the university. In March, Gov. J.B. Pritzker appointed a new board, ushering in seven new trustees.
The governor said at the time, “The new board will recognize its efforts on revitalizing WIU’s pupil recruitment and outreach efforts, focusing investments on core programs, burnishing the college’s popularity and logo at some stage in the kingdom, and strengthening relationships with its surrounding communities.”