(Photo: Dr. Rumaldo Z. Juarez)
After serving as president of Texas A&M University-Kingsville for more than five years and seeing the university through the establishment of the first pharmacy school in South Texas, Rumaldo Juarez will resign from his position effective July 1.
Juarez made the announcement to administrators and faculty at a meeting Wednesday morning and through an e-mail to students.
Though Juarez is resigning as president of the university, he will remain at A&M-Kingsville as the vice president for research and graduate studies.
"I was not ready to stop contributing to this university," Juarez said, adding that his tenure as president has lasted about the average length for university presidents.
"There is never a right time to step down, but university presidents aren't forever," he said.
Juarez said he made the announcement now to give university officials ample time to find a replacement. He hopes a successor will be named by the start of 2009, before the start of the 81st legislative regular session. Texas A&M University System officials are expected to continue discussions about how to best move forward with the presidential search on Monday.
Juarez said his most memorable accomplishment has been leading the university through the construction and funding of the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy.
"That was a bitter-fought struggle with a beautiful outcome for all of South Texas," Juarez said.
His most challenging moment came as he presented faculty and staff with a series of changes upon his arrival. Some of those changes focused on increasing the requirements for promotion and tenure.
The president's announcement comes weeks after A&M-Kingsville Provost Kay Clayton announced her resignation, also effective July 1. Clayton, who has worked with the university for 20 years, has accepted a similar position with Texas Woman's University.
Despite the departure of both Juarez and Clayton this summer, Juarez said he expects the university to move forward through the strong institutional leadership that will remain.
Clayton said Juarez will be remembered as a president who helped guide the university though a number of advances including the addition of more upper level degrees, the increase in admission standards and the successful operation of the university's first capital campaign, which raised more than $9 million in new funding.
Under his leadership, the university also built the Tio and Janell Kleberg Wildlife Research Center and the King Ranch Institute for Ranch Management.
"He has made significant contributions to the university and the community and they will be greatly appreciated and a legacy for years to come," Clayton said.
James Norwine, professor of geosciences, has been at A&M-Kingsville for 38 years and was on the search committee that selected Juarez in 2002.
Norwine said Juarez, a native of Robstown, expressed a desire to fully become a part of A&M- Kingsville.
"When he came here he was determined to merge his own personal identity with that of the university," Norwine said. "I appreciated that from day one."
President Juarez will assume the position of Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies.
(Ref: Corpus Christi Caller-Times, By Adriana Garza (Contact)
Originally published 05:16 a.m., February 14, 2008
Updated 05:16 a.m., February 14, 2008)
