Frank Stepping Down as Kent State Provost

The community starts saying its goodbyes to Kent State Provost Robert Frank, who announced today he will step down at the end of the 2011-2012 school year.

Frank announced his intentions in a message to the campus community today.

"At age 59, you tend to reassess your priorities, and I’ve long dreamed of being a college president," Frank said. "Realistically, I’ve one career move left, and now’s the time to make it."

As provost, Frank is responsible for all academic affairs functions of the university. Frank took over as provost in 2007.

Since then, he served as interim dean of the fledgling College of Public Health, led the division of academic affairs, created a unified school of graduate studies and oversaw a doubling in growth of international students. In his announcement, he pointed to other accomplishments, including revamping the university's promotion and tenure policy to emphasize scholarly productivity and helping to establish a School of Digital Sciences and a Center for Ecology and Natural Resource Sustainability.

"By planning my departure, the university will have plenty of time to conduct a careful search for a new provost and benefit from a seamless leadership transition next summer," Frank said.

Kent State President Lester Lefton pointed to Frank's work abroad strengthening the university's presence in countries including China, India and Saudi Arabia.

"Dr. Frank has accomplished much," Lefton said. "The Kent State University community is grateful to Dr. Frank for his unwavering leadership and dedication to student success at Kent State. I thank him for his contributions to our excellence agenda and for helping with the transition of his planned departure next summer. We wish him well with his future academic endeavors."

Frank said the university, led by Lefton, will convene a search committee immediately to find his replacement.

"In the coming transitionary year, my most important goals will be to lead the further improvements to Kent State’s graduate programs; boost research funding; implement a distance learning strategy; and direct efforts to increase student retention," Frank said.

Read the full text of Frank's announcement here.