This past Tuesday, Dr. George Wright announced that he plans to step down as President of Prairie View A&M University after having served the University and the Texas A&M System for the past 14 years.
“I have served this University and the Texas A&M System for 14 years, and I am proud of the progress that we have made in that time,” said Dr. Wright. “But for all of us, the time comes to lay down the responsibilities that go with a job like this one and focus on other things.”
While serving as President at Prairie View, Dr. Wright also continued to teach and do research, and had always expressed a desire to devote his time to the classroom, which is what he plans to do by focusing on teaching history full-time after an interim President is named.
“I want to thank President Wright for his steadfast leadership,” said Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp. “He touched a generation of students and faculty, and he changed lives for the better. He is to be commended, and we will miss him greatly.”
Under the leadership of Dr. Wright, Prairie View’s enrollment grew from 6,500 to 9,000, while the University was nominated for five HBCU awards in 2015, including HBCU of the Year, Business Program of the Year and Nursing Program of the Year.
Dr. Wright also helped create doctorates in Education, Engineering, Nursing Practice and Juvenile Justice; established the degree programs at the Northwest Houston Center; creating the Honors College; established the Confucius Institute; led the Undergraduate Medical Academy to exceed the national average of students accepted into Medical School; opened several state of the art facilities, such as the School of Architecture housed in a three story, 105,000 square-foot building; the Don K. Clark Building, home of the College of Juvenile Justice, Psychology and Texas Crime Prevention Center; the Electrical Engineering Building; the College of Nursing’s leading edge 12-story nursing educational facility, located in the Texas Medical Center in Houston; and their new football stadium.
“I want to thank the Board of Regents of The Texas A&M University System, Chancellor Sharp, and especially, all my many friends and colleagues at this great University and our many alumni for helping make this the best 14 years anyone could ask for,” said Dr. Wright. “What I plan to do is focus more on my research, which requires more travel and attention than I can give it in my current role. I have decided that this is a good time because we have just put the last legislative session behind us, and we are at a point where a transition in leadership will have the least disruption on our school.”
The Forward Times will inform its readers on who Prairie View A&M University and the Texas A&M System will name as the interim President, as well as their search for, and selection process of, a new full-time President who will follow in the footsteps of Dr. Wright.