FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. --- Dr. Randall B. Woods has resigned as dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, University of Arkansas, effective June 30, 2002.

He will return to his professorial duties full time, conducting research and teaching and completing his biography of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. An internationally respected historian, Woods, 57, is the John A. Cooper Sr. Distinguished Chair of Diplomatic History (since 1984) and Distinguished Professor of History (since 1995).

"Randall Woods has done excellent work in moving the Fulbright College forward in accordance with our overarching vision for the University of Arkansas as a nationally competitive, student-centered research university," Chancellor John A. White said. "I am deeply grateful for the strong leadership he has exercised, but understand his desire to return to teaching and research full time. He is a world-class scholar, and his pursuit of his original interests will only strengthen the University’s academic reputation."

According to Bob Smith, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, a national search will be conducted to find a new dean for the University’s largest college, which enrolls 40 percent of the student body. An interim dean will be appointed before June 30, Smith said.

"We deeply regret losing Dean Woods’s services," Smith said. "He has been an outstanding example of the scholar-teacher-administrator. He has championed the research mission as a complement to the faculty’s historically strong teaching mission, and his leadership has resulted in particularly impressive increases in externally funded research-a 44 percent increase, from $16.3 million to $23.4 million, last year alone. He also produced a 7.2 percent increase in Fulbright College enrollments last year, from 5,901 to 6,328, which was ahead of the rate of increase for the University as a whole.

"The sad news is that Randall Woods is stepping down as dean," Smith added. "The good news is that this exceptional historian will, in returning to his original role full time, lend added lustre to what is arguably the most highly regarded department of history among the 12 universities of the Southeastern Conference. His deep commitment to historical scholarship has evolved into what now appears to be an irresistible attraction."

Woods has served as dean since July 1, 2000. He served as interim dean during the 1999-2000 academic year.

Woods said that, while he has found the deanship "challenging and exciting, it has become apparent to me that my first love is history; to do it well, however, requires a total dedication to research and teaching, which I have not been in a position to commit these last two years.

"It has been a privilege to serve as dean of the Fulbright College," he added. "In this role, I have been allowed to marvel at the extraordinary talent of our faculty and staff and champion their commitment to making it one of the very best public liberal arts and sciences colleges in the Southeast—the equivalent of a Tulane, a Vanderbilt, an Emory.

"I am at a point in my career, however, where I must make hard choices," Woods said. "After finishing the LBJ biography, I have a number of other scholarly projects that I want to move forward."

Woods joined the University of Arkansas faculty in 1971, after earning bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. He served as associate dean of the Fulbright College from 1979-82.

He is the author of J. William Fulbright, Vietnam, and the Search for a Cold War Policy, published by Cambridge University Press (1998), and Quest for Identity: A History of Postwar America, published by Harcourt College Publishers (2000).

His earlier Fulbright: A Biography (Cambridge University Press, 1995) won the 1996 Robert H. Ferrell Prize for best book on American foreign relations and the 1996 Virginia Ledbetter Prize for the best book on Southern studies. Fulbright was also nominated for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

Woods is the author of five other books and scores of scholarly articles and book chapters on international relations, U.S. history, U.S. diplomatic history and African-American history.

Woods was a National Endowment for the Humanities Senior Fellow in 1981 and has continued to stay active with the NEH, most recently serving on its dissertation grants panel.

He also has served the Fulbright Exchange Program as a member of the American History Selection Committee (1991-94). He also was a Fellow of the Atlantic Council Conference for Academic Associates in 1985.

At the University of Arkansas, Woods received the Alumni Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching and Research in 1994 and the University of Arkansas Teaching Academy Achievement Award.

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