FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Jeff Shannon, dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas, has announced that he will resign as dean on May 15. Shannon has decided to return to his first love of teaching, as he approaches the successful culmination of the Vol Walker Hall renovation and Steven L. Anderson Design Center addition, which will house the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

“I am proud of the accomplishments made by the Fay Jones School of Architecture during my tenure as dean,” Shannon said. “I have been fortunate to have been surrounded by talented and dedicated colleagues. The school, with the new building addition and renovation, is poised to reach even greater heights in the future.”

“Jeff and his strong faculty and staff in the Fay Jones School of Architecture have earned an international reputation for academic excellence and creative work,” said Provost Sharon Gaber. “Chancellor Gearhart and I are committed to appointing a leader who will continue the school’s tradition of excellence in the design professions.”

Shannon, who will teach one seminar course this fall, will return to the classroom fulltime in 2014. He will also continue his work as the executive editor of the collaborative publishing venture between the school and the University of Arkansas Press.

“One of the main motivations for this decision was my missing teaching,” Shannon said. “I always promised myself that I would end my career teaching. It’s my first love and the reason I came to the university in the first place. I’ve tried to teach one course a year since I’ve been dean and that’s always been one of the highlights of each semester. So I wanted to make sure I had the chance to teach again fulltime while I still had the energy and enthusiasm to do it well.”

Shannon, who has been dean since 2000, is the fourth dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture. An interim dean will be named soon.