You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
The president of Edinboro University in Pennsylvania will leave after 18 months to become president of Western Illinois University, a move coming as Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education officials work on merging Edinboro with other state-owned universities.
Guiyou Huang is slated to start as the next president at Western Illinois Jan. 1 after the university’s trustees unanimously approved his hiring Monday. He was chosen for his current role as Edinboro’s president in May 2019, beginning in the position in July of that year.
Huang is the seventh person to fill the role of Edinboro president in the last decade, counting interim leaders. He is the fourth since Julie E. Wollman left the position in January 2016, according to a list from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The university had two interim presidents in the last four years, owing in part to the short term of H. Fred Walker, who started as president in July 2016 only to resign less than two years later after making comments that he “would never be able to reason with the faculty.”
The 14-university Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education is attempting to merge several universities in the face of long-mounting demographic, enrollment and financial pressures. The most recent merger plans call for three institutions in western Pennsylvania -- Edinboro, California and Clarion Universities -- to be combined and add an online career-oriented program.
Another president of an institution in that proposed merger, Geraldine Jones of California University, is also slated to leave her post soon. She is planning to retire in January.
Huang sent a letter to Edinboro constituencies about his departure from Edinboro, according to the Tribune-Review.
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to have talked with and worked with so many of you. I have been quite impressed with your support of each other and your commitment to the university,” he said. “I am especially thankful to the council of trustees, the executive leadership team, the faculty and staff leaderships and SGA leadership for their good work and collaboration.”
The Pennsylvania state system has also been exploring merging another set of three institutions. Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield Universities in the north-central part of the state would be merged and create certificate or stackable credential programs under the most recent proposal.
