The Traveler

Issue date: 4/4/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Pamela Acosta Fulbright college Dean Don Bobbitt meets with Mary Owens and John Hehr in Old Main.

As he embarks on a new adventure, what Donald Bobbitt will miss most about the UA are the friendships he's formed here, he said.

"This is a wonderful campus with people who want to work together to better the university."

Bobbitt, dean of the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, has been appointed provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington, according to a UTA press release. Bobbitt will join UTA July 1 where he will serve as the university's chief academic officer, overseeing 11 colleges and schools.

"We are delighted to have Don Bobbitt join our leadership team at UT Arlington," said President James Spaniolo, according to the press release.

"He is a gifted academic leader as well as a seasoned administrator, and he is joining the university at one of the most exciting times in our history."

Although Bobbitt's staff is excited about his new job, they said he will be missed.

"He's genuinely concerned for those who work for him and with him," said Dawn Fisher, assistant to the dean. "I feel really blessed to have been able to work with him and to have met him."

Bobbitt's deanship will end June 30. He opted to not apply for any other dean position because he wouldn't want to be dean any other place than Fulbright College, he said.

"It will be very hard to leave this institution," Bobbitt said. "[But] stretching your surroundings is an opportunity for growth."

Bobbitt has been part of the UA faculty for 23 years and has lived in Arkansas for 26 years. When he accepted the deanship, the contract specified five years.

As dean, Bobbitt's greatest challenge for Bobbitt has been to balance the resources given to the college.

Since he's been dean, the college has experienced a 20 percent growth, but the budget has not increased along with it.

"It's been a challenge to provide quality education to all students at the University of Arkansas under those budget challenges," he said.

Another one of the challenges he's faced as dean has been the increase of honors students, Bobbitt said, because the Honors College is not prepared to give an honors education to a larger number of students.

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