Jim Parsons
Managing Editor
University of Houston System Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement and UH Vice President for Institutional Advancement Sybil Todd will be leaving UH to take a position at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, UH officials reported Monday.
Todd will serve as UA's vice president for student affairs, a job she most recently held at the University of Utah.
"I think I'm doing the right thing.
"Student affairs is my real passion," she said Tuesday. "The students at UA are remarkably intelligent ... and I enjoy working with college-age kids."
UH System Chancellor/UH President Arthur K. Smith echoed her sentiments.
"Sybil wrote me that ... the opportunity to focus more closely on student issues at the University of Alabama was one she could not turn down," Smith wrote in a memo to UH administration.
Todd accepted the position at UA July 7. She will begin work in Alabama Aug. 15.
The student affairs arena is one Todd should be familiar with. Before working at Utah from 1995 to 1997, she supervised student affairs at the University of Virginia for 17 years.
When Smith moved from Utah to take over as the leader of UH, he hand-picked Todd to work with him, calling her an "outstanding educator and academic administrator."
"This action was not taken lightly, and my resignation is not given without mixed emotions," Todd wrote in her resignation letter.
Her appointment at UA followed a national search.
"Dr. Todd's extensive experience in working with students and her nationally renowned reputation for program development to foster student success make her an outstanding choice for this position," said UA President Andrew Sorenson.
Todd said she expects to find a different atmosphere in Alabama. "(UA is) a rural campus," she said.
"It has about 18,000 students, primarily undergraduate. (Comparing it to UH) is like comparing apples and oranges. UA is a more traditional campus."
She added that she was not looking for a new job, but that the offer from UA seemed impossible to turn down. "(UA) seemed to be a good match," she said.
As vice president of student affairs, Todd will be more involved in the day-to-day student activity and policy-making. Her work at UH did not allow her hands-on dealings with the student community.
In addition to different duties, Todd will apparently be taking a pay cut with her new job, for which the annual salary is reportedly $115,000. At UH, she makes $145,000.
During her 15 months in Houston, Todd played a part in several major structural and image changes at the university.
Upon her arrival, she worked to combine the campus and System development and university relations staff to form the Division of Institutional Advancement in the wake of the decision to merge the UH president and System chancellor's offices.
She also served as head of the search committee for the UH athletics director, increased university fund-raising by 9 percent and managed the first Systemwide marketing plan, which was introduced last fall.
Todd said she feels that forming the new administrative core and developing the marketing plan were her most important accomplishments.
She was full of praise for her staff and for Smith. "These folks have been my co-workers, friends and teachers," she wrote of her staff.
"They are wonderful people who love the university and work hard to make good things happen."
Regarding Smith, she said, "He brought me to Utah and to UH. He's so important to me." Her statement called him "the best university administrator that I have worked with or know about."
Todd's last day at UH will be July 31. "I'm going to be sorry not to be here to be a part of all the things that are going to get better at the university," she said.
"I'm sad to leave."