RICHARDSON, Texas (May 17, 2005) – Dr. Larry D. Terry, executive vice provost for academic affairs at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and a member of the faculty of UTD’s School of Social Sciences, will take on the added role of interim vice president for business affairs on May 31, when Robert L. Lovitt leaves the university after nearly two decades of service.
Terry was asked to take on the assignment by Dr. David E. Daniel, who will assume the UTD presidency on June 1 as successor to retiring President Dr. Franklyn G. Jenifer. Daniel said that a nationwide search would be launched for Lovitt’s replacement that would aim to identify candidates with specific university financial management experience who can “help UTD continue to advance among the ranks of the nation’s top research universities.”
Dr. Larry D. Terry
“Dr. Terry is highly regarded as both an administrator and a scholar – roles that make him uniquely suited to fulfill the very important and very challenging duties of head of the university’s business affairs function on an interim basis,” said Daniel. “Larry is well-acquainted with both the administrative and academic sides of the house, and that will serve him well as he pursues UTD’s charge as a public university to keep its costs low and its quality high. I deeply appreciate his accepting this assignment.”
Daniel said that filling the important position of vice president for business affairs would be one of his top priorities upon assuming the presidency of UTD in two weeks. The university has an operating budget for the current fiscal year of more than $230 million.
“I am honored that Dr. Daniel has asked me to serve UTD in this interim capacity, and I look forward to beginning my new role with a good deal of enthusiasm,” said Terry, who emphasized that he was not a candidate for the position on a permanent basis.
Terry, who joined UTD in 2001, is currently responsible for faculty affairs, staff appointments and oversight of endowments. He also supervises the university’s Center for U.S./Mexico Studies, the Office of International Education and the UTD Web Services group. Terry is also a professor of public administration and serves as editor of the prestigious scholarly journal Public Administration Review, which is based at UTD.
In addition to fulfilling his current responsibilities, beginning in June Terry will direct the efforts of UTD’s Office of Business Affairs until a replacement for Lovitt is hired – a process that likely will take several months.
Lovitt, who has headed business affairs at UTD since 1985, has accepted the position of executive vice president for finance and administration at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. He will begin June 1.
Terry is an international authority in the field of public administration and an elected member of the National Academy of Public Administration. Later this month, he will address the United Nations’ 6 th Global Forum on Reinventing Government to be held in Seoul, Korea, which is expected to draw 5,000 attendees from around the world.
Terry is a member of the United States Government Accountability Office’s Educator’s Advisory Panel, which helps identify current and emerging issues in higher education and alerts the agency about the changing interests and needs of students relative to employment with the federal government.
This past spring, Terry was named to the advisory board of the International Public Management Training Center at the City University of Hong Kong. The center was established earlier this year to provide high-quality training to officials in Mainland China.
Terry earned a Ph.D. degree from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and an M.S. degree from the University of Missouri – Columbia.
About UTD
The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls more than 14,000 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu.