Drury University President David Manuel plans to step down when his contract ends in May.
Spokesman Mike Brothers said Manuel made the choice to resign in preparation for retirement. He informed the school’s board of trustee’s yesterday.
“He began considerations of his professional and personal future plans several months ago,” Brothers said via email. “He is retiring after more than 40 years in higher ed.”
Manuel, 68, became Drury’s 17th president in
July 2013, succeeding Todd Parnell. He plans to serve out his contract through May 31, according to a news release.
“We have an outstanding leadership team, and I am confident they will be able to move the university forward,” Manuel said in the release, noting he would work with the board and administration to find his replacement.
Brothers said the board is responsible for finding a successor. However, details of that process have not been finalized.
Manuel came to Drury from Louisiana State University, where he worked as chancellor and an economics professor. He was narrowed down from 60 candidates and was in a pool of three finalists that included David Steele, the dean of the business school at San Jose State University in California, and David McInally, the executive vice president and treasurer at Allegheny College in Pennsylvania.
During Manuel’s tenure, the school has experienced declining enrollment that has led to workforce cuts.
Last month, the school disclosed it would not renew the contracts of 12 faculty members within a two-year period. The university cited traditional undergraduate day-school enrollment of 1,325 this semester, an 8.9 percent decrease from 1,454 a year earlier.
In
October 2013, Manuel said Drury would reduce its workforce by 35 positions, the majority of which were position eliminations, retirements, consolidations and vacant jobs. Less than 10 were layoffs, he said at the time. In the announcement, the president said Drury’s enrollment had declined an at average of 6 percent per year after a record head count of 5,625 students in 2010.
In
April 2014, the university’s Center for Nonprofit Communications released a 40-page study on the economics of area nonprofits. It found nearly 39,000 people, or 51 percent of the workforce, were employed by nonprofits in the Queen City.
Brothers said two of Manuel’s notable accomplishments were instituting a strategic enrollment plan calling on faculty and staff to take active rolls in recruitment and retention, as well as a three-year strategic plan approved by the board in May.
