Calvin White Jr. will be the next executive vice chancellor and provost at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. The university enrolls more than 8,200 undergraduate and more than 4,600 graduate students according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. Blacks make up 13 percent of the undergraduate student body.
“I welcome, with great enthusiasm, this opportunity to work with the excellent faculty, staff, students and community of Arkansas State,” Dr. White said. “I look forward to the exciting challenge ahead, and to continuing to facilitate the expansion and enhancement of A-State’s thriving research, academic programs and overall vital intellectual campus life.
“As a native Arkansan, this is an exceptional opportunity to contribute as a leader to research, innovation and discovery that directly improves the lives of all Arkansans. My entire academic career has been focused on the overall intellectual growth of students, colleagues, peers, the institution, community, and state,” he added.
Currently, Dr. White is the associate dean of humanities in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He joined the University of Arkansas in 2007 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 2013, and has served in campus leadership roles including program director and department chair, as well as on strategic projects focused on budget preparation and oversight, assessment and accreditation, international education, fundraising and strategic planning.
Dr. White is the author of The Rise to Respectability: Race, Religion, and the Church of God in Christ (University of Arkansas Press, 2012). He is completing work on a biography of Oscar S. De Priest, the first African American elected to the U.S. Congress in the 20th century.
Dr. White holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. He earned a Ph.D. in history at the University of Mississippi.
