DENTON, Texas — University of North Texas president Neal J. Smatresk is stepping down after a decade leading the Denton university.
Smatresk announced the move Tuesday and said his last day will be Aug. 1. Smatresk joined the university in February 2014.
The announcement said Smatresk will instead focus on teaching and mentoring students, a role "he loves most," according to the press release from the university.
“When I first took on this role, I knew we had the potential to achieve great things, and because of the dedication, passion and hard work of our faculty and staff, we have flourished in ways that are nothing short of remarkable,” Smatresk wrote in the release.
The university announcement attributed Smatresk with guiding the school "into one of the largest Tier One research universities in the nation," growing enrollment from 36,000 students to nearly 47,000 students this past fall.
"I am proud of the many notable accomplishments President Smatresk has made over the past decade on behalf of UNT," UNT System Chancellor Michael R. Williams said in the press release. "He has created a strong foundation and legacy that will empower UNT to achieve great success in the years to come. We are thankful for his leadership and unwavering commitment to UNT and our North Texas community."
Smatresk was president at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) for four years before taking the UNT job. He had also been a chief academic officer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. But his academic roots are in North Texas, where he spent the first 25 years of his career at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA).
Smatresk's background is in biology, which he taught at UTA.
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