Dr. Robert J. Jones, president of the State University of New York at Albany, has been selected to become the next chancellor of the University at Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Jones, 65, an agricultural researcher will become the first Black to lead the university’s flagship campus when he assumes the position in October.
“This is my dream job,” Jones said in a statement released by the University of Illinois. “Although I had planned to retire in this position, the opportunity to lead one of the most highly regarded land-grant institutions among America’s public research universities and the flagship campus of the University of Illinois System is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he added.
In appointing him to the top position, University of Illinois President Timothy Killeen said that Jones beat out more than 100 other applicants because he had the right experience and credentials to lead the public university forward.
“A distinguished scholar in the agricultural sciences, and a thoughtful and visionary leader in public higher education, with an exemplary record of accomplishment as a sitting university president for a research-intensive public university, he is simply ideally qualified to lead our institution into the future,” Killeen said of Jones, who will also hold the title of vice president of the University of Illinois System, which also has universities in Chicago and Springfield.
Jones, who has led SUNY-Albany since 2013, spent 34 years at the University of Minnesota, where rose through the ranks and served as senior vice president for academic administration from 2004-2013.
Jones takes over the university following the resignation of Dr. Phyllis Wise last year, amid a controversial e-mail scandal that made national headlines.
