Updated December 4, 2007 at 10:08 a.m.
Chicago Heights, IL—(ENEWSPF)— Dr. Paul McCarthy resigned today as President of Prairie State College. According to sources close to the college, he has accepted a position as President of El Centro College, Dallas, TX, part of the Dallas County Community College District. Dr. McCarthy’s resignation is effective February 1. He begins his new position February 4 at El Centro College.
Dr. McCarthy issued the following statement to staff members at Prairie State this morning:
Once at a poetry reading Dorris Lessing said: "This poem is about a fifty-six year old woman who had to start over. And she found that if you have to start over you can."
In the spring of this year, it became clear that it was necessary for me to start over, and I did. Yesterday, I was named president of El Centro College in Dallas. El Centro is the first college in the Dallas County Community College District, the largest community college district and the largest undergraduate institution in Texas with an enrollment of 90,000 students. El Centro has grown since I was the College Vice President from 1997-2000. In addition to its eight story building in the heart of downtown Dallas, the college also oversees the Bill J. Priest campus for Economic Development, the former Paramount building in the historic West End that houses nursing and fourteen allied health programs, and a community campus in the west end. In spring of 2009, El Centro will also move into the vacated Administrative building at 701 Elm St. El Centro enrolls over 9,000 students.
Now, in its fiftieth year Prairie State will also be renewing itself. Institutions, like individuals, that aren’t "busy being born are busy dying." But the college begins that renewal on a solid foundation thanks to our accomplishments together: a student friendly, student centered college, a precedent for large federal grants and substantial local and state wide partnerships, increasingly effective support from our state and Congressional legislators, nationally recognized academic programs, an increasingly imaginative and effective Foundation, a solid financial position, and seven years of positive media coverage.
I want to thank all of you for your support and friendship. Together we have helped countless students be successful, have changed their lives. Doing so is our mission, and in the end the experience of these students is the only thing that really matters. I wish Prairie State an even brighter future.
Check back as eNews Park Forest continues to track this developing story.
