Atlanta — April 16, 2009

Regent Wanda Rodwell, chair of the Special Regents’ Committee for the presidential search at Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU) in Savannah, and University System of Georgia Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer Susan Herbst have announced the names of the two finalists for the AASU presidency.

A national search was launched to replace AASU President Thomas Z. Jones, who will retire June 30, 2009, after nine years in office.

The recommended individuals are:

Dr. Linda M. Bleicken, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro since 2005 and a member of the university’s management faculty since 1990. Bleicken’s service to Georgia Southern — an institution with 17,764 students and eight colleges — includes administrative appointments as: acting provost and vice president for academic affairs from July 2004 to January 2005; vice president for student affairs and enrollment management from 2001 to 2004; associate provost for enrollment management and information technology from 2000 to 2001; acting provost and vice president for academic affairs from 1998 to 2000; associate dean of the College of Business Administration from 1995 to 1998; and acting chair of the Department of Management from 1994 to 1995.

In addition, she has served the University System of Georgia as a member of its Health Professions Task Force (2006), Core Curriculum Committee (2007-2008), Graduation Rate Task Force (2004), Tuition Rate Task Force (2004) and the Task Force to Develop eCore®, the USG’s electronic core curriculum (2000).

Bleicken holds a Ph.D. in management earned in 1990, a master of science degree in management also earned in 1990 and a bachelor of business administration degree in marketing earned magna cum laude in 1984, all conferred by Georgia State University.

Dr. William J. Lowe, provost and vice president, academic affairs, and professor of history at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minn., since 2003. Lowe also served as interim president of Metropolitan State, which has three principal campuses, five colleges and more than 7,100 students, from November 2007 to June 2008. Prior to his arrival in Minnesota, Lowe served as vice president for academic affairs and professor of history at the College of Saint Rose, an independent, comprehensive college of more than 4,600 students in Albany, N.Y., from 1997 to 2003. Before that, he was dean of the College of Liberal Arts and a professor of history at the University of Detroit Mercy in Detroit, Mich., from 1991 to 1997, and dean of graduate studies and a professor of history at Chicago State University in Chicago from 1984 to 1991.

As interim president, Lowe served on the Leadership Council of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System and, in 2004-2005 was a member of the System’s Salary Competitiveness Task Force. During 2007, he was a member of the Core Educational Outcomes of the national Voluntary System of Accountability project and is a member of the Accreditation Review Council of the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association. Lowe is active internationally in research, writing and presenting in the field of modern Irish history and authored a book, The Irish in Mid-Victorian Lancashire: The Shaping of a Working Class Community, in 1989.

Lowe holds a Ph.D. in modern history conferred in 1974 by Trinity College at the University of Dublin in Ireland, where he was a Fulbright Scholar; and a bachelor’s degree in history earned in 1971 from Michigan State University in East Lansing.

The Board of Regents expects to name the next president of Armstrong Atlantic State University at a future meeting.

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