ECU names next chief executive
(Feb. 8, 2001) — Dr. William V. Muse, president of Auburn University, has been named the new chancellor of East Carolina University.
Muse’s selection was announced Thursday (Feb. 8) by University of North Carolina President Molly Corbett Broad and confirmed by the UNC Board of Governors. Muse attended the board meeting in Chapel Hill and planned to be in Greenville Friday.
In recommending Muse to the Board of Governors, Broad said: “Bill Muse brings to East Carolina University a wealth of high-level administrative experience accumulated in leading public university settings. Over the course of his career, he has consistently demonstrated strong leadership and strategic planning skills, a commitment to academic excellence, and a deep understanding of the special relationship between public institutions and the regions they were founded to serve. Dr. Muse is no stranger to the University of North Carolina, having served early in his career as the founding dean of the College of Business at Appalachian State University. We are delighted to bring him back to North Carolina and to East Carolina.”
His selection caps a nine-month search that began after Dr. Richard Eakin, chancellor since 1987, announced in April that he plans to retire this year.
Muse has been president of Auburn since 1992. It is the largest university in Alabama enrolling more than 22,000 students on the main campus in Auburn, and more than 5,300 at Auburn University in Montgomery. Auburn is a land-grant university with a total budget of $400 million.
During his presidency Muse has led initiatives to enable more students to graduate within four years, to develop high-visibility interdisciplinary research programs, and to increase the university’s endowment from $50 million to $250 million. Auburn recently completed a $201 million capital campaign. He is the president of the Southeastern Conference, in which Auburn’s athletic teams compete.
From 1984-92, Muse served as president of the University of Akron, the third-largest university in Ohio with a total enrollment of about 30,000 students. At Akron, he provided leadership for significant gains in the enhancement of academic programs, growth in minority enrollment, expansion of private fund raising, and increased recognition of the university.
A native of Mississippi, Muse received a B.S. degree in accounting from Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La., in 1960. He earned an M.B.A in 1961 and a Ph.D. in business administration in 1966, both from the University of Arkansas.
In 1964, Muse joined the faculty of the School of Industrial Management at Georgia Tech. In 1965, he moved to Ohio University where he served as chairman of the Department of Marketing and director of the Division of Research. In 1970, he was selected as the first dean of the College of Business at Appalachian State University and was responsible for organizing and developing the new college. Assuming this post at age 31, he was one of the youngest business school deans in the nation.
From 1973-79, Muse served as dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. During the 1977-78 year, he was one of 50 individuals selected to go to Washington, D.C. to serve as a Presidential Exchange Executive and worked with the U. S. Office of Education.
In July 1979, Muse moved to Texas A&M University as dean of the College of Business Administration. Under his leadership, this college grew to become the fifth largest business school in the nation in terms of full-time undergraduate enrollment. On Feb. 1, 1983, he was appointed vice chancellor for academic programs of the Texas A&M University System.
Contact: ECU News Bureau | 252-328-6481