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Dr. Gretchen M. Bataille makes history as the first woman to serve as president of the University of North Texas
DENTON (UNTS), Texas -- In a specially called teleconference meeting on August 14th, the University of North Texas System Board of Regents unanimously confirmed Dr. Gretchen M. Bataille (pronounced Bah-tie) as the 14th president of the University of North Texas -- the UNT System's flagship campus in Denton. Beginning a new chapter in the history of UNT, Bataille, 61, stands as the first woman to preside at the 116-year-old institution that is the fourth largest university in the state -- with more than 32,000 students. Bataille began her presidency immediately after the Regents vested her with the formal authority of the position. On July 6, the UNT System Regents and Chancellor Lee Jackson completed a nine-month nationwide search by selecting Bataille as the sole finalist for university presidency. She was selected from a diverse pool of candidates recommended by a 19-member search advisory committee co-chaired by Regents Gayle Strange of Denton and Robert Nickell of Dallas. The advisory committee included UNT faculty, staff and students as well as community leaders. Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm, aided the system and the committee in the search. Dr. Norval Pohl, who announced plans last summer to step down from the UNT presidency on or before the expiration of his contract at the end of this academic year -- which concludes this month -- performed his last public duty as president at the 2006 summer commencement ceremonies on Aug. 12 (Saturday). "The Board of Regents, Chancellor Jackson and the search committee set extraordinarily high standards for our presidential search," said UNT System Board of Regents Chairman Bobby Ray. "Our aim was to attract a strong and proven leader capable of guiding UNT to excellence at every level. "In the search process we attracted some outstanding candidates, but Dr. Gretchen Bataille stood out because of her record of academic leadership and the breadth of her experience. We are pleased and proud to have Dr. Bataille as the new president of the University of North Texas," Ray said. Between 2000 and July of this year, Bataille served as the chief academic officer of the 16-campus University of North Carolina system. From July 2005 to July 2006, she had an additional assignment as interim chancellor* of UNC's North Carolina School of the Arts. Bataille also held the rank of tenured professor of English at UNC-Chapel Hill. As the UNC system's senior vice president for academic affairs, Bataille led the academic planning for all of the 16 UNC system campuses, comprising a total enrollment of about 196,000 students. The scope of her responsibilities as the system's highest ranking academic officer included oversight of strategic planning and budgeting, research, student affairs, international programs and advising the UNC president and board of governors on academic issues. "Gretchen Bataille has a great national perspective on the issues facing higher education, and she has led academic change at several excellent universities. UNT will benefit from her experience and engaging personality and leadership style," Jackson said. Bataille is entering her presidency with a set of first objectives. "The University of North Texas is poised to take its next logical steps toward national and international recognition as a student-centered public research university," she said. "My initial responsibilities and priorities for that effort will be to get everyone moving in the same direction in terms of emphasizing the university's current strengths while we endeavor to determine and develop new areas where we can excel," Bataille said. In her academic career, Bataille also served as provost and academic vice president at Washington State University and provost of the College of Letters and Science at the University of California at Santa Barbara. In addition, she served as associate dean for academic personnel in Arizona State University 's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and chair of its English Department and as acting associate dean of instruction at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. A recognized scholar of Native American literature, Bataille's professional career focuses on issues of diversity, civil rights and ethnic studies. Bataille began her teaching career as a member of the English faculty at Iowa State University. During her tenure, she initiated and chaired the American Indian Studies Program and directed numerous conferences and symposia on Native Americans and ethnic studies. She chaired the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and wrote the grant that created the American Indian Institute at ASU, where Bataille also chaired the President's Committee for Assessment for Quality and Diversity. She served as a member of the Council of Academic Affairs of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and on the board of the Research Triangle Institute. Bataille currently serves as the vice chair and a trustee of the College Board and serves on the boards of the North Carolina Humanities Council and the North Carolina Public Television Foundation, among others. Originally from Indiana, Bataille earned her bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in English education from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. She earned a doctorate in English from Drake University and has completed management development programs at Harvard University and the University of California. Bataille is a widow and the mother of two grown children -- Erin Hettinga Crail and Marc Hettinga. *In the University of North Carolina system, the position of chancellor is the UNT System equivalent of a presidency. Likewise, the UNC president is the UNT System equivalent of the chancellorship.
UNT News Service Phone Number: (940) 565-2108
Contact: Roddy Wolper (940) 565-2943
Email: rwolper@unt.edu
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