June 15, 2001 UNT Inhouse publication: Price named System Center at Dallas executive director

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Price named System Center at Dallas executive director

Successfully concluding a nationwide search, the UNT System has selected John Ellis Price to become the first full-time executive director of the UNT System Center at Dallas. He will take up his new responsibilities in July.

Price is KPMG Professor of Taxation and chair of the accounting department in the UNT College of Business Administration. He joined the university faculty in 1987.

As executive director, Price will coordinate the ongoing development of the center, with his primary emphasis on building its enrollment. He also will work with citizens from southern Dallas and northern Ellis counties who serve as System Center community liaisons.

For the immediate future, the center will continue to operate as an extension of the UNT-Denton campus, offering courses leading to UNT degrees and certificate programs.

"In naming Dr. Price as executive director, we have an excellent team leader to continue the development of the UNT System Center at Dallas, strengthen community relations and assist in our planning to establish the University of North Texas at Dallas," says President Norval Pohl.

"It is an honor and privilege to be chosen by UNT for this challenging leadership position," Price says. "I look forward to working with business and community leaders as well as with UNT administrators, UNT faculty members and the System Center staff in the historic process of helping to shape the future University of North Texas at Dallas. Our goal is to develop a diverse, premier institution that enhances public university access to the citizens of Dallas and the North Texas region.

"I'm saddened to leave the students, faculty and staff and the many alumni and friends that I have made in the College of Business Administration. However, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I cannot pass up."

Before joining UNT, Price was an accounting professor and dean of the school of business at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss. He was also an assistant professor at the University of Southern Mississippi.

In addition, Price has served two terms on the Internal Revenue Service Commissioner's Advisory Group and as chair of the American Taxation Association Subcommittee on Relations With the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury. He also serves on the Minority Recruitment and Equal Opportunity Committee of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

As a member of the business faculty, Price received the college's 1996-97 Outstanding Teaching Award and the 1995-96 President's Council Teaching Award.

He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting from the University of Southern Mississippi and a doctorate from UNT. He is also a certified public accountant.

Pohl and other UNT administrators commended Virginia Wheeless for her service as interim executive director. "Dr. Wheeless' interim leadership has been a major factor in all the success the System Center has achieved since it opened in January 2000," Pohl says.

Wheeless will devote full attention to her dual responsibilities as associate vice chancellor for strategic planning for the UNT System and associate vice president for planning for the university when Price takes over at the center. In her UNT System role, Wheeless will lead the effort to plan and develop the University of North Texas at Dallas and its campus.

In May, Gov. Rick Perry came to the center to sign legislation that statutorily establishes the University of North Texas at Dallas. Earlier in the 77th session of the Texas Legislature, both the House and Senate unanimously passed the UNT-Dallas bill.

Under the law, as soon as the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board certifies that enrollment at the center reaches 2,500 full-time equivalent (FTE) students for one semester, UNT-Dallas can begin offering courses and granting degrees. In the 2001 spring term, center enrollment was 570 students and approximately 230 FTEs.

In the recently adjourned legislative session, Texas lawmakers approved a new $2.25 million exceptional item appropriation for the center that raises its funding to $6.45 million for the 2002-03 biennium.

The effort to establish the center has been supported during the interim through an initial state appropriation of $4.2 million. And in February of this year, UNT achieved one more milestone toward establishing a full university in Dallas when area business and civic leaders met the community goal of raising $2.6 million in private contributions to supplement the legislative appropriation.

The UNT System Board of Regents is expected to confirm Price as executive director of the System Center at its meeting in August.