University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Chancellor Robert Jones, the school’s first Black chancellor, will step down at the end of the current academic year, the university announced Wednesday.
Jones will have spent nine years at the helm. During that time, the university’s enrollment grew by 26%, it introduced free tuition for low-income students, launched the first engineering-based medical school in the world, became a university leader in rapid result COVID-19 testing during the pandemic and secured the largest fundraising campaign in the school’s history.
“I truly believe this is the greatest university in the world, which makes this the most difficult decision that has confronted me in my 47 years in higher education. My time at Illinois has been the most profound experience of my professional life, and I thank every single campus community member for that,” Jones said in a statement.
University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen has asked Jones to stay with the university system, which also includes University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Illinois at Springfield, with Jones’ focus being to expand the Urbana-Champaign campus’ “role and presence” in Chicago and abroad, as well as to support the school’s search for its next chancellor.
“From his first day on campus, Chancellor Jones has been relentlessly committed to delivering excellence at scale,” Killeen said in a statement. “… With him at the helm, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has done just that through its expanded enrollment, through its commitment to growing its world-class faculty and through research that is helping meet the challenges of our time.”
Enrollment at the Urbana-Champaign campus increased to this fall semester’s record 59,238 students, the school said.
The Illinois Commitment program, which provides free tuition to students whose family income is less than $75,000 a year, also launched under Jones’ leadership in 2018.
In 2020, the campus pioneered a saliva-based COVID-19 test and comprehensive system to rapidly receive results.
“Chancellor Jones understands, on a very profound level, the power of the university system to deliver when people need it most — our research prowess was never more evident than during the pandemic as the creator of a life-saving test for the virus and a partner in the drive to create a vaccine,” Killeen said.
Jones was named the university’s chancellor in 2016 after more than 30 years in various higher academic roles, including chairman of the Association of American Universities Board of Directors. He also has served as chairman of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Board of Directors and the Big Ten Council of Chancellors and Presidents.
Jones also served as president of University at Albany and had numerous leadership roles at the University of Minnesota.
Jones, a Georgia native, earned a bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Fort Valley State College, a master’s degree in crop physiology from the University of Georgia and a doctorate in crop physiology from the University of Missouri.