University of Idaho President Duane Nellis has officially been named president of Texas Tech State University. He was approved by the TTU Board of Regents today.
On the same day that the Texas Tech Regents made official what had announced earlier this month, Duane Nellis, the new president of Texas Tech, sent a message to the University of Idaho community, saying he and his wife will truly miss the UI.
Nellis said that since he joined the UI in 2009, the institution has faced numerous and in some cases unexpected challenges. But he says he believes that the university is positioned for a prosperous future, despite what he described as some vocal detractors.
Among his accomplishments, Nellis listed the fact that the university was able to avoid the shutdown of key agricultural research centers in a bad economy, and that the university led an effort to change the state constitution, allowing the UI to use tuition for instructional purposes, which it couldn’t do before.
In his message, Nellis referred to the university as the state’s flagship land-grant university. The term ‘flagship’ was a point of contention a year ago between Nellis and the State Board of Education when the State Board would not allow the term to be used in the university’s mission statement.
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