Royster to Step Down as Dean of Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

Posted February 14, 2019

After nine years of service as dean of the Georgia Institute of Technology Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Jacqueline J. Royster will step down from the role on August 31, 2019. She will remain on campus the following year, working on her research projects, and then retire at the end of August 2020.

Royster became the dean of the College in 2010 and holds the Ivan Allen Jr. Dean’s Chair in Liberal Arts and Technology.

In announcing the transition, Georgia Tech Provost Rafael Bras lauded successes in the College under Royster’s leadership including “enrollment growth, new degree and program offerings, the creation of the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage, and continued growth in research centers and sponsored research.”

“As dean, she embraced the longstanding legacy and history of the liberal arts at Georgia Tech and served as a champion for its evolution as a foundational core of the Georgia Tech educational experience. She built a lasting reputation as an advocate for equity and fairness among her colleagues and peers and has been a steadfast voice for “innovation at the crossroads of humanities, social sciences, and technology.”

Bras thanked Dean Royster “for her steadfast and committed leadership.”

“She has been, and will continue to be, an extraordinary advocate and ambassador for the liberal arts and social sciences. Georgia Tech is better because of her efforts.”

The College will remain under Dean Royster’s leadership while a search commences. Details on the search process and the leadership transition will be announced later this spring.

In her message to the College Dean Royster said, “These last nine years have mattered to me greatly. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with all of you to create a new horizon for liberal arts at Georgia Tech. I believe that we have done amazingly well across all constituencies, all of our units, and all of our enterprises, and I sincerely believe that we have consistently demonstrated that we are indeed a precious jewel in the Georgia Tech crown.”

Royster expressed her appreciation for colleagues’ dedication to the College mission and goals noting “how inspired I have been by the incredibly exciting work by which all of you have so richly endowed our claim of being the leading edge for liberal arts in the 21st century.”