POTSDAM, N.Y. — Clarkson University President Anthony Collins announced he plans to step down from his role at the end of the 2021-22 academic year.
Collins, the university’s 16th president, has served as its top official since 2003, per a Clarkson news release.
Clarkson said it will form a search committee to identify Collins’ successor. The committee will include trustees, faculty, staff, students, and alumni. The search committee will provide details on the full committee membership and the process guiding the search for Clarkson’s 17th president “when available,” the university added.
A Clarkson faculty member since 1982, Collins has been a “booster” for economic development in the North Country and throughout New York State, and a “national advocate” for higher education, the university said.
“President Collins’ contributions to Clarkson University have been extraordinary and will prove to be enduring. He has exceeded the broadest measure of success, leaving the institution in far better shape than when he accepted the role of president. In addition to advancing many of the metrics typically considered in assessing institutional success, Tony’s leadership throughout the challenges wrought by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 has been outstanding,” Tom Kassouf, chair of the board of trustees, contended in the release.
A native of Australia, Collins earned an undergraduate civil engineering degree from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He then worked for Australian Consolidated Industries and the Utah Development Company, before earning masters and doctoral degrees from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
After earning his Ph.D in 1982, he launched his career at Clarkson, progressing from assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering to full professor, department chair, dean, VP for academic affairs, and provost.