Retired Dallas County administrator, new director for transition join Dallas Campus staff

DALLAS – Retired Dallas County administrator J. Allen Clemson has joined the University of North Texas Dallas Campus staff as a special assistant to the vice chancellor, and will primarily oversee the areas of finance and administration. The interim, six month appointment follows the death of Maxine Rogers, the Campus’ first director of finance and administration, in early February.
Clemson is a graduate of UNT and served as the County Administrator for Dallas County from September 1985 to January 2009. Dallas County is the ninth largest county in the United States with over 7,000 employees and an annual operating budget of over $800 million. Clemson recently oversaw more than $150 million in construction projects. He began his service at the Campus March 2.
Horace “H.D.” Stearman, presently the director of institutional effectiveness at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in Provo, Utah, has also joined the campus leadership team at the UNT Dallas Campus. Stearman, who will serve as director of transition and accreditation, has worked in multiple institutions in higher education. He was for two years the associate director of institutional planning and effectiveness at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock.
Stearman’s role will encompass the areas of institutional effectiveness, accreditation (including accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools), strategic planning, learning outcomes assessment, regulatory compliance and faculty training and evaluation. He will join the staff March 23.
John Ellis Price, vice chancellor of the UNT Dallas Campus and president designate of the future UNT Dallas, said the Campus was “fortunate to have two administrators of this caliber join our campus leadership team.”
“With Mr. Clemson here already, and Dr. Stearman arriving soon, we anticipate moving forward very quickly to set in place the policies and procedures necessary for growing the UNT Dallas Campus into UNT Dallas,” Price said.
The appointments come at a critical time for the Campus. Under the legislation that created Dallas’ first public university, the UNT Dallas Campus was required to reach 1,000 full?time equivalent students before it could begin the process of transitioning into UNT Dallas. UNT Dallas will be a separate member institution of the UNT System, awarding four?year and graduate degrees.
More than 2,300 students enrolled at the UNT Dallas Campus in the spring 2009 semester, raising full?time enrollment to 1,032, beyond the state mandated goal.
The spring 2009 figure of 2,333 students in headcount (according to unofficial census figures from the semester’s 12th class day) represents a 26.5 percent increase over the spring 2008 headcount of 1,844. The 1,032 FTE represents a 34.6 percent increase over the spring 2008 FTE figure of 766.3.