Posted by Philip Poole on 2005-11-30

Samford University's board of trustees took several actions in their regular winter meeting Nov. 29.

Alan P. Jung was elected as assistant professor of exercise science and sports medicine effective with the spring 2006 semester. Jung currently is at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.

Two new trustees were elected to four-year terms by the board: Jerry A. Newby, president and chairman of the board of Alfa Insurance Corp., Montgomery, and Richard D. Horsley, vice president and chief operating officer for Regions Financial Corp., Birmingham. Horsley returns to the board after a one-year absence.

Re-elected as trustees for four-year terms were Terry J. Bunn, co-owner, Bunn Construction Co., Tuscaloosa; Ronald A. DeVane, Mid-South region CEO, SouthTrust Bank, Birmingham; Jenna K. Cassese, community volunteer, Birmingham; John M. Floyd, risk management attorney, Vulcan Materials Co., Birmingham; W. Randall Pittman, chief financial officer, Emageon, Inc., Birmingham; William J. Stevens, president, Motion Industries, Inc., Birmingham; Ronnie L. Watkins, president, Ronnie Watkins Ford, Gadsden; Joan W. Williams, community volunteer, Birmingham; and Jay L. Wolf, pastor, First Baptist Church, Montgomery.

Stevens was re-elected as board chair for 2005-06. Other officers elected were C. Thomas Houser of Birmingham, vice chair and executive committee chair; John Floyd, secretary; and D. Warren Bailey of Hoover, Ala., assistant secretary.

In routine business, the trustees gave tentative approval to the list of December graduates pending completion of degree requirements, approved routine resolutions related to the University's benefits programs and approved memorial resolutions for three former trustees who died recently: Sloan Bashinsky and A. Gerow Hodges of Birmingham, and Boyce Albright of Haleyville, Ala.

In other business, trustees approved a motion from the floor that Samford President Thomas E. Corts be commencement speaker in May 2006. Corts has announced plans to retire at the end of the 2005-06 academic year, and the spring commencement will be his last as president.

In an executive session, trustees heard an update from the University's presidential search committee.

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.