UALR's provost moving on to new post

Toro the unanimous choice for president’s job at Central Connecticut State

The provost at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock will leave her post to lead Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn.

Regents for the Connecticut school unanimously selected Zulma Toro, 56, last week as the school's first female president.

"I am very humble about the appointment and very excited about the opportunity," Toro said in an interview Thursday. "I think that it was meant to be because I didn't apply until the last minute. They were two or three days away from closing the application window, and all of a sudden I was informed I was a semifinalist. And then I was informed I was a finalist."

Central Connecticut State serves about 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students and has about 1,000 full- and part-time faculty, said Janice Palmer, the university's media relations officer. Much of the student population is from an underserved community, including a high percentage of Hispanics -- specifically of Puerto Rican origin, Toro said.

"The student population at Central, it's what I consider the student demographics that most higher education institutions will be serving 10, 15 years from now," she said. "That is something that really excites me and motivates me in terms of providing access to higher education for those underrepresented students."

She was selected as the school's 13th president after a seven-month search that brought in nearly 70 applicants, the Connecticut university said. She will be paid $289,500 annually when she starts Jan. 3. Her salary at UALR is $239,527 annually.

Toro has worked as provost and executive vice chancellor of UALR for the past four years.

In that role, she helped change the university's mission to becoming a top community-engaged research school among the 16 member states of the Southern Regional Education Board, said Sherry Rankins-Robertson, associate vice chancellor for student success and online education. Then, Toro aligned the university's strategic plan with that mission and restructured the university from seven schools and colleges to six, with two major reconfigurations, she said.

She also helped UALR secure a national grant to redo the first-year experience course -- mandatory for all freshmen -- that helps them succeed at the university.

Brad Patterson, vice provost for student affairs and dean of students, said Toro is one of the most knowledgeable people of higher education he has met.

"She really understands the student-affairs side of the house and what is needed to help students succeed at the institution," he said. "I think the biggest thing is that it didn't matter who it was or what was going on, but if she felt like a student was being wronged in some way, she was going to go to battle for them."

After UALR's longtime Chancellor Joel Anderson retired, Toro was among the 18 who applied to be the metropolitan university's next leader. It was unclear whether she was part of the dozen candidates the university's search committee invited to the Dallas/Fort Worth area for "conversations."

Toro was not among the three finalists named by University of Arkansas System President Donald Bobbitt in April. Bobbitt later recommended -- and UA System trustees backed -- the hiring of Andrew Rogerson, then a provost and vice president for academic affairs at Sonoma State University in California.

Rogerson couldn't start until Sept. 1, and Toro filled in as interim chancellor until he arrived.

During that time, Toro worked with Christian O'Neal, vice chancellor for advancement, to get donations for need-based mini-grants to help students stay in school.

"She is a die-hard student advocate," Rankins-Robertson said. "Dr. Toro works seven days a week, 18 to 20 hours a day. She is certainly a person who does as much as good as she can ... or as much as she can for all the people that she can.

"I am certainly sad to see her go, but this will be great for Central Connecticut. They have inherited an impeccable, hard-working human being. Certainly, our loss is their gain."

Metro on 10/23/2016

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