Bruce McLarty, the president of Harding University since 2013, will retire at the end of the month.
The school's board of trustees cited financial challenges as leading to a change in leadership at the private Christian university -- the state's largest private college with about 4,500 students -- according to a letter posted on Harding's website.
"Recent economic and higher education trends have created an extremely challenging business environment that has impacted the institution, leading the board to make a change," Dr. Robert Walker, chairman of the board of trustees for Harding University, said in a statement posted Oct. 30 on the university's website.
McLarty, 63, will be replaced by former Harding President David Burks while a committee works to "evaluate a broader Presidential search," states a letter from trustees also posted on Harding's website.
"I am deeply grateful to the Harding University Board of Trustees for giving me the opportunity to serve as Harding's president for the past seven and one-half years," McLarty, a 1978 graduate of the school and a former church minister, said in a statement. "The University has had a profound impact for good on everyone in my family, and I owe it a debt of gratitude I will never be able to repay."
In May, a Harding University spokeswoman said 15-20 permanent layoffs were planned as fallout from the pandemic included event cancellations and reimbursements to students for housing closures.
Jana Rucker, a spokeswoman for the university, said Thursday that no additional layoffs have since taken place. She said both Burks and McLarty were unavailable for comment.
Preliminary enrollment data from the state Division of Higher Education shows 4,544 students at Harding this fall, a 23.2% decline from fall 2015 and a 4.8% decrease from fall 2019.
Burks, 77, served as Harding's president from May 1987 to May 2013, when he retired. He remained affiliated with the university, holding the title of chancellor and keeping an office on campus, according to Harding's website.
Walker, the board chairman, in a statement said Burks "will bring his experience and proven business acumen back to the University as a guiding hand through these unprecedented times."
Walker, a general surgeon in Decatur, Ala., did not respond to an email Thursday from the Democrat-Gazette seeking comment.
In his statement, Walker praised McLarty's time as Harding's top leader.
"We are grateful for Dr. McLarty's service over the past seven and a half years. He has made a powerful impact with his leadership, with an emphasis on community and commitment to living the Harding mission."
McLarty this year said an auditorium named after former university president George S. Benson would keep its name.
An online petition with more than 18,000 signatures asked for a change given Benson's opposition to racial integration. Benson retired in 1965, and the first Black students at Harding enrolled in 1963.
The petition asked that the auditorium be renamed in honor of Botham Jean, the 26-year-old Black man and recent Harding graduate who was shot and killed in 2018 inside his apartment by a white Dallas police officer who said she mixed up his apartment for her her own and thought he was a burglar.
McLarty, in a message to campus, said the campus should have have buildings or landmarks honoring Black alumni, and that Jean will be honored "in some physical way."
But in describing why Benson's name should remain despite some bad actions, he said that instead, "We need to tell the larger, complicated, multi-faceted story of this national icon that the Harding family knows as 'Dr. Benson.'"
Rucker did not provide information about McLarty's pay as the university's president. A recent IRS return for Harding University published at Guidestar.org listed McLarty as earning $262,356 in 2017 in compensation from the school, plus an estimated $38,151 in "other compensation from the organization and related organizations."
