Maryfrances Wagner, a retired English professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, is the new poet laureate of the state of Missouri and Ashley M. Jones who teaches at Converse College in South Carolina and the Alabama School of Fine Arts was named poet laureate of the state of Alabama.
Krista Newkirk has been serving as president of Converse College, an educational institution for women in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The college is now becoming co-educational. Prior to being named the tenth president of Converse College in 2016, Newkirk spent 13 years at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
The president and board of trustees cited ongoing changes in student preferences, a nationwide decrease of interest in enrollment at women’s colleges, and proactive preparation for a decline in high school graduates beginning in 2025 as prompts for a re-envisioned Converse.
Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is one of the oldest women's colleges in the United States. The college announced recently that it is considering adding co-educational undergraduate programs as a way to expand enrollment. Now, there are just over 900 women enrolled in the undergraduate college.
Here is this week’s roundup of women who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Krista Newkirk, chief of staff at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, will become president of Converse College on July 1. The college enrolls about 825 women in its undergraduate programs and more than 500 students in graduate programs.
Elizabeth A. Fleming, the ninth president of Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, has announced that she will step down at the end of the current academic year. Dr. Fleming will have led the women's college for 11 years.
