This collection is not composed of President Ross' official presidential papers. Rather, it was culled from newspapers, reports, updates, publications and university-wide emails. The collection, 2009-2018, bulk 2012-2018, includes any information about Ross, his presidency, statements he made, CMU News Announcements documenting CMU history, people, events and changes during his administration and some information which predates but affected or is relevant to his administration. Major events during his tenure included: Budget Deficit/ Cuts, 2016-2017, CMU’s 125th Anniversary, 2017; the Executive Order on Immigration, January 30, 2017 (see also the Muslim Ban March collection in the Clarke); and the racist incident on campus (see Hitler Valentine Card Statement and Information, 2017 folder). CMU opened a $95 million Biosciences Building — the largest construction project in its history, funded through state, private and university dollars in January 2017; and although the process began under Interim CMU President Kathy Wilbur, CMU opened America's 137th College of Medicine (CMED) under Dr. Ross' direction and graduated its first physicians in 2017. Other topics documented in the collection include: Academic Reorganization, 2017-2018; the expansion of CMU’s medical/health studies programs into the Center for Integrated Health Studies, April 2018; and CMU Women’s Basketball team which won both the MAC and NCAA championships, 2018.
In addition, copies of any major published reports from the Ross administration which came to the Clarke are in the CMU vertical files.
Information about the March 2, 2018 shooting on CMU’s campus is in a separate collection as its impact and CMU responses to it continued after President Ross retired.
Biography:
Dr. George E. Ross’s earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in business administration from Michigan State University, a Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Alabama, and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard University. He served as vice president for finance and administrative services at Central Michigan University (CMU), executive vice president at Clark Atlanta University, executive vice chancellor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, vice president for business affairs at Tuskegee University, and president of Alcorn State University, which was founded in 1871 as the nation's first public historically black land-grant university.
On March 1, 2010 Dr. Ross was appointed as the fourteenth and first African American president of CMU.. President Ross led CMU through an extensive strategic planning process, championed a successful shared governance and communications effort, and rallied the university community as a whole to address the effect of Michigan's declining high school population on enrollment.
Dr. Ross was a member of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). He served on a national Commission on the Regulation of Postsecondary Distance Education. He served as secretary-treasurer of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), board chair of the Central Michigan University Research Corp, and was a board member of the Michigan College Access Network. He was elected to the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation's Board of Trustees in 2017, an honor which had special meaning for President Ross, who grew up in Flint, Michigan, where the worldwide foundation is located.
His focus on students was reflected in a continued engagement in traditional and nontraditional teaching and learning. President Ross held adjunct and associate professor ranks at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He developed continuing education materials and taught professional development courses for organizations such as the National Association of College and University Business Officers, the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers, and the Southern Education Foundation.
As a nationally recognized leader in higher education, President Ross presented seminars, workshops and lectures in higher education leadership, budget, administration and finance to universities and organizations such as the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, AASCU and the Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education at Bryn Mawr College.
A proponent of civic engagement and giving back, President Ross served on local, state and regional planning and economic development boards, countywide strategic planning committees, neighborhood development organizations and chambers of commerce.
Dr. Ross and his wife, Elizabeth, have two daughters, Roshaunda and Joronda. Dr. Ross officially retired from Central Michigan University on July 30, 2018. (This information is from the official CMU biography of President Ross, on the CMU website, viewed on April 27, 2018).
