Editor’s note: The Leadership Ledger is a monthly roundup of some of the most noteworthy college leadership changes nationwide.
August proved to be a month of extremes when it came to higher education leadership.
Ideally, a college president’s exit is intentional and comes with enough administrative goodwill that an orderly transition plan can be put in place. Brown University’s Christina Paxson, for example, gave her institution nearly a year of advance warning before she plans to depart. And at the University of Texas at Arlington, President Jennifer Cowley late last month announced her intention to step down — but she won’t be going far.
For institutions like Broward College and Arkansas Baptist College, however, leadership changes came abruptly and amid tensions between president and board.
Below, we’re rounding up some of last month’s biggest leadership changes.
President: Christina Paxson
Institution: Brown University
Coming or going? Going
Christina Paxson will step down as Brown University's president at the end of the 2026-27 academic year, she said on Aug. 3.
Paxson said she extended her contract in May 2025 to "help Brown navigate a federal funding freeze that imperiled our mission of research and education." But she decided not to stay on through her new end date of June 2028, as Brown gears up for a multi-year strategic planning process.
During Paxson's 14-year tenure, Brown struck a deal with the federal government to enact several policies favored by the Trump administration in exchange for the restoration of its federal funding and the end of federal antidiscrimination probes against it. A federal whistleblower has since said publicly that the Trump administration pursued a settlement with Brown even after investigators found there wasn’t evidence to support a civil rights violation.
President: Torey Alston
Institution: Broward College
Coming or going? Going
Broward College President Torey Alston stepped down on Aug. 25 as part of a separation agreement he reached with the public institution's board. He held the role for less than two years.
The deal follows prolonged in-fighting that resulted in trustees attempting to oust Alston and the president suing the board. Alston is set to receive $430,000 under the agreement, compensation he would not have been eligible for had the board fired him without cause as planned. In exchange, he withdrew his lawsuit and signed a nondisparagement agreement, among other terms.
President: William Walker
Institution: Arkansas Baptist College
Coming or going? Going
Arkansas Baptist College abruptly fired its president, William Walker, following what Walker described as a dispute over a plan to purchase a local hotel and turn it into student housing.
In an Aug. 25 statement, Walker said the college's board did not give him a clear reasoning for his termination. But the decision came after he objected to the real estate proposal.
"The financial obligation presented to me represented a long-term arrangement extending approximately 20 years with a substantial annual commitment," Walker said. "For a college emerging from financial exigency and facing significant financial and facility needs, I believed such an obligation demanded extraordinary scrutiny and complete due diligence."
The board went ahead with the plan over Walker's objections. A local construction firm Arkansas Baptist partnered said the hotel had been purchased for $7.8 million and that Arkansas Baptist is moving students in ahead of the 2026-27 academic year. The Arkansas Times reported that a third party now owns the property and is leasing it to the college. Neither the board nor Walker have said publicly what the expected cost to the college will be.
Board Chair Roland Gosey initially told the Arkansas Times that Walker had been placed on leave pending a “review." The following week, he confirmed to the publication that Walker had been terminated on Aug. 24 but did not give a reason.
Walker served as the college's president, first on an interim basis and then permanently, for about a year. Prior to that, he was a member of the college's board of trustees for nearly a decade.
George Hertz, the interim leader of Arkansas Baptist before Walker took the helm, has returned to the historically Black liberal arts college to again serve as interim president.
President: Jack Hawkins Jr.
Institution: Troy University
Coming or going? Going
Troy University President Jack Hawkins Jr. will leave his role earlier than previously announced, the public Alabama college said on Aug. 25.
Hawkins will now step down at the end of June, rather than at the end of 2027 as originally planned. Troy said the change is intended to align the leadership shift with the start of the 2027-28 academic year.
The president will stay on in an advisory role until June 2028, at which point he is set to retire. Hawkins is the longest serving head of a public university in the country, having led Troy since 1989, according to the institution. The university has not yet announced his successor.
President: Jennifer Cowley
Institution: University of Texas at Arlington
Coming or going? Going
Jennifer Cowley will step down from her role as president of the University of Texas at Arlington and return to the public institution's faculty, according to local news outlets.
An Aug. 31 campus email from Cowley did not say when she is expected to step down or who would lead the university in the interim, per the Fort Worth Report.
Cowley stepped into the role in 2022, becoming the university's first female president. Under her, UT-Arlington saw significant enrollment growth in spite of declining state funding and a loss of international students. The university also restructured its academic offerings and shrunk its workforce by over 200 people through buyouts earlier this year, according to The Shorthorn, its student newspaper.
