Gilbert Atnip, former vice chancellor of Academic Affairs, retired on Sept. 30 after working 37 years at IU Southeast.

Atnip held the vice chancellor position for 22 years.

“I decided to retire as soon as I became eligible,” Atnip said.

Chancellor Sandra Patterson-Randles said Atnip’s position made him second in command.

She also said Atnip’s temporary replacement will be Curt Peters, former dean of the School of Arts and Letters, who officially started Oct. 1.

“It is a tough job,” Patterson-Randles said.

Atnip said the process of finding a new vice chancellor is also lengthy. IU Southeast has to set up a committee of faculty from each school with five or more full-time faculty.

“There will be 10 or 11 people on the committee,” Patterson-Randles said.

The committee looks through all the applicants who apply for the position and narrow it down to three candidates. Once the choices are submitted, the chancellor has the final approval.

“They need to be experienced, tenured, appointed and have the respect of the faculty,” Patterson-Randles said.

Patterson-Randles said she hopes to have a new vice chancellor of Academic Affairs to replace Atnip permanently by July 1, 2013.

Patterson-Randles also said Atnip helped her out a great deal when she first came to IU Southeast as the new chancellor.

“He understood higher education, and he understood IU,” she said. “We will miss this man.”

Atnip started at IU Southeast in August 1975 as an assistant professor of psychology.

“I came here because they were just starting the psychology program,” Atnip said.

Bernardo Carducci, professor of psychology, said he became a good colleague and friend of Atnip when he started to teach at IU Southeast.

Carducci also said when Atnip started as a psychology professor, one of the projects he worked on was conducting research on rats.

“Battle with the rats,” Carducci said. “Atnip used to say ‘Those suckers would bite.’ He used to wear protective gloves and was very careful in his research lab. It was the best training for being an administrator because people are always trying to bite you as an administrator.”

After teaching, Atnip became the assistant dean of Academic Affairs for almost six years before being promoted to the dean of the School of Social Sciences for three years.

A retirement party for Atnip was held on Sept. 24, where colleagues, former students and family came out to wish him a happy departure from IU Southeast.

During the event, IUS staff looked through all the years Atnip worked to figure how many hours he spent in meetings in his career.

They came up with an estimate of 16,808 hours, which is equal to more than two full years of meetings.

“When you hit over a million minutes in meetings, that’s when you know it’s time to retire.” Atnip said. “I can’t say that number is totally accurate, but I’ve been in a lot of meetings. I will not miss the meetings.”

Atnip said he plans on reading his backlog of books, travelling with his wife and spending time relaxing.

Atnip said he may also do some volunteer work in the future.

“I plan to come around campus sometimes,” Atnip said. “I will miss the people here.”

By JEREMY EILER

Staff

jreiler@ius.edu