Arkansas Baptist College President Fitz Hill announced Feb. 24 he is leaving his post Sept. 1, reportedly to transition to a new leadership role with the Arkansas Baptist College Foundation, a fund-raising organization that in recent years has been largely inactive.
“This has been an awesome experience, and God has placed it in my heart that it’s time to serve ABC in a different role,” Hill, 51, said on Facebook. “Excellent leadership can come in a form of obedient followership.”
Beth Gladden Coulson, chair of the Arkansas Baptist College board of trustees, said the board is in the process of appointing a search committee and hopes to have a new president in place by the time Hill steps down.
Fitz Hill
“I, along with the board, commend Dr. Hill on 10 years of service to Arkansas Baptist College,” said Coulson, an attorney and lifelong member of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, Ark. “These have been years of growth and development, and we wish him the best in his new endeavors.”
Since assuming the presidency in 1996, Hill, former head football coach at San Jose State University, has been the face of the historically black college he inherited on the brink of bankruptcy, as well as his ambitious vision for neighborhood revitalization with partners including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas.
During Hill’s decade of leadership, Arkansas Baptist College has been twice reaccredited by North Central Higher Learning Commission. The school’s budget grew from $2 million to as high as $21 million, mostly result of record enrollment that soared from less than 200 students to nearly 1,200. The May 2015 graduating class numbered 163, largest in the school’s 131-year history.
Hill’s administration also faced challenges including a student’s murder in 2012 and cash-flow problems related to processing federal Pell grants, which the vast majority of students rely on to pay their tuition.
“I thank God for his covering and protection during my tenure,” Hill said on Facebook. “I have witnessed the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows, and I have been blessed through it all. I have loved blessing our students and the community we call home. I’m going to try and elevate and accelerate the blessings to our students and community over the next five years.”
A centerpiece of Hill’s administration was a $50 million capital improvement campaign that included an urban community redevelopment component for the neighborhood, long one of Little Rock’s most crime-ridden communities. One of the first buildings purchased and renovated was a condemned 1890s Queen Anne cottage near the campus that today houses offices of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas.
Arkansas CBF entered a partnership with Arkansas Baptist College in 2007 that included not only relocating the CBF office but also ongoing efforts to model racial reconciliation and working together on campus and neighborhood renewal and issues like literacy and prison reform.
Hill said his new role, not spelled out in the college press release but reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as taking the helm of the college foundation, “excites me much like 10 years ago when I first started at ABC.”
CBF Arkansas Coordinator Ray Higgins said he believes Arkansas Baptist College will grow stronger as Hill transitions to a new role. “It will continue to define itself as a national model for HBCUs that recruits and graduates students who have the hardest obstacles in their way for a college education and career,” Higgins said. “And, it will continue to be a transformative Christian educational institution locally and globally.
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