 Big news out of Huntsville today, Alabama A&M University President, Dr. Andrew Uginni. Not calling it quits, but calling it the final chapter of a very distinguished career, a story administrator both at South Carolina State University and at Alabama A&M University, historic gains at the school in enrollment and capital capacity, endowment, industrial outreach. And so we are privileged to be joined just a few minutes after the formal announcement by Dr. Andrew Uginni, president of Alabama A&M University. Dr. Uginni, you say you're not playing golf, but I think that there is consensus that anything other than this is something you're looking forward to. Well, you know, from a number of perspectives, you know, one, I'm so pleased that I've had the opportunity of working at Alabama A&M University these last almost 11 and a half, going on 12 years. And prior to that, at South Carolina State, I just believe and know that our historical back college at universities do so much for us as the people and as a nation. And anything that we can do to further those institutions, obviously, we want to we want to do that. The other part is that, you know, we we also have personal obligations and family obligations as well. I've been very blessed to have a wife who has been very, very supportive doing all of my career. She's he's given up sometimes what she wanted to do in order to support those endeavors that I have. And now, in addition to my children, the joy of my life, I have grandchildren. And we have another grandchild that's on the way. And so we want to spend some time spoiling our grandchildren as much as we possibly can. And to do that, while we still have some reasonable health and strength to do it. So it was it was a personal reason not to play golf. But my golfing game is absolutely horrible. But to spend more time with with family and doing those things that we have kind of put aside for all of these years. Well, the announcement was today, so I know it's still fresh for you. But what as you start to think about and have started to think about this day, what is it that stands out the most for you to say, you know, we got a lot of good work done here. I think this is a good time to stop because there's always there's always something to be done. There's always something to be done. We looked at the university and there are a couple of things that are very, very important that's coming up. The university will be 150 years old in 2025. My original commitment when the contract was extended will take me to 2023. One of the things that you want to do with the university, when you have significant milestones, such as 150, is to do a major capital campaign. But it just so happened that the timing of my departure had I completed my contractual commitment would be in the middle of that. And you can't do a capital campaign in two years. And so for the university's sake, it was important that we make the transition now so that someone can come in, get on the ground running and get a major capital campaign going forward. So that was one of the things that was driving this. The other is that as we exit out of this pandemic that we're in, I know some people are hoping to return to the normal as we knew it, but that norm is not going to exist. Our institutions are going to have to make a significant transformation in order to remain competitive. And I think that takes a different kind of leadership style. You know, I'm accustomed to being a leader of a certain type of institution and dealing with certain challenges, but those challenges are going to be different. And I think it takes a different skill set. And then the other is you want to always ensure for the love of the university that there is a orderly transition. You know, I've seen articles that you have written and we all know that in our institutions, sometimes we just have turmoil as we move from one administration to the other. I wanted to be sure that as I exited the university that they would have the time to appropriately go through, do the assessment, make and do a search and name a president. And so, you know, if you're not being forced out, then you don't have all these other issues surrounding bringing people back together and working through various and sundry concerns that you have. None of that is true here. I'm confident that we have in place a board that I have all of these support and respect for. A board that works very, very well together to put aside their personal agendas and work in the best interest of the university. And so I wanted to leave at a time when there would be a board that would focus on being sure that the momentum that we have created over the last almost 12 years, that that will be continued. I have a personal personal interest and being sure that there is the proper person that follows me, not saying who that person should be. But I have a vested interest because what you want is someone to come in and continue building the university. And if you don't transition out in an appropriate way, the person has to come in and basically start from ground zero as opposed to taking off from where we've left. Let's talk a little bit about that transition, because you're you're actually going to conclude in the following the end of the twenty twenty one academic year. What does a presidential transition look like and how maybe it's unfair to ask, but how do you think A&M specifically approaches it? There are some institutions where the president kind of recommends someone to the board and there are some institutions where the president said, I don't want nothing to do with it. I'm leaving. Y'all y'all take care of it and I don't want to seem like I'm interfering. And then there are some institutions where the search firm drives a lot of the selection process. Is it is it reasonable to ask how A&M is bored will work with you or you work with they to think about what what what transition looks like and who is is prepared and who is skilled enough to deal with some of those new challenges, as you said. They the board, this is this is fairly new to the board. And so they they've had some discussions in the past about what a transition would look like. But I don't think they are there for enough and down the road to make that decision. I did in my conversations with our board chair. He's talked about forming a committee, so I assume that they will be bringing aboard a search a search firm so that that search firm will assist them in the process of trying to identify an individual. Personally, from my perspective, you know, there are there are a lot of great potential individuals out there, even potential individuals that would be here in the Huntsville area. But I don't think that it's appropriate as as a president that you kind of ordained whoever your success is going to be. I see the role more as one of advising a role that would say to the board, these are the things that you should look for. But ultimately allow that board to make that decision as opposed to the president saying, well, I think person A or person B would be the ideal individual to do that because, you know, institutions require different skillsets at different times in its development. And so those skillsets that may have been appropriate and those skillsets that work quite well with me from 2009 up until now, those skillsets may not be the skillsets that's needed for the university as they move forward from twenty twenty one on. So one of the first things, obviously, the board is going to need to do is kind of decide what they see as their vision, where it is that they want to see the institution over the next ten, twenty years. And then from that begin to develop the criteria that they would be looking for in order to get an individual. But you can't just say, well, here are the skillsets that person A had. So we want to go and find someone with those skillsets. But that may not be what you need at the university at its at this time in terms of this development. What what would keep you up at night about what the new president or your successor would have to face? Obviously, COVID one. But what things extend from that challenge or does COVID complicate for the university's next steps? I think it complicates for the university's next step because right now we don't know what how higher education is going to look and and actually be after COVID. We don't really don't know because in many instances we've been forced to do much of what we conduct our business remotely, our classes have now transitioned primarily to being online. So the question is whether or not we we have students that have the desire to return back to a total in person classes or is there some combination of the two? And so I think it's going to require an assessment about where the landscape, the higher education landscape is going to be after COVID. So that's one of the one of the things that's there. The other issues it's going to be we still have funding mechanisms, the funding issues that have to be addressed. And and so I'm still up at night about a person that's going to be able to come in and deal with a limited resource institution because that's what we are. And I don't see that changing overnight. I'm encouraged by some of what I've heard, but it's not going to change overnight. We will still be an institution that have to find a way to put the pieces together in order to provide a quality education for our students. And then there are issues of student performance that we've got to got to wrestle with and whoever that person comes in will have to will have to deal with that. So those are just some of the the the ones that will, of course, keep me up at night as we think about who the next person will be. I got to ask, I know this this might be a little uncomfortable, but how what role, if any, did COVID play in your decisions to say, yeah, I'm out of here because, you know, they are whispers throughout the sector. That a lot of folks were I say, you know what, this is crazy. I'm gone. It wasn't COVID. The only thing that COVID did COVID delayed my decision. I really intended initially to make this announcement back in June. And I was going to go until the end of, you know, a year from June. But because of COVID and the uncertainty about starting the semester, I just thought it was too much for the system to absorb the uncertainty of starting a semester, not knowing exactly how that was going to look. And at the same time, also dealing with, you know, a presidential retirement. And so we delayed it until this point in time to see how things at least settle down. At least we've got our arms around how we think we may be able to navigate to navigate this. But, you know, I've always been a proponent of the fact that you are never going to accomplish everything that you set out to do at an institution. You could work another 100 years, you're not going to do that. And once you get the institution at a point where it is functioning, shared with, you know, with our board of trustees today about the strong financial standing are good academic programs, excellent fundraising. All those areas are working well. That is the time to transition. You don't transition at a time when everything is falling apart and, you know, someone has to come in and resurrect it almost from the dead. That's not the time to transition. You transition and the university is in good stead. And I don't like to make comparisons. But if you if you if you look at other institutions, you know, the other PWIs, and you find that that's typically what they do, they transition on a high note. We tend to unfortunately transition when they when we've got issues surrounding it. And I did not want that wanted to transition at a time when a person could come in and not have to worry about both the basics. Now, there was always going to be those issues that are are unique to HBCUs, but I didn't want them to come in and have to deal with that. And so it was the time I thought to to transition now. And then from another standpoint, personally, you know, I I realize my age. I know that I'm not as young as I used to be. God has promised us three schools in 10. I've got those three schools in 10. And so we don't we don't need to you know, the rest of the promise could be four scores. But that's that's stretching. And I'd like to do something until we get there. So I think it was time, you know, I have been at this this thing for about, oh, I guess, 45, 46 years now. And and so there there comes a time when when you need to move on to a different phase of your life. You've seen the best and worst. You know what it's like when students, alumni, faculty love you, you know what it's like when they hate you. You know, it's like where the board is tough and when the board is supportive. What is the thing that over your career, you think you will miss the most about being an HBCU president? My students, I really, really love my students to see them come in and and to see them develop and you follow their careers and you see all of the great and wonderful things that they they do. It's just warms your heart to to see them develop to their fullest potential. And so that's the piece I'm going to miss the most. This semester was extremely hard on our campus because we didn't see our students out and about as we normally see them. We didn't have the opportunity to interact with them as much as we would like to. So that's that's the piece. I have all of my career lived in college communities from the from the time that I graduated. I've always been in the college community. And so there's something about having youth around and how that continues to inspire and and and and keep you keep you in the right direction. Well, I know there's going to be a place where you're always on the heels at Alabama and them. Dr. Gini, we thank you for all your work at that institution throughout the sector and the example you set for so many in terms of administration at a really high and consistent level. And thank you so much for making the time right as it is big announcement. We appreciate you, brother. And thank you for what you do. You know, we need advocates for our institutions and you certainly stand right there at the top of being an advocate for all of our institutions. And we certainly do appreciate that. And thank you for the opportunity of sharing. And we know that our institutions will continue to thrive. I might be used the word survive, but they will continue to thrive. And I don't know who the others are, but I will say to my colleagues that are thinking, just go ahead and do it. Go ahead and jump. Just go ahead and jump, you know. I mean, it was very emotional for me because, you know, I've left other positions before, but it was always going on to another similar position. This was different because I'm actually retiring from a lifetime career. And so that that becomes a little, little challenging. But I'm sure that my grandchildren will make up for it.