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John R. Brazil became the 17th president of
Trinity University in June 1999. Drawing on a distinguished academic and
administrative career, he has charted an ambitious course for the University,
where his leadership has inspired a number of special initiatives that build on
Trinity’s considerable strengths and achievements.
Dr. Brazil’s oft stated vision is to move Trinity from its
position of eminence to preeminence and propel it into the front ranks of
America’s finest smaller colleges and universities. Progress toward this goal
includes the hiring of numerous new faculty members, a redesigned common
curriculum, a re-conceptualization of student life, implementation of an
Academic Honor Code, the “internationalization” of both the faculty and student
body, and dramatic increases in the number, quality, and diversity of
applicants for admissions. Major new facilities added to the Trinity campus
include the Robert A.M. Stern-designed administrative and academic building,
Northrup Hall; the Dicke Art and Smith Music buildings; an information commons
in the Coates library; and a renovated Ruth Taylor Recital Hall. The Trinity
University Press has been re-established and to date has 25 volumes in print.
An historic $200 million capital campaign, Dream Inspire, Achieve.,
launched in September 2005 is nearing completion and will serve to sustain and
secure a variety of forward thinking academic initiatives as well ensure access
to the nation’s best and brightest students.
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Prior to coming to Trinity, Dr. Brazil served as president
of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Prior to Bradley, he was president
and chancellor of the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Dr. Brazil
received his A.B. degree in history from Stanford University in 1968. He earned
the Master of Philosophy and Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University. He
is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Phi Kappa Phi honor society, Beta Gamma
Sigma international honor society in business administration and an honorary
member of Gold Key and Delta Mu Delta national honor society in business
administration.
Prior to beginning his career in higher education
administration, Dr. Brazil taught at Yale and San Jose State University,
reaching the rank of professor. His scholarly publications have appeared in American
Quarterly, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, American Literary Realism,
and the Mississippi Quarterly. He was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the
University of Sydney in 1980 and a delegate in U.S. Department of Education and
American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ mission to the Soviet
Union in 1989. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Samara State
Aerospace University in Russia in 1997. He is currently writing two books, Murder
and Twenties America and The Twenties on Trial.
Dr. Brazil currently is active with the following academic
organizations: the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS), Independent Colleges
and Universities (ICUT), the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC),
the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities (APCU), and the
Higher Education Council of San Antonio (HECSA). Additionally, he is a
commissioner of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association on
Colleges and Schools.
Outside academia, he is active in numerous professional and
civic organizations, currently serving on the boards of Caterpillar, Inc., United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, the
Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, Southwest Research Institute, and the
World Affairs Council of San Antonio.
Dr. Brazil is married to the former Janice Hosking, and they
have two grown children.
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