Jordan Cofer has been named the next vice chancellor for academic affairs (VCAA) and dean at the University of Minnesota Morris following a national search. Chancellor Janet Schrunk Ericksen made the announcement to the campus community on Dec. 29, 2023. The appointment is pending approval by the University of Minnesota Board of Regents.
Cofer earned a doctoral degree in English from Texas Tech University and is currently associate provost and professor of English at Georgia College & State University. He is also the interim executive director of the Andalusia Institute and a recognized Flannery O’Connor scholar.
Cofer is an accomplished academic leader and faculty member who comes to UMN Morris from a peer institution in the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville, Georgia. He has extensive experience in various areas of academic administrative leadership at the department, campus, and system level, and he has state and national experience as part of the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ Liberal Education and America’s Promise project (LEAP), “a national public advocacy and campus-action initiative to champion the importance of a liberal education for individual students and for a nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic vitality.” He also serves as an instructor in the AAC&U High-Impact Practices Institute.
Ericksen extended her gratitude to the search committee members and to Peh Ng, who is serving as interim VCAA and dean. “She has accomplished much in that role and will still be doing more between now and the end of June, when she will return to her role as chair of the Division of Math and Science.”
Pending board approval, Cofer will start at UMN Morris this July.