Peter B. Barr will step down as dean of Coastal Carolina University's E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration, effective Dec. 8, to take a new position with Burroughs & Chapin Company, Inc., of Myrtle Beach. A national search for a new dean will begin immediately and an interim dean will be announced soon, according to Coastal President Ronald R. Ingle.

"Pete Barr has led Coastal's Wall College of Business through a period of significant development and achievement," said Ingle. "His leadership, integrity and dedication to excellence have helped place the Wall College in the top tier of business programs in the country."< p> Barr has served as dean of the Wall College of Business since July 1, 1992, and has been a member of Coastal's faculty since 1987. During his tenure, the Wall College of Business earned national accreditation and developed many innovative new academic programs.

Barr was a driving force in the process of accreditation. In June 1998, the Wall College of Business was officially accredited by the AACSB-The International Association for Management Education. Only the top 25 percent of the more than 1,200 colleges and universities in the nation offering undergraduate business degrees earn AACSB accreditation.

Academic programs which have been established at Coastal under Barr's leadership include the Resort Tourism Management program, which prepares students for management-level positions in the hospitality industry, and the Professional Golf Management program, which earned national accreditation from the Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA) in 1998. Barr took a leadership role in establishing a unique international cooperative program with the Autonomous University in Barcelona, Spain, in connection with Coastal's golf and tourism programs. The Wall Fellows program, a rigorous leadership training program for Coastal's top business students, also was developed during his tenure.

While he was a professor of business administration, Barr was instrumental in the establishment of Coastal's Center for Economic and Community Development and became the center's first director in 1989. The center functions as a bridge between the university and the community, providing technical and applied research and consulting for individuals, businesses and governmental entities throughout the region.