John Idoux, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Coastal Carolina University since 1994, has accepted a position with the Tarleton State University System in Texas, effective August 1. He will remain at Coastal through July.

Idoux was named Coastal's first provost in July 1994, following the university's independence from the University of South Carolina in 1993.

"John Idoux has been instrumental in building the academic reputation of Coastal Carolina University," said Coastal President Ronald R. Ingle. "His commitment to scholarship and teaching has garnered national recognition for Coastal. He had a leading role in securing a National Science Foundation grant in 1998 which recognized our integration of teaching and research and placed Coastal among some of the elite institutions of the nation."

During Idoux's tenure at Coastal, the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration earned accreditation from AACSB International- The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Only the top 25 percent of the more than 1,200 colleges and universities in the nation offering business degrees earn AACSB accreditation. In 1998, the College of Education earned accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and in May the Department of Art earned accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. Since 1993, the average SAT score for entering freshmen at Coastal has improved to exceed the national average.

Coastal offers baccalaureate degree programs in 40 fields, master's degrees in education and five cooperative programs with other South Carolina colleges and universities. New programs were recently added in Spanish and music, and several more are being considered. International exchange programs have expanded to reach institutions in Spain, Germany, Australia, India, England, Sweden and Austria.

According to Ingle, a national search for a new provost will begin in the early fall. A search committee of faculty and administrators representing all academic areas of the university will be named in the early fall.

The provost is the chief academic officer of the university and reports to the president.

Idoux will be the executive director for Tarleton-Central Texas, an extension of Tarleton State University, which has been a member of the Texas A&M University System since 1917. A Houston native, Idoux earned a Ph.D. and a master's degree, both in chemistry, from Texas A&M University.