Kevin Rome is leaving his job as Lincoln University's 19th permanent president after just four years, so he can move to Nashville, Tennessee, to become Fisk University's 16th president, beginning July 1.
"This has been the greatest work experience of my life," Rome told the News Tribune last week. "I did the best that I could with the time that I had, and I believe - and I hope that people see - that Lincoln is better today than it was four years ago."
Rome credited former President Carolyn Mahoney with setting things up for him to succeed.
"When I look at the aesthetics of the campus, when I look at The LINC Wellness Center, when I look at the Boys & Girls Club (new building) - (and) when I look at the community support in Jefferson City," he said, he sees lots of improvements.
Rome also pointed to improved relations with Lincoln's alumni groups around the country and the increase in students studying abroad as signs Lincoln's reach is being extended.
Getting LU's name recognized in more places has been one of Rome's goals, since he began serving June 1, 2013, as Lincoln's president.
Deciding to leave for Fisk was a difficult decision, Rome has said several times.
"I love this place," he said. "I have some great connections in the (Jefferson City) community.
"I love the people."
However, Rome grew up in Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia.
"I've lived the majority of my life in cities," he noted. "I've enjoyed Jefferson City, but I think I'm more of a (bigger) city type person."
Nashville is Tennessee's capital and largest city - and, with more than 660,000 people, is 15 times larger than Jefferson City.
Its business includes being the center of the nation's country music industry and all the entertainment that offers, and its education activities include Fisk and Vanderbilt universities.
After announcing his decision to move to Fisk in March, Rome noted that school is considered one of the "elite" universities among the nation's historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
"As an undergraduate, I attended Morehouse College (Atlanta), and Fisk University is much more in line with the type of institution that I attended as an undergraduate," Rome explained. "For me, as I am closer to the end of my career than the beginning - it was Morehouse College that made me want to do this type of work.
"If I can finish my career at an institution similar to the one that created me, that's just a personal preference for me."
Rome came to Lincoln from North Carolina Central University, Durham, where he served five years as vice chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management.
LU was his first presidency.
His four-year tenure hasn't been all smooth sailing - especially in the last two years.
Growing faculty disenchantment ultimately led to a September 2016 "no confidence" vote in the work of Said Sewell, the now-former provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, and to the majority of faculty joining the Missouri National Education Association for collective bargaining purposes.
Both of those actions came after Rome's administration last July recommended terminating some music programs and deactivating LU's history degree program, resulting in five teachers losing their jobs at the end of this last semester.
A revised history program has been reactivated.
"I wish that I could have worked to more resolve with the faculty," Rome said last week. "I think it was challenging times with budgets and other things.
"No president wants to be in a position to cut programs. And those are things that I never would have, ideally, wanted to take on - but it was situational."
He acknowledged no faculty welcomes the prospect of cutting programs or teaching jobs.
"I wish that things could have been different," he said.
And his advice to his successor - whoever that turns out to be - is to "focus on faculty relationships coming in," and to "maintain the relationships with the community, because I think that's so critical for the person in this seat to have a great relationship with Jefferson City."
Change also will be among the biggest challenges facing his successor, Rome said.
"No institution wants to be a 'dinosaur,'" he said, "and that's what happens to institutions and organizations that don't change.
"They go away."
LU's new interim president, Mike Middleton - retired from a long career in teaching and administration at the University of Missouri, including a recent 15-month stint as interim president for the four-campus system - has said several times colleges and universities are going to have to look at more cooperation with each other in order to save money and avoid unnecessary duplication of programs and services.
LU Curators President Marvin Teer, a 1986 Lincoln graduate who is now a state hearing commissioner, noted today's students are much different from those who were in college when he was, 30 years ago.
"They learn differently. They receive information differently," Teer said. "Everything they do is electronically and online.
"They're connected to a web that didn't exist (when I was in college)."
And, Rome said, that means he and other college administrators "are going to have to be more nimble. We're going to have to look at what we offer and how we offer it.
"If we don't have an infrastructure (for computer technology) to support the technological needs of the students today, then we lose the students."
Lincoln, he noted, still has a lot of manual processes that require a lot of paperwork.
"When they have to wait a little longer - or the more you deal with paper, the more mishaps you have - we're dealing with a generation that's just not used to waiting," Rome said, "or not knowing where the documents are."
Teer credits Rome with energizing "not only the community around Lincoln but its student body - giving it a vibrancy, a level of excitement and a re-connection and, I think, a reaffirmation of how important our most valuable asset is, our students."
Rome said his successor should "maintain relationships with students and alumni - and making sure that students know who they are and that they are concerned about the experience of the students."