Chasse Conque
Chasse Conque, vice chancellor and director of athletics for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, announced his resignation Friday, two weeks before the school’s 2019-20 athletic season starts.
Conque will leave later this month to serve as vice president and director of athletics at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg.
UA Little Rock hired Conque in January 2015 to serve as its athletic director. In November 2017, it renewed his contract through 2022 and promoted him to vice chancellor.
Under that contract, Conque received an annual salary of $178,888 from public and private funds.
The next step, according to UA Little Rock spokesman Rand Champion, is for Chancellor Andrew Rogerson to name an interim vice chancellor and athletic director. That should happen in the coming weeks.
Champion also said a formal resignation letter had not been submitted as of early Friday afternoon.
A nationwide search will be launched for Conque’s replacement, according to a news release.
“Today is very bittersweet,” Conque said in the release. “Over the past four and a half years, I have had the distinct opportunity to lead Little Rock Athletics and am very grateful to have witnessed some transformational years. Our competitive success and record-breaking academic achievements are just the tip of the iceberg.
“I have been blessed with the hardest working staff in the country and some amazingly dedicated coaches that have all worked to enhance the Trojan student-athlete experience,” he continued. “The Little Rock Trojan brand is stronger today because of their tireless work. I simply cannot thank the campus community, central Arkansas and all our fans and supporters for what they have contributed these past several years.”
Conque led a rebranding initiative at UA Little Rock, and the school has won a combined 19 team and individual Sun Belt Conference championships with Trojan athletic programs combining for six NCAA tournament appearances.
The athletics department, under his leadership, set a new record following the fall 2018 semester as the department’s cumulative GPA for all 15 programs was a 3.36 with 124 Trojan student-athletes earning a 3.0 GPA or higher.
The department’s budget has also grown under Conque. It had a record-breaking fundraising year in 2017-18, which saw $4.3 million raised. The department raised another $3 million the following year, bringing its total for the past three years to more than $11 million.
Conque helped UA Little Rock make national headlines as well. In the spring of 2018, the school announced the addition of Division I wrestling, the first program of its kind in the state. Wrestlers will begin competing this fall in the Pac 12 Conference.
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