UK’s chief academic officer is stepping down, effective Dec. 31, 2017.

Provost Tim Tracy, who began this role in February of 2015, is leaving UK to become chief executive officer of Aprecia Pharmaceuticals, a research and development company in Cincinnati.

After the announcement on Wednesday morning that Tracy was stepping down, he met with members of the University Senate Council with “thoughts to share.”

He mentioned several initiatives he worked on during his time as provost. 

“I hope they transcend me and whoever sits in this chair,” Tracy said.

He spoke about the Blue Ribbon Committee on Graduate Education, the Title Series, non-traditional students and UK Core.

He said the world has changed since UK Core was implemented several years ago, and that while UK Core is a good program, it must be changed when necessary.

“How do we assure that students get a broad-based liberal education while helping them prepare for a career that we know will evolve?” Tracy said. “We are not only their university for their degree, but their university for life.”

Joan Mazur, the Senate Council member representing the College of Education, said Tracy is the “poster child” for having many careers throughout his life. Tracy is about to begin his tenth job, he said. 

During his time as provost, Tracy was also involved with the construction of UK’s current Strategic Plan.

“That continues full speed ahead,” UK spokesperson Jay Blanton said.

The plan was adopted by Capilouto and the Board of Trustees in 2015. Blanton said that under the plan, UK has made “tremendous strides” in areas like retention and graduation rates.

“We plan to continue that momentum even as we all miss Provost Tracy and his leadership,” he said.

Tracy said that he will take “tremendous pride” if he looks back in three years and sees that these initiatives are moving forward.

But he is “still not gone yet,” he reminded his colleagues.

Several of the Senate Council members seemed frustrated about the effect that a lack of a provost will have on dean searches throughout the university.

Engineering representative Kaveh Tagavi asked Tracy how this transition, including the possibility of an interim provost, might disrupt dean searches. Tracy reassured the group by saying that on his second day as interim provost, he hired a new dean of engineering.

College of Communication and Information representative Al Cross said he thinks UK will have an interim provost soon because of the issue of dean searches.

Cross said he thinks Tracy will now be doing what he wants to do most.

“I get the sense that pharmacy is his first love, and he now gets to go back to that,” he said.

Tracy is a registered pharmacist in the state of Ohio, according to an Aprecia press release.

“Along with being a wonderful person and a well-respected scientist within the pharmaceutical industry, Tim Tracy has been a driving force for advancing the mission and development of the University of Kentucky,” E. Thomas Arington, Aprecia’s chairman, said. “We are excited that he will apply his extensive scientific and leadership capabilities toward the growth of Aprecia, and we look forward to the positive impact he will make across the organization.”

Before taking the position of provost, Tracy served as dean of the UK College of Pharmacy for more than four years.