“The quality most important in a new director is to be as accesible to students as Senator Pryor,” he said.
Under his tenure, Pryor said he also tried to draw a wider campus audience to IOP events. This fall, for example, former president and fellow Arkansas-native Bill Clinton spoke at the IOP. His speech drew more than 6,000 spectators to the Gordon track.
“It was a huge, enormous, succesful day, not only for the president but also for students,” Pryor said.
Looking back on his tenure, Pryor said he was also proud of events held at the ARCO forum during the past two years, calling the Montogmery bus boycott and the Cuban Missile crisis forums “magic moments.”
He said he was also optimistic about new programs started under his directorship, including the IOP’s book club and its fall voter registration drive.
Pryor said he feels “it’s time to go home” to Little Rock, Ark., where he once served as governor.
“When interviewed for this position in spring 2000, I said at that time that I would commit to a two year period,” said Pryor, who previously served as a fellow at the IOP. “It’s also time to have a younger person in this job.”