PENNSYLVANIA -- An Air Force officer and alumnus of Mansfield University has been selected as the school's next president.

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education announced Thursday that Brigadier General Francis Hendricks will take over as the university's President on January 1st, succeeding interim president Allan Golden.

Hendricks is a 1979 graduate of Mansfield. For the past five years, he served at the upper levels of the Texas-based Army and Air Force Exchange Service.

Hendricks will retire from the military before taking the new position.