Felicenne H. Ramey, the business dean who led the successful effort to retain accreditation for California State University, Sacramento's College of Business Administration, said Wednesday she will retire on Aug. 26.

Ramey's announced departure brought accolades from business leaders, who lauded the strong ties she forged between the business community and the business college at CSUS.

Former CSUS President Donald Gerth, interviewed from New York, described Ramey's nearly six-year performance as "excellent ... in every way."

"I hated to see her decide to move on," he said. "But she has done a lot for the university, certainly a lot for her college and ... for the community."

The timing of Ramey's departure, late August, was guided by the university's early retirement program, which gives her the option to teach half-time for five years for half a faculty member's salary.

"Right now I plan to participate in that program," she said, noting that she expects to teach business law starting with the spring semester.

Ramey said her retirement will enable her to pursue two passions -- travel, coupled with procuring fine art by black artists internationally. And it triggers a search by CSUS for her replacement.

"Our custom has been to hold a national search to replace the dean of a college," said Ann Reed, CSUS spokeswoman, adding that the timing and scope of the search will be determined by the new campus president, Alexander Gonzalez, whose first day was Monday.

Ramey said she is writing the business plan for her new Davis-based business, Ebonart, that will be devoted to finding quality art by black artists internationally for use in homes and businesses.

Ramey recently visited galleries in Jamaica and New Orleans and will travel to Cuba in December. And she has been a longtime collector, with pieces by aboriginal artists as well as black artists in the United States, Zimbabwe, Kenya and elsewhere.

For the past six years, say supporters, Ramey's trademarks have been her ability to achieve consensus among differing factions, to support diversity and strengthen the faculty talent pool, and to draw dedicated support for the campus from members of the region's business community.

Many of those traits were obvious in Ramey's early days as dean, a time when the business school was under threat of losing its accreditation.

The process of re-accreditation can take up to five years. But she led a successful effort within only two years, the deadline set by AACSB International, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, based in St. Louis.

Without that industry stamp of approval, the college would have lost tremendous stature within the educational community, along with some of its allure for business students.

Dennis Gardemeyer, co-owner of the Northern California agribusiness Zuckerman Heritage, chairs the business advisory board to the College of Business Administration. He remembers well the payoff from her accreditation success.

"There was a tremendous amount of turmoil at the time within the College of Business," he recalled. "But we (retained) our accreditation, and I witnessed firsthand a sort of internal bliss among the faculty and the students."

It was, he explained, Ramey's demeanor, her ability to calm the factions when they needed to be calmed.

"She just has almost an aura about her that commands respect," he said. "She's going to be sorely missed."