Washington State University Name of the 12th President, First Woman in the 135 -year history -the speaker’s review

Washington State University has its next leader.

On Thursday, Elizabeth Betsy Cantwell, President of the State University of Utah, was named the 12th President of the WSU. She will be the first woman to play the biggest role of the 135-year-old institution.

The WSU Regents Council was convened on the Pullman campus on Thursday and unanimously approved Cantwell’s employment contract after a secret nine -month search to replace President Kirk Schultz.

“I am absolutely excited to be here and I am humble and I am an honor because I understand what it is, we are activated to achieve together,” says Cantwell, 69.

The participants congratulated Cantwell on the standing up after the vote.

Schultz, who announced his retirement last April, will remain until the end of the school year, Schaer said. Schultz will take a role as a senior advisor to help Cantwell’s transition. Cantwel said she had worked with WSU researchers and teachers over the years and thanked the president, who she considered a mentor for his university service.

“His leadership was incredible here,” Cantwell said. “He built a great foundation for me to proceed and move you forward.”

President’s connections with Pullman go beyond professional interactions. She noted that her daughter Hannah, the smallest of five children, is currently in her third year in the pursuit of a doctoral degree in chemical engineering at WSU.

“I have visited it many, many times; We have been walking almost everywhere you can in the town of Pulman, ”Cantwell said. “And the opportunity to serve WSU as president is actually a dream come true for me.”

Cantwell holds a bachelor’s degree in human behavior from the University of Chicago, a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Prior to joining the State University of Utah, Cantwell was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at the University of Arizona and as Vice President for the Development of Research and Executive Director of Associated Research Enterprise at Arizona State University. Cantwell has played various national security roles in national laboratories supporting the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Defense, NASA and the National Administration for Nuclear Security before its transition to academic circles.

“Dr. The combination of Cantwell by the leadership of the academic, research and innovation sector makes it uniquely qualified to lead the next WSU chapter, “Jennet Ramos, a member of the Council of Regents and the President Commission, said in a message about news.

Cantwell will start with a $ 735,000 base salary and will stay at Ida Lou Anderson’s house until December 31, when she and the Regents will revalist “The location of the system, office and residence of WSU,” Schauer said. The Pullman’s complex residence housed the university presidents until 2022, when it became the official residence of Pullman Campus Chancellor, a position that Schultz created recently.

Cantwell joined the State University of Utah on August 1, 2023 with a basic salary of $ 581,585 a year, according to the Utah Higher Education System

She will be considered a professor on traces of the school by mechanism and engineering of materials at Voiland College of Engineering. University administrators are usually related to an academic department at the school.

Cantwell joins the WSU at a challenging moment for the university, as well as higher education facilities across the country. The new Trump presidential administration has left very uncertain how their funding, research and courses can be affected.

Cantwell said this is a unique time in American history, but that it is an important and “incredible moment to be Kug.” She said she was committed to working closely and openly with the university community to focus on uncertain waters.

“The future needs a Washington State University,” Cantwell said. “We need our students. We need us to hand them over at this point. And I am really confident, based on what I saw here and what I met with that we were ready for that moment. “

The WSU has declined to recording after the Covid-19 pandemic, a trend corresponding to other universities across the country. However, the WSU is more slow to bounce than other institutions.

The University registered a common system fall record from 31 607 in 2019, one of the largest in its history, but it fell to 27 539 to the fall of 2022. The system recording the system fell another 3.8% at the beginning of the school year 2023-24 and another 3 % earlier this year.

There is also a constant effort to restore the university athletics conference, something that Cantwell has some experience in his former institution, one of six to join the WSU and Oregon State University in the PAC-12 conference in 2026.

“As I said, we face challenges,” Cantwell said. “… But we also have unprecedented opportunities, and I am really confident that together we can create not only a successful institution, but also the one that demonstrates how we meet the moment and how we grab the opportunities and how we deliver them to the people of Washington and really for the people of Washington The nation. “

Cantwell’s election follows a message last month from Gonzaga University in Spokan that he also chose his first wife president in his 137-year history.

Secret search

Much of the search is an affair with closed doors, with few opportunities for public contribution.

Thursday’s meeting was the first time that someone outside the 21-member regent committee, faculty representatives and other WSU employees and demand graduates had some entry of the candidates for the role.

Summary, applications and names of the candidates were not released to the public, with the regents citing the conviction that confidentiality was needed to attract as many qualified candidates as possible. Some may not have applied if they knew their name would be publicly released for their current employer to see, said University spokesman Phil Weiller.

The Regents also did not provide public opportunities, past initial studies and discussions with teachers, students and the general public about what the next university leader should look like. The board faced such complaints about the secret process by which Schultz was hired in 2016, and attracted criticism from members of the university community, defenders of government transparency and state lawmakers this time.

A group of bilateral representatives in Olympia has introduced a bill designed to suspend the president’s confidential president who has been used by Washington higher education institutions for years.

The bill will require the management advice of Washington higher education institutions to publicly identify finalists “up to four” for a presidential position at least a month before a planned vote for hiring a candidate. Summals, reference letters, school transcripts and the application for work will be published as part of the public notice, according to the text of the bill.

This article can be updated.

Reporter James Hanlon has contributed to this report.