St. Cloud State University President Robbyn Wacker is stepping down from her post almost two months earlier than expected.

Robbyn Wacker was named president of St. Cloud State University on May 16, 2018. (Courtesy of Minnesota State)

“I am doing what I believe is the honorable thing to do,” Wacker told St. Cloud LIVE in an interview Thursday. “I’m on my way out, so I think the right thing to do is to just say, ‘Look, I’m, I’m winding up here, if there’s significant decisions that need to be made on behalf of the university, they should be made by the incoming president and the current leadership here.’ ”

Larry Lee, SCSU vice president for finance and administration, has been appointed acting president effective this Sunday.

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Chancellor Scott Olson sent a letter to SCSU faculty and staff on Wednesday, saying the university is “facing financial pressures that will need to be addressed in the coming weeks.”

“President Wacker cares deeply for the SCSU community and has shared with me her concern that decisions about long-term operational changes should be made by leaders who will be there to manage the transition,” he wrote. “To ensure continuity of operations and leadership for the university, I have appointed Larry Lee as Acting President, effective May 5. With the campus leadership, she/he will usher the campus through the next two months and with Interim President-Designate Larry Dietz, lay the groundwork for the university’s sustainable future. Decisions regarding the FY2025 and FY2026 budget will be made by Acting President Lee in consultation with the SCSU leadership.”

Wacker was to leave the university at the end of her contract on June 30. Interim president Larry Dietz will start at SCSU beginning July 1.

Wacker said it is in the best interest of the university for someone who is staying long term to make financial decisions while the university is facing another round of budget cuts.

She said she will still attend signature functions for the university, but will step back from a decision-making role. Commencement ceremonies were held at St. Cloud State on Thursday and Friday.

In clarifying Wacker’s role going forward, Noelle Hawton, a spokesperson for Olson, told St. Cloud LIVE that “Dr. Wacker remains the president of SCSU through the end of her contract, but will be on personal leave much of May and June.”

Per publicly available state employee payroll data, Wacker’s salary as SCSU’s president was an estimated $349,000 in fiscal year 2022.

Challenges

Wacker said her focus is on what is in the best interest of St. Cloud State. That was one of the reasons she said she decided to leave SCSU after the 2023-24 academic year.

“I’ve accomplished what I came here to do,” she told St. Cloud LIVE. “St. Cloud State University was a discouraged campus when I first got here — there was a lot of turmoil. But I like to think that the SCSU community has more pride and hope now.”

Wacker said the campus in 2018 was reeling from budget cuts, low enrollment and the death of President Earl Potter, who was killed in a 2016 car crash on Interstate 694 in Brooklyn Center.

One of the greatest challenges Wacker faced was the university’s decreasing enrollment.

The university saw an uptick in enrollment in fall 2023 for the first time since 2015. The student headcount increased by about 70 to 10,130 in 2023. Except for in 2015 when enrollment increased by about 45 students, the number has been steadily decreasing since 2010.

“We started to see some improvement after I started, but then COVID hit and enrollment plummeted again,” Wacker said.

If the university wants to continue building on the growth it’s seen this academic year, it will need to continue adapting and meeting the needs of students, she said. This means expanding online programs and adapting to workforce demand and ever-evolving technology, according to Wacker.

However, Wacker’s decision-making has led to disagreements with some of the faculty.

Her tenure began with a round of layoffs in 2018, including the termination of tenured staff. More layoffs have followed since as a response to decreased support from the Minnesota State system and a $5 million budget deficit, Wacker said.

“These were not decisions I made lightly, but the health and well-being of the university is my north star,” she said. “I empathize with everyone involved.”

Another challenge Wacker tackled during her time at SCSU was a Title IX lawsuit she inherited from Potter’s time in office. The U.S. Court of Appeals and a lower court found the school in violation of the federal gender discrimination law, ruling that SCSU needed to offer two more sports programs.

However, the addition of new programs — the cost of travel, scholarships, equipment, etc. — was not in the budget, she said.

The programs would have cost the university $4 million amid a budget deficit, according to Wacker.

Instead, the SCSU football and men’s and women’s golf programs were eliminated.

“I believe in Title IX, and this is not about blaming Title IX,” she said. “However, it would have been unsustainable for the university to add the programs needed to be in compliance with the law, so we had to cut programs like football.”

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