The chancellor for the troubled University of Minnesota-Morris will step down from her role by the end of December. The news comes from a letter by President Rebecca Cunningham of the University of Minnesota.
According to the office of the president, Chancellor Janet Schrunk Ericksen will be stepping down from her role by Dec. 31. In her letter, Cunningham wrote, “Chancellor Ericksen has laid a strong foundation that will allow us to build on the successes she fostered and lead the University of Minnesota Morris to its next chapter.”
The Morris campus, with its focus on liberal arts education, has been beset by declining enrollment and related financial and sustainability challenges, many of them related to its location in rural western Minnesota.
Michael Rodriguez, dean of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus, has been selected to be the new chancellor beginning on Jan. 1, pending approval from the Board of Regents, according to Cunningham.
Rodriguez is a University of Minnesota-Morris alumnus. Rodriguez’s biography with the University of Minnesota describes him as a fifth-generation Minnesotan and a first-generation college graduate.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota-Morris before going on to earn his master’s degree in public affairs at the Twin Cities campus. He also earned a doctorate in measurement and quantitative methods from Michigan State University.
Rodriguez became a university faculty member in 1999 and was previously named the Campbell Leadership Chair in Education and Human Development in 2013. He is also a member of the UMN Academy of Distinguished Teachers and chairs the Technical Advisory Group of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards.
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