The next chancellor of the Minnesota State college and university system will be Scott Olson, a state university president and longtime insider who intends to keep advancing current priorities while paying special attention to affordability.
Olson, 64, has led Winona State – one of seven universities in the state system – since 2012.
Before that, he was provost and vice president for academic and student affairs for nine years at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and spent a year at the Minnesota State system office in St. Paul as interim vice chancellor for academic and student affairs.
Olson was one of two finalists for the job, along with Tonja Johnson, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs for the University of Alabama System.
“There was a sense that Scott was in a position to literally not miss a beat” following Devinder Malhotra’s Aug. 1 retirement, said Roger Moe, who chairs the Board of Trustees.
The system is focused on increasing equity, growing enrollment, making credit transfer easier for students and transitioning to a new technology system to manage finance, human resources and student affairs.
“I completely agree with the agenda we’re working on,” Olson said, adding that it will be his job to tell that story to stakeholders, including the state lawmakers who fund much of the system’s work.
Yet, Olson said he will pursue his own strategic plan for the system, and that making college more affordable for students figures to play a starring role.
“For Minnesota to become what it can be, we’re going to have to remove affordability as a barrier,” he said.
The Legislature is in the midst of doing some of that work for him. A conference committee of lawmakers from the state House and Senate on Monday agreed to present a bill that would freeze tuition throughout the system while also making tuition and fees at state colleges and universities free to Minnesotans from families making less than $80,000 a year.
If storytelling is Olson’s main job, he seems to have the background for it.
He started out as a communications professor and later became dean of the communications school at Ball State University.
Trustee Kathy Sheran said Olson has a gift for communication. She described him as “fun” with a “wonderful capacity for storytelling.”
Moe said Olson’s references described him as “strategic, student-centric, committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, focused on shared governance, empathetic, emotionally intelligent, optimistic and a great fundraiser.”
Jenna Chernega, president of the Inter Faculty Organization, which represents state university faculty, called Olson an “effective and thoughtful leader who shows deep respect to students, faculty, staff, and the communities we serve.”
Malhotra, who has led the system since 2017, leaves at a time when enrollment at the system’s seven universities and 26 colleges continues to fall but – unlike at the University of Minnesota, which announced its own leadership change on Monday – relations with state lawmakers are strong.
Greeting his successor after Tuesday’s board meeting, Malhotra quipped, “All my problems are yours.”