President Saliman Announces CU Boulder Chancellor Finalist

Dear Members of the CU Boulder Community,

I am excited to announce my decision to advance Dr. Justin Schwartz as the finalist for the position of CU Boulder Chancellor. I carefully considered each of the excellent candidates forwarded to me by the search committee. I appreciated the considerable input from the CU Boulder community regarding the search. Dr. Schwartz will visit campus and participate in the open forums detailed below.

I believe Dr. Schwartz is the right person to build on the strong foundation already in place and to elevate CU Boulder to even greater heights. He has the skills, experience and spirit to help us continue to serve our students and state as Colorado’s flagship university. He is a leader who deeply understands the power and promise of the education, research and service that are at the heart of CU Boulder. He has a proven commitment to diversity and to supporting a community that embodies different cultures and perspectives.

Dr. Schwartz now serves as the Executive Vice President and Provost at Pennsylvania State University.  Previously, he was the Harold and Inge Marcus Dean of Engineering at Penn State. He earned a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Before Penn State, Dr. Schwartz was a faculty member at Florida State University and department head at North Carolina State University. He has more than 30 years of experience in higher education as a faculty member, dean and administrator.

Dr. Schwartz rose to the top of the candidate pool. He exemplifies all the qualities I detailed in my charge to the search committee. He is a bold leader who is committed to student success, well-being and belonging. He has a strong background in the research enterprise and a sound understanding of our research, scholarship and creative work. He appreciates the value of a liberal arts education at a public university such as ours. He is deeply committed to diversity and to ensuring a place where people from underrepresented communities belong and thrive. Dr. Schwartz is currently a leader at a large, complex university and understands the importance of diversifying our funding and expanding upon our already successful fundraising efforts. He has a fundamental commitment to shared governance, academic freedom and freedom of expression. And, critically important, he is someone who will lead with humility, curiosity and a collaborative spirit.

I would like to thank everyone on the Boulder campus for your engagement in the process thus far. I also greatly appreciate the ongoing dedication of Chancellor DiStefano, whose impressive leadership over the past 15 years (and commitment to CU Boulder for the past 50 years) puts us in an excellent position as we look to the future.

I am grateful for the work of AGB Search and the CU Boulder Chancellor Search Committee. AGB recruited an excellent pool of diverse and highly qualified candidates, and the search committee was thoughtful and diligent in its work, ultimately sending me seven of those candidates. I had hoped to forward more than one finalist, depending on the willingness of candidates to be part of a multi-candidate finalist pool. After discussions with candidates, it became clear a multi-candidate pool was not an option. Therefore, I am advancing Dr. Schwartz, an outstanding finalist who can effectively and enthusiastically lead CU Boulder into the future.

I look forward to you meeting with Dr. Schwartz and getting to know him. Dr. Schwartz’s CV can be found on the CU Boulder Chancellor Search website. Additionally, on the website you will find the Zoom links to access the livestream along with the recordings of the open forums, which will be posted as soon as the information is available. There is also a statement of support from the CU Boulder Chancellor Search Committee and AGB Search on Dr. Schwartz's candidacy.

Please participate. Your opinions matter to me. We will collect your anonymous feedback through an online survey, which will launch on Thursday, April 4 at 8:00 a.m. and close on Tuesday, April 9 at 5:00 p.m. Please take the time to fill it out.

OPEN FORUM SCHEDULE - Thursday, April 4 

• Faculty: 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. - UMC Ballroom
• Staff: 9:15 – 10:15 a.m. - UMC Ballroom
• Students: 5:00 – 6:00 p.m. - UMC Aspen Rooms

Thank you in advance for your time and engagement. CU Boulder’s unique story has been unfolding for nearly 150 years, and I am excited by our opportunity to write our next chapters as we prepare to welcome new leadership.

Todd Saliman
President