WSU president Kirk Schulz to retire in 2025

Washington State University president Kirk Schulz announced Friday that he will retire at the end of next year, bringing his nearly decadelong stint as the university’s top leader to an end.

Schulz, who was appointed to the role in 2016, disclosed his plans at the end of a Board of Regents meeting Friday morning on the university’s Spokane campus.

The announcement comes as the university continues to grapple with the implications of the implosion of the Pac-12. Schulz has been at the forefront of the fight to ensure that the conference’s only remaining members, Oregon State and WSU, continue to have a seat at the table of college athletics, whatever that future might look like.

Schulz’s retirement was met with an extended silence from the board.

Chair Lisa Keohokalole Schauer said during the meeting that his retirement has been discussed with the regents since June, which has allowed them to prepare and take the proper steps to identify the university’s next president.

The search will be conducted by the national firm Isaacson, Miller, the same firm conducting the ongoing search for a new provost.

“I really appreciate your leadership and what we’re about to embark on is a change in this university,” Keohokalole said. “We will be forever in your debt for what you have done for this university, and we look forward to continuing to work toward the action items.”

Last year, Schulz, who replaced the late Elson S. Floyd Jr. as WSU’s president, sat in the Whitman County Courthouse as WSU and Oregon State won legal control over the remaining Pac-12 assets over the objection of the former members.

He serves on the College Football Playoff executive board and successfully advocated for revenue distributions for the remaining Pac-12 members this spring. Most recently, he vocally lamented former athletic director Pat Chun’s decision to leave WSU for the same role at rival the University of Washington.

“I was just, you’re kidding me,” Schulz said in an interview with Cougfan.com. “If Pat had said it was the University of Iowa, it was Ohio State or Minnesota or pick whatever I would have said, ‘Hey, we want you here, but I understand.’

“Given all the stuff that’s happened with the University of Washington over the last year, I was like, there’s no way a person is going to move as a senior athletics administrator from WSU to the University of Washington. … Still a little shocked by it to be honest. … I’m upset about the timing of Pat leaving.”

Schulz’s announcement is the latest departure from the Palouse following the announcement March 25 that men’s basketball coach Kyle Smith had taken the same job at Stanford after a five-year run with the Cougars.

The very next day, Chun announced that he was leaving WSU to become athletic director at Washington, which was part of the massive breakup last August.

Washington and Oregon left the Pac-12 for the Big Ten on Aug. 4. That followed earlier departures by Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State to the Big 12, and USC and UCLA leaving for the Big Ten and lastly California and Stanford joining the Atlantic Coast Conference.

That breakup left only WSU and Oregon State for which Schulz was a key advocate, with his key position on the College Football Playoff executive board, for trying to secure revenue for what was left of the Pac-12.

Now WSU will be left trying to replace Chun and Schulz, who otherwise would have been working to either expand the former Pac-12 or join other conferences.

In the meantime, the school continues to face at least $10 million a year on debt service for about $100 million of debt incurred when former President Floyd and athletic director Bill Moos expanded sports facilities as part of an effort to attract coaches and recruits.