Penn State President Eric Barron announced on Friday that he will retire at the conclusion of his current contract in June 2022, with the university’s Board of Trustees taking a phased approach over the next 16 months to select his successor.
Barron, a former faculty member and dean in the university’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, returned to Penn State in May 2014 to become its 18th president following the retirement of Rodney Erickson. His appointment came in the still tumultuous wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal that forced out former President Graham Spanier.
“It has been my greatest professional honor to serve as president of Penn State and to be able to collaborate with and learn from our amazing faculty, staff and students every day,” Barron said. “Together, we have elevated Penn State as a leader in higher education poised to meet the future and to attract the best and brightest students,”
Board Chairman Matt Schuyler said the process of selecting Barron’s successor will be led by a Presidential Recruitment and Selection Committee to be co-chaired by trustees Mark Dambly and Julie Anna Potts.
The process will begin this spring with “Next Gen Penn State,” a “listening phase that will engage University stakeholders in providing feedback to identify the desired qualities and qualifications,” for the next president.
Composition of the committee and details of Next Gen Penn State will be announced in March.
“We are a large and complex University, and it’s critical that our selection process is informed by the entirety of our Penn State family,” Schuyler said. “Together, their voices will be an important part of the overall process.”
Barron spent 20 years as a Penn State faculty member and dean from 1986 to 2006. He left to become dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas before becoming director of the National Center for Atmospheric Sciences in 2008. In 2010 he was named president of Florida State University, where he stayed until returning to State College.
At the start of his tenure as Penn State president, Barron outlined six “presidential imperatives” that he has championed throughout his time on the second floor of Old Main: excellence, access and affordability, economic development and student career success, student engagement, diversity and demographics, and technology and curriculum delivery.
Schuyler said Barron has positioned Penn State well, as the university carries a strong bond ratings and fiscal management, continued enrollment demand and top-ranked online programs, a research enterprise that now tops $1 billion in expenditures and record fundraising hauls.
“President Barron’s stable guidance, successful management of critical challenges, and drive to innovate will have a lasting impact and have prepared Penn State to lead the future of public higher education,” Schuyler said. “As we look toward the future, the University is well-positioned for our next leader.”
Outlining priorities for the remainder of his tenure during Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting, Barron said the university will continue to work toward goals based on those six imperatives.
“In the next 16 months, even as we continue to weather the challenges of the pandemic as a community, we cannot pause in our efforts to provide the highest quality education, contribute knowledge to society, and support Pennsylvania communities, the nation and world,” he said.
Schuyler said he hopes the university community will share the board’s commitments to accomplishing Barron’s goals over the next year.
“President Barron’s outstanding leadership and support for the ongoing success of our students, faculty and staff have helped make a great public university even greater,” Schuyler said.
