BOZEMAN — Montana State University President Waded Cruzado has announced her plans to retire in June 2025, concluding a transformative 15-year tenure at the helm of Montana’s land-grant university.
Cruzado’s announcement follows the news of Montana Technological University Chancellor Dr. Les Cook’s plan to retire in 2025 and Carroll College President Dr. John E Cech’s announcement that he will retire in 2025.
Cruzado, who became the 12th president of MSU in 2010, has been celebrated for her unwavering commitment to the land-grant mission of education, research and community outreach. Her leadership has significantly reshaped Montana State, reflected in a series of remarkable achievements.
In a letter to the university this morning, Cruzado said being president “has been an incomparable honor, the memory of which I will hold close to my heart for the rest of my life.” The text of her full letter can be read here [montana.edu].
Under Cruzado’s leadership, the university has set records in nearly every major university metric: enrollment, research, fundraising, athletics, campus expansion and, most importantly, in student persistence and graduation rates.
“President Cruzado was the first in her family to go to college. She speaks of how higher education has transformed her life, but I can attest to how she has transformed higher education. She is an exceptional leader and advocate who cares with her whole heart about the students, faculty, staff, fans and alumni who make up a university community. Exceptional leaders leave an organization better than they found it, and President Cruzado has done that to a historic degree. Thanks to her, Montana State University sits strong and well prepared to embark on its next chapter,” said Clayton Christian, Montana Commissioner of Higher Education.
The achievements of the university under Cruzado’s leadership since 2010 are many.
Under Cruzado’s guidance, MSU has seen its student enrollment steadily climb by 33%, making MSU the largest university in the state with nearly 17,000 students.
The rate at which first-year students stay in school for a second year — called the retention rate — has broken modern records and hit 77.9% last fall. The higher retention rates resulted in record-high rates of students graduating. In 2023, the university had 3,503 graduates, its second-highest number on record. Additionally, the academic caliber of MSU students, as seen in ACT/SAT scores and GPA, has reached unprecedented levels.
MSU’s students have excelled on the national stage these past 15 years. Their accolades include 41 Goldwater Scholarships, 23 Fulbright grants, 13 Udall Scholarships, seven Boren Scholarships, nine Truman Scholarships and three Rhodes Scholarships, among many other awards of scholarly and service distinction. Under Cruzado’s tenure, MSU has attracted, on average, 60% to 70% of the Montana University System Honor Scholarship recipients, given to some of the best and brightest students graduating from high schools in Montana every year.
Access for students to a college education has been a defining passion for Cruzado. She has focused on programs to help students gain college admission, graduate on time and minimize college debt. Notably, she championed the Freshman 15 initiative, which encourages students to take at least 15 credits per semester to save on tuition and graduate in four years. In the fall of 2023, 81% of new, first-time MSU students were participating in the Freshman 15, a dramatic increase from the 50% when the program started in 2011.
And MSU is well known nationally for providing its students with “Know Your Debt” letters to help them make informed choices about their college finances and, ultimately, reduce their debt upon graduation.
Cruzado championed the creation of Gallatin College MSU in 2010, MSU’s workforce development arm which collaborates with industry partners to offer one- and two-year certificates and degrees in 29 programs of study from bookkeeping and carpentry to cybersecurity and photonics. It has become the fastest-growing college in the university.
One of the most successful and renowned programs created by Cruzado has been the MSU Hilleman Scholars Program. Founded in 2016 and named for alumnus Maurice Hilleman, the program provides financial and academic assistance, mentoring and leadership training to Montana students who have shown significant potential but might not have otherwise considered college as an option for their future.
The program was inspired by Hilleman’s life story: He was raised on a farm near Miles City and was planning for a job at a local department store when a scholarship to MSU changed the course of his life. Hilleman became the world’s leading vaccinologist, developing eight of the 14 vaccines commonly given to children, including vaccines for measles, mumps and pneumonia. His story is evidence of how access to higher education for a Montanan changed the world, and Cruzado has said his potent example continues to inspire her and the Hilleman Scholars today.
Research at MSU, another of the university’s pillars, has flourished since Cruzado took office in 2010. MSU is designated a Carnegie R1, a very high research activity institution, and the university’s annual research expenditures have grown more than 133% from $98.5 million in 2009 to a record-setting $230 million in 2023, making Montana State the university with more research expenditures than all public and private universities in the state combined.
MSU’s research growth was achieved while the university remained true to its undergraduate education mission – a rare feat. MSU is one of just two R1 institutions in the nation to have an enrollment profile that consists of a “very high” proportion of undergraduate students. The university has prided itself on providing undergraduate students with opportunities to participate in real research and gain practical experience from some of the world’s leading scientists.
As part of MSU’s research agenda, in 2014 Cruzado obtained approval from the Montana Board of Regents to establish the MSU Center for Mental Health Research and Recovery to address suicide prevention, a critical need in the state of Montana. Cruzado also recruited the help of MSU Extension and K-12 partners in suicide prevention and awareness efforts.
Cruzado has been a strong supporter of MSU Extension and connecting to the people of Montana. With the assistance of MSU Extension over 10 years, the president took administrators, staff, faculty and student leaders on summer bus tours to each of the 56 counties in the state to meet Montanans and learn about their economies and communities. Cruzado also oversaw MSU Extension’s creation of the Reimagining Rural program, which provides Montana communities with resources to revitalize themselves.
MSU Extension and the College of Agriculture have always been an important focus for Cruzado. In 2014, she created the first vice president of agriculture position in the university’s cabinet.
During her tenure, MSU has hosted the Western SARE Professional Development Program for agricultural professionals for six years and established the Dan Scott Ranch Management Program, the malt quality laboratory and the Resource Education and Agriculture Leadership (REAL) Montana Program.
In 2013 Cruzado obtained funding from the Montana Legislature to establish the Washington-Idaho-Montana-Utah (WIMU) Regional Program in Veterinary Medicine Program, in collaboration with Washington State University. Over the past 11 years, MSU has graduated more than 100 students from the WIMU program to help meet the growing need for rural veterinarians.
In 2024, with funding from the Montana Legislature and private support, ground was broken on a new home for the MSU Wool Lab, one of only two college-based wool labs in the nation. The lab is vital in helping Montana wool growers improve their products.
Cruzado also helped the College of Agriculture in securing its first endowed chairs: the Nancy Cameron Endowed Chair in Range Beef Cattle Production and the Winifred Asbjornson Plant Sciences Chair.
During her administration, she also made enormous efforts to advance the university’s support for American Indians. In 2018, she completed a massive fundraising task her predecessor started in 2006 to privately raise $8 million for an American Indian Hall on campus. With a $12 million pledge from the Kendeda Fund and financial support from ASMSU, a total of $20 million was ultimately raised and the hall opened in 2021. Since 2010, the university has steadily increased its enrollment of American Indian and Alaska Native students, from 373 in 2009 to a new record enrollment in 2023 of 817 students.
In competition, the Bobcats of the Cruzado era have achieved extraordinary success. MSU’s men’s and women’s basketball teams have won multiple conference championships and tournament titles, and the men’s team has earned three consecutive bids in the national NCAA tournament. Rodeo became an official part of Bobcat Athletics, and women’s rodeo earned its third national team title in 2021. Volleyball earned its first-ever bid to the National Invitational Volleyball Championship in 2023, and men’s track and field won the conference title in 2024.
On the gridiron, MSU has won the Big Sky Conference four times during Cruzado’s presidency, including a historic run to the FCS national title game in 2021, a year proudly dubbed the Year of the Bobcat for the many sports that performed exceptionally that year. Perhaps most importantly to the hometown faithful, the Bobcats defeated their cross-state rivals in seven out of the 13 Cat-Griz games played so far during her tenure.
The physical campus has also seen enormous changes under Cruzado, with more than $600 million in completed or under-construction projects. Major student-focused projects completed in the past 15 years have included the renovations of Romney and Gaines halls into modern, high-capacity classroom buildings; the construction of Jabs Hall, Student Wellness Center and Norm Asbjornson Hall; and more than $115 million in student housing investments, including the addition of the Hyalite, Yellowstone and Gallatin residence halls, as well as the renovations of Hapner and Langford halls. MSU also constructed Rendezvous Dining Pavilion and a four-story parking garage and conducted major renovations to the Miller Dining Commons, the MSU Library, the Strand Union Building and the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.
MSU enacted more than $9 million in energy conservation projects campus-wide and earned approval for a project to consolidate and improve MSU’s facilities operations while making room for more classroom buildings. Newly constructed and renovated buildings have all received LEED certifications, a sustainability rating system for buildings, including the top designation, Platinum Level 4.1, for the American Indian Hall. In 2023 Montana state received a prestigious STARS Gold rating in campus sustainability from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
And work has begun on a project to convert Grant Street into a pedestrian mall to improve safety in MSU’s busy South Campus District, a label that Cruzado coined to designate the area that includes — in addition to Asbjornson Hall — the $72 million Student Wellness Center and the renovated Romney Hall (thanks to $25 million from the state of Montana matched by $7 million in private gifts) — several new construction buildings, including Jones Hall for the College of Nursing, Gianforte Hall, Gallatin College MSU, an expanded facility for Montana PBS and a privately operated campus hotel.
Philanthropic giving during Cruzado’s presidency — totaling more than $850 million — transformed MSU. Gifts included $101 million from Mark and Robyn Jones to fund construction of five new nursing education buildings at all of MSU’s nursing campuses statewide; $50 million from the Gianforte Family Foundation for Gianforte Hall, a new home for computer science, cybersecurity and creative industries; $50 million (with an additional $20 million match) from Norm Asbjornson for the eponymous building that houses engineering and honors; and $25 million from Jake Jabs for the business college building named in his honor, among many other gifts.
Successful fundraising campaigns also led to the completion of the $18 million Bobcat Athletic Complex and the $11 million Bobcat Stadium end zone project, as well as $19.4 million raised for the expansion of Montana PBS’s programs and facilities and groundbreaking this summer on the $26.5 million Indoor Athletic Center.
Prior to moving to Montana State, Cruzado, a native of Puerto Rico and a professor of comparative literature, was executive vice president and provost at New Mexico State University. She is known for her passion for education and mentorship. Cruzado also established and fostered new community-building programs such as Cat Walk on Main, and campus celebrations such as Milestones in Service, Pure Gold, the President’s Crossing Boundaries Speaker Series as well as the revitalization of the First Year Student Convocation and Fall Commencement ceremonies.
Nationally recognized for her leadership, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development in 2012 and 2017. She has chaired the boards of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and HERS – Women in Higher Education Leadership. She has served on various other boards of national impact, including serving as Commissioner on the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities Board. Her accolades include the APLU Seaman Knapp Memorial Lectureship, the Council of Fellows Mentor Award by the American Council on Education, the Paul Harris Fellow Recognition, Hero Award from the Montana Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the Michael P. Malone Educator of the Year award.
Commissioner of Higher Education Christian will conduct a search for Cruzado’s successor on behalf of the Montana Board of Regents. An executive recruitment firm will be used to assist with the search.
