Loren Anderson knows the time is right.
Saying goodbye is never easy, but after almost 20 years as president of Pacific Lutheran University, he’s ready to hand the reins to a successor.
“It’s one of those times in the history of the university when a whole group of initiatives are being completed and it makes sense for transition,” said the 65-year-old Anderson, who announced his decision Tuesday. “It’s the right time for new leadership.”
The right time will actually be spring 2012.
By then, the Parkland university’s long-range plan through 2020 will be finished. Faculty will be ready to implement an array of new graduate programs. A fund-raising campaign will wrap up for athletic fields and the Karen Hille Phillips Center for Performing Arts.
Anderson will remain at the helm for the next year while the Board of Regents launches a search for PLU’s next president.
A committee of faculty, students, administrators and regents will start a national search this summer and eventually make a recommendation to the board. The process is expected to take nine to 12 months.
“It will be very hard to find someone to replace Loren,” board chairman Bruce Bjerke said. “He has been absolutely superb.”
Anderson insists he is not retiring, he’s moving on to other opportunities.
He wants to spend more time on his family farm in North Dakota and at his northern Minnesota lake home. He and his wife, MaryAnn, also are assessing volunteer and professional ventures.
In an address on campus Tuesday, Anderson said the next year will afford plenty of time for celebration and reflection.
“For today, we simply want you to know that our years in this place have been both great gift and high honor,” he said.
Anderson was hired in 1992. Back then, the search committee was looking for someone who could raise funds, manage enrollment and put together strategic plans.
Philip Nordquist, a retired history professor and campus historian who has seen six presidents come and go, was on the search committee and said Anderson’s accomplishments have been remarkable.
“Historians are careful about making comparisons and drawing conclusions … but (Anderson) has been the most successful president in PLU’s history,” Nordquist said.
He thinks Anderson’s communication skills and transparency have made all the difference.
Anderson makes an extra effort to speak with all students at the university at least once. He is also known for carefully crafting the message every time he speaks publicly.
When an instructor was murdered on campus in May 2001, Anderson gathered students together within an hour to console them and urge them to rely on their faith to get through the tragedy.
Anderson earned trust immediately after his arrival by announcing how dire PLU’s finances were in 1992 and by laying out a plan for how to proceed, Nordquist said.
Anderson has spearheaded three major fundraising campaigns during his tenure, bringing in more than $300 million. The university’s endowment has gone from $8 million in the early 1990s to more than $75 million today.
Facilities have drastically improved.
In the past two decades, a music center, residence hall and center for business, math and science programs were built. The social sciences building was revitalized, and The University Center and all dormitories were remodeled or renovated.
“He’s leaving us in very good shape,” regent Carol Quigg said. “Loren’s leadership has been strategic, it’s been visionary. He’s very practical. It was a stroke of extreme good fortune when he decided to come to Pacific Lutheran 20 years ago.”
Academics also have improved during Anderson’s tenure.
He focused on bringing an international influence to the campus, which earned recognition in 2006 when PLU because the first university to have students and faculty studying simultaneously on all seven continents.
It later was awarded the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization.
Now, nearly 40 percent of all PLU students study abroad, and two-thirds of the faculty has global expertise and experience, spokesman Greg Brewis said.
“He’s made the university so much stronger than it was in almost every way,” Bjerke said. “This is a very different place than it was 20 years ago when he arrived.”
Anderson said he’s proud of how far the university has come, but declined to take credit.
“You look back at all of those accomplishments, but it isn’t about Loren and MaryAnn doing all this,” he said. “It’s about the community doing it.”
Anderson’s involvement has gone beyond PLU’s campus. He’s a board member of the Independent Colleges of Washington, the American Council on Education and the Institute for the International Education of Students. He also has served on boards for the American Leadership Forum in Tacoma and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
Quigg said she’s grateful for the time Anderson has dedicated to PLU but knows his service isn’t over.
“I see his future as a comma, not a period,” she said.
Stacia Glenn: 253-597-8653
stacia.glenn@thenewstribune.com
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