BOZEMAN — The woman who helped shape Montana State University into what it is today is stepping down. After 15 long years, President Waded Cruzado has announced her retirement.
I asked some Montana State students how they felt about President Cruzado retiring.
“I’m really sad about it,” says Mya. “She was really welcoming when we first got here, so it’s going to be really hard to not have her next year”.
And Mary tells me, “I am sad. My brother went here and really liked when she was president."
Most students expressed their sadness, but when I asked Sully, a student who's worked closely with President Cruzado in the past?
“Her aura was just powerful, and it radiated off her. And it sort of rubbed off on me in a sense. To show me that if she can accomplish big things, then maybe I can."
And Cruzado hasn’t only inspired the students of Montana State.
“I think all leaders hope to leave their institutions better off when they depart than when they arrived, and that's no doubt been the case with President Cruzado’s tenure,” says Eric Austin.
Austin is the head of Political Science at Montana State. He’s been with the university for almost 20 years and remembers when Cruzado was first inaugurated in 2010. Since then?
“We have seen the student body grow here at MSU, we have seen research expenditures here on the campus grow, we are not just a national caliber but a world-caliber university,” says Austin.
Under Cruzado’s leadership, Montana State has set records in nearly every major university metric. MSU has seen student enrollment steadily climb by 33%, making it the largest university in the state with nearly 17,000 students.
Since 2010, 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. That places Montana State first among all public and private universities in the state combined for research expenditures.
Another accomplishment and maybe her greatest legacy? President Cruzado’s involvement with land grants, with more than $600 million in completed or under-construction projects in the last 15 years.
These numbers all speak to the work she put into the university, but Austin, having worked closely with her for the last 15 years, tells me the type of person she is.
“One of the first things she did was meet with, department by department, to meet with the faculty. At one point I reached out to her kind of on a whim to say, ‘Hey would you be willing to come talk about leadership at the university with my graduate students?’ And I heard back in about 5 minutes that she would love to come in and talk,” says Austin.
And although President Cruzado isn't actually stepping down until June of 2025, students say their next president will have some big shoes to fill.
Mya says, “We have a really good school, but I hope it doesn't change too much. Because I think President Cruzado did a really good job at making this a good place to be."
