March 25, 1999 - Williams Named St. Cloud Interim President

Morris J. Anderson, chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, today appointed Suzanne Williams to serve as interim president of St. Cloud State University, where she is currently the vice president for academic affairs.

Williams will temporarily replace Bruce Grube, who resigned as president of St. Cloud State this month to become president of Georgia Southern University. Grube has served St. Cloud State for four years. Williams' appointment will be effective when President Grube leaves office July 1 or earlier, depending on his plans.

"I am delighted that Suzanne Williams has accepted this position and I am confident in her ability to carry forward the vision Bruce Grube has outlined for St. Cloud State," said Chancellor Anderson. "Her academic credentials and higher education experience are what we need at this time to lead this institution until a permanent president can be found."

A search committee chaired by President Roland Barden of Moorhead State University will convene soon to begin a national search for Grube's replacement.

Williams, 54, has a doctoral degree and a master's degree from Duke University in economics. She earned her bachelor's degree from Randolph-Macon Women's College in Lynchburg, Virginia. She is married to Ronald Williams, a media specialist who works for St. Cloud State on a grant-funded project.

Before coming to St. Cloud in 1996, Williams was dean of the graduate school and director of organized research at Arkansas State University. At the same time, she was also interim vice president for academic affairs at Arkansas State, which has 9,800 on-campus students and 450 faculty.

Before moving to Arkansas, Williams served at Western Illinois University from 1979 to 1993. There she was dean of the school of graduate studies and research and then dean of the school of graduate and international studies.

Williams began her career in higher education as an assistant professor of economics at West Virginia University in 1970. She became assistant to the president of West Virginia University in 1974, and then assistant dean of the graduate school there in 1975.

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system is made up of 36 state universities, community and technical colleges and a campus in Japan. The system serves approximately 230,000 students a year with a fall 1998 enrollment of about 140,000.