SCSU interim president comes out of retirement to lead University

The Husky pack has a new leader.

Dr. Larry Dietz was named interim president of St. Cloud State University on April 17, 2024, and assumed his responsibilities on July 1, 2024. His career has spanned 50 years in higher education across four different institutions in three different states, with positions at Southern Illinois University, University of Missouri and Iowa State University. Prior to joining SCSU, Dietz served Illinois State University as president from 2014 until his retirement in 2021.

At first, Dietz settled into retirement — fixing up a historical home the first year, and then traveling and visiting family the second. But something was still missing.

“I missed being an advocate for higher education on a larger stage than out of my yard talking to the neighbor about their grandson maybe going to a university,” he said. “So it was really that idea of service, being able to promote higher education generally that kind of brought me back into the fray.”

The open position at St. Cloud State immediately intrigued him.

“Minnesota has a great reputation across the country as supporting higher education, so that was one thing — kind of the base of the Maslow hierarchy, if you will. Then, as I read more about St. Cloud State, and some of the issues that were facing it: I’ve had some experience in working on some of these challenges, and I just frankly felt that I had more to give,” Dietz said. “I don’t have magic answers here, I don’t have a boatload of money to bring to settle some of those issues, nor do I have a magic switch to flip. But what I do have is a passion for higher education and a willingness to work with others to try to solve problems. And I’m really looking forward to doing that.”

The first in his family to graduate with a four-year degree as well as a doctorate, his passion for education started at an early age. Dietz grew up on a dairy farm in southern Illinois, where his father was a farmer and his mother was a first-grade teacher.

“I’m a firm believer that education changes lives, and I’m a perfect example of that. Working on a dairy farm was noble work and I enjoyed that, but being around teachers who were inspirational — and that really started in my elementary school. I had good faculty, even though it was a very small rural school. I had great faculty members in high school, my college days and in graduate school,” he said. “I was really inspired by that, and I was inspired and intrigued by really just what you could learn. So learning became a part of who I was, so to me it was natural to move into higher education.”

Over his storied career, as with any field, Dietz said there have been ups and downs. At the end of the day, it’s about service.

“If you look at a resume, everybody looks really successful in a resume because it looks hierarchical and in a straight line. I had detours like everybody else in my career, but I really had the idea that the best job I could do was doing the job I had, as best as I could do that. My estimation is, whenever you do that — and you start out with that as your motivation, then your success is kind of a byproduct,” he said. “I’ve been very thankful and very blessed to have good mentors in my career. I’ve been blessed to have opportunities in different areas and different parts of higher education, and was blessed to change jobs within higher education every two to three years in some way, shape or form. So that really kept me motivated, but my whole career in higher ed. really has been — for me — terrifically satisfying, mainly because I got to serve others.”

In his first month on the job at St. Cloud State, Dietz said he has found a welcoming and proud group among the #OurSCSU community of students, alumni, faculty, staff and supporters.

“People are passionate about this place. I’ve met a lot of folks that work here and a lot of folks in the community,” he said. “That passion for St. Cloud State — I really feel that and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with people on that.”

Dietz hopes to harness that passion over his two-year term to strengthen the University, its community and its future. With stability, enthusiasm, spirit of collaboration, listening and transparency, he feels SCSU has the tools to maintain and improve upon its excellence.

“This institution has had a distinguished past of 155 years, and by my estimation it has a distinguished future ahead of it. Some changes needed to be made, and many of those changes have been made,” he said. “I’m sure there will be others forthcoming, but this place has a bright future that has a very strong curriculum, good faculty working to teach, do research and provide service, a great staff that’s providing service, and a very talented and diverse student population in a terrific community. So, to me, those are all factors for success for the future.”

Keeping St. Cloud State bold, innovative and focused into the future is a community effort, Dietz said. He encouraged the #OurSCSU community to educate themselves on where the University is heading as an institution, help it recruit prospective students and consider the three pillars of philanthropy: time, talent and treasure.

“We always talk about contributing your time, and sometimes that’s just talking to the neighbor that has a son or daughter that maybe wants to go somewhere. We talk about the talent, and sometimes that’s just your expertise, and lending that to the University. And we talk about treasure, and that’s obviously contributions to the University,” he said. “So we hope that you’ll become engaged, if you haven’t been. If you are engaged: thank you for that — we want that to continue. But this is a hand reaching out to community members that want to help us out and we appreciate that. We need your help; this is your university and we look forward to working with you.”

Dietz hopes even more community members will come to campus for Homecoming Oct. 24-26, and encouraged St. Cloud State alumni to fill out the 2024 Alumni Survey.

“We welcome you anytime onto campus, but there’s a special opportunity for Homecoming that’s October 24 to the 26, and we certainly welcome you then. There’s specific programs and activities that are being planned, and we’d love you to come on campus and enjoy that,” he said. “We’d also appreciate if you’d fill out the alumni survey, and tell us what you think about things going on here through the alumni survey. I know that many of you have received that, so please fill that out, and that’s how we can improve.”