President Schulz announces his retirement

Schulz was president of the Pullman campus and then the WSU system for more than 8 years.

After eight years at the helm of Washington State University’s Pullman campus and then, for a short while, the system overall, President Kirk Schulz is announcing his retirement today. Schulz made the announcement following the Board of Regents meeting in Spokane with retirement being effective June 30th, 2025.

Schulz was hired in 2016 following the death of Elson Floyd and is leaving the university after guiding athletics into about as soft a landing as possible following the upheaval of last summer. Though the jury is still out on how this will all work out for Washington State (and Oregon State for that matter), remaining nimble with surely more realignment to come following the outcome of Florida State and Clemson’s lawsuits against the ACC is a decent place to be.

We tend to focus on the sports side of things here, and while Schulz’s legacy would generally be considered more to the positive side of neutral, his time as the chair of the Pac-12 Board of Directors following Larry Scott’s ouster and the hiring of George Kliavkoff should be viewed critically. Hindsight being what it is, Kliavkoff was about the worst hire the conference could’ve made, as evidenced by WSU and OSU virtually locking him out of any decision making following the late summer departures of eight schools.

Schulz’s presence of the College Football Playoff board was, of no doubt, hugely significant as leverage to getting any payout with the new television agreement and expanded playoff. Though he tended to overpromise on timelines for resolutions during this transitional period, it’s hard to envision anyone that would’ve been a better fit to keep a steady hand on the ship during this time, especially when it came to winning a significant settlement against the ten departing schools. Rather than make emotional decisions, like folding into the Mountain West, the school made pragmatic choices to best preserve nimbleness moving forward, like joining the WCC in most sports rather than the MWC.

Of perhaps more importance for a president is how they guide the school and system more broadly and here, Schulz’s legacy is more complicated. He inherited years of financial mismanagement from the previous administration and was tasked with reigning in those issues. From the outside, he was largely successful, and Washington State enjoyed increasing enrollment figures for the early part of his tenure.

The school also brought in more dollars through fundraising than it has at any point in its history under Schulz, including large corporate donations for academic buildings and perhaps most notably, a large donation from Paul Allen prior to his passing for a global health research center.

The school struggled through COVID-19 like virtually every other university and, though there’s a nationwide enrollment decline that’s hopefully starting to abate, Washington State’s drops have been more precipitous with more than 4,000 fewer students on the flagship campus today than in 2018.

Just a few months ago, a faculty group published an open letter, insisting Schulz be ousted or step aside. The letter called on new leadership to address the enrollment issues, alongside budgeting and a substantial drop in academic rankings. Whether this specific letter led to news today that Schulz is retiring would be difficult to say, though if it’s a sentiment shared more widely around the university system, it would be difficult to lead.

So what to expect next? The last time WSU searched for a president, it took nearly nine months to find someone, so don’t expect anyone to be hired before the end of the year. As it is with all new presidents it seems, they’ll need to take on a host of issues, not the least of which is where the school’s varsity sports will compete in 2026.

Our best to Dr. Schulz in his retirement.