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The chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education plans to retire at the beginning of September after just under four years in the position.
Frank T. Brogan, 63, is retiring Sept. 1, the state system said Monday. The announcement comes less than a week after a consultant’s report called for major changes to the leadership structure at Pennsylvania’s state system, which is made up of 14 universities and is faced with growing enrollment and financial pressures.
Last year, Brogan and the state system’s Board of Governors began an independent review process that led to the consultant’s report. But the report did not prompt the chancellor’s retirement, system officials said. Brogan told the Board of Governors of his plans to retire shortly before they met last week and heard the report’s findings for the first time.
In his retirement announcement, Brogan called the review “perhaps the most important effort” the system has undertaken. “This is the system’s opportunity to make bold choices that will ensure our universities are here to meet the needs of our current and future students and the commonwealth for decades to come, and beyond,” he said in a statement.
Cynthia D. Shapira, the chair of the Board of Governors, said in a statement that Brogan has prompted a discussion about the need to do things differently at the system, which enrolls more than 100,000 students at its universities. “Because of his leadership, we are better positioned to make important decisions about the future of our system,” she said.
Brogan will be the shortest-tenured chancellor in PASSHE’s 34-year history when he retires. The Board of Governors has yet to announce a timeline for naming interim and full-time successors.
The consultant’s report, presented in summary last week, also included recommendations such as changes at the state level to better coordinate higher education policy across different entities -- PASSHE does not include state-related universities like Pennsylvania State University. The report also called for realigning system universities to share more resources and for reaching better collective bargaining agreements. A full version of the report is expected to be released Friday.
The state system was hit by a three-day faculty strike in October before it reached an agreement with the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties. The leader of that union said Monday that it wants to work with the university system as it changes chancellors. “Leadership changes often provide opportunities for constructive changes,” said Kenneth M. Mash, president of APSCUF, in a statement.
Brogan was previously chancellor of the State University System of Florida and president of Florida Atlantic University. He has also been Florida’s lieutenant governor and secretary of education.
