Minnesota State Chancellor Devinder Malhotra will retire in August

Minnesota State Chancellor Devinder Malhotra, who oversees the system of 33 state universities, community and technical colleges, will retire in August after six years on the job.

Malhotra has served the sprawling system through multiple challenges, including the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, an examination of college access and equity, and a reckoning in higher education over declining enrollment and rising tuition. Throughout that, his supporters say, he has been a stabilizing force.

"He has such a calming, steady leadership style. He is trusted. That has been such a gift particularly during COVID," said Roger Moe, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities.

Malhotra announced his retirement Wednesday during a trustees meeting.

Malhotra, 75 of St. Paul, said he is stepping down at the end of his contract to spend time with his wife, Laura, a retired college professor. He said he would also like to return to research and writing as an economics professor with a focus on how colleges and universities can expand educational opportunities to segments of the population who have been traditionally denied access.

"It is still hard for me to to walk away," said Malhotra. His tenure as chancellor was, he said, "the greatest privilege of my professional life."

Under Malhotra, Minnesota State launched Equity 2030, a plan to eliminate educational equity gaps resulting from race, ethnicity and socioeconomic and first-generation status by the end of the decade.

But Malhotra also faced scrutiny for how he handled allegations of misconduct leveled against a former technical college president. And the Minnesota State system, like colleges across the country, has been forced to reckon with declining enrollment.

The Inter Faculty Organization (IFO), which represents the 4,000 professors, coaches, and counselors at the seven Minnesota State Universities, thanked Malhotra.

"University faculty are thankful for Chancellor Malhotra's leadership through several tumultuous challenges," Jenna Chernega, the organization's president, said in a written statement. "Ever since his appointment, he has remained a strong partner, working closely and respectfully with all the Minnesota State unions."

Malhotra came out of retirement to become interim chancellor in 2017. He had previously served as interim president at Metropolitan State University from 2014 to 2016 and as provost and vice president for academic affairs at St. Cloud State University from 2009 to 2014.

In a surprise move, trustees set aside finalists from a national search and named Malhotra chancellor in 2018.

"We were really lucky we had him at that stage in game and he was open to taking on that task," Moe said, noting Malhotra is particularly skilled at outreach to community and industry partners.

The Minnesota State system enrolls about 223,000 students, employs 14,400 faculty and staff, and has a $2.1 billion operating budget, making it the third-largest system of two-year colleges and four-year universities in the country.

Malhotra said he's proud of the way the system is working to better serve students of all backgrounds and helping to train Minnesota's future workforce.

"Eliminating educational equity gaps is not only a moral imperative," he said. "It is also imperative for the vibrancy of Minnesota's economy, as well as an imperative for meeting Minnesota's workforce needs."

The pandemic has made historic inequities, particularly for low-income students and those who are Black, Indigenous or people of color, even worse, he said: "Our challenge is, how do we work with these students who dropped out during COVID and bring then back so that they can finish their educational journey?"

Minnesota Higher Education Commissioner Dennis Olson praised Malhotra's vision and guidance.

"He is a fierce advocate for higher education, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to have worked so closely together," Olson said in a written statement.

Mike Dean, executive director of the community college student association LeadMN, said his group is excited about an opportunity for new leadership who will more aggressively address declining enrollment.

"Higher education sits at the precipice with plummeting enrollment and skyrocketing tuition," Dean said. "The governor and Legislature need to be actively engaged in this process to ensure that higher education meets the state's workforce challenges and prepares young Minnesotans to be engaged members of our community."

Malhotra faced criticism this year for his handling of allegations of misconduct against former Hennepin Technical College President Merrill Irving Jr.

Irving was investigated by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system in 2021 for allegedly belittling employees who had disabilities and making sexually inappropriate comments toward co-workers, according to reports the Star Tribune obtained through a public records request. Irving was allowed to remain on the job because Minnesota State system leaders determined his "derisive statements about individuals of a protected class" violated respectful workplace procedures but not the system's harassment policy.

Irving resigned in February after details of the investigation were published in the Star Tribune. Malhotra publicly apologized that "Hennepin Technical College wasn't always a respectful place to work."

Malhotra said he recently visited the Hennepin Tech campus and was pleased with new leadership, which is working closely with facility and staff.

"If you measure his overall workload and activities over the years that he's been chancellor and measure that against the relative few bumps in the roads, he's done an outstanding job," Moe said.

Malhotra grew up in India and earned bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from the University of Delhi in the late 1960s. He moved to the United States, where he earned a doctorate in economics from Kansas State University.

Before coming to Minnesota, he held leadership and teaching positions at the University of Southern Maine and University of Akron. Malhotra's annual salary is $420,000.

Information on the search for the next chancellor will be announced in the spring.