CLEVELAND — Cleveland State University announced Tuesday its current president, Harlan Sands, will step down a month after the Board of Trustes extended his contract.
Laura Bloomberg, who is the current provost and vice president for Academic Affairs, will take over as the university’s eighth president.
“We are very pleased that in Dr. Bloomberg we have an energetic, dynamic and highly qualified academic leader already within our ranks who is exceedingly prepared to lead this university as it emerges from a very challenging period,” said David Reynolds, CSU Board of Trustees chairman, in a press release. “During her relatively brief tenure at CSU, she has quickly demonstrated her ability to work well with faculty and students, as well as excellent external relations and fundraising skills.”
Sands served as president since 2015.
In mid-March, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to extend Sands contract to 2026, which was initially set to expire in 2023. CSU officials wrote it was “mutually agreed that it was best that Sands and the university part ways over differences regarding how the university should be led in the future.”
According to CSU, Bloomberg has a doctoral degree in educational policy and administration from the University of Minnesota, master’s degrees in psychometrics and educational psychology from Cornell University and a bachelor’s degree in special education from St. Cloud State University.
