After rumors surfaced in the last few months, Chancellor George Blumenthal confirmed Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor (CP/EVC) Marlene Tromp will leave UC Santa Cruz. Tromp will assume the position of president at Boise State University.
In 2017, UCSC hired Tromp under a $350,000 annual contract as CP/EVC. She is leaving that position for a three-year contract, where she will earn $425,000 annually at Boise State.
Lori Kletzer, dean of graduate studies, will serve as interim CP/EVC until the next chancellor appoints someone to take over the position permanently.
“I am extremely happy for Marlene,” Blumenthal said in an April 23 campuswide email announcing Tromp’s departure. “The Boise State position is a wonderful opportunity. It is a university on the rise, and Marlene will have the opportunity to define its path. But Boise’s gain is very much our loss.”
Blumenthal went on to laud Tromp for her transformative work, including leading the creation of the Strategic Academic Plan (SAP). The SAP was a controversial project, designed to prioritize areas of education that were primarily chosen by administration. SAP efforts will continue to 2023, according to the April 2019 plan, long after Tromp’s last day.
SAP faced backlash from students and faculty. Common grievances against the plan include lack of student outreach and the speed at which administration implemented the plan. Students and faculty also complained the plan’s language was complicated, which made it difficult to understand exactly what the SAP would do.
At Boise State, Tromp will be the seventh president and the first female president in its history.
“It says something about the kind of ways in which the institution continues to be ready to trail blaze,” said Tromp in a statement to Idaho Statesman. “They were willing to bring in a young, woman president who had big ideas for the university to take its next step. And that feels exciting to me.”
Tromp’s last day at UCSC is set for June 30 and her first day at Boise State will be July 1.
