By William J. Dagendesh
Russ Meyer, provost for CSU-Pueblo, will retire Friday, Feb. 18 after serving the university 11 years, said Julio Leon, interim president in an e-mail to the campus.
Meyer started work here in March 2000 when the institution was called the University of Southern Colorado. Meyer had never heard of USC when a friend asked him to apply for the position of the dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, he said.
Meyer discovered USC was unlike any university he had experienced, he said. At the time, USC had a poor marketing and recruiting program, he said, and enrollment and morale was at an all-time low. Because of this, people knew little about the campus and what it had to offer, he said.
“USC was so unpopular that people referred to it as the University of Second Choice,” Meyer said.
Meyer has served in a myriad of roles since joining CSU-Pueblo. For a time he served as dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and went on to take over as interim provost, interim president, chief academic officer and provost.
In 2008, Meyer assumed the duties of chief academic officer for the CSU System, where he served as lead academic representative of the System with the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
“Provost Meyer has been a dedicated partner in supporting the growth and development of our faculty, coordinating and implementing the University’s strategic plan, and expanding the quality, scope, and comprehensiveness of CSU-Pueblo’s academic programs,” Leon said in his e-mail.
During the next few weeks Leon will review candidates wishing to serve as interim provost until the next permanent president can complete a national search for a permanent provost, he said.
