Montana State University announced two finalists this week in its national search for President Waded Cruzado’s successor, naming current University of California, Merced Vice Chancellor for Planning and Budget Kurt Schnier and current Northern Michigan University President Brock Tessman as contenders for the position.
According to the university’s presidential search website, Schnier and Tessman will appear on the MSU campus next week for tours and interviews, as well as individual community forums scheduled for March 25 and 27, respectively. The forums will be held from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in the Strand Union Building.
“Commissioner [Clayton] Christian is pleased with the work of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee and is looking forward to the finalists having the opportunity to meet with the campus community and members of the public next week,” Galen Hollenbaugh, deputy commissioner at the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, told Montana Free Press in an emailed statement March 21.
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Prior to his vice chancellorship, Schnier, a California native, earned advanced degrees in environmental studies at the University of Pennsylvania and in economics at the University of Arizona, and served on the faculties at the University of Rhode Island, Georgia State University and UC Merced. Tessman, who earned advanced degrees in political science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, previously worked as a tenured professor at the University of Georgia and as a political science professor and dean of the Davidson Honors College at the University of Montana. He was a deputy commissioner in Montana’s Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education from 2018 to 2023.
Cruzado announced her retirement last August, and will end a more than 15-year stint as MSU’s 12th president effective June 30, 2025. Her retirement announcement noted that while she was “grateful” for another academic year at the Bozeman campus, she was also “thankful that I’m in good health to enjoy this transition into retirement — a new stage that I long for and dread in equal measure.”
In its search for Cruzado’s replacement, MSU posted a long list of responsibilities, qualifications and characteristics for its 13th president, including an ability to advance that campus’ research agenda, a track record of sound strategic planning and a “strong sense of pride in the land-grant mission.” No specific salary amount was specified, with compensation described as “competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience.” Cruzado is currently the highest-paid official in Montana’s university system, earning the same base salary of roughly $367,000 as Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian, along with more than $100,000 in deferred compensation and annual retention bonuses.
The advisory committee involved in the search that landed on Schnier and Tessman includes nearly two dozen representatives from various sections of MSU as well as members of the Montana Board of Regents and the president of Aaniiih Nakoda College on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. The presidential search has been assisted by the Florida-based firm Greenwood Asher and Associates.
Disclosure: MSU presidential finalist Brock Tessman is married to former MTFP deputy director and current part-time MTFP contractor Kristin Tessman. MTFP business staff do not have input into editorial coverage.
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