Cleveland State University President Laura Bloomberg isn’t going anywhere.
That’s the message she sent to the campus community Tuesday, just one day after not being selected to become the University of Minnesota’s next president.
“I am very happy to be here at CSU serving as the university’s eighth president and have no intention of seeking the presidency of any other institution,” she wrote in an email.
Bloomberg has led the university since April 2022.
Cleveland State’s Bloomberg earns praise from Minnesota’s regents
In Tuesday’s email, Bloomberg said her interest in the University of Minnesota’s presidential job “stemmed from my deep academic and professional connections to that institution and to the state of Minnesota.”
Born and raised in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, she earned her doctorate degree at the state’s flagship university. Plus, she worked at the university for more than a dozen years.
Bloomberg went on to say she was “honored” to be considered and is glad she pursued the role. She was one of three finalists in what was an unusually public search.
When the university’s 12 regents were initially polled, five of them said they were in favor of hiring Bloomberg. Though the position ultimately went to Rebecca Cunningham from the University of Michigan, the regents praised Bloomberg’s relationship-building skills and her already-strong connection to the university.
“Onward we go”
Bloomberg arrived at Cleveland State in 2021. She took over the university’s top spot after the ousting of former president Harlan Sands a year later.
She returns to Cleveland State and its roughly 14,175 total students with a busy slate. That includes things such as overseeing the university’s recently launched Division of Student Belonging and Success and awaiting the findings from accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young. The university entered into a $900,000 contract with the company late last year as the school eyes a reported $11.5 million deficit.
After thanking community members for their support along the way, Bloomberg signed off Tuesday’s email with three words: “Onward we go.”
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Cleveland State’s Laura Bloomberg won’t become the University of Minnesota’s next president
Bloomberg spent several days in Minnesota this month going through a search process as one of three finalists. She was passed over in a public vote on Monday for Rebecca Cunningham from the University of Michigan.