Please my friends, some experienced context.
Kirk Schulz was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, but raised in Norfolk, Virginia. He graduated in 1981 from Norfolk Christian High School. Schulz attended Old Dominion University for three years before transferring to Virginia Tech in 1984. He received his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from Virginia Tech in 1986 and his doctorate in 1991.
Schulz first worked as an assistant professor of chemical engineering at the University of North Dakota. In 1995, he became assistant professor of chemical engineering at Michigan Tech and promoted to associate professor in 1998. Schulz also became chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering there in the same year.
He accepted a position at Mississippi State University in 2001, becoming director of the Dave C. Swalm School of Chemical Engineering, where he held the Earnest W. Deavenport Jr. endowed chair. Schulz became Dean of Engineering of the James Worth Bagley College of Engineering and the first Earnest W. and Mary Ann Deavenport, Jr. endowed chair in 2005. Two years later, Schulz was Interim Vice President for Research and Economic Development, a position which became permanent for him later in the year.
On February 11, 2009, the Kansas Board of Regents announced that Schulz was selected as the thirteenth president of Kansas State University.
On March 25, 2016, the Washington State University Board of Regents announced that Schulz was selected as the eleventh president of Washington State University.
Can we couch the worry and hero worship for a minute? Kirk Schultz was Interim Vice President for Research and Economic Development when KState hired him.
How about his predecessor?
In 1965, Wefald returned to Minnesota, taking his first faculty position at Gustavus Adolphus College, where he taught history for five years. From 1971 to 1977, he served as Minnesota's Commissioner of Agriculture, and guest lectured. In 1977, he became President of Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota. In 1982, he became a Chancellor of the six state university system of Minnesota.
In July 1986, Wefald began his service as president of Kansas State University. Wefald held the second-longest term of any Kansas State President, trailing only the 25-year tenure of James McCain. During his tenure at K-State, over 2,000,000 square feet of new buildings were built, private giving increased from $6 million a year to nearly $100 million a year, research funding increased from $18 million to $110 million a year, enrollment increased from 17,000 to 23,000, and, finally, K-State students won 125 Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholarships from 1986 to 2008--more than any public university in America.
Ummm...Kirk, what did you do exactly?
