WSU President To Step Down Sam Smith Says He’Ll Spend Next Year Setting Goals For University

Sam Smith, who has led the state’s second-largest university for 14 years, will retire as president of Washington State University a year from now.

Smith, 59, announced his decision at a Board of Regents meeting in Wenatchee on Friday morning.

It’s not the prostate cancer doctors operated on in March that persuaded Smith to leave. His health is now excellent, Smith says.

He wants to quit while he’s still young and healthy enough to enjoy things other than the job that’s consumed his life since 1985, Smith said.

“It’s important to know when to leave as well as when to accept a job,” said Smith, who will step down July 1, 2000. “You want to select a time to retire when you’ve got your board and other people telling you to stay longer.”

Smith said he’ll spend his remaining year at WSU helping administrators set goals for the next decade. He’ll also chair the National Association of State and Land-Grant Colleges for a year, starting in November.

Doctors prescribed several months of rest for Smith, a self-described workaholic, after prostate cancer was detected during a routine physical exam. But since returning to work in May, “I limited my part-time to 10-hour days,” he said, laughing.

Smith said he doubts he’ll retire in the traditional sense, devoting his time to hobbies and leisure. He and his wife, Pat, will probably go on to other work, although Smith said he has no idea exactly what.

“What I want to do is move through this year, take a little time off and then look at what’s there,” he said.

Politics?

“Good God, no!” said Smith. “Pat and I have an agreement that she’ll follow me anywhere except elected office. Being a (university) president is close enough.”

Next summer, he said, they’ll probably move to Seattle, where they have a condominium and relatives nearby.

The president’s fans spent Friday praising his accomplishments.

Smith’s vision transformed the Pullman school into a statewide institution with campuses in Spokane, the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, said Peter Goldmark, president of the WSU Board of Regents. A distance-learning program also serves students in every county in the state.

“He’s been a very successful president, and has elevated the institution both state- and nationwide,” Goldmark said. “There’s a visibility for Washington State University that was undreamt of when he assumed the presidency.”

Gov. Gary Locke said Smith is “certainly a giant in education” who helped make college attainable for many students.

“His efforts will be sorely missed, but we wish him all the best,” Locke said through a spokesman.

Smith’s critics have said he should pay more attention to the home campus, where they believe many academic programs fell into leadership limbo.

Some faculty members also feared the university’s corporate ties, championed by Smith, threatened to make WSU beholden to special interests.

But Goldmark said Friday that Smith is leaving the university in good shape academically and financially.

Last fall, WSU’s statewide enrollment reached 21,000 for the first time.

And when he led Campaign WSU, Smith helped the university’s first comprehensive fund-raising effort take in more than $275 million for scholarships, fellowships, distinguished professorships and teaching and research equipment, Goldmark said.

Sally Savage, Smith’s chief of staff, said she’ll miss Smith but understands why he’s leaving. Many university presidents stay in such a demanding post for just five to seven years, she said.

“I was not completely surprised. Fifteen years is a long, long time to serve in this kind of role.”

Smith grew up in Salinas, Calif. and studied at the University of California at Berkeley. He served as dean of Penn State University’s College of Agriculture before coming to WSU.

Smith said he’s most proud of how many students he has ushered through college.

“Pat and I have graduated over one-third of the graduates in the history of WSU, which is over 100 years old. I’ve got over 60,000 graduates … with my name on their diploma,” he said. “That’s my biggest accomplishment.”

Goldmark said regents will soon make a list of what they want in a new president and form a search committee. “A year isn’t a tremendous amount of time to select a new president,” he said. “You have to do it carefully. It’s a big decision.”

Savage suspects she knows what will top that wish list. “They’ll look for another Sam Smith, I imagine.”