CWU president says she’ll retire

ELLENSBURG – The first female president of Central Washington University says she will retire at the end of 2008, after eight years on the job.

Jerilyn S. McIntyre, 65, became Central’s 13th president in 2000, at a time of enrollment declines and budget cuts. She announced Friday she will leave on Dec. 31 after a period of enrollment growth, new construction and stable budgets.

“The first year or two were very challenging years,” said McIntyre, who came to Ellensburg after being vice president for academic affairs and then interim president at the University of Utah. She was also on the faculty at Utah, as well as at the University of Iowa and California State University, Chico.

Enrollment at Central has increased 27 percent since 2001, and McIntyre gives Central’s branch campuses partial credit for the growth.

The university now offers bachelor’s degree programs on community college campuses in Lynnwood, Des Moines, Yakima, Moses Lake, Wenatchee and Lakewood. The branches, called university centers, offer only junior- and senior-level Central courses and focus on work-force training such as elementary education and accounting.

“It’s a very cost-effective, high-quality way to provide a baccalaureate degree,” McIntyre said, adding that the university centers have remained nimble so they can offer new programs quickly when college officials recognize a need.

Among her other accomplishments at Central, McIntyre listed improvement in the way the university promotes itself, and construction of a new music building, student union and recreation center in Ellensburg. The university also began its first comprehensive fundraising campaign during her tenure and expects to reach its $21 million goal by June.

Central also has attracted a more diverse student body during McIntyre’s tenure, going from 12.9 percent minority students in 2000 to 20 percent in fall 2007.

“Why am I retiring? Because I am confident that, within the next year, the university will have completed or made significant headway on the projects and initiatives that have been univeristy priorities during my presidency,” she wrote in a letter to the campus community.

Judy Yu, chairwoman of the CWU board of trustees, praised McIntyre for her leadership during a critical period.

“Central has blossomed under her leadership,” Yu said. “She has nurtured innovation, encouraged academic discovery and enriched campus life.”

McIntyre said she and her husband, W. David Smith, will be retiring at the same time and have similar goals for their “next careers” – they plan to go back to their first avocations and spend more time writing. McIntyre said she’d like to try her hand at fiction.

“I spent my life initially as a journalist and then doing academic writing. … I would really like to kind of stretch myself as a writer,” said McIntyre, who earned a master’s degree in journalism from Stanford University.

They will live in both Ellensburg and Salt Lake City, and plan to travel, and perhaps do some travel writing.