Cleveland State University President Harlan Sands is leaving his leadership position at the school effective immediately. He’ll be replaced by Laura Bloomberg, CSU’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.
A press release Tuesday announced the university board of trustees and Sands “mutually agreed” to “part ways over differences regarding how the university should be led in the future.”
“The Board recognizes that CSU has made significant advances during Sands’ tenure and is on solid footing,” board Chairman David Reynolds said in a written statement. “Over time, however, it has become clear that this simply is not a good match for either party going forward.”
According to the release, Sands will stay on through June 24 to assist with the transition.
“What we accomplished together to keep our campus safe during a pandemic, grow enrollments, develop and implement ground-breaking student success initiatives, build partnerships, expand our faculty, and bring new investors onboard is a credit to the great work that you have done to make CSU what it is today,” Sands said in his statement.
He will remain a tenured faculty member at CSU’s Cleveland-Marshall College of Law where he intends to teach beginning in the fall, according to a university spokesperson.
Sands joined CSU in July 2018 from his role as chief financial officer at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
Bloomberg took on her leadership role at CSU in September 2021 after spending 24 years in academia at the University of Minnesota, culminating as dean of the university’s Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
