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A president who brushes off a parking lot fender-bender to inquire how the driver is doing in school.
An uncommon woman from small-town stock whose authenticity is the coin of her authority.
A first-generation college student who identifies with the women who sought advanced education at the Third State Normal School that founding fall of 1869.
A servant-leader whose sunny disposition and steely resolve are unleashing hope on a campus impacted by fewer high school graduates, student debt and reduced state funding.
“Destiny has brought Robbyn Renee Wacker to St. Cloud State University as your president,” keynote speaker Faye Hummel told an inauguration audience Oct. 15 at Ritsche Auditorium, Stewart Hall.
“She is the right person at the right time,” said Hummel, a University of Northern Colorado mentor and colleague of Wacker’s.
On a day proclaimed in her honor by Gov. Mark Dayton, Wacker took an oath of office to inspire more than 13,400 students, to build relationships with businesses and schools, to help the 150-year-old university innovate, to be its 24th president, to be its first female chief executive.
“I am here today to assure you President Wacker’s presentation of self — the behaviors and actions she reveals in public life — are congruent with who she is in her private life, in her private moments,” Hummel said. “I have a deep respect and regard for President Wacker, for her authenticity, her consistency of self, in everyday life.”
Said Hummel: “What you see is who she is.”
A Colorado native from a modest background, Wacker worked her way through school. She knows first-hand that gnawing anxiety about where next semester’s tuition will come from. She recalls the obstacles that can threaten degree-completion.
So, when a student clipped the fender of her car, she quickly determined he was struggling and got him an appointment two hours later with an associate vice president and a staff member.
“Her emotional intelligence is robust, as evidenced by her genuine care and concern for others, her authentic interpersonal engagement and communication,” Hummel said. “She is down-to-earth, what my mother would call common. Common, in the sense she doesn’t use her place and privilege, her position or power, to elevate or distance herself from others.”
“She acknowledges everyone. She reaches out in all directions: Up, down, right or left.”
Hummel praised Wacker’s open-mindedness, optimism and curiosity, virtues that echoed through the president’s remarks.
“How can we restructure ourselves to better serve a student population that zig-zags in and out of school and the workforce?” said Wacker. “How can we structure ourselves to create new avenues for innovation and tech-transfer in partnerships with business, industry and the nonprofit sector?”
“To our students, I am counting on you to be courageous and resilient in the pursuit of finding your passion, now and in the future,” Wacker said. “Be dogged. Be persistent in achieving your goals. Do not let your circumstances hold you back and surround yourself with people who will support you.”
Said Wacker: “To our faculty and staff, I am counting on you to join me in taking risks, to unleash your inner innovative spirit, to actively shape this institution.”
