President Susan A. Cole Delivers Farewell Address

Montclair State University President Susan A. Cole delivered her farewell address to the campus community on Wednesday, May 12, 2021, in-person and via live-stream from the campus Amphitheater.

Cole thanked the campus community for helping to create the university that Montclair State has become today and encouraged employees to continue to evolve the University as needed with the times.

“Over the past two decades, because of your willingness to change, it has evolved, incrementally but inexorably, into the large, highly complex research university that stands today,” she said. “There is no doubt that the future will require you to continue to be willing and ready to let Montclair State go further in that process of evolution, in its structures, relationships, policies, and ways of functioning to meet the needs of the university of tomorrow.”

Ahead of her planned retirement date at the end of June, Cole reflected on the 23 years of her presidency and told the faculty and staff that by working together they have substantially expanded public higher education opportunities for students in the state by growing Montclair State.

Some of those accomplishments included:

• Growing enrollment from approximately 12,000 to over 21,000 students and the number of degrees conferred each year from 2,200 to 5,200.
• Creating new and redesigned academic programs at undergraduate and graduate levels and expanding the University’s engagement in research, scholarship, and graduate and professional education.
• Adding millions of new and renovated square feet of academic and residential space, including numerous high-tech buildings, dining venues, a train station, studios and performance venues, a Rec Center, a campus energy infrastructure with its own microgrid, athletics fields and parking decks.