Interim WSU president has history of job, budget cutting at colleges

Curtis McCray will become Wright State University’s interim president on Monday. The university’s next president, Cheryl Schrader, takes office in July.

Curtis McCray will become Wright State University’s interim president on Monday. The university’s next president, Cheryl Schrader, takes office in July.

Curtis McCray will become the interim president of Wright State University on Monday, pending approval by the college’s board of trustees.

Wright State trustees began working with McCray through his role as a consultant for an operational review of the university as part of the search for a new president. McCray helped trustees brief presidential finalists on operational information, according to the university.

McCray will assist the university in crafting its upcoming 2018 budget. Cuts and layoffs are expected be announced in April because of overspending, officials have said.

McCray gained experience with budget issues during his time as president at California State University Long Beach.

While there he helped oversee more than $33 million in budget cuts, laid off hundreds of part-time faculty, ended some academic programs and eliminated the university’s football team, according to a 1992 article in the Los Angeles Times.

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“You have to live within that budget,” said Michael Bridges, chairman of the WSU board of trustees. “That cannot continue under Dr. McCray’s leadership.”

McCray has served as a university president, at one institution or another, since the early 1980s until his retirement in 2005.

McCray began his presidential career at the University of North Florida in 1982. He became president of California State University Long Beach in 1988, president of Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois in 1993 and finally president of National Louis University in Chicago in 1998.

McCray declined to comment today on his appointment today, said spokesman Seth Bauguess.

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