Cheryl B. Schrader (born ) is an American educator and former academic administrator. She began her presidency of Wright State University on July 1, 2017, and stepped down from the position December 31, 2019, midway through her five-year appointment. She was previously the chancellor of Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Early life and education
Schrader received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering with a concentration in computers and communications from Valparaiso University in 1984, and master's and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1987 and 1991.
Career
Schrader began her teaching and academic career at Notre Dame during the early 1980s. She worked as a summer engineering intern for McDonnell Douglas Astronautics in 1982, 1983, and 1984. During the early 1990s, she also consulted for Chimera Research while continuing to teach at Notre Dame. After briefly teaching at Rice University during 1991, she became a tenured professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio and served as associate dean. She was president of the IEEE Control Systems Society in 2003, and had served as the program chair of the 39th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control held in December 2000. In 2005, she became professor and dean of the College of Engineering at Boise State University. In January 2011, she left the dean position and became associate vice president for strategic research initiatives in Boise State's Division of Research and Economic Development. In 2012, she took the position of chancellor at Missouri University of Science and Technology, which she held until her Wright State University presidency was announced in 2017.
Awards and honors
In 2005, Schrader received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from the White House. She was honored as one of the 2005 "Idaho Women Making History" by the Gender Equity Center at Boise State University. She received the IEEE Education Society Hewlett-Packard/Harriett B. Rigas Award in 2016. For 2014, she was selected as an IEEE Fellow "for leadership and contributions in engineering education."
Federal investigation
On May 21, 2014, during Schrader's tenure as chancellor of Missouri
S&T, the U.S. Department of Education launched a probe of the
university for potential Title IX violations over their handling of
sexual violence cases. Missouri S&T was the only Missouri institution investigated at the time, and (as of 2019) remains the only public university in Missouri under investigation. The case remained open when Schrader left the university in 2017. Criticism of her leadership at Missouri S&T led to an effort to hold a vote of no confidence against her, which she acknowledged after accepting the Wright State presidency. It was reported that the Wright State University board of trustees was unaware that Schrader had "stared down a no-confidence effort" when she was hired, although the board chairman said he was "not concerned".
Wright State University presidency
Schrader entered the position of President of Wright State on July 1, 2017, after a time of financial and political turmoil at the school. Years of overspending had drained the reserve funds. The university budget had already been cut by some $30 million by the board of trustees and the interim president before her arrival. According to Schrader, "the bulk of the budget cuts were supposed to have been completed" before she took over, but she faced further financial problems. By the end of her first year, she had implemented close to another $20 million more in cuts while producing a "projected" surplus of some $7 million, the first operating surplus since 2012. This earned her praise in her first annual review. However, controversy arose when the university released a statement implying she had declined to accept an annual raise or bonus, when in fact neither had been offered. The budget modifications did ultimately avoid a state fiscal watch, which had been considered likely in 2017 when she became president.
Schrader's approach to the university budget, as well as her general leadership during the first year were not without criticism. One member of the Wright State University Board of Trustees called her proposed 2019 fiscal year budget "a recipe for disaster." Schrader's strategic plan for the university, which had been specifically requested to be "different than anybody would see at another university," received criticism for being "overly broad" and "generic."