The University of St. Thomas in St. Paul named its 16th president Dec. 19: Rob Vischer, dean of UST’s law school and interim president of the university.
Vischer will assume his new role at Minnesota’s largest private university Jan. 1, following a nationwide search. Named interim president earlier this year, Vischer will be the second layperson to serve as the Catholic university’s president. He succeeds Julie Sullivan, who served as president from 2013-2022.
Vischer started at St. Thomas as an associate professor of law in 2005. He served as dean of the university’s law school from 2013-2022.
Pat Ryan, chairman of the university’s board of trustees, and Amy Goldman, vice chair and chair of the search committee, released a letter to the St. Thomas community saying Vischer is an “effective relational leader with a long-standing dedication to the mission of the university and to the students we serve. Rob is someone who puts students at the center of every decision and action and cares passionately about the well-being of the students, staff and faculty in our community.”
Goldman and Ryan said that as dean, Vischer helped as the law school “dramatically improved employment outcomes” for graduates, built “a global student body” through partnerships with law schools in more than a dozen countries, increased its commitment to “whole-person professional formation, maintained its top 25 ranking for scholarly impact, and made racial justice core to its mission.”
Vischer said in a statement that he is “humbled to build on the mission-centered stewardship of our past presidents who stayed true to our mission and focused relentlessly on doing right by our students.”
He said St. Thomas’ mission has “a remarkable capacity to inspire because it calls us to a reality that is bigger than ourselves. I am excited about what we can do together to transform lives and advance the common good.”
Vischer received his bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from the University of New Orleans, and his juris doctor, cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the “Harvard Law Review.”