![](\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/DCC-L-DiStef30.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUniversity of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Phil DiStefano announced his retirement on Tuesday after nearly 15 years in the position.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
DiStefano made the announcement during his State of the Campus address Tuesday morning and received a standing ovation from the audience of students, faculty, staff and community members.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been such a rewarding and humbling experience to serve as chancellor of Colorado\u2019s flagship university for the past 15 years,\u201d DiStefano said. \u201cI am so proud of our faculty, staff and students and all that you have accomplished, and I also will treasure the many alumni, donors, parents and friends of the university I was lucky enough to meet.”<\/p>\n
DiStefano plans to return to the School of Education as a faculty member. He began his CU Boulder career in that department nearly 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
DiStefano said it’s time for him to step down and allow new leadership to take over. He said things are going \u201cextremely well\u201d on campus with high fall enrollment and retention numbers, increases in research dollars, and national publicity with Coach Prime, making it a perfect time for someone new to come in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought this would be a good time to make that transition for someone new to come in and really start working on a campus that\u2019s been very, very successful,” DiStefano said.<\/p>\n
DiStefano is the longest-serving chancellor in the history of CU Boulder. And out of the roughly 70 institutions that belong to the Association of American Universities, he said, he’s in the top five or six for longevity in the position.<\/p>\n
DiStefano is a first-generation college student who was born and raised in Steubenville, Ohio. He began his education career as a high school English teacher near his hometown and earned his doctorate in humanities education from Ohio State University.<\/p>\n
DiStefano joined CU Boulder in 1974 as an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction in the School of Education. In 1986, DiStefano was appointed dean of the School of Education, his first administrative position. He also served as provost before being appointed chancellor on May 5, 2009.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhil has been an extraordinary leader of CU Boulder as chancellor for 15 years and on the campus for 50, and he\u2019s still going to be around,” CU System President Todd Saliman said. “I just have nothing but gratitude for all that he\u2019s done, the lives that he\u2019s made better, and I look forward to seeing where he goes in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n
DiStefano is expected to rejoin the School of Education in the fall of 2024 to serve as the senior executive director at the Center for Leadership. He will continue to hold his position as the Quigg and Virginia S. Newton Endowed Chair in Leadership where he oversees CU Boulder\u2019s leadership programs, and he will support the transition of CU Boulder\u2019s next chancellor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been 30-some years that I\u2019ve been in some sort of administrative role, and I came here to be a faculty member,” DiStefano said. “I came here to do research and teaching, so I\u2019m feeling positive about going back and doing what I came here for. I\u2019ve enjoyed every administrative position that I\u2019ve had, but the reason I came to the university was to be a professor and teach and do research.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saliman will soon assemble a search committee and conduct a national search for a new chancellor. DiStefano said an announcement on his successor will likely occur in the spring of 2024 and the new chancellor will likely arrive on campus before the fall 2024 semester. Whenever the new chancellor arrives, he said, he’ll step down.<\/p>\n
Saliman will share more information on the search process in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cA new leader coming in, I believe, will look at the strengths of the campus and things that we\u2019re doing that are moving the campus forward and … that leader may have expertise that I didn\u2019t have and might suggest other ways of improving things on campus,” DiStefano said. “I believe whoever comes in will see a campus that is well-run, that\u2019s been successful and always has room for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/DCC-L-DiStef39.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n