Kansas State president Kirk Schulz leaving Manhattan for Washington State

Kansas State University president Kirk Schulz is leaving Manhattan to become the new president at Washington State University.

Schulz announced the move Friday with a note on K-State’s website. He will continue to serve as university president until May and begin his new position in June.

“It has been an exciting time to be a Wildcat and part of the K-State family,” Schulz wrote. “Being part of transforming our multiple campuses has been the highlight of my career in higher education.”

Schulz was hired as K-State president seven years ago. He replaced long-time president Jon Wefald, who had worked in the position since 1986.

The Schulz era will be remembered as a time of growth on campus. He helped raise funds for new projects and construction in all areas, particularly athletics.

With the help of athletic director John Currie, K-State has constructed $210 million worth of new facilities, including a new basketball training facility and rowing complex. Snyder Family Stadium has also been transformed into a state-of-the-art complex.

“From an athletics performance perspective,” Currie said in a statement, “under the leadership of our tremendous group of head coaches, his tenure has seen arguably one of the greatest across-the-board seven-year periods in school history, which has included Big 12 Conference championships in football, men’s basketball and baseball.”

In 2015, Schulz helped the university raise $141.5 million, the third-highest figure in history. Overall, K-State has topped $100 million in funds raised in four consecutive fiscal years.

That led to renovations and new projects such as the College of Business Administration building, an engineering school expansion, a new welcome center and a complex for the College of Architecture. Enrollment has also gone up.

When he was hired, Schulz quickly and publicly made a push for long-term improvements across the university. His most notable goal was to to transform K-State into a school recognized as a top 50 research university by 2025.

He was also active on Twitter, regularly communicating with students and alumni on a wide variety of topics. His responses to athletic controversies and the possibility of snow days always created a stir.

He will now take those quirks to Washington State, where his wife, Noel, will have a faculty position in the school’s engineering college. At K-State, she worked as associate dean for research and graduate programs.

Schulz made $467,000 last year.

The reasons for his departure are not known, but he has been at odds with state government. Gov. Sam Brownback recently announced a 3-percent cut to the state’s public university budget. Later, Schulz announced a 2-percent cut in K-State’s budget.

Before that, he criticized a new state law that will allow people to carry concealed weapons on campus without training requirements. He also opposed a proposal to freeze tuition.

Schulz served in several leadership roles in the Big 12 and on the NCAA Executive Committee, the highest governance body in the NCAA. He is also the chairman of the NCAA Board of Governors.

When the Big 12 presidents held meetings, he was often chosen as the group’s spokesman.

He was influential in helping the conference target TCU and West Virginia as new members during conference realignment.

This story was originally published March 25, 2016 at 12:59 PM with the headline "Kansas State president Kirk Schulz leaving Manhattan for Washington State."