John Q. Imholte

Jack Imholte came to UMN Morris as a lecturer in history in 1960, though he quickly was promoted to assistant professor in 1961 and then associate professor in 1963. He served as the chair of the Division of Social Sciences between 1962 and 1967,  was then promoted to Assistant Dean in 1967, and then Academic Dean in 1968.  He was not long in that position; he was elevated to acting provost in 1969 when Rodney Briggs departed UMN Morris and then moved officially into the provost position (later renamed chancellor) in 1970.[11]

Imholte, with his twenty years at the helm of UMN Morris, was easily the longest serving chief administrator in the history of the college. He took over leadership when student outrage over the war in Vietnam was at its peak and he successfully steered the campus through those and other challenging times over the next two decades. Beginning in 1969 he spearheaded the move to create a more diverse campus and the choice of William (Bill) Stewart as head of the Multi-Ethnic Resource Center in 1973 signaled a new commitment to recruiting students of color. By 1989 fully seven percent of Morris students were members of racial minority groups, and this figure was second in the system, trailing only the Twin Cities campus, and representing twice the percentage for Duluth and three times that of Crookston.[12] Likewise, the gender ratio among students had reversed itself, and by 1989 55 percent of Morris students were women.[13] Moreover, students were increasingly taught by female faculty, whose percentage among all faculty had grown from 17 to 25 percent in the two decades. Imholte oversaw the successful implementation of Title IX and the Rajender Consent Decree,[14] and by the end of his administration the salaries of UMN Morris's female faculty were roughly on par with their male colleagues. The decision to hire Elizabeth (Bettina) Blake in 1979 as Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean was a clear sign of the campus's commitment to gender equity.

The growth and development of the campus were not without problems. Enrollment had grown to almost the 1800 mark by 1972 but then declined during the remainder of the decade. Although figures would rebound in the 1980s, this slow decline in combination with a significant state budget crisis in 1981-82 prompted UMN President, C. Peter Magrath, to advise St. Paul that cuts to the University budget could result in the closure of coordinate campuses.[15] Imholte's calm and steady leadership helped resolve the crisis, and when the President's office requested $270,000 in Morris budget cuts, Imholte was able to raise the necessary funds by appealing to the local business community and thus avoid layoffs to faculty and staff.[16]

Imholte’s solution to declining enrollment in the 1970s was to institute a modern and aggressive system for recruiting new students while also reaffirming the campus’s commitment to the liberal arts.[17] This was accompanied, after a dip in the early 1980s, with an increase in test scores and a growing number of students ranking in the top twenty percent of their high school graduating class. Morris could boast at the time of Imholte's retirement that 82 percent of the incoming class was ranked in the top 20 percent of their high school class.[18] These accomplishments were recognized nationally, and UMN Morris was now seen as an affordable, high quality, public liberal arts college. The school’s reputation for excellence was already well established in the 1990s and was in large part due to the groundwork accomplished under the Imholte administration.[19]

Much of the UMN Morris initial building boom was concluded during the first years of the Imholte administration. The Physical Education Center was completed in 1970, as was Independence Hall and the campus Heating Plant. The Food Service Building came on-line the next year, and the Campus Apartments were finished at the same time. In 1973 the second phase of Briggs Library was finished and in that same year Ralph Rapson's Humanities and Fine Arts Building was added to the campus landscape. Construction, however, ground to a halt in the 1970s and 1980s as the Minnesota State Legislature grew more cautious in response to the state-wide decline in student enrollment.[20]  Although some important campus needs, such as a Student Center and the planned HFA auditorium, remained unmet, the built environment of a central campus square surrounded by a mix of new and historic buildings, assumed its present form during Imholte's tenure as chancellor.

Intercollegiate athletics at UMN Morris came into its own during Imholte's chancellorship. Title IX, otherwise known as the "Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act," was passed in 1972, and over the course of the next decade and a half the Cougars, under the leadership of Willis Kelly, were able to expand their offerings in women’s sports to include women's track and field, tennis, softball and golf. Women's basketball had already come into existence in 1970. The men's program continued to grow and develop, and both football and men's basketball recorded numerous conference championships during these years. Imholte in his oversight of intercollegiate athletics sought to balance the practical need of maintaining a vibrant sports program while remaining committed to the school's liberal arts mission. He loved to welcome alumni back to campus on homecoming weekends and the parties he and Lucy hosted on those Saturdays became legendary.

In September 1989 Imholte, arguing that a twenty-year term as a chancellor was more than long enough, announced his plans to resign from the chancellorship and to return to the classroom.[21] With the exception of a year’s leave spent as an administrator at the Minneapolis campus, Imholte spent the remainder of his career teaching history at UMN Morris. He retired in 2000 and moved back to St. Paul.