Last week North Dakota State University President Dr. David Cook announced he was chosen as the new President of Iowa State University.
By the last day of his tenure NDSU, which he says comes in February, Cook will have served about three and a half years.
Cook says he loves NDSU and the Fargo-Moorhead area, but the Iowa State position felt like a calling home.
"This is really unique in the sense that, if you didn't know, my wife and I grew up in Ames. We went to Ames High, we crossed town to go to Iowa State University. My parents are there, my mother-in-law is there, and so... family of course. It's just this one very unique experience, opportunity for us to go home. It's hard because this has been an amazing experience. People have been really good to us professionally and personally, for all that we've been through. We're proud of the work we've done here, and that will continue - we'll finish strong, for sure, in the next couple of months."
Cook says he’s proud to have been a part of NDSU’s transitional period. He came to the job as the school faced institutional-wide budget cuts. He says that work will continue to be built upon when the new President begins.
"NDSU Transform was the strategic plan that we all kinda jumped into; now what we're doing is a new strategic plan where we're working with Arizona State University's Design Institute to really build our plan moving forward. We're pretty excited about it. As an institution, you have to do a high learning commission, or HLC, strategic plan. That should be implemented next fall. So the timing of all this, the layering, works quite nice. And we have a team that's leading that. It will be a campus-wide effort."
Cook says he has thoroughly enjoyed the role, especially being involved with students – attending sporting and arts related events.
He says he hopes going back home to Iowa will result in a longer-term relationship.