Jay Helman announces resignation from position of president at WSCU

 Twenty-three years at Western

After more than two decades of service to the students, faculty and staff of Western State Colorado University and the State of Colorado, WSCU president Dr. Jay Helman announced his intent to leave his position in June 2014.

“It is important to me that the board and the entire WSCU family be accorded the time to find my successor as president,” Dr. Helman wrote in a letter to the board of trustees. “In order to provide the time needed for a positive and successful transition, I would like to announce my resignation as WSCU president effective at the end of the 2013-2014 fiscal year.”
 Dr. Helman’s decision initiates a succession plan that the board of trustees has been discussing for some time.
 “After 23 years here, I would never consider leaving WSCU unless I felt that we were stable and prepared for a bright and exciting future. Both of those conditions are true, and so the time is right for this decision,” president Helman said. “Please be assured that I will continue to work hard for all of us through the end of my presidency.”
 Dr. Helman’s career in Gunnison began in 1989 when he accepted a position as a kinesiology professor and head coach of the men’s basketball team at Western State College of Colorado. In 1996, Helman was named vice president of academic affairs and, in 2002, he became the 13th president of the institution, which recently became Western State Colorado University.
 The board accepted Dr. Helman’s letter after several members of the board commended the president for his service.
“The board of trustees is grateful for the decade of work Dr. Helman has devoted to putting in place a solid institution-wide platform on which his successor can build,” said WSCU board of trustees chairman Todd Wheeler. “Our university today has enhanced academics, extraordinary facilities, and substantially improved financials thanks to Dr. Helman’s stewardship.”
 “Jay has been an outstanding president and also an extremely important member of the Gunnison Valley community,” said WSCU board of trustees member Noelle Hagan. “While his departure will leave an empty place in our hearts, we are so grateful for his many contributions in the various roles he has taken on.”
 During Helman’s time at WSCU, he led a significant physical transformation of campus including the construction of the new University Center, the Borick Business Building, a new field house currently under construction, and renovations to a number of buildings including Taylor Hall. President Helman also guided the institution through the reinstatement of graduate programs and the change of the school’s name in August 2012 from Western State College to Western State Colorado University.
 “Jay is that rare leader whose vision, integrity and warmth inspires confidence, commitment, investment, respect and affection,” says WSCU Foundation executive director Thomas Burggraf, Jr. “His leadership has resulted in $50 million in private gifts during his 10-year presidency. In the final 18 months of Jay’s leadership, we will see the scores of donors who rightfully hold him in the highest regard, invest as never before to bless our students, and put a celebratory exclamation point on Jay’s presidency.”
 “There’s a saying in basketball that you play for all 40 minutes,” says Helman, who coached basketball at WSCU from 1989 to 1994 and led the basketball team to a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championship in 1992-93. “June 2014 is the 40th minute for me and I’ll still be playing hard to the very end.”