President Richard Linton is leaving Manhattan for Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, according to the Manhattan Mercury.
The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors has scheduled a meeting Wednesday, Oct. 14 at noon Central Standard Time to appoint the university’s 17th president. The Kansas Board of Regents has also called a special meeting for Wednesday at 12:15 p.m.
Linton is K-State’s 15th president, serving in the role since 2022. Acquiring all his degrees from Virginia Tech — bachelor’s degree in biology, master’s degree in food science and Ph.D. in food science — Linton has direct connections to Blacksburg, Virginia.
Prior to K-State, Linton was dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University, department chair of food science and technology at The Ohio State University and a faculty member in the Department of Food Science at Purdue University.
Thus far, Linton has guided the way for the creation and implementation of Next-Gen K-State, a strategic plan set through 2030 and beyond. Next-Gen is an initiative in which K-State is committed to aiding and assisting others’ lives through education, research and engagement.
Updated 11:10 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14:
Linton officially announced his departure from K-State in an Oct. 14 letter addressed to the K-State community. He wrote about the honor of serving as president and how the people around him have inspired him and shaped who he has become. Returning to his alma mater, Virginia Tech, Linton wrote, is a full-circle moment.
“Returning to the university that helped shape who I am and gave me the foundation for my career makes this next chapter especially meaningful,” Linton wrote.
Although the announcement comes mid-semester, Linton will stay for the rest of the fall before starting his new role at Virginia Tech on Jan. 11, 2027.
With the presidency vacant, the Kansas Board of Regents held an executive meeting Wednesday to discuss Linton’s departure and next steps.
“We [the Kansas Board of Regents] are very grateful for his [Linton’s] leadership at K-State,” Alysia Johnston, Kansas Board of Regents chair, said. “We also are really excited and looking forward to a new president starting that search.”
Despite the 30-minute discussion, Johnston said there is not a candidate in mind, and it will be an open search.
“The first thing we’ll do with the search is we will get input from stakeholders and constituents to try to develop sort of a profile of what we want and what we believe we need that’s the best fit for Kansas State and its land-grant mission,” Johnston said.
The process and input needed to find a new president can be lengthy, and will likely take about eight weeks, Johnston said.
“We want to make sure that we get as much input from students, from faculty, staff, business, industry, all the stakeholders,” Johnston said. “We want to make sure that we get as much input as we can.”
Once the first step is complete, Johnston said the next action will be opening up the position, which won’t happen until Jan. 1, 2027.
Though Next-Gen K-State has been one of Linton’s prominent initiatives, Johnston said it will be up to the next president whether to continue the program.
“It’s like anything else; we want to continue those things that look like the outcomes are really coming along, and it is something that works well.”
Though it will inevitably be up to the future leadership, Johnston welcomes the idea of continuing what is working.
“Under President Linton’s leadership, we’ve increased enrollment, we’ve increased retention, we’ve increased completion rates, and so all of those things are good.”
