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Lori Varlotta, whose presidency at California Lutheran University has been consumed by controversy, will step down from the role at the end of this month, the university said Tuesday.
Varlotta, who became the California private university’s president in September 2020 after a six-and-a-half-year tenure at Hiram College, in Ohio, was the first female president at both institutions. Enrollment tumbled at California Lutheran during the pandemic, and the university has also been embroiled in a legal battle with a former Congressman over the university’s oversight of a center in his name.
The university’s faculty also overwhelmingly voted no confidence in her, 122 to 3, in January.
“I extend sincere thanks to President Varlotta for her service, which leaves the university well positioned as we seek new leadership,” Ann Boynton, chair of Cal Lutheran’s Board of Regents, said in a news release. “The future holds many challenges for higher education, and thanks to President Varlotta’s work, Cal Lutheran is already moving to address several of them.”
The university said it would appoint John Nunes, a pastor and former president of Concordia College New York, as interim president for two years.
