The University of Southern Indiana’s presidential search has returned home.
Ten months after naming Steven Bridges interim president, and after vetting nearly 100 candidates, the Board of Trustees voted 9-0 to hire Bridges permanently. He is the first USI graduate to serve as president, and his ascent to the office started 36 years ago when he joined the university as a staff accountant.
Bridges, 58, replaces Ronald Rochon, who led USI for six years before being tapped as president of California State University, Fullerton, a year ago. Before being named interim president, Bridges was USI’s vice president for finance and administration.
The Henderson, Kentucky, resident was handed his bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1989 by USI’s first president, David Rice, and he has a snapshot of that moment on his desk.
“When I crossed the commencement stage several decades ago and shook our first president’s hand, I wouldn’t have imagined this day and also wouldn’t have imagined the white hair I have now,” Bridges said after the April 2 Board of Trustees vote.
USI is a state-supported university on a 1,400-acre campus, with a combined undergraduate, graduate, and dual credit enrollment of nearly 9,500 students. Bridges says growing that enrollment number is one of his goals, and another is continuing to build relations between USI and the region’s business community.
“I want to have USI be a driver of applied research to help our companies in this area,” Bridges says. “I want to be a driver of the talent pipeline for this region and the state of Indiana. Those are hallmark items for me.”
Bridges says USI will focus on student success, on its transition to NCAA Division I athletics that began in 2022, and on “the financial stewardship that has been the hallmark and the foundation of this institution.”
Applications to lead USI came from several higher education officials, as well as from some people in other fields, says USI trustee Christina Ryan, who chaired the presidential search committee. Officials confirm that for $90,000 plus expenses, USI used the services of Academic Search, a Washington, D.C.-based search firm.
“We were extremely impressed with the caliber and expertise of the candidates who expressed their interest in us,” Ryan says, but the committee’s deliberations steered back to Bridges, who Ryan describes in an April 2 university press release as “an outstanding USI alumnus and a person of character.”
While vice president for finance and administration, Bridges completed the largest single bond issuance in the history of USI. During the COVID-19 pandemic, USI was able to avoid layoffs, an achievement that the news release says was due to “decades of fiscal stewardship.”
The USI release says Bridges also has “chaired numerous committees that advanced and supported the institution’s fiscal responsibilities,” and his community involvement outside USI includes work with the Girl Scouts of Southwest Indiana and WNIN, among other organizations.
Bridges says that after being named interim USI president, he did not think he would seek the permanent appointment. But he quickly changed his mind, and he reflected on lessons he took from Rice and Rochon, as well as USI’s other two presidents, H. Ray Hoops and Linda Bennett. Once renovations are complete, Bridges plans to reside in the president’s University Home.
“It took about a month for me to realize that today, my leadership skills fit what we needed at this campus,” Bridges says, adding that the full-circle moment of being named to lead his alma mater “is a little bit surreal … so many people came before me that I admire.”
